George Saunders

Hey, David.

Good to see you again.

Oh, probably.

Well, actually, honestly, I'm really interested in what it does to an individual at a given time.

That's really about as far as I mean to sort of preach.

Sometimes I think it sounds like I'm saying literature can cure us.

It can't.

It never has.

Ah.

So I think for me, it's always saner to go down to the incremental level and say, well, on a given day, if a given person reads a given Chekhov story, something will happen.

Now, I also kind of would poke at if I've ever used the phrase better person, I retracted because I don't know that it makes you solidly.

perpetually a better person.

Yeah, I think that's true.

As long as we take the timeframe down a bit, you know, for that 40 seconds after you've been nailed by a story, you're kind of a little bit different.

So I think what I probably believe in is, I think we discussed it, sort of the idea of the sacramental value, which is if you get your bell rung once, and in that moment of having your bell rung, you are more expansive or whatever I said, then the next time you're

not that, then you might just go, oh yeah, okay, I'm not fixed as this lower version of myself.

There's a way back, you know?

So in my calmer moments, I think my views of literature are more specific and more local.

And every now and then I get a little bit revved up.

Carried away.