Julian Lucas

Do you feel like it's a voice that you found in the book? I mean, you know, when Jim talks to Huck in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, he's usually calling him Child and Honey and all these sweet affectionate names. Was there a kernel of the character you created sort of hidden in Twain's character, or did you kind of have to invent him whole cloth?

One of the themes you've been most interested in throughout your career is language miscommunication. You studied the philosophy of language as a graduate student.

One of the themes you've been most interested in throughout your career is language miscommunication. You studied the philosophy of language as a graduate student.

One of the themes you've been most interested in throughout your career is language miscommunication. You studied the philosophy of language as a graduate student.

um so many of your novels are interested in these kinds of misunderstandings and and failures of of language what interests you about the way slavery shaped communication um i can preface that with a with a with a complaint about a film and that's uh 12 years a slave um

um so many of your novels are interested in these kinds of misunderstandings and and failures of of language what interests you about the way slavery shaped communication um i can preface that with a with a with a complaint about a film and that's uh 12 years a slave um

um so many of your novels are interested in these kinds of misunderstandings and and failures of of language what interests you about the way slavery shaped communication um i can preface that with a with a with a complaint about a film and that's uh 12 years a slave um

I'm glad you brought up humor because your work is really known for finding humor in unexpected places. Your novel, The Trees, is a very dark satire about the legacy of lynching in the U.S. And did you want this book to be funny? Did you want it to be funny in the way that Twain's work is funny?

I'm glad you brought up humor because your work is really known for finding humor in unexpected places. Your novel, The Trees, is a very dark satire about the legacy of lynching in the U.S. And did you want this book to be funny? Did you want it to be funny in the way that Twain's work is funny?

I'm glad you brought up humor because your work is really known for finding humor in unexpected places. Your novel, The Trees, is a very dark satire about the legacy of lynching in the U.S. And did you want this book to be funny? Did you want it to be funny in the way that Twain's work is funny?

In your story, James isn't just running to freedom. He's also reading and writing about it. And throughout the book, he hallucinates these very funny debates with philosophers like Voltaire and John Locke. And you put them in the middle of these really dramatic moments when he's been bitten by a rattlesnake and he's hallucinating or he's trying to catch a fish with his bare hands.

In your story, James isn't just running to freedom. He's also reading and writing about it. And throughout the book, he hallucinates these very funny debates with philosophers like Voltaire and John Locke. And you put them in the middle of these really dramatic moments when he's been bitten by a rattlesnake and he's hallucinating or he's trying to catch a fish with his bare hands.

In your story, James isn't just running to freedom. He's also reading and writing about it. And throughout the book, he hallucinates these very funny debates with philosophers like Voltaire and John Locke. And you put them in the middle of these really dramatic moments when he's been bitten by a rattlesnake and he's hallucinating or he's trying to catch a fish with his bare hands.

I wonder if you would read one of these moments for us from page 48.

I wonder if you would read one of these moments for us from page 48.

I wonder if you would read one of these moments for us from page 48.

To me, there's a kind of kismet in the fact that James, your appropriation of Twain is coming out at the same time as American fiction. Cord Jefferson's adaptation of your novel Erasure. For our listeners, it stars Jeffrey Wright as a very literary black novelist who is so fed up with stereotyping in the publishing industry that he writes a street novel under a pseudonym of

To me, there's a kind of kismet in the fact that James, your appropriation of Twain is coming out at the same time as American fiction. Cord Jefferson's adaptation of your novel Erasure. For our listeners, it stars Jeffrey Wright as a very literary black novelist who is so fed up with stereotyping in the publishing industry that he writes a street novel under a pseudonym of

To me, there's a kind of kismet in the fact that James, your appropriation of Twain is coming out at the same time as American fiction. Cord Jefferson's adaptation of your novel Erasure. For our listeners, it stars Jeffrey Wright as a very literary black novelist who is so fed up with stereotyping in the publishing industry that he writes a street novel under a pseudonym of

As an elaborate literary prank. So you wrote it in 2001 at the height of the vogue for urban lit. Do you think the story still has the same resonance in our post Black Lives Matter era when at least for a moment a lot more attention was given to African American literature?