Colm Tóibín
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Hi, come in.
Welcome to Fashion Neurosis, Colm Tobin.
Thank you.
Can you tell me what you're wearing today and why you chose these particular clothes?
The shoes are called Allbirds. And I was at a conference on Proust at Columbia. And the two cleverest people I knew there were wearing the same sort of shoes. One was Lydia Davis and the other was Anne Carson. And they're both about the same age as I am. And they just looked tremendous. And I think they spoke beautifully. And they were very confident. And they were both wearing sort of men's jackets and these shoes. And I wanted to be them and Carson and Lydia Davis. I mean, more than anybody. And I asked them, I couldn't ask them, what shoes are you wearing? Because I thought it would be, you know, considered sort of, oh God, after all I've said about Proust, that's all you can ask me. But I asked somebody who I thought knew about these things, please come and look at their shoes.
And they told me they were wearing Allbirds. And so I immediately applied for Allbirds online. And they're size nine. And they came. So I wear Allbirds all the time now because they just are very comfortable. Socks, I... in Terminal 5 in JFK, which used to be the Aer Lingus Terminal. It's not now because JetBlue gets bigger. It's a JetBlue terminal. It used to have a Muji shop. And every time I went there, I bought loads of socks in Muji. But it's closed now. I've never found a Muji that, you know, the same. But anyway, they're from Muji. The... In Paris, there's a man who's in the news at the moment. He's called Olivier Noah. And he was the head, he is or was the head of Grasset, which is my publisher. And recently he's had to resign or he's been fired by an awful fellow who owns Hachette.
Oh, yeah.
And he did something appalling. I mean, he wanted Olivia to publish his most dreadful book by a most dreadful man. And it was a big row. And of course, Olivia wouldn't do it. But I have a wonderful editor called Joachim Schnerf. And Joachim and myself would go and see Olivia in his big office because he was a big boss. But I know I should have been listening to Olivia talking about publishing, but I was looking at his jacket. And I didn't really know, again, I didn't know what to do. I mean, you can't really ask people who are known for their intelligence where they got their jackets. But I asked Joachim if he could very, you know, cautiously, perhaps politely ask Olivia. And he told me the name of the company in Paris.
And I immediately went there because I wanted to, I wanted to have this sort of, I was going to say suave authority, but just very, very kind man. And he's very intelligent and he's, he's who I want to be really. And so I went immediately to that shop in Paris and I immediately bought this, I bought another jacket and a pair of trousers. And then when I went back again to Paris recently, I bought a second one. It has, see it's red inside.
Yeah.
which may be my inner cardinal.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:02–6:11
2
What inspired Colm Tóibín's writing journey?
6:11–29:30
3
How did Tóibín's upbringing influence his work?
29:30–31:02
4
How does Tóibín describe his experience with writing?
31:02–31:21
5
What themes does Tóibín explore in his novels?
31:21–31:33
6
What insights does Tóibín share about the Irish literary scene?
31:33–48:02
7
How does Tóibín view the relationship between fashion and identity?
48:02–1:19:11