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WRITER'S BLOCK
Broadcast starting week of July 20, 2005

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“You don’t know what it is to stay a whole day with your head in your hands trying to squeeze your unfortunate brain so as to find a word.” That’s how the French novelist Gustave Flaubert put it. For those with writer’s block, it can be a painful condition which often defies treatment.

Host Dr. Peter Kramer’s guests include social satirist Fran Lebowitz, a longtime victim of writer’s block and author of "Metropolitan Life" and "Social Studies"; Dr. Alice Flaherty, neurologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, MA, instructor at Harvard Medical School, and author of "The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer's Block, and the Creative Brain"; Joyce Carol Oates, the unusually prolific woman of letters; novelist and commentator Annie Lamott, author of "Bird by Bird"; and singer/songwriter Aimee Mann, whose work includes the song “Calling It Quits.” Actor Stanley Tucci, reads excerpts from authors ranging from Dante to Kafka providing a window on writer’s block over the centuries.

In an opening commentary, Dr. Peter Kramer examines the different facets of writer’s block, the anxiety it prompts for even the unblocked writer, the physiological as well as the pathological issues that contribute to the condition, and the ways in which we work to break through.

Dr. Kramer first talks with writer Fran Lebowitz. Like Dorothy Parker of Algonquin Round Table fame, Lebowitz is best known for her lightning-fast wit and comebacks, combined with her sophisticated cynicism. She had burst upon the literary scene in the early 1980s, with two collections of essays, and then fell victim to a bout of writer’s block that persisted for over 20 years. She discusses the way she avoided her office and offers various causes for her block – sloth, for instance. Her most recent book, The Fran Lebowitz Reader, combines her two best sellers, "Metropolitan Life" and "Social Studies," into one volume.

The program turns next to the physiology of writer’s block. Dr. Alice Flaherty is an M.D. and Ph.D. at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Dr. Kramer talks with her about the effects of magnets on creativity and skill, how e-mail can lend insights into hypergraphia, and the differences between being blocked and simply not wanting to write. The two doctors also take calls. To learn more about Dr. Alice Flaherty and her work, visit www.mgh.harvard.edu/ref/flaherty.html

In the program's second half, Dr. Kramer speaks with Joyce Carol Oates, the author of some 90 books, plays, and other assorted writings. Oates, who teaches at Princeton University, talks about how she begins every project with preparation. If the novel isn’t coming to her, she sets it aside and turns to something else.

Next comes singer/songwriter Aimee Mann. She’s recorded five albums, most recently "The Forgotten Arm." She says her songwriter’s block was inspired at least in part by the business foibles of her previous record labels (she now has her own record company) and explains how her song, “Calling It Quits,” helped her break through.

You can hear more of Aimee Mann’s work by visiting www.aimeemann.com

The show concludes with novelist and commentator Anne LaMott reading from her essay on writing contained in the book “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life.” Worried about getting writer’s block? Don’t worry, she says. Everyone gets it.

Interspersed throughout the program are readings from well-known writers performed by actor Stanley Tucci. We hear from Samuel Coleridge, Dante Alighieri, Franz Kafka, Joseph Conrad, Gustave Flaubert, and F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Heard on this episode of The Infinite Mind:

 

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