Vaughan-+JH

"A Conversation with: John McPhee; A Writer Takes a Turn Reading Sermons in Stone" by Martina Vaughan

Response by Jessica Holt

Thus far in the class we have been reading the works of McPhee and have been somewhat judgemental of his writing techniques and tend to make some assumptions about him as a person. However, with this new project of reading articles about McPhee we are able to get to know him on a deeper level and maybe appreciate the type of writing he is capable of producing. This was a short interview with McPhee mostly focused on his geologic background and the publishing of his work "Annals of the Former World" which was a 696 page book looking at the geologic history of North America. In the beginning of the article I found out that McPhee is a professor at Princeton University for non-fiction writing. This was interesting to me as I thought about what Professor Hunt had discussed about it being important that you know and trust the writer's knowledge and experience.

It is also clear from this article that McPhee has a deep appreciation for rocks, the study of rocks and the aging of the earth. "Its history is embedded in its rocks." This interview also addressed why McPhee uses analogies a lot, he explains it is a way of making the vastness of time comprehensible to readers in relation to science. It is evident that his humour is not only in his writings but also in his responses during interviews. This was clear when he makes a joke about his wife only letting him discuss geology for 10 minutes a day, because if not he would obsess over it continually!

He also explains that geologist like using puns but some they are quite unaware of. I was quite suprised by a part of the article when McPhee is asked if it is "difficult to develop narratives about rocks" and he responds "I find it very difficult. Well I find it very difficult to write about anything". It was interesting to see how McPhee viewed writing. Most people would assume that writing came easy to him and that is why he chose it as a profession, but it seems that McPhee must also have a modest side.

Towards the end of the article she asks him about religion his response "Well, this is the only earth I'm ever going to live on, and I find it an interesting place." He doesn't have any deep philosophical answer for this question, he is honest and straight to the point. He enjoys the study of the earth and that seems to be clear by most of his answers in this article. I feel like McPhee would be an easy person to carry on a conversation with and would keep it going with his humour and wit. To sum up this article I feel as if there can be more understanding of McPhee's articles if you first understand McPhee as a person.