Pulitzer Prize-Winning Novelist Jennifer Egan On: Panic, Awe, Fetishizing Authenticity, and Our Possible AI Futures

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Jennifer Egan is not only a novelist, she's also written short stories and award-winning magazine journalism. She's one of those writers who can both spin a fascinating yarn and load it up with insights into everything from human nature to the future of technology, all while pulling off bewitching turns of phrase; what the writer Jonathan Franzen has called “micro felicities.”

Egan is as funny, fascinating, and open IRL as she is on the page although it’s not clear she feels that way given she talks about how much smarter she feels in writing than in speaking!

In this episode we talk about:

• Egan’s writing process
• The power of writing by hand
• The shocking, relentless, ruthless discipline that she imposes on herself to never do the same thing twice as she’s writing
• Curiosity, awe, and panic attacks
• How she handles feedback
• Her feelings of insubstantiality
• Our cultures fetishization of authenticity
• The impact of success on her work
• AI and our possible technological futures

Full Shownotes: https://www.tenpercent.com/tph/podcast-episode/jennifer-egan