![I seem to look for organic, tactile elements in what I’m writing, maybe partly to counteract what I regard as my massive Achilles heel. My Achilles leg. [Laughter] I’m essentially trafficking in a lot of conceptual abstract material. And I’m constantly checking myself and trying to get right down in the earth and down on the body and make sure it feels physical and biological. I think in so doing, some of that stuff just becomes really talismanic to me, and really resonant and really interesting.
But I also have to admit I’m just not sure why that happens. I really am not. I do it, and I kind of love doing it. It freaks me out a little. I find it a little creepy. And when I find something creepy, for better or worse, I try to make it creepier.That’s maybe a very rough and imprecise way to talk about it, because people tend to think of different things when they think of creepy. So, I guess more specifically it’s about something unsettling, unnerving, that makes me a little uncomfortable, a little confused, but also a little excited.
—Ben Marcus, from the Powells.com interview](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lyfekeh4zj1qd3jsao1_500.gif)
I seem to look for organic, tactile elements in what I’m writing, maybe partly to counteract what I regard as my massive Achilles heel. My Achilles leg. [Laughter] I’m essentially trafficking in a lot of conceptual abstract material. And I’m constantly checking myself and trying to get right down in the earth and down on the body and make sure it feels physical and biological. I think in so doing, some of that stuff just becomes really talismanic to me, and really resonant and really interesting.
But I also have to admit I’m just not sure why that happens. I really am not. I do it, and I kind of love doing it. It freaks me out a little. I find it a little creepy. And when I find something creepy, for better or worse, I try to make it creepier.That’s maybe a very rough and imprecise way to talk about it, because people tend to think of different things when they think of creepy. So, I guess more specifically it’s about something unsettling, unnerving, that makes me a little uncomfortable, a little confused, but also a little excited.
—Ben Marcus, from the Powells.com interview
27 Notes