Rachael Sweetman Cathy Ryan English 1110.01 Dalkey Writing Harry Mathews Harry Mathews was an author and poet, he grew up in New York City and attended Princeton University. He studied there until he was called away to the Navy, he married and had two children. After he finished his service in the navy, he transferred colleges to Harvard University where he graduated two years later with a bachelor of science in music. Eight years later he divorced his wife and decided to drop his career in music and pursue writing. In an interview with Harry Mathews by John Ash, they talk about Mathews writings and he states how much of his ideas were influenced by Firbank. He continues with how he was influenced by the rhythm of his words, and how he strives for his sentences to be simple. In the opening paragraph of “The Conversions”, he followed Firbank’s ideas of “out of kilter” sentences, where the emphasis is either lacking among sentences or the emphasis lies in a weird or unexpected place. John Ash later asks Harry Mathews why he writes, or who he writes for. Mathews responded with a very simple sentence; “You write for the readers of your favorite novels”. Mathews says “you write to fill the needs of an imaginary readership which only exists in you.”, that is a very strong and simple response. He sees no need to write out of anger, because at the end of the day the reader only wants to be entertained, so he writes for the pleasure of his readers. In Mathews’ novel Tlooth, he adds a very specific effect to the text. He mentions the title during the middle of the book, Mathews describes how by doing that, he is drawing the reader’s attention to the top of the page where the title is printed, and to the cover of the book. He is reminding the reader that he is reading a book, because if a reader loses himself in a text, there will never be a satisfactory conclusion, and reading without self-consciousness is an illusion not worth keeping. He believes that reading can be just as real as the rest of the world, and by drawing the reader’s attention away from the reality that is within the book, he enhances that idea that the novel is real. Harry Mathews started his writing career by creating the literary journal Locus Scolus, and also contributed to the Paris Review. Mathews’ other novels include • The Conversions (1962) • Tlooth (1966) • The sinking of the Odradek Stadium (1972) • Cigarettes (1987) • My Life (2005) If I had the opportunity to interview Harry Matthews, I would ask him first why he believed moving to Paris was the best place for him to write, and if getting a degree first in music had a great impact on his writing of novels (not the poetry). I would ask if he enjoys writing books or poems better, or if he just loves the entirety of the process of writing no matter what it is. My final question would be why does he write purely for the entertainment of his readers. Books put the reader inside the writers mind, so why not use that to convey what Mathews believes or feels. .