Sport 41: 2013
VThe Pre-War Influence in Contemporary Literature
V The Pre-War Influence in Contemporary Literature
That, when I was living in that house with all those joes, johns, girls, whatever, was when I began writing in the genre I termed ‘pre-war’. I got sick of everyone saying, ‘Oh, you’re a playwright/poet? What kind of plays/poetry do you write?’ and me snarkily retorting, ‘I don’t know, what kinds of plays/poetry are there?’ and them stumbling and fumbling and saying, ‘Um, I don’t know, I mean, I thought . . . um, I don’t know what I thought.’
So then the new conversation would go, ‘Oh, you’re a . . . whatever? What kind of whatevers do you make?’
‘I’m a pre-war whatever and I make pre-war whatevers.’
‘Pre-war? Pre-war?’
‘Yeah, you’ve heard of post-war, right? Post-war art?’
‘Sure, but . . . which war?’
And then dark and ominously, ‘The next one.’