I admire Saul Bellow very much. He brought me to tears, his complexity, his deep humanity, his intellect is very compelling. I got his books in german translation from my father from east germany. Greetings into our big world, with all of our differences and our similarities from Leipzig, Germany!
"I don't know for what reason I appeared on the face of the earth. All I know is that it was a marvelous and exhilarating experience, that to exist itself is a glorious thing."
For anyone wondering what Bellow says to Mitterrand in the anecdote at 41:47, it's "Vaut mieux être décoré que pendu," or, "Better to have a medal around your neck than a noose."
I'm re-reading "Humboldt's Gift" now, and find it flat-out funny. When he says (early) in this interview that he "invented" a sort of sentence, I can see that on the pages of Humboldt. Highly used and regularly repeated today, the sentence is substantial in imagery while continuing the story.
@@richardjames5147 It's a COMMON diagnosis of today's woke mentality. Any conservative political pundit has been saying this for years. Non-pundits have been saying it too. I guess you guys have low standards, or, you just aren't exposed to conservative media, or, have few conservative friends.
@@richardjames5147 Yeah, you didn't say "common now but brilliant for 35 years ago", so clearly you were very impressed with a commonplace insight. But, that said, I disagree with you --- people knew this view 35 years ago.
To hear or read Bellow is almost the same pleasure, funny and wise things together. “...I don’t like to apply labels to myself...” Great answer for common question. I think that interviewer learned a lot... and we too.
Humboldt's Gift is so beautiful and funny, I keep it as close to as I do any other novel. Bellow was an artist and a mensch. Thank you for uploading this!
I've read all of Bellow, and there are some of his novels and short stories collections (Him With His Foot in His Mouth for instance, pure gold) that I'm always happy to re-read, but for me Humboldt's Gift is the one.
In minute 5,55 the interviewer asks if he is not bothered with the critics according to wich Mr. Bellow didn`t write anything as good as Herzog, 23 years ago. Herzong was written in 1964, so the interview took place in 1987
It's about time, given the new frontiers of artificial intelligence, that RUclips applied the ability to listen to audio translated into the desired language!
Bellows, Sinclair, Adler, Philip Roth, Heller, Hawthorne, Poe, James, The Bible, etc...these will expand your brain tremendously about life, love and how to enjoy it.
Saul Bellow é um homem de classe e muita cultura.seus livros são indispensáveis para conhecer um pouco da literatura do pós guerra nos estados unidos.O planeta do Sr. Sammler ou O Legado De Humboldt,por exemplo.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading his books in high school, then again in college and still today pick one up and love to read any of his works. I encourage every youngster to read at least one of his books, esp Augie March. He is a very American writer imo.
I recommend the UK Everyman edition of Augie March for the excellent introduction by Christopher Hitchens, where he makes a convincing case for that book being THE great American novel. Plus like all the Everyman series it's beautifully produced.
"It is hard work, and great art, to make life, not so serious." -John Irving. Considering Mr Bellow's comments, it is often the case that arrogance and indifference are masking feelings of depression which would otherwise be seen as weakness and this, especially in America is not tolerated.
Literature as condensed life experience, something that science, and even philosophy, cannot offer. Bravo, a la tienne! Great artist. Novels and novellas: Dangling Man (1944) The Victim (1947) The Adventures of Augie March (1953), National Book Award for Fiction Seize the Day (1956) Henderson the Rain King (1959) Herzog (1964), National Book Award Mr. Sammler's Planet (1970), National Book Award Humboldt's Gift (1975), winner of the 1976 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction The Dean's December (1982) More Die of Heartbreak (1987) A Theft (1989) The Bellarosa Connection (1989) The Actual (1997) Ravelstein (2000)
6:40 Oh, he did remind me of Gore Vidal " It's a horse race, you never know which horse is going to win" Even his voice is similar, and his manner is very patrician. Very enjoyable interview.
That is exactly the right term Mr Riley. This penchant for isms and ists . Every intellectual with his or her new brand of the same old discredited smelly orthodoxies as George Orwell puts it.
@John Riley: Agreed - the high style suddenly undercut by gleeful low comedy when things are getting too lofty and abstract. Part of the joy of reading Herzog, Mr Sammler's Planet, Humboldt's Gift et al.
Bellow mentions that when he was eight he spent a long period in a hospital due to an illness and nearly died. And yet the interviewer doesn’t ask what nearly killed him. I had to go to Wikipedia to find out it was some sort of respiratory infection. The interviewer didn’t have to spend an inordinate amount of time discussing it, but he should at least have asked. That’s his job. Other than that I thought it was very interesting. Where was this interview done?
"Washed, clean and dressed in expensive garments. Under the roof is insulation; on the windows thermopane; on the floors carpeting; and on the carpets furniture, and on the furniture covers, and on the cloth covers plastic covers; and wallpaper and drapes! All is swept and garnished. And who is in the midst of this? Who is sitting there? Man! That's who it is, man!" from Henderson The Rain King
Brilliant answers from Bellow even though it's obvious that the interviewer comprehends little of what Bellow is saying. His primary concern, as an interviewer, is to ask the next question. I guess it's okay, however, since he does let Bellow speak freely and he doesn't intrude his own opinions.
It's about time, given the new frontiers of artificial intelligence, that YT applied the ability to listen to audio translated into the desired language!
We fall into intellectual traps too easily almost all the time whereas we neglect the essential canons that lasts thousand years. Answer is clear. - NYC, 100/25/2019
20:13 Any interviewer with half a brain or any instincts would have asked when this change took place? Its dropping the ball like that that exposes this dude as a cardboard cutout just reading questions one by one. Nobody told this stiff about the art of conversation I guess. Sheeeeeeesh.
This interview seems to be centered around "More Die of Heartbreak," which Bellow published in 1987. It can be safely assumed that Bellow is on this talk show to promote that book, so it can therefore be surmised that this interview is from 1987. The set and Bellow's appearance (he was 72 that year) seem to correspond to that era. So if this is from 1987, it is not close to Bellow's death: he had another 18 years to live.
Which book(s) would you Bellow enthusiasts recommend as an introduction? My teenage son hasn't yet read any of Bellow's work; I fear Herzog might be a bit...overwhelming. Thank you in advance, my fellow bibliophiles!
Although it’s possibly his longest, The Adventures of Augie March is my first choice. It is my ATF novel-the one I return to and re-read almost every year. I’m currently re-reading Herzog (2nd choice), and it has much more serious, mature themes as one would expect with Bellow being older. I didn’t care much for either Henderson the Rain King or Seize the Day finding them overwrought with modernist symbolism and Freudian psychology, respectively. Humboldt’s Gift (3rd choice) is very underrated as it recaptures some of the same lightning with which Augie thunders.
Bellow once wrote "George Orwell was a sick counter-revolutionary and it's a good job he died when he did" Regardless of whether one likes Orwell's writing that is a horrible thing to say about any human being. And it's rich coming from a man like Bellow who was a big fan of Ronald Reagan.
This must be close to Bellow's death. Good question though, where and who interviewed Bellow. Ravelstein, one of my favourites, I guess was not yet written. Bellow was born in Montreal, like Mordecai |Richler. Bellow looks abit like Pierre Trudeau.
He sounds very interesting; this is a great interview, but I wasn't too impressed with Seize the Day or Ravelstein. Perhaps I should try some of his thicker works.
He was an extremely good-looking man when young : a Hollywood talent scout encouraged him to go to Hollywood, but he never did. He was also something of a womaniser. Read his biography.
"Nature may fall apart but there is nothing mankind can do about that" How about living a vegan lifestyle, Bellow? Einstein realized the transition to a meatless diet was our only hope of saving this planet. Bellow speaks with great assuredness on that matter - yet knows nothing.
This interviewer,,,,,,,, Not a happy camper. He is more a veiled critique than one who has a clue. Bellows holds his ground yet is a bit put off by this guys presumptuousness .
I admire Saul Bellow very much. He brought me to tears, his complexity, his deep humanity, his intellect is very compelling. I got his books in german translation from my father from east germany. Greetings into our big world, with all of our differences and our similarities from Leipzig, Germany!
Agreed
"I don't know for what reason I appeared on the face of the earth. All I know is that it was a marvelous and exhilarating experience, that to exist itself is a glorious thing."
Well... It depends. Let's say that it's easier when you're a Bellow.
I've watched this countless times. Great interview filled with gems
Me too. Mr Bellow spoke a lot about jokes, but he never mentioned that a joke is an assertion of superiority.
For anyone wondering what Bellow says to Mitterrand in the anecdote at 41:47, it's "Vaut mieux être décoré que pendu," or, "Better to have a medal around your neck than a noose."
Thanks, I was wondering about that!
@@Dewingo You're welcome!
Thanks!
No wonder Mitterrand didn’t reply, he probably blanched & thought of René Bousquet & Vichy collaboration.
Literally "Better to be decorated than hanged" Vaut mieux être décoré que pendu
Thanks for the upload. What a writer, what a man, what a mensch!
Amen.
One of the best interviews i watched on RUclips.....
Good to watch late Saul Bellow for the first time...thanks for sharing.
What a fantastic interviewer. Superb. Huge congrats for this. The best interviewer I have ever seen❤
I'm re-reading "Humboldt's Gift" now, and find it flat-out funny. When he says (early) in this interview that he "invented" a sort of sentence, I can see that on the pages of Humboldt. Highly used and regularly repeated today, the sentence is substantial in imagery while continuing the story.
"They have attitudes, that doesn't mean they know what is happening..." Brilliant.
I'm really not seeing brilliance in that statement. It's pretty pedestrian.
@@HomeAtLast501 that statement is a brilliant diagnosis of today's woke mentality.
@@richardjames5147 It's a COMMON diagnosis of today's woke mentality. Any conservative political pundit has been saying this for years. Non-pundits have been saying it too. I guess you guys have low standards, or, you just aren't exposed to conservative media, or, have few conservative friends.
@@HomeAtLast501 common now, Bellow however has been dead for 16 years & this interview is from 35 years ago or more.
@@richardjames5147 Yeah, you didn't say "common now but brilliant for 35 years ago", so clearly you were very impressed with a commonplace insight. But, that said, I disagree with you --- people knew this view 35 years ago.
To hear or read Bellow is almost the same pleasure, funny and wise things together.
“...I don’t like to apply labels to myself...” Great answer for common question. I think that interviewer learned a lot... and we too.
Humboldt's Gift is so beautiful and funny, I keep it as close to as I do any other novel. Bellow was an artist and a mensch. Thank you for uploading this!
Yes. I've read it many times and it's my favorite among his works.
I've read all of Bellow, and there are some of his novels and short stories collections (Him With His Foot in His Mouth for instance, pure gold) that I'm always happy to re-read, but for me Humboldt's Gift is the one.
They don't make em like this anymore. The great post-war writers, including Bellow, Roth and Mailer, are in a class of their own.
The artist as described by Bellow at 17:21 Quite amazing how he communicates thoughts like this spontaneously (apparently).
Saul Bellow has made THIS woman exceedingly happy!
Unhand me, madam !
In minute 5,55 the interviewer asks if he is not bothered with the critics according to wich Mr. Bellow didn`t write anything as good as Herzog, 23 years ago. Herzong was written in 1964, so the interview took place in 1987
Thanks for posting.
It's about time, given the new frontiers of artificial intelligence, that RUclips applied the ability to listen to audio translated into the desired language!
Great! Saul Bellow is pure class. Thank you mr. Cereal.
Love this... Applause! Great Wisdom.
If you are not in awe of Bellow's intellect you are not awake.
gap378 shut the fuck up
gap378 lot of depth in Thinking!! Does anybody think so much these days 🤔
yes, he was a giant
at 12:30 "their only reply to this is to call me a conservative, my reply to them is to say that they are de... " what? sounds French.
Bellows, Sinclair, Adler, Philip Roth, Heller, Hawthorne, Poe, James, The Bible, etc...these will expand your brain tremendously about life, love and how to enjoy it.
Saul Bellow é um homem de classe e muita cultura.seus livros são indispensáveis para conhecer um pouco da literatura do pós guerra nos estados unidos.O planeta do Sr. Sammler ou O Legado De Humboldt,por exemplo.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading his books in high school, then again in college and still today pick one up and love to read any of his works. I encourage every youngster to read at least one of his books, esp Augie March. He is a very American writer imo.
I recommend the UK Everyman edition of Augie March for the excellent introduction by Christopher Hitchens, where he makes a convincing case for that book being THE great American novel. Plus like all the Everyman series it's beautifully produced.
"It is hard work, and great art, to make life, not so serious." -John Irving. Considering Mr Bellow's comments, it is often the case that arrogance and indifference are masking feelings of depression which would otherwise be seen as weakness and this, especially in America is not tolerated.
Herzog was a great read, funny and sad in equal measure.
Literature as condensed life experience, something that science, and even philosophy, cannot offer. Bravo, a la tienne! Great artist.
Novels and novellas:
Dangling Man (1944)
The Victim (1947)
The Adventures of Augie March (1953), National Book Award for Fiction
Seize the Day (1956)
Henderson the Rain King (1959)
Herzog (1964), National Book Award
Mr. Sammler's Planet (1970), National Book Award
Humboldt's Gift (1975), winner of the 1976 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
The Dean's December (1982)
More Die of Heartbreak (1987)
A Theft (1989)
The Bellarosa Connection (1989)
The Actual (1997)
Ravelstein (2000)
This man won 3 National Book Awards, a Nobel, and a Pulitzer.
*slow clap*
6:40 Oh, he did remind me of Gore Vidal
" It's a horse race, you never know which horse is going to win"
Even his voice is similar, and his manner is very patrician.
Very enjoyable interview.
very surprised to hear Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence as the closing song. pleasantly surprised!
the self-aware camera work is kind of hilarious. i dig.
Uncle Saul, I am surprised you never said , A joke is an assertion of superiority.
Wonderful interview.
i admire bellow's anti-formalism, if that is the right term. his high regard for humor as safeguard against intellectual cant, delusion, pretense.
That is exactly the right term Mr Riley. This penchant for isms and ists . Every intellectual with his or her new brand of the same old discredited smelly orthodoxies as George Orwell puts it.
@John Riley: Agreed - the high style suddenly undercut by gleeful low comedy when things are getting too lofty and abstract. Part of the joy of reading Herzog, Mr Sammler's Planet, Humboldt's Gift et al.
Does anyone know the unknown language name or word referred in 33:24 ? Thanks!
'I think Herzog is out of his mind'. Lol....
Bellow mentions that when he was eight he spent a long period in a hospital due to an illness and nearly died.
And yet the interviewer doesn’t ask what nearly killed him.
I had to go to Wikipedia to find out it was some sort of respiratory infection.
The interviewer didn’t have to spend an inordinate amount of time discussing it, but he should at least have asked.
That’s his job.
Other than that I thought it was very interesting.
Where was this interview done?
"Washed, clean and dressed in expensive garments. Under the roof is insulation; on the windows thermopane; on the floors carpeting; and on the carpets furniture, and on the furniture covers, and on the cloth covers plastic covers; and wallpaper and drapes! All is swept and garnished. And who is in the midst of this? Who is sitting there? Man! That's who it is, man!"
from Henderson The Rain King
The end credit indicates a copyright of MCMXCIV. 1994. That seems right. Bellow was 79.
I ❤ this conversation
Brilliant answers from Bellow even though it's obvious that the interviewer comprehends little of what Bellow is saying. His primary concern, as an interviewer, is to ask the next question. I guess it's okay, however, since he does let Bellow speak freely and he doesn't intrude his own opinions.
Check out Robin Williams in the film version of Seize the Day. In one scene, Bellow walks by with a smirk on his face.
Great nuggets in the last half
Learned, measured - not a blowhard. "Jokes tell the truth without you're even knowing it" - I agree!
Does anyone know the foreign word he uses right after 44:50?
Interesting guy. Yes, what an intellect!
Love Saul Bellow
Can someone add subtitles to it?
It's about time, given the new frontiers of artificial intelligence, that YT applied the ability to listen to audio translated into the desired language!
@ That’s where I understand “The primary generator sof ideas are the scientific world” lmao Thanks for the notification.
It is truly an amazing interview
ending music: merry christmas mr. lawrence :)
The questions asked are terrible, the answers given are quite good and true.
How important is reading from an early age, as a primary activity.
Herzog is the same name of the Mountainer who climbed Mt Annapurna very fisrt time in 50's
MAURICE HERZOG....
holy smoke.bellow is smart
He's a pigeon
Joe Delilo12:15
Why does he concede to Auden on style?! 23:30
This is what makes Bellow great.
We fall into intellectual traps too easily almost all the time whereas we neglect the essential canons that lasts thousand years. Answer is clear. - NYC, 100/25/2019
such insight, and (a rare privilege) memorable in its measure.
Herzog was read by many people as being a serious book. The book was a joke.
The best jokes are serious.
I think you're taking it too seriously
That’s the bits I like.
Anybody know what year?
Utterly transcendent
So many intriguing comments from Bellow are left at that, not followed up on by this interviewer. A shame.
20:13 Any interviewer with half a brain or any instincts would have asked when this change took place? Its dropping the ball like that that exposes this dude as a cardboard cutout just reading questions one by one. Nobody told this stiff about the art of conversation I guess. Sheeeeeeesh.
Observing Bellow really lifts Ravelstein off the pages.
What is he saying in french around 10:20?
pratico-pratique/ meaning practicing or practical i think(?)
thank you very much for answering my question. do you happen to know the meaning of the french or latin word he uses around 12:30?@@Arareemote
Yep! The other French word is détraqué, in this context I think he means "upset"
That tremendous influence of the Old Testament on the mind of a budding writer is not gone, Saul. It's still here. Myself, a few others.
He (i.e., Bellow) used the word provisional at least three times in this interview.
And you counted. 🤦
@@mortalclown3812 People who don't count won't count. -- Anatole France
This interview seems to be centered around "More Die of Heartbreak," which Bellow published in 1987. It can be safely assumed that Bellow is on this talk show to promote that book, so it can therefore be surmised that this interview is from 1987. The set and Bellow's appearance (he was 72 that year) seem to correspond to that era. So if this is from 1987, it is not close to Bellow's death: he had another 18 years to live.
It seems centered on Herzog, if anything; though naturally, this is unhelpful for dating the interview.
62, not 72. It cant be 1987.
Which book(s) would you Bellow enthusiasts recommend as an introduction? My teenage son hasn't yet read any of Bellow's work; I fear Herzog might be a bit...overwhelming. Thank you in advance, my fellow bibliophiles!
Although it’s possibly his longest, The Adventures of Augie March is my first choice. It is my ATF novel-the one I return to and re-read almost every year. I’m currently re-reading Herzog (2nd choice), and it has much more serious, mature themes as one would expect with Bellow being older. I didn’t care much for either Henderson the Rain King or Seize the Day finding them overwrought with modernist symbolism and Freudian psychology, respectively. Humboldt’s Gift (3rd choice) is very underrated as it recaptures some of the same lightning with which Augie thunders.
He might be a bit too young to read Bellow. But if he must, Dangling Man is the most accessible probably. It's good, straightforward, not dense.
That's Buster Keaton.
Bellow once wrote "George Orwell was a sick counter-revolutionary and it's a good job he died when he did" Regardless of whether one likes Orwell's writing that is a horrible thing to say about any human being. And it's rich coming from a man like Bellow who was a big fan of Ronald Reagan.
Sounds very un-Bellow. Can you give a source?
The interviewer can never understand what a sensitive person Herzog is…
34:50 WOW.
Can you tell us more about this video? When/where was it taken?
This must be close to Bellow's death. Good question though, where and
who interviewed Bellow.
Ravelstein, one of my favourites, I guess was not yet written.
Bellow was born in Montreal, like Mordecai |Richler. Bellow looks
abit like Pierre Trudeau.
Mid to late 1980s. He was still going strong. They mentioned Herzog as 23 years old.
He's 72 here.
from 30 minutes on he rocks the house. I wish, as I have for many years, to be an interviewer. C'mon, mofos. Act like you're involved.
He sounds very interesting; this is a great interview, but I wasn't too impressed with Seize the Day or Ravelstein. Perhaps I should try some of his thicker works.
Try Herzog, I strongly recommend. - NYC, 10/25/2019
And Humboldt's Gift. After which you might appreciate Ravelstein more - a brilliant swan-song.
what year?
Almost a type of American that simply doesn't exist anymore
the Great Moses!!!!!!
Word!
This sounds too much like something I would see on pbs in 1997, but still nice despite the vaseline lotion Mr. Rogers filter.
I think he could have made a good Actor. Did he ever play in a Movie?
No, but he helped write the film adaptation for his novel “Seize the Day,” which started Robin Williams and was released in 1986.
@Mar Estel: Gore Vidal snapped up all the available roles.
He was an extremely good-looking man when young : a Hollywood talent scout encouraged him to go to Hollywood, but he never did. He was also something of a womaniser. Read his biography.
Augie March first, Herzog, maybe second
+jesuisravi funny. i consider herzog by far the greatest.
I am going to reread Augie one of these days, then I will come back to reply.
jesuisravi for me Humboldt has the headiest synthesis of high brow and low brow, which is what energises us so about Bellow.
@Thomas Pynchon Einhorn.
@Thomas Pynchon so far so good, thank you
17:40
If the job of writers be to edify and educate, make civilized, US writers have not been very successful; perhaps they have been a failure.
Bellow resembles more Pierre Trudeau than Buster Keaton.
What would Bellow have to say about current technology? Utterly dystopian...
This interview is just too frantic for me to handle.
Brilliant old man looking to put a load of wisdom down for a while. Didn't see the frantic in it.
very cool story hansel
To bad Saul had to suffer this boob.
Interesting. Shame the interviewer was not better.
The interviewer is asking stupid American questions, and Mr. Bellow is answering consumately…..
"Nature may fall apart but there is nothing mankind can do about that"
How about living a vegan lifestyle, Bellow? Einstein realized the transition to a meatless diet was our only hope of saving this planet. Bellow speaks with great assuredness on that matter - yet knows nothing.
"You are not paying attention again little Johnny".
There was plenty humankind could have done, more than just going vegan, but it's almost too late now.
This interviewer,,,,,,,, Not a happy camper. He is more a veiled critique than one who has a clue. Bellows holds his ground yet is a bit put off by this guys presumptuousness .
Alot of interviews with authors are just bullshit, they babble on, assert vague platitudes, its just bullshit.
great writer. Mediocre interviewer
Disagree. He's asks gentle yet piercing questions.
Man what a terrible interviewer 😂
The interviewer is crude and unprofessional.
I'm reading Herzog and I think that the main character is unbearable!!!now I know why...
all jerk, all the time
I'm reading Herzog and I think that the main character is unbearable!!!now I know why...
herzogs head is full of things which are of little use to him.