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Brautigan Discusses His Writing, Teaching

Richard Brautigan says that only one-billionth of everything he feels and sees becomes a word. And he claims it took him eight years, from the time he was 17 until he was 25, to learn to write a sentence.

The product: "Trout Fishing in America," Brautigan's first novel and the beginning of a success story that hasn't ended.

Some critics suggest that Brautigan, one of America's leading contemporary authors, sits down in an hour and a half and writes his annual best seller. But Brautigan doesn't buy that notion.

"I work very, very hard to make things appear very, very simple," he said.

Brautigan is the first to admit though that his popularity is difficult to explain.

"Part of my success is luck," he said. "I was only a little sprout when my first novel was published. I wrote 15 to 20 drafts of "Trout Fishing" and it was rejected by 20 different publishers before it was finally accepted."

Some say Brautigan's incredible imagination has led to his success.

But he denies that, too.

"I don't feel that any person's imagination can lead to their success," he said. "Many people's imagination is far greater than mine. But I spend my time translating my imagination into writing, and they don't."

Brautigan feels that good writers have to be courageous, and he's courageous without a doubt. But he didn't really expect to find that ingredient in college students, he said.

Brautigan, who never attended college and considers himself self-taught, instructed a creative writing course for the Department of English at Montana State University this past quarter.

"I told my class the first day that it's impossible to teach creative writing," he said. "I told them that what I could provide was a creative atmosphere and the experience of 30 years of writing. Later, I told them that one of the vectors of my grading would be the courage of their imagination and intelligence.

"And I was astounded. I've been extremely pleased by the high quality of writing I've seen. It also pleased me to see the courage of the students."

There weren't any Richard Brautigan clones in the class either, which surprised the 47-year-old author.

"The class was very brave and didn't attempt to pattern their writing after mine," he said. "The thing that was so interesting was the broad range of writing—from extreme realism to extreme imagination. Some writers' work was very predictable. Then suddenly, they'd come up with something so left field compared to what they had written before. They took a very honest approach to their writing."

Brautigan assigned students specific writing projects but gave them the freedom to choose their own subject matter.

"One assignment was to go someplace at MSU, tell where they had gone, what was there and why they went to that place," Brautigan said. "I told the class that the first person who went to the SUB (Student Union Building) cafeteria, I would take that paper seriously. But I told them that the second one I graded who had written about the SUB cafeteria would get an automatic F. The duck pond on campus turned out to be the popular choice to write about, but every single approach was different.

One girl went to the women's restroom in the SUB. She sat on the floor and commenced to describe the atmosphere there. She said that while she was sitting writing, some woman came up to her and said, 'You must be in Brautigan's class.'"

Brautigan said teaching the course at MSU this spring was "a rare opportunity to go to college.

"I think that education provides the tools for a person to understand and enjoy life on this planet," he said. "The more you know, the more you can enjoy during our brief stay here. You can't get too much education. It should be a lifelong process."

"In 47 years, I've learned a great deal about life, now all I have to do is remember it," he said. "I don't believe that being older makes you wiser. I believe in application of knowledge and information. Often the wise old elders are the ones who lead others into oblivion."

Brautigan's newest novel, "So That the Wind Won't Blow It All Away," sic will be published this fall by Delacourte-Seymour Lawrence Press. He's also working on another book whose working title is "An Unfortunate Woman." Brautigan wouldn't say what that book is about but added "it will be as said as it sounds."

Even though Brautigan has 11 novels and several volumes of poetry to his credit and has become a popular author on American college campuses, he doesn't predict he'll go down in history as one of America's greatest authors.

"I'm just a writer and I just want to continue writing books that people want to read," he said. "People often ask me which of my books is my favorite. And I tell them that it hasn't been written yet."

Montana State University Staff Bulletin?
June 25, 1982: 3



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