Writing Life

Dr. Alberto Morales, a fellow anthro, interviewed me about my first book Life Support. The interview was for Somatosphere, an open-access online journal for science, medicine and anthropology. The conversation we had is part of “Writing Life,” a series in which one scholar interviews another about their writing process. We found good comradeship in our shared commitments to ethnography, STS, and the necessity of decolonizing challenges to both. We got serious about the challenges and rewards of rigorous interdisciplinarity. How does one bring together ethnography and aesthetic texts in a way that does justice to anthropological and literary studies in their own rights? I shared some of my throw-away pandemic observations about writing, such as that open laptops, like cell phones, signify non-presence. The editors asked for a picture of one of my writing spaces, and since my desk set-up was not photogenic at that moment, I chose my car. I do sometimes have to write in parked cars, trains, airplanes, or near playgrounds or other places young people can manage with partial supervision. On twitter, an interesting discussion came out of the interview about ideal writing set-ups. Several people said they can’t write anywhere but at their desk (or at home). I used to be like them. I still am in many ways. But we get by.