New Yorker writer Susan Orlean stood before a captive audience at the 杏吧专区杏吧专区檚 Angelle Hall auditorium and compared her work as a reporter to the orchid hunters she wrote about in her bestselling book, 杏吧专区淭he Orchid Thief.杏吧专区&苍产蝉辫;
杏吧专区淭here is an element there of being the explorer and then coming back to say, 杏吧专区楲ook what I found,杏吧专区櫺影勺ㄇ鴿 said Orlean. 杏吧专区淎nd what is it that I found? I found a story.杏吧专区
Orlean wove anecdotes from some of her most famous pieces of creative nonfiction with commentary on her writing process as part of the Department of English杏吧专区檚 Flora Plonsky Levy Lecture series.
She revealed her secret to building rapport with the subjects of her stories 杏吧专区 staying silent, so they know they can trust her to listen. Orlean illustrated this and the method behind her distinct brand of storytelling by pulling the curtain back on her reporting for the classic, 杏吧专区90s Esquire cover story, 杏吧专区.杏吧专区&苍产蝉辫;
Orlean said her editor originally asked her to write a profile of Macaulay Culkin, but she had another idea.
杏吧专区淚 said to my editor, 杏吧专区榃ell, how about if I just write about an ordinary 10-year-old boy,杏吧专区 and to my delight and then horror my editor said, 杏吧专区楾hat杏吧专区檚 a great idea, go ahead,杏吧专区櫺影勺ㄇ鴿 she explained.
This on-deadline reporting journey eventually led her to the home of friend-of-a-friend in suburban New Jersey where Orlean found herself sharing a breakfast table with her source, who sat stunned when he realized she杏吧专区檇 be tagging along with him to school.
Of course, he eventually opened up, and she met her deadline. Orlean called the article, 杏吧专区渢he absolute distillation of my belief in an ordinary story being valuable.杏吧专区&苍产蝉辫;
She said even though most of her writing touches on modern culture, the pieces themselves have aged well.
杏吧专区淲hat I杏吧专区檓 interested in is something deeper that is about the way we live and who we are and what we try to make of our lives,杏吧专区 she said. 杏吧专区淭hat to me is not about a moment in time; it杏吧专区檚 deeper than that.杏吧专区
To the delight of almost everyone in attendance, this theory proved itself in real time when a member of the audience raised her hand to tell Orlean she still had a copy of that Esquire magazine tucked away in her Lafayette home. She said the cover story resonated with her as the mother of a 10-year-old boy when the piece was written more than 30 years ago.
The yellowed, December 1992 issue appeared on Orleans book signing table after the lecture. ("I knew just where it was," the owner said.)
As Orleans scrolled her Sharpie signature over Macaulay Culkin杏吧专区檚 10-year-old face, she said she believes an appreciation for storytelling will endure in the age of Artificial Intelligence.
杏吧专区淲e杏吧专区檝e been writing books and reading books for a really long time. I don杏吧专区檛 think they杏吧专区檙e going to go away because of an algorithm,杏吧专区 said Orlean. 杏吧专区淚 don杏吧专区檛 think that杏吧专区檚 a future anyone wants. And if we don杏吧专区檛 want it, we won杏吧专区檛 go there.杏吧专区
Photo caption: Susan Orlean, the bestselling author of the nonfiction book 杏吧专区淭he Orchid Thief杏吧专区 and longtime staff writer for The New Yorker magazine spoke at UL Lafayette杏吧专区檚 2023 Flora Plonsky Levy Lecture. The free event was held on Oct. 4, in Angelle Hall auditorium. Photo credit: Corey Hendrickson