226
MICHAEL ROLOFF
presentation of a sequence of events in this instance resembled the
presentation of a sequence of events
in
a film.
WEISS:
Yes. That is quite right. The film has interested me greatly
and I have worked for years making films, and movies have actually
taken over the role painting once played for me. The picture was too
static for me and the film has the movement I seek. The visual element
has
always played an immense role in everything I do and much of
that
has
of course entered
Kutscher
and been assimilated in it. Yes,
it
is right when you say that the medium of the film has been in·
troduced into the medium of language.
ROLOFF:
If
films have influenced you in the piecemeal work of sentence
construction, perhaps they have also done so on a larger scale, in the
construction of the entire form of a piece. In
Leavetaking (Ab.
schied von den Eltern)
the overall form reminded me, with the in·
tensity it achieved, of the relentlessness which the movie form can
impose even on disparate material. And the outward sign of this
is
the complete absence of paragraphing in
Leavetaking,
as though
the piece were welded together.
WEISS:
Yes, that was done in order to fashion a very cohesive block.
ROLOFF:
Despite the fact that the experiences which are set off against
one another differ widely, are chronologically rearranged.
WEISS:
You see, I wanted the form to be tense and cohesive, a single
block, something which made for insurmountable difficulties with
the French translation. The French publisher felt forced to introduce
a number of paragraphs where there weren't supposed to be any.
He said it was impossible the way it was. I fought over this 'for a
long time but he continued to insist that it was absolutely impossible
and I found it absolutely stupid and I don't understand how a con'
vention can have such a strong hold on people.
ROLOFF:
I had a similar experience with a friend in New York, who
is a writer but who would not read the book once he discovered that
there were no paragraphs, which perhaps proves the French pub–
lisher's point. He couldn't give an explanation and merely splut·
tered but I gathered he felt the lack of paragraphs signified an
in·
herent lack of seriousness.
WEISS:
Some people can't overcome the oddest prejudices.
ROLOFF:
It struck me that in
Leavetaking,
which is a stratification of very
subjective experiences, you had arrived at what is known as objectifi–
cation, not, as is customary, by balancing these experiences with
each other, or contrasting the experiences with other and different
experiences or creating; constrasting characters, but through an intensifi·
