An interview with Andrew O’Hagan
By Steve Braunias | Books Editor
15 March 2016
... I never saw myself as part of the publicity machine for Julian <Assange>. I was an individual writer when we met, and I left as the same thing. I wasn’t a member of his staff. And so a writer must always remember his place .. is to write truthfully and clear-sightedly ... We’re talking about somebody who is in the line of fire in much more significant ways than by a novelist saying Assange eats lasagna with his hands. The piece would be revealing about him, I knew that, and he would find it discomforting ... He’s untalented when it comes to getting along with people. He sees the world only in terms of people’s loyalty to him. What he forgot, or chose never to realise, is that I only have one loyalty, to my readers ... He’s good with data, and bad with people ... We must remember the fundamental humanity in people ... The narcissistic maelstrom that is the universe online – the unedited, the great phoney democracy, that exists online – I don’t find that to be anything like as valuable a space ...The old spaces had editors, who had judgment and experience and prejudices ...
http://thespinoff.co.nz/15-03-2016/an-interview-with-the-worlds-greatest-essayist-andrew-ohagan/
