Professor, Author Max Apple Reflects on Writing

Professor, Author Max Apple Reflects on Writing

BY DAVID KAPLAN
Rice News Staff
April 22, 1999

A self-described "professional grandson" took the stage of the Museum
of Fine Arts.

On March 30, Professor of English Max Apple, author of the memoirs "I
Love Gootie: My Grandmother’s Story," "Roommates: My Grandfather’s
Story," and several works of fiction, read from and reflected on his work.

The event, part of a literary discussion series titled "Life Stories:
Biography and Memoir" was sponsored by Imprint Inc., a nonprofit organization
that supports Houston writers and literary activity.

Apple was joined on stage by Professor of English Terrence Doody, author of
the recently released "Among Other Things: A Description of the Novel."
The two have been colleagues and friends for 27 years. In his introduction,
Doody described Apple as "a man undefended by irony" and "absolotutely
open to what the world offers. Max has an almost unparalleled generosity of
acceptance." After Apple read, Doody asked him questions about his work.

Apple noted that when he reads aloud from "I Love Gootie"–which
describes his Grand Rapids, Mich., childhood spent with his Yiddish-speaking
grandmother–he still hears it in Yiddish. "It’s in many ways a translation.
… Growing up, I never knew when Yiddish stopped and when English began."
Apple said he loves the English language but still has some distance from it.

Asked if there’s much difference between writing fiction and nonfiction, Apple
said that with either kind of writing, "the sentence is the key."
One should strive to make every sentence "sound just right," he said.

For Apple, the act of writing is like dreaming. When he enters his dream state
and characters come to him, "I let them hang around for as long as they’re
interesting."

He doesn’t analyze or look for meaning in his work, especially while writing:
"The act of interpreting for me gets in the way," Apple said. "The
kind of work I do is to read and reread and let the dream go on, and if I start
to try to figure out what it means, it spoils it."

Growing up in industrial Michigan, Apple never thought he’d be a writer: "I
thought writing was some kind of upper class endeavor."

He was immersed in oral culture, however. "I didn’t know what literature
was, but knew I liked stories." A great number of them were told by his
grandmother.

"Gootie was your muse," said Doody.

Growing up in a Jewish-American immigrant household was for Apple like living
in two worlds. Inside his house, he said, it could have been 1880s Lithuania,
and he could walk out the door to America.

It wasn’t until his freshman year at the University of Michigan that Apple
developed an interest in literature and tried his hand at writing. Similarly,
he said that he sees in some of his freshman English students a "wonderful
naiveté" and lack of training in writing that works to their advantage:
"When you don’t know what literature is, then you can make it."

Doody noted that while still an undergraduate, Apple won Michigan’s Hopwood
Prize for writing. Other Hopwood recipients include Arthur Miller and, more
recently, Jessica Apple, Max’s daughter.

Apple offered two pieces of advice for writers: "When you’re stuck, lie
down. And wear ear plugs, even if it’s really quiet. It’s a wonderful metaphor:
going inside, shutting everything out."

Asked to name his favorite writers, Apple resisted, for fear of leaving too
many out: "I think there’s lots of wonderful writers," he said, "but
I wish there were more readers. It’s a terrific time for writing, but it’s really
tough to get an audience for most fiction writers."