President Michael Roth introduced renowned author and journalist Philip Gourevitch at the Memorial Chapel on Wednesday night for his lecture, entitled “Shrinking the World to Fit a Book.” Invited as a part of the Distinguished Writers/New Voices series, Gourevitch is perhaps best known for his 1998 non-fiction book “We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families,” which recounts the story of the genocide in Rwanda. He is also the editor of “The Paris Review,” a staff writer for “The New Yorker” and author of multiple other fiction and non-fiction works. His latest book, “Standard Operating Procedure,” contextualizes and tells the story of the Abu Ghraib prison guards involved in the 2004 torture scandal and will debut on May 15.
Gourevitch, whose father was a Wesleyan professor of philosophy, was raised in Middletown. He spoke fondly of the familiar faces and buildings, a commentary that segued into a discussion of his childhood love for the epic novel. He initially hoped to write fiction, an endeavor he humorously described as having produced “some really bad writing and some not too bad writing.”
He switched genres largely by chance, hired precisely for his inexperience, to report on current events issues around the world; an opportunity he found allowed him to ask the kinds of upfront questions normally prohibited in less formal dialogue.
Gourevitch spoke of the difference between writing and reporting, noting that not all journalists succeed at doing both. He welcomed the opportunity to give a voice to non-fiction events. His subject matter became further refined as he found himself drawn to “stories of aftermath,” to return to places and subjects once: “the news had moved on.”
Gourevitch found himself troubled by the traveling spotlight of journalism, which seemed too brief to shed adequate light on any one issue. It was with this desire to achieve greater clarity and understanding of the lasting effects of conflict that led him to Rwanda.
He arrived in Rwanda with little knowledge of the history and politics of the genocide. Describing an initial aversion to reading background texts, Gourevitch explained that he is more inclined to use people as a primary source and stressed the importance of developing a critical eye and forming one’s own opinions before relying on outside written accounts.
To the audience’s bemusement, he explained that, “ignorance is a great starting place for writing. It helps if you don’t have any ideas about what you’re going to be seeing.”
“I read his book [“We Wish to Inform You…”] while I was working on a refugee camp in Rwanda and it completely changed my life and altered the way I viewed the people there,” said Lexi Sturdy ’10. “The book was very politically charged but I was surprised because I thought he wrote exclusively about Africa. Now I know that he takes somewhat obscure topics from all over the world and writes amazing books about them.”
Gourevitch also spoke about the challenges of compressing complex stories and long histories into books accessible to the American public. He noted that the turn of the century has marked a decided shift in our center of interest from strictly foreign affairs toward stories of American policies and peoples overseas. He was particularly taken with the way in which Abu Ghraib was treated by the media and remains convinced that the photographs will remain “the iconic images of this war.” His new book on the subject was produced in collaboration with a film of the same title by Errol Morris and controversially draws into question that which was “outside the frame” of the pictures. He seeks to contextualize and give new meaning to what rapidly became a carefully manipulated blame game within the government and the media.
“What most impressed me was how clearly and concisely he was able to explain world events on a macro scale, and how he wasn’t afraid to be opinionated about controversial issues,” explained Brooke Olaussen ’09. “He was very opinionated about Abu Ghraib in ways unexpected for a journalist.”
Gourevitch displayed a willingness to push the boundaries of non-fiction, asserting that neutrality and excessive objectivity endanger the meaning of the subject. “There is a presumption that wanting to change the world means making it better,” he said. I’m skeptical of that ambition. I’m interested, in some way, in preserving the world in history.”
Andrew Gorin ’09 appreciated that unlike most journalists, Gourevitch makes his subjectivity apparent.
“I think he personalizes the events in a way that is important; he writes in a form that we understand, and as biased as it may be, we see what it is and can relate to it in a better way than we can relate to coverage that attempts to cloak its stance in neutral language,” Gorin said.
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