President Obama talks with Marilynne Robinson

October 26, 2015 • 1:30 pm

As I’ve mentioned recently, novelist Marilynne Robinson has taken to bashing scientism, atheism, and science itself in her latest nonfiction works, for she believes in an immaterial soul and just can’t forgive science for neglecting it. She’s a devout Congregationalist and sometimes preaches at her church in Iowa City.

On September 14, Robinson and President Obama had a long conversation at the Iowa State Library in Des Moines, a discussion that’s now  published in two parts in the New York Review of Books (free; links below).

It’s really more of an interview of Robinson by Obama, but the President gives a lot of his own views on writing, the economy, democracy, and the difficulties of governing. I didn’t find much that was new, but the discussion of religion was mercifully brief and tepid, and perhaps some of you will find some meat.

What I found bracing was the rediscovery of Obama’s intelligence and respect for literature: he’s actually read Robinson’s novels, and the discussion couldn’t have been scripted by Obama’s staff. Have at least a cursory look at the two parts of the interview, and see if you can imagine such a conversation between Robinson and either Donald Trump or Ben Carson. NO WAY.

Part 1

Part 2

15 thoughts on “President Obama talks with Marilynne Robinson”

  1. see if you can imagine such a conversation between Robinson and either Donald Trump or Ben Carson . . .

    Trump: “Your books are boring. Why don’t you have more car chases and explosions in your books. Real Americans like car chases and explosions. U-S-A, U-S-A, U-S-A!!”

    Robinson: (quietly facepalms and applies for Canadian citizenship)

    2. Frankly, I have to say that Gilead was one of the more boring books I have read this year….

  2. Is Obama practicing / auditioning for his post-presidency occupation?

    New York Review of Books in Chief.

  3. One of the things that bugs me about Trump:

    He always looks angry! I don’t want an angry 12-year old boy running my country!

  4. President Obama is a really good interviewer. I imagine most readers have seen his recent interview of Sir David Attenborough in the White House?

  5. Trump and Carson are credited with writing more books than I suspect they’ve read. There’s even reason to doubt, especially in Carson’s case, that they’ve actually read the books they’re credited with writing.

    1. Dreams of My Father, OTOH, is the best-written book by a future or former US president — at least since Profiles in Courage (depending upon how much credit for that book goes to JFK, and how much to Ted Sorensen).

  7. Dreams of My Father, OTOH, is the best-written book by a future or former US president — at least since Profiles in Courage (depending upon how much credit for that book goes to JFK and how much to Ted Sorensen).

  8. What I found bracing was the rediscovery of Obama’s intelligence and respect for literature: he’s actually read Robinson’s novels….

    Well, there’s Obama’s problem right there! He’s actually not stupid. No wonder he has so many enemies among the stupid. What an elitist! 😛

  9. I fully expect Obama will devote a considerable part of his post-presidency life to writing. He has the aptitude, and dog knows he has the material. There is a lot he can finally be forthright about in his measured, articulate way. Much as I admire Carter, Obama will be the finest ex-pres we’ve yet had, I’m sure.

  10. The President: And that’s part of the foundation of your writings, fiction and nonfiction. And one of the points that you’ve made in one of your most recent essays is that there was a time in which at least reformed Christianity in Europe was very much “the other.” And part of our system of government was based on us rejecting an exclusive, inclusive—or an exclusive and tightly controlled sense of who is part of the community and who is not, in favor of a more expansive one.

    Tell me a little bit about how your interest in Christianity converges with your concerns about democracy.

    I read these as surprisingly critical questions. He seems to imply here that Christianity and democracy not necessarily go together. He could even be interpreted saying ‘The US is not a Christian nation’. And he puts her on the spot there with the next two question …

    <The President: But you’ve struggled with the fact that here in the United States, sometimes Christian interpretation seems to posit an “us versus them,” and those are sometimes the loudest voices. But sometimes I think you also get frustrated with kind of the wishy-washy, more liberal versions where anything goes.

    Robinson: Yes.

    The President: How do you reconcile the idea of faith being really important to you and you caring a lot about taking faith seriously with the fact that, at least in our democracy and our civic discourse, it seems as if folks who take religion the most seriously sometimes are also those who are suspicious of those not like them?

    Ouch! He’s splendid there and — in my interpretation — even strident for someone like him, and I was just skimming!

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