Remainder vs. Synecdoche
Wednesday, December 31st, 2008Musing on McCarthy’s Remainder per my post below — and by the way, isn’t it interesting that, in a blog, the past is “below” while in real life the past is always “above” or “to the left”? — I remembered that I wanted to Google possible connections between said novel and the movie Synecdoche, New York. And here it is, in an interview with Charlie Kaufman conducted by Scott Indrisek in Anthem magazine:
I found a lot of similarities between Synecdoche and this novel, Remainder, by Tom McCarthy…
This script, for the record, [was] written before that novel came out. I saw a review of that thing [Remainder]; I was freaked out. I intentionally did not read it. I have not read it. I hadn’t made the movie yet, and I didn’t want to have any kind of influence [from] it. But like I said, this script was written before that came out. I saw it online and I thought, A) oh fuck, and B) this is a book that I would read, normally. This sounds like a cool book. But I won’t. And I haven’t. And I probably at some point I will, but I don’t know…now it might be awful to read it. It might be like, Oh, he had this great idea that I didn’t have and I cant do anything about it.
It’s interesting to know that you haven’t read it.
It’s an idea that…that idea is not new to me, in my work. This particular version of it…What I’m saying is, it’s an attractive idea. I would look at that novel and think, Oh, cool. But I couldn’t in this case.
It’s got a similar kind of self-contained illogic.
He builds an apartment house and hires actors?
Yeah.
[Sarcastically] I wonder if McCarthy read the script…
