SERENA SOLIN
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WHAT TREES DO YOU PREFER IN THE CENTRE OF BOULEVARDS?
Kentucky bluegrass!
WHAT TYPE OF READING DO YOU DO ON TRAINS (OR AEROPLANES)?
On the train I’ll read whatever I have on me; on airplanes I like a novel.
WHAT BUTTERFLIES DO YOU THINK GIVE THE MOST SATISFACTORY PERFORMANCES?
Monarchs.
WHAT MOVIE DO YOU WATCH IN SECRET?
The last movie I watched alone was Mandy, maybe 3-4 years ago.
WHAT LITERARY WORKS DO YOU CONSIDER THE MOST UNDER-RATED?
The form of writing I consider most underrated is the critical-poetic essay (if there’s a better name for this I don’t know it—I don’t mean the lyric essay): Susan Howe’s work, Craig Dworkin’s. The single poet I think is the most underrated is Sean Bonney.
WHAT COLOURS DO MOST FOR YOU AFTER SIX P.M.?
Soft grey and fuschia (sunset colors in a supermarket parking lot).
WHAT ANIMALS DO YOU PREFER TO HUMAN BEINGS?
None.
WHAT IS THE PRINCIPAL DIFFERENCE BETWEEN YOUR STATE OF MIND (MOOD) WHEN READING FICTION AND YOUR MIND WHEN READING HISTORY?
I imagine history as small and random, fiction as grand and fated. But from a typesetter’s perspective there’s not so much difference. Most of the history I read I read on a screen, but with fiction I try to have the book.
CAN YOU HEAR ANYTHING IN A SEASHELL OTHER THAN THE ROAR OF THE OCEAN?
Work, but quietly in the distance.
WOULD WINGS BE AN IMPROVEMENT FOR THE HUMAN BODY?
No.
WHAT MUSIC DO YOU LISTEN TO MOST FREQUENTLY?
Take the fifth.
WHAT TWO HISTORICAL CHARACTERS WOULD YOU LIKE TO BRING TOGETHER?
I don’t have much interest in any historical characters.
WHAT ARTICLE OF CLOTHING DO YOU WISH TO BRING BACK FROM HISTORICAL OBSCURITY?
Bone corset.
WHAT BUILDING DO YOU CONSIDER THE MOST BEAUTIFUL IN THE WORLD?
In high school I saw a picture of Reims Cathedral in an art history textbook, but I haven’t been there.
WHAT SIZE CITY DO YOU THINK THE MOST DESIRABLE?
New York.
WHAT DO YOU THINK IS THE ESSENCE OF FEMININITY?
Bone corset.
WHAT WORK FROM A PREVIOUS CENTURY WOULD YOU MOST LIKE TO HAVE WRITTEN?
“Carrion Comfort” by GM. Hopkins.
WHAT FORM OF AFTER LIFE — IF ANY — DO YOU ANTICIPATE?
Little if any, but I’m not sure yet.
WHAT ANIMAL WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE USED AS A MEANS OF TRANSPORTATION IN OUR DOWNTOWN STREETS?
I don’t like that idea.
WHAT ARE THE MOST OVER-RATED LUXURIES?
Grape leaves.
WHAT DOES WILLIAM BLAKE HAVE TO DO WITH ANYTHING?
I don’t know, but I know someone who could tell me.
WHAT QUESTIONS DO YOU THINK SHOULD BE ADDED TO THIS INTERVIEW?
Will you return?
Why not?
Biographical Statement
Serena Solin is often found by a window which overlooks a maple tree, as well as in basements, on roofs, and in motion. Serena, like all bodies, is a house, a sturdy and reliable lodging if a bit small, furnished in the geological style, a bit cluttered. “Serena” is selected from a book of lists of names in which it appears four times, the lists headed “noblesse oblige,” “the golden mean,” “feminine,” and “feminissima”; “Solin” likely abbreviated upon immigration though no one knows for sure. Serena is, to her own consternation, most attracted to anti-bureaucratic and anti-authoritarian sprites and agents. Serena is interested in materiality, specificity, and inevitability, in short, that which accretes and conducts.