You can almost hear Michael Cunningham shifting in his seat on the other end of the phone as he struggles to explain why his novels constantly orbit around the themes of insecurity and isolation—most notably in The Hours, his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel and now an acclaimed film. Each of the three female characters in The Hours—Virginia Woolf while writing Mrs. Dalloway; a 1950’s reader of this novel who has a young son named Richard; and a present-day lesbian nicknamed “Clarissa Dalloway” by Richard, now dying of AIDS—finds that her internal longings are continually bumping up against outside demands, and she’s spinning toward physical and emotion self-destruction. “Happiness doesn’t much interest me,” offers Cunningham. The troubled times are the ones that demand our attention, while “Kodak moments [are]just fine on their own.”
“Why Virginia Woolf?” is a question Cunningham was routinely asked after The Hours was released in the fall of 1998. And when the film came out early this year—starring a trifecta of stunning performances from Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore, and Meryl Streep—more people were brought face-to-face with this troubled and brilliant literary figure. Cunningham answered questions about his fascination with Woolf in a way that left no doubt about his assessment of her genius or her impact on literature: “Because she was a genius and a visionary, because she was a rock star, because she was the first writer to split the atom, because I’m in love with her, because she knew that everyone, every single person, is the hero of his or her own epic story” (from www.thehoursmovie.com).
“The Hours” was actually Woolf’s working title for Mrs. Dalloway, notes Cunningham, who says he began writing The Hours at 43, the age at which Woolf completed Mrs. Dalloway. “It was initially just a modern-day version of Mrs. Dalloway, but it expanded during the writing into these three linked stories, each of which takes place in one day in the life of a particular woman: A modern day Clarissa Dalloway, a wife and mother in Los Angeles just after World War II, and Virginia Woolf the day she started writing Mrs. Dalloway. It seemed right that the book should include a character, a reader, and a writer.”
Tony Peregrin: How did you like the film version of The Hours?
Michael Cunningham: I couldn’t be more pleased with the end result, though my judgment may be slightly biased. It’s impossible to take it in, for me, because I know the material so well. I was privy to the production process so I know every decision that was made, in terms of why a scene was shot this way or that way, etc. It’s impossible for me to say how someone walking into the theater will feel about the movie, but I loved it. I can’t describe or compare the look of the film to any other film I’ve ever seen. It’s like any true work of art in that it looks like itself, it has its own particular quality that is wholly unique.
TP: Some authors (and readers!) sniff at the thought of turning a literary novel into a film. Did you have any reservations about the book being adapted for the screen?
MC: Well, in the beginning, I kept saying, “I don’t know, I don’t know,” when they approached me about doing an adaptation of the novel. I knew I didn’t want to write it myself, and the studio didn’t want me to write it, as this is hardly the kind of project to learn how to write a screenplay on! But I continued to think about it and I figured, “Okay, either I say no, I don’t want you to make this, or I just put it in the hands of people I know are talented and see what happens.” I finally said that if we could agree on a writer I would give my approval, and we eventually did just that.
I don’t have any notions about the “sacred text” in terms of turning a book into a film, at least for any book of mine. When I write something, it’s the best that I can do with the plot and characters at that time in my life. I would always write a book differently, even six months after I’m done, because I’m already in a different place. So, if someone wants to make a movie or an opera or a soap opera of one of my books, I say, Great! Let’s see where you can take it!
TP: Were you concerned about reader response—specifically your gay male reader base—to The Hours, considering the book is primarily about women?
MC: I thought, well, I’ll probably lose a lot of my gay readers for that very reason, but so be it if that’s the case. The Hours is what I wanted to write at that time, and if the boys didn’t stay with me, that was going to have to be okay. I go to what is considered a very “Chelsea” gym, and I can’t tell you how many guys who look like standard-issue steroid queens have come up to me and said they loved The Hours. And that makes me feel so great. I am awed by where my gay readers are willing to go.
Soon after The Hours won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1999, while pondering what to do next, Cunningham sought refuge in a rented Provincetown cottage, where he volleyed between walks along the beach and the writer’s proverbial blank page. It was at this time that Crown Publishing called to invite him to contribute to a new series of literary travel books. And there it was: his next project. Land’s End: A Walk in Provincetown is not a typical travel guide. An interesting blend of historical facts, nature walks, and personal reflections, Land’s End is at once a memoir and a travelogue, featuring Provincetown as a character that is also the writer’s primary object of affection.
TP: Was the call from Crown the first time you thought about writing about Provincetown?
MC: I had always wanted to write about Provincetown, but I wasn’t ever quite sure just how I wanted to go about doing it, until then. I was definitely nervous about how they [Provincetown residents] would react to the book. It’s a tricky thing when you are writing about a living place or a living person or persons, because it’s often a much different idea of what someone has of themselves… or of a place. With each of my books, I always write with someone in mind. When you make a cake, you have somebody in mind, and the same goes for writing, at least for me. In this case, I was writing for the town. I did a reading there [shortly after the book’s release]and it was different than any other reading I have ever done. I had never read for a public audience before, where I felt so purely and squarely that this is who the book is for. “I did all this work essentially to bring the book here, tonight, to read it to you”—that’s how I felt that night. It was an incredible experience.
TP: One of your hallmarks as a writer is your use of metaphors. In Land’s End, for example, the moon is a recurring symbol.
MC: The moon, eh? I wasn’t aware of that! Well. Provincetown does feel lunar. Taking the ferry over to P’town, your first glimpse of it makes it appear as if it is floating, or suspended in air, like the moon. For me, P’town is primarily a nocturnal town and that is one of the things I like most about it.
TP: Thinking about Provincetown at night, of course, leads to talk of sex. The town has a reputation in this area, yet the book’s inclusion of sexual activity is minimal. What would you say to the reader who balks at the decision not to include more erotic details in Land’s End?
MC: Sure, gay male sex is part of the landscape, and I do mention it, but if somebody is looking for the book to give them a hard on, they should read another book. No book is meant for every reader, nor should it be, I don’t think. That being said, I mention in the book that in P’town you are able to walk or bike around at night, after the crowd at Spiritus has drifted apart, and you can still feel sexual. You don’t have to be having sex, but you still feel sexual, you feel connected to the possibility of it, and I love that! I’ve never been to a “gay” place that feels like that. The whole town feels sexual. Of course, you can still have actual sex, and plenty of it, if you want to, but you can also just walk around and kind of absorb it.
You know, my new book has plenty of sex in it! I can’t reveal the project’s title just yet but I will tell you that it features three linked novellas: the first is a gothic horror story set in the past, the second is a thriller set in the present day, and the third is a science fiction story that takes place in the future. Each novella contains the same set of characters, including an appearance by Walt Whitman!
