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Jonathan Franzen

Discussion programme. Tom Sutcliffe talks to novelist Jonathan Franzen, financial journalist Gillian Tett, artist Tacita Dean and academic Helen Margetts.

On Start the Week Tom Sutcliffe talks to the American writer Jonathan Franzen about his latest novel, Purity. One of Franzen's characters compares the internet with the East German Republic and he satirises the utopian ideas of the apparatchik web-users. The head of the Oxford Internet Institute Helen Margetts counters with her research on the success and failure of political action via social media. The artist Tacita Dean laments the ubiquity of digital at the expense of film, and the financial journalist Gillian Tett roots out tunnel vision - both personal and business - in her new book on silos.
Producer: Katy Hickman.

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43 minutes

Last on

Mon 5 Oct 2015 21:30
±«Óãtv Radio 4

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Jonathan Franzen

is an author.

Purity is published by Fourth Estate.

Helen Margetts

is the Director of the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford and Professor of Society and the Internet.

, co-written with Peter John, Scott Hale and Taha Yasseri, is published by Princeton University Press.

Gillian Tett

is the US managing editor and columnist at the Financial Times.

The Silo Effect: Why Putting Everything in its Place Isn’t Such a Bright Idea is published by Little, Brown.

Tacita Dean

Tacita Dean is an artist.

Tacita and the filmmaker Christopher Nolan will discuss the future of film at the BFI on Friday 9 October, and the UK premiere of her work ‘Event for a Stage’ is on at Tate Modern on Saturday 10 October.

Start the Week at the Radio 3 Free Thinking Festival

Start the Week is recording an edition of the programme at ±«Óãtv Radio 3 Free Thinking Festival at Sage, Gateshead on Saturday 7 November, 2.00-3.00pm.  For tickets to this and other festival events .

Credits

Presenter Tom Sutcliffe
Interviewed Guest Jonathan Franzen
Interviewed Guest Gillian Tett
Interviewed Guest Tacita Dean
Interviewed Guest Helen Margetts
Producer Katy Hickman

Broadcasts

  • Mon 5 Oct 2015 09:00
    ±«Óãtv Radio 4
  • Mon 5 Oct 2015 21:30
    ±«Óãtv Radio 4

Podcast

  • Start the Week

    Weekly discussion programme, setting the cultural agenda every Monday