Lorrie Moore will discuss the changing nature of narrative on television in annual Robert B. Silvers lecture at the NYPL
New York Public Library
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, Celeste Bartos Forum
Friday, October 25, $15-$25, 7:00
www.nypl.org
www.nybooks.com
Once upon a time, not really all that long ago, people had to get off their couches in order to change the channel on their television sets, and even then, their choices were limited; here in New York, it was only channels 2 (CBS), 4 (NBC), 5 (WNEW), 7 (ABC), 9 (WOR), 11 (WPIX), 13 (WNET), and 21 (WLIW). Television has gone through some maturation over the years, not only technologically but also in quality, as the once-standard phrase “the boob tube” has seemingly gone into disuse. Bestselling, award-winning author Lorrie Moore, who has written such novels as Anagrams and A Gate at the Stairs, such collections as Like Life and Birds of America, and the children’s book The Forgotten Helper, will discuss how storytelling and narrative has changed on the small screen when she delivers the annual Robert B. Silvers Lecture, titled “Watching Television,” on October 25 at the New York Public Library’s main branch. The lecture series is held in honor of Robert B. Silvers, who has been editor of the New York Review of Books since 1963, a year in which the most popular television shows included The Beverly Hillbillies, Bonanza, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Andy Griffith Show, and Candid Camera. Moore, a native New Yorker, is a frequent contributor to the prestigious publication, having recently reviewed the Showtime series Homeland in the February 21 issue. Among the previous Robert B. Silvers lecturers are Joan Didion, J. M. Coetzee, Zadie Smith, Oliver Sacks, and Derek Walcott.