New Yorker writer Susan Orlean stood before a captive audience at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s Angelle Hall auditorium and compared her work as a reporter to the orchid hunters she wrote about in her bestselling book, “The Orchid Thief.”&Բ;
“There is an element there of being the explorer and then coming back to say, ‘Look what I found,’” said Orlean. “And what is it that I found? I found a story.”
Orlean wove anecdotes from some of her most famous pieces of creative nonfiction with commentary on her writing process as part of the Department of English’s Flora Plonsky Levy Lecture series.
She revealed her secret to building rapport with the subjects of her stories — staying silent, so they know they can trust her to listen. Orlean illustrated this and the method behind her distinct brand of storytelling by pulling the curtain back on her reporting for the classic, ‘90s Esquire cover story, “.”&Բ;
Orlean said her editor originally asked her to write a profile of Macaulay Culkin, but she had another idea.
“I said to my editor, ‘Well, how about if I just write about an ordinary 10-year-old boy,’ and to my delight and then horror my editor said, ‘That’s a great idea, go ahead,’” she explained.
This on-deadline reporting journey eventually led her to the home of friend-of-a-friend in suburban New Jersey where Orlean found herself sharing a breakfast table with her source, who sat stunned when he realized she’d be tagging along with him to school.
Of course, he eventually opened up, and she met her deadline. Orlean called the article, “the absolute distillation of my belief in an ordinary story being valuable.”&Բ;
She said even though most of her writing touches on modern culture, the pieces themselves have aged well.
“What I’m interested in is something deeper that is about the way we live and who we are and what we try to make of our lives,” she said. “That to me is not about a moment in time; it’s deeper than that.”
To the delight of almost everyone in attendance, this theory proved itself in real time when a member of the audience raised her hand to tell Orlean she still had a copy of that Esquire magazine tucked away in her Lafayette home. She said the cover story resonated with her as the mother of a 10-year-old boy when the piece was written more than 30 years ago.
The yellowed, December 1992 issue appeared on Orleans book signing table after the lecture. ("I knew just where it was," the owner said.)
As Orleans scrolled her Sharpie signature over Macaulay Culkin’s 10-year-old face, she said she believes an appreciation for storytelling will endure in the age of Artificial Intelligence.
“We’ve been writing books and reading books for a really long time. I don’t think they’re going to go away because of an algorithm,” said Orlean. “I don’t think that’s a future anyone wants. And if we don’t want it, we won’t go there.”
Photo caption: Susan Orlean, the bestselling author of the nonfiction book “The Orchid Thief” and longtime staff writer for The New Yorker magazine spoke at UL Lafayette’s 2023 Flora Plonsky Levy Lecture. The free event was held on Oct. 4, in Angelle Hall auditorium. Photo credit: Corey Hendrickson