Best-selling author Jonathan Safran Foer doesn't particularly enjoy the process of writing.
"I don't love writing. I just don't," he said. "Writing is a little like pulling a tooth - out of your penis."
Foer, author of Everything is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, put in double-duty last night, attending a dinner organized by Fisher-Hassenfeld College House before making an appearance at the Penn Bookstore.
Some 40 residents of Fisher-Hassenfeld attended the dinner, where Foer explained his approach to writing.
Foer said his inspiration comes not from his literary predecessors, but from Joseph Cornell, a visual artist about whom Foer edited a book. Foer said his goal in writing is to evoke the feeling of beauty he experiences when viewing Cornell's work in others.
"For me, writing is like an airplane," he said. "If I could find some other vehicle that was better . [I] would."
He said that he has come to see the publishing industry as a business that publishes plenty of unliterary works.
"The Da Vinci Code is a very famous book," he said. "Would you want to put your name on the cover?"
Foer also discussed his upcoming non-fiction project, which will be about meat.
"Meat is the most fascinating of all subjects," he said.
Foer, a vegetarian, discussed the environmental costs of raising domesticated animals, which he said are the second-largest source of climate-altering greenhouse gases.
According to Foer, if you eat meat, "you can't be an environmentalist."
His primary reason for his dietary choice is that he considers the meat industry to be immoral.
"One of the nice things about being human is we can make choices, and make ethical choices," he said.
After dinner, Foer made his way to the Penn Bookstore, where a large crowd was already awaiting him 15 minutes before he was scheduled to speak. He read from the first chapter of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close to about 200 people, fielded questions and signed books.
As a published author, Foer has had the opportunity to receive feedback about his book, and he said he was surprised to learn about the range of people who enjoyed his works.
"Books are an antidote to the idea that we can only relate to people like us," he said.
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