In the (summer delayed) second part of our chat with David Gates, we go on (we can't go) with the influence of Samuel Beckett and Jane Austen.

----more----* 'What I learned from Austen is that every character in a work thinks he or she is the protagonist' * fiction and the drama of conflicting visions * Gates, comedy and social combat in Emma * closed circuit minds and Gates' characters * 'I'm 69. I have calmed down, somewhat. It is not the buzzing anxiety of being in my 20s' * 'There is a way in which you always write like yourself' * 'There is a lot of sameness there' - Gates' literary riffs * Hitchcock, Rebecca, Psycho and Gates' obsession movie trivia * literary progression or repetition - Gates v Joyce and the Beatles * Back to Beckett - from prose to plays * 'I don't know how to say it without sounding pretentious' * Target or Tar-jay - jokes and time

Part three will be up in less than three months.