A couple weeks ago Jonathan Raban sat with Chris in a studio in KUOW to talk about Seattle or, rather, what makes a city great; Raban, son of an English clergyman, understands what it’s like to approach Seattle from the outside:
Easterners very often come over here and within the first ten minutes they think that they’ve arrived at the friendliest city in the world because everyone says “please” and “thank you.” Later, they come to realize that actually, all these “pleases” and “thank yous” are … a way of keeping people at a distance.
Johnathan Raban on Open Source
We got an email this afternoon from Dan Gonsiorowski; Dan edits Seattlest, and in the studio after the Seattle show (which he helped us put together) he cornered Raban for an interview. It’s up on their site now.
Jonathan Raban’s Seattlest Interview.
Raban is actually one of my most favorite writers ever; he lives my fondest and laziest dream of getting paid to sail places and write about myself.
Jonathan Raban is — albeit dryly — hilarious. He’s a Northwestern regional treasure-by-transplantation, but deserves wider acclaim.
Thanks for giving him a national (and international) exposure.