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    I Always Write in the Past: The Millions Interviews André Aciman

    by Rachel Krantz Mar 25, 2021 4 minutes

    In his new collection of essays, Homo Irrealis, André Aciman contends with the state of mind we spend most of our lives in: the irrealis mood. Aciman defines this mood as “a category of verbal moods that indicate that certain events have not happened, may never happen, or should or must or are indeed desired to happen, but for which there is no indication that they will ever happen”—that is, “the might-be and the might-have-been.” It is a mood sometimes called fantasizing, or nostalgia, but it is really more multifaceted, informing our experience of art, desire, and even our own mortality.

     spoke with Aciman about the collection and how it blends the autobiographical with artistic criticism—all while circling

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