Ocean Vuong on the Addict Brain, Style Inhibitors and the Anxiety of the Poet | Fashion Neurosis

Ocean Vuong is a Vietnamese-American author, poet, and professor. Born in Vietnam, Ocean Vuong came to America aged two and was raised in Hartford, Connecticut, working in his mother’s nail salon from an early age. He received his BA in Nineteenth Century American Literature from Brooklyn College, and an MFA in Poetry from NYU, where he is now a Professor of Creative Writing. Vuong became an international literary sensation with his 2019 debut novel On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, which was based in part on his familial history. His second novel, The Emperor of Gladness, was published this year to further acclaim. Vuong is known for his distinctive elegiac prose and his heart and mind-expanding interrogation of the English language through his poems, essays, and novels. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the American Book Award, the Mark Twain Award, the T.S. Eliot Prize and the MacArthur “Genius” Grant.

In this episode of Fashion Neurosis, Bella Freud and Ocean Vuong discuss the obsession of style as a brand, how self adornment can be a medicine, and the dopamine effect of a good sentence.

Part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

00:00:00 Advertisement for Claude AI
00:00:38 Intro
00:00:55 What are you wearing today?
00:02:11 Jewellery
00:05:08 Ocean’s Stepfather
00:09:00 The difference of writing novels and poetry
00:17:14 Style in writing
00:20:44 Advertisement for Claude AI
00:22:09 Importance of beauty in childhood
00:26:39 Sentence structures
00:30:44 Conversations at the nail salon
00:35:04 How do you choose what you wear?
00:40:10 Addiction and sobriety
00:52:27 The Emperor of Gladness
01:04:01 Advertisement for Claude AI
01:05:19 Fast food
01:11:20 Style icon
01:14:18 If you fancy someone…
01:20:39 Writing only eight books
01:27:48 Outro
01:28:24 Advertisement for Claude AI