america generally and princeton is sort of an exemplary community spent woodrow wilson has a cameo in your book speak with woodrow wilson is a principal character in. the novel is about woodrow wilson. is confronted by a demon. he's tempted. i shouldn't say what happens but he becomes quite noble in the novel but he doesn't rub that many of the shortcomings of people at the time such as he was a racist. he was a sexist and probably his most principled was he thought he was anointed by god,. >> to what? >> be a leader. he was annoyed by god. i don't think it's not uncommon for people to feel, politician and statesman. spin without giving away, can you tell us about the cursed?

>> it really means the white upper class christian people who looked literally looked the other way when the ku klux klan was in new jersey and elsewhere. when black people were being lynched and harassed and tortured and murdered and the white leaders like woodrow wilson and many others just would not say anything about it. they wouldn't come out courageously to criticize it. they wouldn't do anything but it was basically community, see no evil, hear no evil and say no evil. so i thought there was a curse on the white race basically. >> and upton sinclair is in your book. >> upton sinclair was 26. he represents our younger generation. an interest in a quality among the races and sexes. that was also about women's race

and women acquiring the vote. >> and jack london and grover cleveland. >> jack london is a friend of upton sinclair. they are both sources. >> where did future i just? >> my idea came because i came to live in princeton and i read some biographies of woodrow wilson. i perceived in the biography a portrait of a person much different from the sort of received notions of woodrow wilson, this novel person to isolated many flaws and i saw his self-righteousness, his condescension towards negroes, he called black people negroes, and towards women. i thought really needed to be examined. >> joyce carol oates, do you have any ideas how many books you have sold? >> i have no idea. >> been him an award you have one? >> i don't sit around counting them. no, i don't.

>> what is your writing process? >> i tried to write very early in the morning and i basically love to write. to meet it's very exciting. it's literally exciting to write. i feel that i'm organizing thoughts that may be implemented and chaotic, and funneling them to i like to create dramatic scenes. that novel has a lot of history but basically each chapter is a dramatic scene in often it's conversations between people. at the end of the chapter there's anything and then something else at the beginning. when the novel ends it really ends. there's a resolution and the ministry is explained in the last pages. >> has your writing changed in the last 40 years of? >> my writing has changed a lot. when i first began i had long paragraphs of narrative exposition, sort of describing things. now i have much more people

talking, much more dialogue and they have monologues, people talking. i try to evoke the voices of people rather than my own voice. spent the write longhand? computer? >> i start with longhand. i like to write and i go to the computer and organize. computer is perfect for organizing and moving chapters and paragraphs around, positioning and repositioning. that's perfect. >> do you save your drafts? >> i save many of my dress, yes, i did get my archives are mammoth, like the grand canyon. they are filled with all this paper. >> why are your archives at syracuse when you teach at princeton? >> this is where i graduated. >> how long have you been at princeton? >> since 1978. >> are you teaching this semester? >> i'm teaching at this very

minute. i'll be teaching and a couple of days, yes. >> what are you teaching? >> i'm teaching to writing workshops and type two students i advise. >> do you pick those students? >> to some extent i pick them. basically they apply to the program, and then i choose my thesis students. >> on the first day of class, what do you assign? >> oh, the first day of class we made it over in great detail a short story, a classic story. we may go over a hemingway story. line by line, almost word by word, the story may be two pages long and they go over it carefully because i want to see -- i went in to see how it's written. the very best isn't poetry. so the other day, which is like a couple weeks ago we did a rate carver story and we spent about an hour on the story. so that's the first class.

>> do you enjoy teaching? >> very much. the students are very interesting and the writing is often engaging and original. and i love going over hemingway, let's say, or faulkner. i love going over really good prose when we are appreciating it. as i said it's something like poetry. with a number of sensitive young people to go through this and see how well it's written, it's really a pleasure. >> is writing hard-working? >> writing can sometimes be hard work, or it can sometimes be fluent. you know, it's like mozart creating music. and other composers revise a little more. one, maybe it's almost too easy if it comes in your head and you don't have to revise. i like to have a first draft and then i revise the. that's the happy situation.

>> if someone were to pick up one of your books and say, which one of your books should i read? that depends completely on who you are. i have mammoth, long novels, blogs about marilyn monroe that must be 800 pages long. and "the accursed" is about 800 pages, or 6-under. if you like short work, i have a novel called a love story and that's pretty short spent joyce carol oates come here is her most recent book, "the accursed." this is booktv on c-span2. visit booktv.org to watch any of the programs you see here online. type the author or book title in the search bar on the upper left side of the page and click search. you can also share anything you see on booktv.org easily by clicking share on the upper left side of the page and selecting the format. booktv streams live online for 40 hours every weekend with the

top nonfiction books and authors. booktv.org. >> november 22nd, 2013 is the 50th anniversary of the assassination of president john f. kennedy and there are several books that have been published to mark the event. were this months booktv bookclub we want to know what kennedy book you are reading. throughout the month join other readers to discuss the kennedy books published this year. simply go to booktv.org and click on bookclub to enter the chapter. once there you can check out some of the bookclub resources including book reviews and videos from the booktv archives. you can log in as a guest or for your facebook or twitter account to post your thoughts on the kennedy books you are reading. then joined booktv on saturday, november 30, at 11 a.m. eastern for a live google+ chat to discuss books on the 35th president. contact booktv via facebook or twitter to sign up for the live chat.

>> author and astrophysicist neil degrasse tyson on america's call for scientists and engineers. >> as nasa's future goes, so, too, is that of america. and if nasa is healthy, then you don't need a program to convince people that science and engineering is good to do. because they will see it writ large on the paper. there will be calls for engineers to help us go ice fishing on europa where there's an ocean of water that's been liquid for billions of years. we going to dig through the source of mars and look for life. that will give me the best biologist. look at the nasa portfolio today. it's got biology, chemistry, physics, geology, planetary geology, aerospace engineers, mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, all the s.t.e.m. fields, science, technology, engineering and math represented in the nasa portfolio. a healthy nasa hopes that. a healthy nasa is a flywheel

that society casts for innovation. >> over the past 15 years booktv has aired over 40,000 programs about nonfiction books and authors. tv every weekend on c-span2. .. >> congress is out today this recognition of the