"In 2017, 10 years after Susan Orlean profiled Caltech-trained physicist turned professional origami artist Robert Lang for the New Yorker, she attended the OrigamiUSA convention to take Lang's workshop on folding a Taiwan goldfish. I was with her, a radio producer trying to capture the sounds of paper creasing as Orlean attempted to keep pace with the Da Vinci of origami, wincing when her goldfish's fins didn't exactly flutter in hydrodynamic splendour."
"When we first met you said something to me I've never forgotten, Orlean told Lang. That paper has a memory that once you fold it, you can never entirely remove the fold. Was that, she wondered, an insight about life, too? Over the course of four decades, seven books and countless exquisite magazine features, Orlean has profiled celebrities and nobodies, followed cults and choirs, turned her eye to supermarkets and surfers."
Susan Orlean attended an OrigamiUSA workshop in 2017 to fold a Taiwan goldfish with origami master Robert Lang, accompanied by a radio producer capturing the sounds of paper. She reflected on the idea that paper keeps a memory of folds and considered whether that insight applied to life. Over four decades and seven books, Orlean has profiled a wide range of subjects—from celebrities to cults, choirs, supermarkets and surfers—favoring stories that are hidden in plain sight. Early newspaper work reinforced the belief that narrowly focused stories are meaningful and fueled a career driven by curiosity and obsession.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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