XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
I can evade questions without help; what I need is answers.
///reading answers for Christina at the Zaibatsu///
>What is the first book you remember loving?
Probably 'A Wrinkle in Time' by Madeleine L'Engle, in the third
grade - at least that's the first one I remember. (The first thing
I remember, after all of the things I've forgotten, if you will.)
> Who are your favourite protagonists?
Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser certainly rank high on the list.
Steward from 'Voice of the Whirlwind' as well, and Molly from
Gibson's 'Neuromancer' (at my last re-reading I was struck by how
tolerant and caring she is toward Case despite all of her hard
edges). Shevek from 'The Dispossessed' and Estraven from 'The Left
Hand of Darkness' surely as well.
> What, so far, is the best book you've read this year?
Certainly 'The Handmaid's Tale', which lives up to its rather
harrowing reputation - a disturbing story done very well and
probably something more people should read. I had already seen
the first season of the TV series adaptation before I read it and
even knowing some of the twists and backstory in advance did
nothing to soften its punches. Gentle like a Diane Arbus photo.
I am reading Bruce Sterling's 'Schismatrix' now and really enjoying
it as well. I'm going to have to go back and pick up some of his
other works.
> Can you list three to five of your favourite authors? Why are they
your favourite?
Ernest Hemingway - for the sheer intensity of his love of his craft
and his willingness to use every little bit of his life to inform
his writing. I really discovered him shortly after I graduated
from college, copies of his works bought used because I was broke
and needed something to help maintain my sanity, and fell pretty
much instantly in love. His absolute faith in his ability to
leave so much detail out and still have the reader intuit and
know it anyway and the truths behind it all was and is
enthralling - trusting in the reader to bring their own truth to
the story. That is what all of the greatest artists are able to
do.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - because he made sure that so many of the
horrific stories of the Soviet GULAG made it out into the wider
light of day, continued to stand up to the authorities and write
/after/ he was released from the camps, and wrote it all so well
and with so much optimism for humanity learning from it and doing
better. I find myself quoting him far too often in online
discussions - this does not say good things about how we're doing
on learning from the past.
William Gibson - his world-building is amazing and he does such a
fantastic job of letting you discover them through peeks and
hints without spelling it all out in exposition. In worlds with
so much technical jargon and so many secretive subcultures an
author often spends a lot of time describing and explaining
things, not Gibson. He gives you just enough to figure things
out yourself from context and character dialog while continuing
to move the story along - often with multiple plotlines involving
different groups of 'main' characters.
Ursula K. LeGuin - for the creation of The Handdarata and all of
the explanations of the religions in 'The Left Hand of Darkness'
alone LeGuin would be one of my favorite authors. Her ability to
ask questions about human society that make you consider our
nature while telling compelling stories is unparalleled in my
experience.
Philip K. Dick - if you want an author to conjure up some truly
strange worlds and question the very nature of reality and human
experience, well Phil is your guy. Some of his stories have
their plot holes and faults, written at a breakneck pace on
amphetamines to make a living selling to pulp publishers.
Aliens, time travel, vast government conspiracies, people owning
outrageously expensive pets in a post-apocalyptic world to prove
their empathy, strange religions, alternate realities galore -
all of that and plenty of quirks and strangeness as well. Dick
wrote in the SF genre because it was the only one at the time
that could handle all of the weird ideas he had crashing around
inside his head.
From "How to Build a Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days
Later"[0]:
"It was always my hope, in writing novels and stories which asked
the question 'What is reality?', to someday get an answer."
Philip K. Dick - Agent of Chaos
Thomas Disch's 'The Dreams Our Stuff is Made Of' talks a bit
about Dick and the importance of his writing to SF at several
points and is a great read. (And if you haven't read 'Camp
Concentration' by Disch you're missing out - go get a copy and
sit down, seriously.)
> What is your favourite film adaptation of a book?
'No Country For Old Men' did a very good job of adapting the
book and capturing the atmosphere, the characters, and the
dialog that make it such a great book. The rotoscoped film of 'A
Scanner Darkly' did a good job of capturing the tone and madness,
of the novel and was very faithful to the original.
> What books have you read the most times?
'The Dispossessed' and 'The Left Hand of Darkness' by Ursula K.
LeGuin - I tend to re-read one of these two when life is
particularly difficult and I need a break from stress. I
re-read 'The Dispossessed' this year, for example.
William Gibson's 'Neuromancer' - it just holds up so well to
re-reading because there are so many layers to it. 'Count Zero'
and 'Mona Lisa Overdrive' as well, for the same reason.
Fritz Leiber's entire Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series - when I
really just need to get away from the real world for a bit
these always do the trick, equal parts humorous and gritty.
Their world of Nehwon and the city of Lankhmar hold all sorts
of strangeness and the pair get into plenty of trouble both
mundane and supernatural. They are just a whole lot of fun.
'Voice of the Whirlwind' and 'Hardwired' - Walter Jon Williams -
his ability to create a gritty, amoral, future world full of
plots and changes going on in the background.
> What authors do you think more people should read?
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - and not just because people need the
cautionary tales, either
Philip K. Dick - because he opened up so many possibilities and
pushed the medium pretty far in crazy directions that a lot of
other writers have benefitted from
Ernest Hemingway - because the world should listen more to what he
had to say about war.
[0]: http://yin.arts.uci.edu/%7Estudio/readings/dick/index.html
NO CARRIER