I have been a fan of Neal Stephenson going back to his great cyberpunk novel Snowcrash. While I confess I'm one of those who never made it all the way through his entire Baroque Cycle I couldn't fail but be impressed by his ambition and reach in those and others of his books.
So when I was sent a publicity copy of his new novel, Reamde,
you can guess I immediately begged for an interview. Unfortunately,
this time I was not as lucky as I have been in the past... part of the
problem being that there were 50 online publications, besides me, also
asking for an inteview.
The closest I could get to an interview
this time around was the interview below provided by the publisher to
these 50 publications. I repeat, this interview was not done by me but
rather was provided for me.
If you like Stephenson, either for his cyberpunk books or for the more historical fiction style of the Baroque Circle,
you will love this new book – there is something in this book for those
who like both of those styles as practiced by Stephenson.
The
book's size – nearly 1,100 pages – can be intimidating but it's a fun
read once you get into it and, besides, it's good exercise for your arm
muscles.
REAMDE is the name of a computer virus, the name a typo
of the common file name Readme. The book has a bit of everything, part
thriller with violence in places ranging from China to the United
States, to high tech/cyberpunk as Stephenson has created an addictive
online game called T'Rain that is central to some of the story's plots.
Richard
Forthrast, a smuggler turned game developer, gets pulled into a
struggle involving international violence and it's fascinating to see
how the actions in the game impact “real life” and vice versa.
What
could be, especially at this book's length, a sprawling rambling affair
is actually a pretty tightly written book. It's a great story and he
fleshes out some fascinating characters.
Check out this book – it may take longer to read than some due to its length but I think you will thank me later.
And now here is that interview provided to me to share with you guys.
Q: Reamde
is an adrenaline-fueled, non-stop action adventure thriller with a
large international cast of compelling characters. How did you come with
the idea?
NEAL STEPHENSON: It's been banging around in
my head for years. We've all grown accustomed to stories about computer
viruses that come out of nowhere and sweep across the world in days. I
thought it would make a good plot hook to imagine a situation in which a
powerful and vengeful person was seriously inconvenienced by such a
virus, and decided to track down the hacker who created it and get even.
Q:
Central to the storyline is Richard Forthrast’s massively multiplayer
online role-playing game, T’Rain. Are you a serious gamer? Any plans (or
dreams) to make T’Rain a reality?
NEAL STEPHENSON: I
definitely spend more time than is good for me playing games, to the
point where I put together a system for playing XBox while using an
elliptical trainer. But my few encounters with actual twelve-year-old
boys in the online universe have made it clear that I cannot aspire to
the title of "serious gamer."
Making T'Rain a reality
would be a massive tech development project that would probably extend
over several years and require hundreds of millions of dollars in
capital. If someone wants to pony up the dough, I'd be happy to get
involved!
Q: One of the interesting backstories in
the book is how T’Rain was developed and the unique talents behind
it—especially the writers who devised its Bible. What connections do you
see between an MMORPG like T’Rain and literature—storytelling? Would
you consider that kind of game to be a kind of participatory literature?
NEAL
STEPHENSON: The two writers are a kind of self-parody; I've taken two
literary tendencies that are always competing for control of my
keyboard, and made them flesh.
All role-playing games are a
kind of improvisatory literature. It's easy to make fun of RPG dorks.
But those games wouldn't be interesting unless the people playing them
were coming up with interesting characters and spinning tales with
legitimate narrative qualities--some of which are at least as good as
what gets published as officially sanctioned literature.
Q:
Talk about your characters. While Richard is the central figure, his
niece, the super-smart, super-cool Zula, is a great kickass heroine.
You’ve also got a frighteningly intelligent and supremely capable
villain in Jones. What inspired their creation?
NEAL
STEPHENSON: It's difficult to tease specific answers out of the morass
of ideas and impulses that is my brain. In general, though, I would say
this about thrillers. The characters in thrillers find themselves in
crazy, dangerous situations that fortunately don't happen to the vast
majority of real humans. As a writer, you have two basic approaches as
far as coming up with characters is concerned. You can make your
characters into James Bond/Jason Bourne types who live in the thriller
universe all the time, or you can come up with more realistic everyday
characters---people you might expect to meet in the pages of a more
sedate, literary novel, say---and then plunge them into the thriller
universe, whereupon it becomes more of a fish-out-of-water proposition.
I've taken the latter approach just because I think it gives me more
options as a writer.
Q: Reamde is a massive
tale with a number of moving parts. How did you keep track of the
divergent characters and parallel storylines as you were writing?
NEAL STEPHENSON: With a spreadsheet. Sorry.
Q: Your previous novels have been set in the future and in the past. Reamde is a story that is very much of this time and place. How does this novel connect to your previous books?
NEAL STEPHENSON: While it's true that I've done a lot of future and past writing, the fact is that The Big U, Zodiac, half of Cryptonomicon, and all of Interface and The Cobweb (the thrillers I co-wrote with my uncle) are set in basically the present day, and even Anathem
takes place largely in a setting that is very close to contemporary
society. So, it doesn't feel like much of a departure for me. While it's
enjoyable to make up imaginary future societies or bring old ones back
to life, there's also a lot to be said for working within the
present-day world and being able to fold commonplace observations into
the story.
Q: Your work has been called cyperbunk,
post-cyberpunk, speculative, historical fiction, even baroque, and you
have proudly called yourself a science fiction writer. How have you and
your ideas—and your writing matured—since Zodiac and Snow Crash? How are those changes reflected in Reamde?
NEAL
STEPHENSON: I'd say that when I was younger I felt insecure about my
ability to supply the old-fashioned literary qualities of plot and
character and so made up for it with "special effects." But working on
the Baroque Cycle renewed my interest in plot for plot's sake, and the virtues of just telling a good yarn, and so you could think of Reamde
as me just writing a book that is all about plot. This doesn't mean
that every book I ever write henceforth is going to be the same way, but
I did want to have a go at it.
Q: Your novels
explore a number of specialized subjects—mathematics, currency, science,
technology. Are you surprised at the success you’ve achieved? What
might the future hold for expansive novelists like yourself in an age of
shrinking attention spans, an age that is becoming increasingly defined
in 140 letters (or less)?
NEAL STEPHENSON: When faced
with that kind of competition, you can go one of two ways. You can try
to become like the competition by making things briefer and more
tweet-like. Or you can play to the real strength of the novel as an art
form, which is its ability to handle material of great scope. I would
argue that the success of long-form television series such as Battlestar Galactica and Game of Thrones
is a reaction against all the forms of media that play on short
attention spans. The audience enjoys immersion in worlds of enormous
scope. The only media that can provide that experience are novels,
television series, and increasingly games.
Q:
Throughout the post-World War II period, science fiction was predictive
of where society and technology were headed. Today, science and reason
are being undermined by a number of cultural forces. Where is science
fiction/speculative fiction headed as our optimism and faith in science
declines?
NEAL STEPHENSON: If I have anything to say
about it, we'll soon be seeing more SF that recalls the Golden Age
techno-optimism of the 1950s. Not in a naive or campy way, but in a way
that gives young scientists and engineers something that they can
realistically aspire to during their careers. We are still flying around
on airplanes and getting energy from reactors that were designed during
the 1960s, and in many cases, such as Fukushima, we're paying a price
for our lack of technological imagination. This decline in innovation
has coincided with a growing hostility toward science and technology on
both the left and the right, and with a turn toward a sort of hackerish
cool hip gloominess in the SF world. We have to snap out of it.
Tuesday, August 15, 2017
Monday, August 14, 2017
Review: Stephen Colbert's Book Will Help You Get Through the Writer's Strike
(From 2007)
Note: Stephen Colbert's show, The Colbert Report, started out as a satire of Bill O'Reilly and Bill O'Reilly's show but it has become, over time, much more than that. It's important to remember that this is satire because sometimes I encounter people who are unaware of that and want to take Colbert to task for saying, for example, the following. And I have to explain the joke. And nothing is less funny than having to explain why a joke is funny.
Excerpt:
If you, like me, are going through withdrawals from there being no new episodes of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report than I have a suggested remedy. While not as fun, entertaining or thoughtful as the Daily Show's book America, Stephen Colbert's first book, I Am America (And So Can You) will serve as a good substitute for his show.
If you have not read America I'd first suggest you check that one out. If you have already read that, though, pick up Colbert's book.
Some parts are laugh out loud funny, which was problematic as I began reading this while on an airplane. Other parts, though, are too obvious, silly, derivative of the other book, etc.
The best part of the book is a reprint of the famous speech he gave at the White House Correspondents Dinner which caused great controversy as he tossed out such first-rate gems as this while President Bush – Colberts hero – sat nearby:
However, then the book goes downhill fast and becomes mostly predictable drivel, the kind of stuff where, if you watch his show, you know what he's going to say. For example, you can guess that when he has a chapter about the traditional family he'll find a way to work in references to the Manson Family and Sly and the Family Stone as non-traditional families.
There are exceptions. I loved this:
"These are not valid reasons for divorce:
-Didn't realize you had to be monogamous.
-Time period covered by pre-nup expired.
-Your married name is something like Anita Hardcock.
-Girl you had a crush on in high school just got divorced.
One of the final chapters, on science, is also pretty funny. But if you're looking for maximum yucks then read the first 10 pages and the last 10 pages (that's where his speech is at).
If you are looking for some witty, sharp humor you can certainly do worse than reading this book. Speaking of which…
Last month, as I drove to and from Philadelphia for the Newsvine Vinemeet, I listened to an audiobook by Dave Barry - History of the Millenium (So Far) - it was a collection of his year end columns which I had remembered as being quite amusing. I'm not sure if he became less funny or if my sense of humor changed but I laughed maybe once every four hours (the tape was about 8 hours though it seemed like 15)
The best thing about Dave Barry is that he's stopped writing his weakly column, instead just writing the end of the year review and this gift guide. So at least he knew to retire when he was becoming less funny.
It was probably a combination of both factors – my sense of humor changing and he became more predictable - but the important thing was that it was quite disappointing. If you want to relive and be reminded of all of the jokes and problems in Florida with its elections, and the nation's weird obsessions with, say, the Runaway Bride, then check out Barry's book.
If you want to read something more sharp and modern than check out Colbert's book or the Daily Show book.
Note: Stephen Colbert's show, The Colbert Report, started out as a satire of Bill O'Reilly and Bill O'Reilly's show but it has become, over time, much more than that. It's important to remember that this is satire because sometimes I encounter people who are unaware of that and want to take Colbert to task for saying, for example, the following. And I have to explain the joke. And nothing is less funny than having to explain why a joke is funny.
Excerpt:
It's not seniors' fault that they're such whiners. There's someone else to blame: Franklin D. Roosevelt, who gave our country Social Security, a system which rewards seniors for doing nothing.That is all written in text so small that he says he's sure seniors can't read it. And then in big text it says, "Our elders are a precious resource."
Sorry, but retirement offends me. You don't just stop fighting in the middle of a war because your legs hurt. So why do you get to stop working in the middle of your life just because your prostate hurts? That's desertion, which in my book gets you the early bird special at the firing squad buffet.
If you, like me, are going through withdrawals from there being no new episodes of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report than I have a suggested remedy. While not as fun, entertaining or thoughtful as the Daily Show's book America, Stephen Colbert's first book, I Am America (And So Can You) will serve as a good substitute for his show.
If you have not read America I'd first suggest you check that one out. If you have already read that, though, pick up Colbert's book.
Some parts are laugh out loud funny, which was problematic as I began reading this while on an airplane. Other parts, though, are too obvious, silly, derivative of the other book, etc.
The best part of the book is a reprint of the famous speech he gave at the White House Correspondents Dinner which caused great controversy as he tossed out such first-rate gems as this while President Bush – Colberts hero – sat nearby:
The greatest thing about this man is he's steady. You know where he stands. He believes the same thing Wednesday that he believed on Monday, no matter what happened Tuesday. Events can change; this man's beliefs never will.But my favorite insult was this one:
As excited as I am to be here with the president, I am appaled to be surrounded by the liberal media that is destroying America, with the exception of Fox News. Fox News gives you both sides of every story: the president's side and the vice president's side.
But the rest of you, what are you thinking, reporting on NSA wiretapping or secret prisons in Eastern Europe? Those things are secret for a very important reason:
they're super-depressing. And if that's your goal, well, misery accomplished"
So don't pay attention to the approval ratings that say 68 percent of Americans disapprove of the job this man is doing. I ask you this, 'does that not also logically mean that 68 percent approve of the job he's not doing? Think about it. I haven't.Colbert begins by explaining why he did this book:
I stand by this man. I stand by this man because he stands for thngs. Not only for things, he stands on things. Things like aircraft carriers and rubble and recently flooded city squares. And that sends a strong message: that no matter what happens to America, she will always rebound – with the most powerfully staged photo ops in the world.
"I said on the very first episode of the Colbert Report that, together, I was going to change the world, and I've kept my end of the bargain. But it's not changing fast enough. Last time I checked my supermarket still sold yogurt. From France! See a pattern? Turns out, it takes more than 30 minutes a night to fix everything that's destroying America, and that's where this book comes in. It's not just some collection of reasoned arguments supported by facts. That's the coward's way out.The book's first 10 pages, which also include an "accepted minimum standard of respect" (no highlighting, no doodling, if you need to mark a page use a second copy of the book to do so), is clever and has several laugh-out-loud moments.
This book is Truth. My Truth.
I deliver my truth hot and hard. Fast and Furious. So either accept it without hesitation or get out of the way, because somebody might get hurt and it's not going to be me." He goes on to explain that the American Heroes are those who buy the book: "That bears repeating. People who borrow this book are not heroes. They are no better then welfare queens mooching off the system like card-carrying library card-carriesr. For the record, we're not offering this book to libraries. No free rides. Okay, now it's my turn to ask a question: What do I want from you? Good question.
Just because I haven't put a lot of thought into this book doesn't mean you shouldn't. I want you to read this book carefully. Savor my ideas. Memorize pertinent passages. Eat with it, sleep with it, let nature take its course.
Because what I have dictated is nothing less than a Constitution for the Colbert Nation. And, like our Founding Fathers, I hold my Truths to be self-evidence, which is why I did absolutely no research.
I didn't need to. The only research I needed was a long hard look in the mirror. For this book is My Story and, as such, it is the American Story….. Bottom line: Read this book. Be Me."
However, then the book goes downhill fast and becomes mostly predictable drivel, the kind of stuff where, if you watch his show, you know what he's going to say. For example, you can guess that when he has a chapter about the traditional family he'll find a way to work in references to the Manson Family and Sly and the Family Stone as non-traditional families.
There are exceptions. I loved this:
"These are not valid reasons for divorce:
-Didn't realize you had to be monogamous.
-Time period covered by pre-nup expired.
-Your married name is something like Anita Hardcock.
-Girl you had a crush on in high school just got divorced.
One of the final chapters, on science, is also pretty funny. But if you're looking for maximum yucks then read the first 10 pages and the last 10 pages (that's where his speech is at).
If you are looking for some witty, sharp humor you can certainly do worse than reading this book. Speaking of which…
Last month, as I drove to and from Philadelphia for the Newsvine Vinemeet, I listened to an audiobook by Dave Barry - History of the Millenium (So Far) - it was a collection of his year end columns which I had remembered as being quite amusing. I'm not sure if he became less funny or if my sense of humor changed but I laughed maybe once every four hours (the tape was about 8 hours though it seemed like 15)
The best thing about Dave Barry is that he's stopped writing his weakly column, instead just writing the end of the year review and this gift guide. So at least he knew to retire when he was becoming less funny.
It was probably a combination of both factors – my sense of humor changing and he became more predictable - but the important thing was that it was quite disappointing. If you want to relive and be reminded of all of the jokes and problems in Florida with its elections, and the nation's weird obsessions with, say, the Runaway Bride, then check out Barry's book.
If you want to read something more sharp and modern than check out Colbert's book or the Daily Show book.
Sunday, August 13, 2017
Interview With Mystery Writer James Lee Burke - Jesus Out To Sea
Interview with House of The Rising Sun
James Lee Burke is one of my favorite mystery writers. I've long been a fan of his books, especially his Dave Robicheaux series.
You know relations are going great with a publisher's publicist when she sends you, unsolicted, two books by an author you greatly admire, Mr. Burke, without you even requesting it. I thanked her and asked if I can interview him and she said sure.
So this here is the result, two books, one interview, with a theme running through the books of Katrina and Rita.
He has twice received the Edgar Award for Best Novel, for Black Cherry Blues in 1990 and Cimarron Rose in 1998.
He has two new books coming out.
First out, this week in fact, is Jesus Out To Series, a collection of short stories. We talk more about that in the interview.
The Tin Roof Blowdown: A Dave Robicheaux Novel will be published on July 17. It is the 16th in the series. If you have not read the series you need to read at least one of them.
There is something very, well, Southern about the books, and not just that they take place near New Orleans. The pacing seems more slow, but in a good way, and Burke tackles the racial issues that still are a major part of life down there, maybe more on the surface where up here in the North it's, I think, dealt with less directly, which can be a blessing or a curse depending on your perspective.
In The Tin Roof Blowdown Detective Robicheaux and his department are ordered to investigate the shooting of two looters in a rich neighborhood. The looters had ransacked New Orlean's most powerful mobster.
Robicheaux, has been portrayed in major motion pictures by Alec Baldwin, Heaven's Prisoners, 1996, and Tommy Lee Jones, In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead , 2007.
Before becoming a best-selling novelist he worked as a reporter, a social worker, among other jobs.
I do these interviews, when possible, in two parts. For the first part I ask general biographical-type questions about the author, his style, his opinions on writing, etc. Then I finish the book(s) and ask a second set of questions as well as including follow-up questions to anything that needed, well, following up on from the first part.
Here then is the first part.
Scott: How would you describe to your readers your two upcoming books, Jesus Out To Sea and Tin Roof Blowdown?
James: Jesus Out to Sea is a collection of stories based in one fashion or another on my experience growing up and spending a large part of my life on the southern rim of the United States. I feel blessed in the knowledge that I probably belong to the last generation that will remember what we call "traditional America."
Scott: I noticed that, at least based on the publicity materials for the two books, both deal in some way with Louisiana life during and after Katrina. Is that coincidence? Or are there issues you are trying to raise?
James: Two of the stories (the title story included) in the story collection deal with Katrina or its aftermath. The Tin Roof Blowdown also deals with both Rita and Katrina and their consequences.
Scott: Do you have any thoughts on how the government and media responded to Katrina?
James: In regard to the question about governmental response to Katrina, I think the facts probably speak for themselves. New Orleans was destroyed. The destruction of the city actually began in the first administration of Ronald Reagan and the shot behind the ear was delivered in '05. Others can come to their own conclusions. The United States Coast Guard performed heroically. I think Mr. Bush's attitudes and behavior belong in a category that has no name.
Scott: I understand your short story, "Jesus Out To Sea," received enormous response after it was published in Esquire. What was that like?
James: The short story "Jesus Out to Sea" appeared in Esquire and was received with such enthusiasm by the readership that the editors have decided to return to the regular publication of fiction in their magazine. This obviously makes one feel very proud. But I also need to add that the editors at Esquire have been a fine group to work with and they do a fine job with both editing and formatting a story.
Scott: What do you think is the appeal of mystery stories?
James: I think all good narration contains an element of mystery and suspense. If it didn't, if the storyline were predictable, we would have no interest in reading it. I think the "crime novel" has replaced the sociological novel of the 1930s. I think the progenitor of that tradition is James M. Cain, who in my view is the most neglected writer in American literature.
Scott: What's the best part and worst part about being a best-selling writer?
James: The actor Ben Johnson once said, "What's the worst thing about getting old? Getting old." The best thing about being a best-selling writer is being a best-selling writer. More seriously, today I can write full time and pay the bills. But I learned long ago that success, like fashion, is a fickle companion and can leave one in the wink of an eye.
The second part of this interview will be published in the next few weeks after I finish the two new books.
Thanks again to Mr. Burke for his help and kindness.
I interviewed him about his two new books. Jesus Out to Sea, a collection of his short stories, came out in early June.
The Tin Roof Blowdown: A Dave Robicheaux Novel will be published on July 17. It is the 16th in the series. If you have not read the series you need to read at least one of them.
Here is the second half of that interview.
Scott: Do you think your past work as a social worker affected your writing style and writing product?
James: As a social worker on skid row in Los Angeles and on the south and east sides of the city, I learned a bit of what Michael Harrington called "the other America" is like. We lived on the Southside and saw first hand how the poor were exploited by slumlords and underhanded merchants. What was most striking was the obvious disrespect with which they were treated. I've put many experiences from that period of my life into my fiction.
Scott: You write so convincingly about alcoholism that a professor asked that I ask you about it. (If you choose not to answer I'll just delete this question.) But you write about it so well that I have to wonder if you've had your own struggle with alcoholism.
James: On the subject of alcoholism, tell the professor to go to an open meeting sometime and check it out.
In the stories narrated by Dave Robicheaux, we learn something about the nature of alcoholism and its deleterious influences. I think the portrayal is an accurate one. Many people have written me and have said the books have helped them in their recovery. That to me is one of the greatest rewards I have received as a writer.
Scott: There are still a huge percentage of people I encounter up where I live in Maryland whose reaction to the people in Louisiana is, "Well, stop your whining and just move." As someone speaking - through your books - for some of those people, what is your reaction to that way of thinking?
James: When I hear people indicate a lack of sympathy for the storm victims in Louisiana, and I have heard many such comments, I have little doubt about whom they voted for in the last two national elections. What occurred in New Orleans is national disgrace.
Regarding the attitude of people who are unsympathetic toward the victims of Katrina or Rita, I believe these folks are a small minority in comparison to the huge numbers of volunteers who went to New Orleans and other Louisiana cities in the aftermath of the storm. Also, enormous amounts of money have been given by goodhearted people all over the country. Americans are still, in my view, the most charitable people on the planet.
Scott: In the short story, "Jesus Out To Sea," you write what seems the closest to a criticism of the president that I've seen in your fiction and wonder if you would elaborate on whether it matches your own thinking
Scott: What do you aspire to that you have not yet accomplished?
James: In regard to the future, I hope to write short stories and essays and novels until I catch the bus. I would like to write more about the Holland family and their place in Texas history. I also know some pretty good stories set in the 1950s, and I'd like to have a shot at adapting the short story "The Night Johnny Ace Died" for the screen. The life of a writer can be a great life. Every day is different; every kind of story is still waiting to be written. It's a great drama to be a part of. I hope to be a player in it for a few more innings.
Scott: You mention more than once in these two books how many votes David Duke got in an election. To what do you account his popularity? Is it possible that it's peaked, because up here in MD I've not heard his name in a few years.
James: Regarding the mention of an ex-Klansman in a couple of my books, he is less important than the social aberration he represents. The worst in us comes out when we're afraid. The demagogue, the dictator, the despot, the leader of a lynch mob all have one goal only and that is to seize power by inculcating fear in as many people as they can. Men like these help us convince ourselves that someone else is responsible for our problems. We scapegoat our brothers and commit atrocious deeds under flags and religious icons of every kind, but ultimately we murder every virtue we possess. Men like the fellow you mention pass quickly into history, but they leave behind a dirty fingerprint on the soul.
Thanks for having me on your blog.
Keep the faith, noble mon,
Thanks again to Mr. Burke. This interview, especially his final remark is a honor.
James Lee Burke is one of my favorite mystery writers. I've long been a fan of his books, especially his Dave Robicheaux series.
You know relations are going great with a publisher's publicist when she sends you, unsolicted, two books by an author you greatly admire, Mr. Burke, without you even requesting it. I thanked her and asked if I can interview him and she said sure.
So this here is the result, two books, one interview, with a theme running through the books of Katrina and Rita.
He has twice received the Edgar Award for Best Novel, for Black Cherry Blues in 1990 and Cimarron Rose in 1998.
He has two new books coming out.
First out, this week in fact, is Jesus Out To Series, a collection of short stories. We talk more about that in the interview.
The Tin Roof Blowdown: A Dave Robicheaux Novel will be published on July 17. It is the 16th in the series. If you have not read the series you need to read at least one of them.
There is something very, well, Southern about the books, and not just that they take place near New Orleans. The pacing seems more slow, but in a good way, and Burke tackles the racial issues that still are a major part of life down there, maybe more on the surface where up here in the North it's, I think, dealt with less directly, which can be a blessing or a curse depending on your perspective.
In The Tin Roof Blowdown Detective Robicheaux and his department are ordered to investigate the shooting of two looters in a rich neighborhood. The looters had ransacked New Orlean's most powerful mobster.
Robicheaux, has been portrayed in major motion pictures by Alec Baldwin, Heaven's Prisoners, 1996, and Tommy Lee Jones, In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead , 2007.
Before becoming a best-selling novelist he worked as a reporter, a social worker, among other jobs.
I do these interviews, when possible, in two parts. For the first part I ask general biographical-type questions about the author, his style, his opinions on writing, etc. Then I finish the book(s) and ask a second set of questions as well as including follow-up questions to anything that needed, well, following up on from the first part.
Here then is the first part.
Scott: How would you describe to your readers your two upcoming books, Jesus Out To Sea and Tin Roof Blowdown?
James: Jesus Out to Sea is a collection of stories based in one fashion or another on my experience growing up and spending a large part of my life on the southern rim of the United States. I feel blessed in the knowledge that I probably belong to the last generation that will remember what we call "traditional America."
Scott: I noticed that, at least based on the publicity materials for the two books, both deal in some way with Louisiana life during and after Katrina. Is that coincidence? Or are there issues you are trying to raise?
James: Two of the stories (the title story included) in the story collection deal with Katrina or its aftermath. The Tin Roof Blowdown also deals with both Rita and Katrina and their consequences.
Scott: Do you have any thoughts on how the government and media responded to Katrina?
James: In regard to the question about governmental response to Katrina, I think the facts probably speak for themselves. New Orleans was destroyed. The destruction of the city actually began in the first administration of Ronald Reagan and the shot behind the ear was delivered in '05. Others can come to their own conclusions. The United States Coast Guard performed heroically. I think Mr. Bush's attitudes and behavior belong in a category that has no name.
Scott: I understand your short story, "Jesus Out To Sea," received enormous response after it was published in Esquire. What was that like?
James: The short story "Jesus Out to Sea" appeared in Esquire and was received with such enthusiasm by the readership that the editors have decided to return to the regular publication of fiction in their magazine. This obviously makes one feel very proud. But I also need to add that the editors at Esquire have been a fine group to work with and they do a fine job with both editing and formatting a story.
Scott: What do you think is the appeal of mystery stories?
James: I think all good narration contains an element of mystery and suspense. If it didn't, if the storyline were predictable, we would have no interest in reading it. I think the "crime novel" has replaced the sociological novel of the 1930s. I think the progenitor of that tradition is James M. Cain, who in my view is the most neglected writer in American literature.
Scott: What's the best part and worst part about being a best-selling writer?
James: The actor Ben Johnson once said, "What's the worst thing about getting old? Getting old." The best thing about being a best-selling writer is being a best-selling writer. More seriously, today I can write full time and pay the bills. But I learned long ago that success, like fashion, is a fickle companion and can leave one in the wink of an eye.
The second part of this interview will be published in the next few weeks after I finish the two new books.
Thanks again to Mr. Burke for his help and kindness.
I interviewed him about his two new books. Jesus Out to Sea, a collection of his short stories, came out in early June.
The Tin Roof Blowdown: A Dave Robicheaux Novel will be published on July 17. It is the 16th in the series. If you have not read the series you need to read at least one of them.
Here is the second half of that interview.
Scott: Do you think your past work as a social worker affected your writing style and writing product?
James: As a social worker on skid row in Los Angeles and on the south and east sides of the city, I learned a bit of what Michael Harrington called "the other America" is like. We lived on the Southside and saw first hand how the poor were exploited by slumlords and underhanded merchants. What was most striking was the obvious disrespect with which they were treated. I've put many experiences from that period of my life into my fiction.
Scott: You write so convincingly about alcoholism that a professor asked that I ask you about it. (If you choose not to answer I'll just delete this question.) But you write about it so well that I have to wonder if you've had your own struggle with alcoholism.
James: On the subject of alcoholism, tell the professor to go to an open meeting sometime and check it out.
In the stories narrated by Dave Robicheaux, we learn something about the nature of alcoholism and its deleterious influences. I think the portrayal is an accurate one. Many people have written me and have said the books have helped them in their recovery. That to me is one of the greatest rewards I have received as a writer.
Scott: There are still a huge percentage of people I encounter up where I live in Maryland whose reaction to the people in Louisiana is, "Well, stop your whining and just move." As someone speaking - through your books - for some of those people, what is your reaction to that way of thinking?
James: When I hear people indicate a lack of sympathy for the storm victims in Louisiana, and I have heard many such comments, I have little doubt about whom they voted for in the last two national elections. What occurred in New Orleans is national disgrace.
Regarding the attitude of people who are unsympathetic toward the victims of Katrina or Rita, I believe these folks are a small minority in comparison to the huge numbers of volunteers who went to New Orleans and other Louisiana cities in the aftermath of the storm. Also, enormous amounts of money have been given by goodhearted people all over the country. Americans are still, in my view, the most charitable people on the planet.
Scott: In the short story, "Jesus Out To Sea," you write what seems the closest to a criticism of the president that I've seen in your fiction and wonder if you would elaborate on whether it matches your own thinking
A guy sitting on his chimney with Walkman ears on says the president of the United States flew over and looked down from his plane at us. Then he went on to Washington. I don't think the story is true, though. If the president was really in that plane, he would have landed and tried to find out what kind of shape we were in. He would have gone to the Superdome and the Convention Center and talked to the people there and told them the country was behind them.James: The president's behavior before and after Katrina made landfall seems to speak for itself. I subscribe to the psychoanalytic view that there is no mystery to the human personality. People are what they do, not what they think, not what they say. Mr. Bush's behavior, to my mind, is in a category that has no name.
Scott: What do you aspire to that you have not yet accomplished?
James: In regard to the future, I hope to write short stories and essays and novels until I catch the bus. I would like to write more about the Holland family and their place in Texas history. I also know some pretty good stories set in the 1950s, and I'd like to have a shot at adapting the short story "The Night Johnny Ace Died" for the screen. The life of a writer can be a great life. Every day is different; every kind of story is still waiting to be written. It's a great drama to be a part of. I hope to be a player in it for a few more innings.
Scott: You mention more than once in these two books how many votes David Duke got in an election. To what do you account his popularity? Is it possible that it's peaked, because up here in MD I've not heard his name in a few years.
James: Regarding the mention of an ex-Klansman in a couple of my books, he is less important than the social aberration he represents. The worst in us comes out when we're afraid. The demagogue, the dictator, the despot, the leader of a lynch mob all have one goal only and that is to seize power by inculcating fear in as many people as they can. Men like these help us convince ourselves that someone else is responsible for our problems. We scapegoat our brothers and commit atrocious deeds under flags and religious icons of every kind, but ultimately we murder every virtue we possess. Men like the fellow you mention pass quickly into history, but they leave behind a dirty fingerprint on the soul.
Thanks for having me on your blog.
Keep the faith, noble mon,
Thanks again to Mr. Burke. This interview, especially his final remark is a honor.
Interview With Barry Eisler, Author of Thriller Requiem For An Assassin
With Requiem for an Assassin, the
latest in his series about half Japanese, half American assassin John
Rain Rain, Barry Eisler has produced one of those thrillers that is hard
to put down even when you need to, say, go to work or sleep.
This book served as my introduction to Eisler but I am definitely going to go back to read some of his earlier novels.
The book is not flawless - Patrick Anderson in The Washington Post notes one plot hole - but it's definitely an exciting heart-pounding thriller in every sense of the word.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Mr. Eisler recently via email.
Scott: What did you set out to do with this book? Did you achieve that goal?
Barry: On the most obvious level, I set out write a thrilling story. Judging from most reviews and reader reactions, I've succeeded.
But the thrill is more the end... the means I wanted were a deeper exploration of some of John Rain's internal conflicts, a crisis produced by the desires of his heart and the imperatives of his nature. I think these means were successful, too, but leave it to readers to decide for themselves.
Scott: This book is part of a series, right? I must confess I have not read the others in this series. Would you summarize for me, and the readers of this interview, what has happened so far in this series and what this book is about?
Barry: Yes, Requiem is the sixth book in a thriller series about a half-Japanese, half-American assassin named John Rain, whose specialty is making it look like natural causes. In the first book, Rain Fall,
Rain is living an isolated existence in Tokyo, aloof from the society around him. As the series progresses, he begins to form attachments -- a friend and partner, former Marine sniper Dox; and a lover, Mossad agent Delilah. Those attachments create complications for him, and never more severely than in Requiem.
Scott: What kind of research did you do for this book? I am particularly curious about the topic of torture during war-time since that came, I think, after you left the CIA. Was that something you saw done or researched by interviewing others or what?
Barry: As always, I visit all the places I write about and describe things as I find them. I also talk to experts on a variety of topics, in this case, various forms of interrogation.
Scott: As a former CIA covert agent do you have any thoughts on what happened to Valerie Plame?
Barry: Classic case of the cover-up being worse than the crime. In fact, here there was no underlying crime. When Plame's husband, Joe Wilson, published his New York Times op-ed to the effect that Saddam Hussein had no nukes, Cheney and company decided to respond not substantively, but by undermining his credibility. They leaked that Wilson had no nuclear expertise, and in fact owed his mission to nepotism -- a wife at the CIA.
Afterward, someone said, "Oops, were we allowed to mention his wife's employment? Is she covert?" At that point, they could have owned up and apologized, and the story would have been over then and there. Instead, they decided to lie and stonewall. A common reaction among politicians.
Scott: You crossed my radar screen when you sent a message to me via my Myspace page. How have you used the Internet and sites like MySpace to market and publicize your books?
Barry: On MySpace, I try to find people who like books like mine. For example, people who like Lee Child's Jack Reacher series tend to like John Rain, and vice versa. Now I've got a discussion forum on my website, where people I've met on MySpace and elsewhere can talk to each other, rather than just talking to me. It's a lot of fun.
Scott: What kind of work did you do before becoming a novelist?
Barry: I had a covert position in the CIA; then was an associate in a 600-lawyer law firm; then was an executive in a four-person Silicon Valley start-up; then finally found a way to work for myself.
Scott: What is the biggest misconception people have about you?
Barry: If they've read the books and haven't met me, they're sometimes surprised that I'm so friendly. They expect me to be more like John Rain.
Scott: About the CIA?
Barry: That all covert operatives are assassins and once you're in, you can never get out.
Scott: What is the hardest part about writing the books about Rain?
Barry: Finding time amidst all the promotion...
This book served as my introduction to Eisler but I am definitely going to go back to read some of his earlier novels.
The book is not flawless - Patrick Anderson in The Washington Post notes one plot hole - but it's definitely an exciting heart-pounding thriller in every sense of the word.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Mr. Eisler recently via email.
Scott: What did you set out to do with this book? Did you achieve that goal?
Barry: On the most obvious level, I set out write a thrilling story. Judging from most reviews and reader reactions, I've succeeded.
But the thrill is more the end... the means I wanted were a deeper exploration of some of John Rain's internal conflicts, a crisis produced by the desires of his heart and the imperatives of his nature. I think these means were successful, too, but leave it to readers to decide for themselves.
Scott: This book is part of a series, right? I must confess I have not read the others in this series. Would you summarize for me, and the readers of this interview, what has happened so far in this series and what this book is about?
Barry: Yes, Requiem is the sixth book in a thriller series about a half-Japanese, half-American assassin named John Rain, whose specialty is making it look like natural causes. In the first book, Rain Fall,
Rain is living an isolated existence in Tokyo, aloof from the society around him. As the series progresses, he begins to form attachments -- a friend and partner, former Marine sniper Dox; and a lover, Mossad agent Delilah. Those attachments create complications for him, and never more severely than in Requiem.
Scott: What kind of research did you do for this book? I am particularly curious about the topic of torture during war-time since that came, I think, after you left the CIA. Was that something you saw done or researched by interviewing others or what?
Barry: As always, I visit all the places I write about and describe things as I find them. I also talk to experts on a variety of topics, in this case, various forms of interrogation.
Scott: As a former CIA covert agent do you have any thoughts on what happened to Valerie Plame?
Barry: Classic case of the cover-up being worse than the crime. In fact, here there was no underlying crime. When Plame's husband, Joe Wilson, published his New York Times op-ed to the effect that Saddam Hussein had no nukes, Cheney and company decided to respond not substantively, but by undermining his credibility. They leaked that Wilson had no nuclear expertise, and in fact owed his mission to nepotism -- a wife at the CIA.
Afterward, someone said, "Oops, were we allowed to mention his wife's employment? Is she covert?" At that point, they could have owned up and apologized, and the story would have been over then and there. Instead, they decided to lie and stonewall. A common reaction among politicians.
Scott: You crossed my radar screen when you sent a message to me via my Myspace page. How have you used the Internet and sites like MySpace to market and publicize your books?
Barry: On MySpace, I try to find people who like books like mine. For example, people who like Lee Child's Jack Reacher series tend to like John Rain, and vice versa. Now I've got a discussion forum on my website, where people I've met on MySpace and elsewhere can talk to each other, rather than just talking to me. It's a lot of fun.
Scott: What kind of work did you do before becoming a novelist?
Barry: I had a covert position in the CIA; then was an associate in a 600-lawyer law firm; then was an executive in a four-person Silicon Valley start-up; then finally found a way to work for myself.
Scott: What is the biggest misconception people have about you?
Barry: If they've read the books and haven't met me, they're sometimes surprised that I'm so friendly. They expect me to be more like John Rain.
Scott: About the CIA?
Barry: That all covert operatives are assassins and once you're in, you can never get out.
Scott: What is the hardest part about writing the books about Rain?
Barry: Finding time amidst all the promotion...
Interview with Larry Gonick, Author/Artist of The Cartoon History of the Modern World Part 1
I first met Larry Gonick in a private online community and when I
heard mention of his Cartoon Guide series I resolved to check them out. I
read one of his books on early world history and found it fascinating
that he can write and draw something so educational and informative yet
funny at the same time.
About 18 months ago when struggling to pass a chemistry class I bought his book, the Cartoon Guide to Chemistry and it helped me pass the class. Sure, it felt a bit weird to alternate between a textbook, a cartoon book and class notes, especially when cramming for a test or writing up a lab experiment, but if it works, it works.And, yes, I read his hilarious yet quite educational Cartoon Guide to Sex. I made a point of asking him about each of those books during this delightful interview about The Cartoon History of the Modern World, Part 1: From Columbus to the U.S. Constitution.
One other thought to give you an idea of the kind of guy Gonick is: I have two friends, one adult and one a student, who are fans of his work. I thought it might give one or both of them a thrill if they had an autograph from him.
So I emailed him out of the blue telling him he may not remember me but it would be great if he could send an autographs to his fans. Sure enough, he sends a piece of his artwork with an autograph and was very gracious about the whole experience.
Here now is part one of the interview
Scott Butki: Why write -- let alone read -- a cartoon history? Did you ever think when you started your first cartoon book that you'd be writing them 20 years later?
Larry Gonick: When I started cartooning "seriously," in 1971, I already knew I'd be concentrating on nonfiction. This was an uninhabited niche at the time, and one that promised an endless supply of material. In the course of doing political strips and books, I found that history was a natural subject: characters, complicated stories, action, politics, irony, humor, conflict, you name it!
Why read it? Ask my sales director... The answer might be anything from a) so you can ace your history class to z) comics bring history to life and dispel the idea that the past was staffed by stiffs. One reviewer said that comics are a perfect medium for "wedding fact to interpretation." What more can I say? Did I ever think...? Yes. I'm much too cautious to leave a potential tenure-track academic environment for a limbo depending on my own creativity. It was the idea that comics could do nonfiction that convinced me to take it up. Less creativity required!
Scott: Are those complimentary quotes on your book legitimate? I assume they are but they are quite impressive. What's it like to have Terry Jones of Monty Python, Steve Martin and Garry Trudeau praise your work?
Larry: Book quotes are real. Feels like, "it's about time!" Feels like a constant stream of extravagant ego-pumping is the only thing standing between me and the Black Dog of Gloom.
Scott: Is there any subject you think you couldn't illustrate through a cartoon book?
Larry: Geology. Astronomy. Or at least I wouldn't want to. Of course, I had my doubts about chemistry too, because I was afraid I might have to draw 200 pages of nothing but spheres. But the Cartoon Guide to Chemistry (2005, coauthored with Craig Criddle) turned out to have all kinds of pictures.
Scott: What subjects have you written about so far?
Larry: Almost entirely history and science. You can see the list of titles at my site.
Scott: Am I alone in passing a class – chemistry – partially by using your book as a study guide?
Larry: No.
Scott: At one point in the book you criticize a school of thought and seem to single out specifically Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel – writing in the book, "Historians like the idea that disease caused most native deaths." What prompted you to make that comment? Can you elaborate on it?
Larry: You're not quite right here. I liked Diamond's book and think he's essentially 100% correct. The comment you cite is meant to twit other historians They — we — don't want to feel like murderers, do we? Naturally, we're relieved to think that something as impersonal as a germ did most of the damage.
Scott: What else do historians do wrong in your opinion? You said you've read textbooks and found them varying from "pathetic to infuriating." What's the problem?
Larry: Just think of your favorite high-school history textbook. Oh, you didn't have a favorite high-school history textbook? Well, there you are.
Scott: Besides yourself, who do you suggest people read to get a better review of history? Are you a fan of Howard Zinn's People's History?
I am not a fan of Zinn. He writes indictments. Inconceivable as it sounds, he seems blind to the fact that all societies inevitably have power hierarchies, and he "wastes" no time investigating how and why leaders make decisions. To say, "they're nothing but greedy hypocrites, and you got screwed!" isn't history. Catalogs of injustices may inspire some satisfying feelings of moral superiority, but we all know what happens when people who feel morally superior take charge.
There are lots of good history books. Some current, or almost current, historians I like are Barbara Tuchman, Simon Schama, and Linda Colley, and we can go backward in time to Fawn Brodie, Joseph Needham, de Tocqueville, Ammianus Marcelinus, Ssuma Chien, Polybius, Herodotus, and on and on. I also like to read biographies. For more details, see my bibliographies.
Scott Butki: The first four questions pertain to the historical period you covered with this book. Which historical figure do you find most intriguing? Which would you most like to have a drink with?
Larry Gonick: I wouldn't mind hoisting a few with the first Emperor of the Han Dynasty, back when he was still a commoner. They say he was a great drinking buddy. Plus I might be able to get him into the time machine for a game of ping-pong, which I could probably win because he'd be drunk.
Scott: Which historical figure that you wrote about do you feel has been most misrepresented in the past?
Larry: I have no idea. Important historical figures, especially ones fairly close to the present, are represented so many different ways by so many different representers! Not too many other historians talk about Columbus as a bungler, though. The most under-represented historical figure has to be William I "the Silent" of Orange. You don't see much written about him or the Dutch War of Independence anywhere outside of Holland. And yet his leadership and this war were critically important for modern history, and one of the few developments you can characterize as essentially positive.
Scott: Which historical development was most difficult to portray?
Larry: Just about anything that doesn't involve action: philosophy, science, intellectual disagreement. Religion's not so hard, though, because it comes with all this wacky imagery.
Scott: If you could go back and live during any historical period which period would it be?
Larry: What can I say? I like electric lights and central heating and indoor plumbing. How about Paris right now?
Scott: For cartoon books your books are incredibly dense. Would you rather they be read in one sitting like typical cartoons, or read in bits and pieces like a traditional textbook?
Larry: Oh, dear... and I try so hard to de-densify them. But I just can't resist putting in the maximum amount of story, because the stories are just so doggone good. Obviously, no one's going to read 250 pages of comics in a sitting, but I hope the alternative isn't a history textbook! How about reading it as you would a dense cartoon collection like Pogo, and then rereading it again and again and again and again until the covers fall off and you have to buy a new one?
Scott: Which of your books is your favorite? Which was the most difficult?
Larry: Favorite is probably the very first 48-page volume of The Cartoon History of the Universe, "The Evolution of Everything." When I finished page 48, I said to myself, you'll never do another one that good. The most difficult was The Cartoon Guide to Statistics because the concepts were so hard to wrap my head around. I majored in math, and take it from me, statistics ain't math; it's one of the black arts.
Scott: I enjoyed your Cartoon Guide To Sex book but was unsure how best to incorporate its content into my life. Would you suggest the book be brought into the bedroom with the couple or studied before and after sex acts?
Larry: It should be used for ideas during sex acts. You know, like, "excuse me, honey, I'm at a loss here, let me check the book, and while I'm doing it, would you mind..." And then afterward, you can tear out a few pages and use them as paper towels.
About 18 months ago when struggling to pass a chemistry class I bought his book, the Cartoon Guide to Chemistry and it helped me pass the class. Sure, it felt a bit weird to alternate between a textbook, a cartoon book and class notes, especially when cramming for a test or writing up a lab experiment, but if it works, it works.And, yes, I read his hilarious yet quite educational Cartoon Guide to Sex. I made a point of asking him about each of those books during this delightful interview about The Cartoon History of the Modern World, Part 1: From Columbus to the U.S. Constitution.
One other thought to give you an idea of the kind of guy Gonick is: I have two friends, one adult and one a student, who are fans of his work. I thought it might give one or both of them a thrill if they had an autograph from him.
So I emailed him out of the blue telling him he may not remember me but it would be great if he could send an autographs to his fans. Sure enough, he sends a piece of his artwork with an autograph and was very gracious about the whole experience.
Here now is part one of the interview
Scott Butki: Why write -- let alone read -- a cartoon history? Did you ever think when you started your first cartoon book that you'd be writing them 20 years later?
Larry Gonick: When I started cartooning "seriously," in 1971, I already knew I'd be concentrating on nonfiction. This was an uninhabited niche at the time, and one that promised an endless supply of material. In the course of doing political strips and books, I found that history was a natural subject: characters, complicated stories, action, politics, irony, humor, conflict, you name it!
Why read it? Ask my sales director... The answer might be anything from a) so you can ace your history class to z) comics bring history to life and dispel the idea that the past was staffed by stiffs. One reviewer said that comics are a perfect medium for "wedding fact to interpretation." What more can I say? Did I ever think...? Yes. I'm much too cautious to leave a potential tenure-track academic environment for a limbo depending on my own creativity. It was the idea that comics could do nonfiction that convinced me to take it up. Less creativity required!
Scott: Are those complimentary quotes on your book legitimate? I assume they are but they are quite impressive. What's it like to have Terry Jones of Monty Python, Steve Martin and Garry Trudeau praise your work?
Larry: Book quotes are real. Feels like, "it's about time!" Feels like a constant stream of extravagant ego-pumping is the only thing standing between me and the Black Dog of Gloom.
Scott: Is there any subject you think you couldn't illustrate through a cartoon book?
Larry: Geology. Astronomy. Or at least I wouldn't want to. Of course, I had my doubts about chemistry too, because I was afraid I might have to draw 200 pages of nothing but spheres. But the Cartoon Guide to Chemistry (2005, coauthored with Craig Criddle) turned out to have all kinds of pictures.
Scott: What subjects have you written about so far?
Larry: Almost entirely history and science. You can see the list of titles at my site.
Scott: Am I alone in passing a class – chemistry – partially by using your book as a study guide?
Larry: No.
Scott: At one point in the book you criticize a school of thought and seem to single out specifically Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel – writing in the book, "Historians like the idea that disease caused most native deaths." What prompted you to make that comment? Can you elaborate on it?
Larry: You're not quite right here. I liked Diamond's book and think he's essentially 100% correct. The comment you cite is meant to twit other historians They — we — don't want to feel like murderers, do we? Naturally, we're relieved to think that something as impersonal as a germ did most of the damage.
Scott: What else do historians do wrong in your opinion? You said you've read textbooks and found them varying from "pathetic to infuriating." What's the problem?
Larry: Just think of your favorite high-school history textbook. Oh, you didn't have a favorite high-school history textbook? Well, there you are.
Scott: Besides yourself, who do you suggest people read to get a better review of history? Are you a fan of Howard Zinn's People's History?
I am not a fan of Zinn. He writes indictments. Inconceivable as it sounds, he seems blind to the fact that all societies inevitably have power hierarchies, and he "wastes" no time investigating how and why leaders make decisions. To say, "they're nothing but greedy hypocrites, and you got screwed!" isn't history. Catalogs of injustices may inspire some satisfying feelings of moral superiority, but we all know what happens when people who feel morally superior take charge.
There are lots of good history books. Some current, or almost current, historians I like are Barbara Tuchman, Simon Schama, and Linda Colley, and we can go backward in time to Fawn Brodie, Joseph Needham, de Tocqueville, Ammianus Marcelinus, Ssuma Chien, Polybius, Herodotus, and on and on. I also like to read biographies. For more details, see my bibliographies.
Scott Butki: The first four questions pertain to the historical period you covered with this book. Which historical figure do you find most intriguing? Which would you most like to have a drink with?
Larry Gonick: I wouldn't mind hoisting a few with the first Emperor of the Han Dynasty, back when he was still a commoner. They say he was a great drinking buddy. Plus I might be able to get him into the time machine for a game of ping-pong, which I could probably win because he'd be drunk.
Scott: Which historical figure that you wrote about do you feel has been most misrepresented in the past?
Larry: I have no idea. Important historical figures, especially ones fairly close to the present, are represented so many different ways by so many different representers! Not too many other historians talk about Columbus as a bungler, though. The most under-represented historical figure has to be William I "the Silent" of Orange. You don't see much written about him or the Dutch War of Independence anywhere outside of Holland. And yet his leadership and this war were critically important for modern history, and one of the few developments you can characterize as essentially positive.
Scott: Which historical development was most difficult to portray?
Larry: Just about anything that doesn't involve action: philosophy, science, intellectual disagreement. Religion's not so hard, though, because it comes with all this wacky imagery.
Scott: If you could go back and live during any historical period which period would it be?
Larry: What can I say? I like electric lights and central heating and indoor plumbing. How about Paris right now?
Scott: For cartoon books your books are incredibly dense. Would you rather they be read in one sitting like typical cartoons, or read in bits and pieces like a traditional textbook?
Larry: Oh, dear... and I try so hard to de-densify them. But I just can't resist putting in the maximum amount of story, because the stories are just so doggone good. Obviously, no one's going to read 250 pages of comics in a sitting, but I hope the alternative isn't a history textbook! How about reading it as you would a dense cartoon collection like Pogo, and then rereading it again and again and again and again until the covers fall off and you have to buy a new one?
Scott: Which of your books is your favorite? Which was the most difficult?
Larry: Favorite is probably the very first 48-page volume of The Cartoon History of the Universe, "The Evolution of Everything." When I finished page 48, I said to myself, you'll never do another one that good. The most difficult was The Cartoon Guide to Statistics because the concepts were so hard to wrap my head around. I majored in math, and take it from me, statistics ain't math; it's one of the black arts.
Scott: I enjoyed your Cartoon Guide To Sex book but was unsure how best to incorporate its content into my life. Would you suggest the book be brought into the bedroom with the couple or studied before and after sex acts?
Larry: It should be used for ideas during sex acts. You know, like, "excuse me, honey, I'm at a loss here, let me check the book, and while I'm doing it, would you mind..." And then afterward, you can tear out a few pages and use them as paper towels.
Pondering the Power of Suggestion: An Experiment
(from 2008)
I
have been thinking lately about the power of suggestion, particularly
modeling and mirroring. It's a topic that comes up often in my life
though mostly subconsciously which, to me, makes it even more
interesting.
In this first article I'm going to explain some of what I mean and then I'm going to ask you, the readers, to help me with a social experiment. That will lead us into the second part of this two-part article.
When I hear the phrase "the power of suggestion" I think of magic because, really, isn't that what a lot of magic tricks are? You are encouraged to believe one thing, through smooth words and/or actions by the magician, which leads you to miss the trick. (Personally, I've mastered the magic trick of making food disappear, which KILLS with the elementary school crowd).
But I'm talking here more about those suggestions that occur more in everyday life. I'm sure the following has happened to everyone here who is a parent, whereas it happens to me often when I'm working with special needs adults:
You're driving along and you have a plan, maybe one you've already discussed, about what you're going to do later and where you are going to eat, but then you approach a McDonalds and suddenly you're treated as if you're the worst parent in the world if you don't take them immediately to go eat at McDonalds. The book Fast Food Nation does an excellent job of explaining how McDonalds and other fast food companies market their food to kids in such a way as to make life and decisions more difficult for adults.
The McDonalds example is pretty overt – I mean everyone would expect that when you pass McDonalds you think McDonalds. But then there are the more subtle powers of suggestion that are harder to catch. Let's say that you are at the mall and suddenly your child has an intense desire to go eat somewhere and you have no idea what happened as you did not pass by that business or even a sign for it. However, maybe you passed someone holding a drink from that business and the child immediately remembered past pleasures of eating there and/or the great marketing for the place and voila, the intense desire to go there. It's all about connections, those intentional and those unintended.
I'll never forget one day watching television with one adult who, like most adults I work with, is mentally retarded. In his case – heck in the cases of many of these people I work with – there is much less of what I'd call media literacy, namely the ability to separate the fiction of marketing and commercials from the reality. Thus this guy watched infomercials and treated them like they were documentaries and so all he could talk about for more than two years – not to mention his Christmas present wish – was the exercise equipment used, as the ads said, by Chuck Norris and Wesley Snipes. To question whether the product was as essential as the ad suggested was, to him, to question if Chuck Norris was really a tough guy.
Anyway one day I counted and he changed his mind five times about where he wanted to go eat dinner. Those five switches occurred during a two or three-hour period with all five products mentioned during the television programs we were watching, some through commercials and some with just an announcer mentioning a business sponsoring the program. So it became "let's go eat at Taco Bell" followed a few minutes later by "let's go to McDonalds. I deserve a break today." Not only did he often repeat the same phrasing as in the commercial when talking about it but he'd appear surprised when I'd remind him that just ten minutes before he could only imagine enjoying one thing that night and that was pizza (Pizza Hut ad.)
I consider modeling and mirroring two types of the power of suggestion. Modeling – by which I mean how you behave as opposed to the stuff on Project Runway – is not just how one acts but, more importantly, how you want others to act. For example, when you tell your kids not to cuss but they hear you saying the f bomb on the phone you're doing a poor job of modeling and have only yourself to blame when they later cuss too. Maybe you think it's funny and cute when your kid says fire truck wrong (replacing the tr with a f) but you are a) encouraging him to do it more and b) setting yourself up to be embarrassed when, at some point, he'll say it at the wrong time and place (i.e. when talking to a firefighter.)
I ran into modeling a lot when I was student teaching. It was not enough to tell students what you wanted them to do but often I learned, through my mentor teacher, that it was also often essential to model what I wanted them to do. As a journalist-turned-educator, it took a while to get used to the idea that I couldn't just tell the students to write a paper explaining how they think the nation could be improved, but that in addition to talking about it and helping them think on this topic, I needed to have them see me writing a paper myself.
Often my own modeling outside of work isn't even conscious, which I'm sure parents can also attest to is often the case. You might be just minding your own business when suddenly you notice someone watching you and then copying in some form your own actions. This is what has been called mirroring.
I mentioned my own favorite example of this over at Firsty's great piece about getting children to read. I was meeting my niece, who was, at the time, about 2.:
Mirroring is the most interesting part of this equation and it is also the part where I'm going to ask you guys to do an experiment. I have been doing mirroring when working with kids for years before I even knew what it was called. There are two parts to mirroring: mirroring someone else in hopes of a response or change and being the unwitting mirror.
The former is one I see in education, especially with discipline problems. Let's say you're a mature adult (Yeah, I know, that might be a stretch but work with me here) and you're trying to have a conversation with a teenager. Odds are good he'll give you grief both verbally and through body language. Here's what you do: Copy their body language. If, for example, that person has their arms crossed then do the same thing.
One of two things will usually happen: Either that person will notice what you're doing – which often depends on how aware they are of the situation as well as how angry they are – or they won't. In the former case you can just use their inevitable question ("Why are you copying me?) to turn the conversation into unfamiliar territory. Instead of going over the usual argument you can then try a new tact: "I was just wondering what you would think if someone you were talking to gave you this body language saying you don't want to listen," or something less confrontational like, "I'm trying to understand your position better and thought I'd also try to understand where you're coming from. Are you really comfortable standing like that?"
If they don't notice you're mirroring them that's when things get really interesting because after you mirror their body language, such as how they are sitting and standing, then you can try to use, yes, the power of suggestion. If you're both standing there, for example, with arms crossed then slowly uncross your arms and they, often without noticing, will start mirroring you and uncross their arms too. You've gone from mirroring to modeling without them picking up on it and you can then help them relax. Try this: Take a deep breath and they will probably do the same. Take actions to help relax you both because they will, at least temporarily, do what you're doing. Some might find the whole thing funny which also does wonders to relieve situations and problems.
Ready for your experiment?
Try both parts:
1)Mirror someone else when you're trying to diffuse a situation. Copy their body language. See if you can use mirroring to improve and relax the situation. Report back on your findings.
2)Mirroring doesn't have to be just about conflict and conflict resolution. It can often be about things that are much less important. Try this then: next time you're out drinking or eating with a group of people pay attention to when people drink. Wait until a moment when nobody has picked up their glass and then go ahead and take a drink. Now watch – casually – and I'll bet you that at least one other person will follow your lead and also take a drink. That will spark another person to grab a drink. Then someone two tables away will choose that exact second to take a drink. Is this modeling and mirroring or just random events that appear to have a pattern? Try it out and report back.
I notice it all the time at restaurants but you see it too at parties when someone pulls out a cigarette and suddenly three others choose that moment to do the same. It's kind of freaky – oh my god my actions affect others – but it's also, to me at least, fascinating.
I work with one guy who is diabetic and doesn't like to drink water. I buy him water and drink my iced tea and while he'll say he doesn't want to drink water each time I drink he will too. It works quite well. Now if I can just teach him to stop trying to cheat when we play Uno….
In this first article I'm going to explain some of what I mean and then I'm going to ask you, the readers, to help me with a social experiment. That will lead us into the second part of this two-part article.
When I hear the phrase "the power of suggestion" I think of magic because, really, isn't that what a lot of magic tricks are? You are encouraged to believe one thing, through smooth words and/or actions by the magician, which leads you to miss the trick. (Personally, I've mastered the magic trick of making food disappear, which KILLS with the elementary school crowd).
But I'm talking here more about those suggestions that occur more in everyday life. I'm sure the following has happened to everyone here who is a parent, whereas it happens to me often when I'm working with special needs adults:
You're driving along and you have a plan, maybe one you've already discussed, about what you're going to do later and where you are going to eat, but then you approach a McDonalds and suddenly you're treated as if you're the worst parent in the world if you don't take them immediately to go eat at McDonalds. The book Fast Food Nation does an excellent job of explaining how McDonalds and other fast food companies market their food to kids in such a way as to make life and decisions more difficult for adults.
The McDonalds example is pretty overt – I mean everyone would expect that when you pass McDonalds you think McDonalds. But then there are the more subtle powers of suggestion that are harder to catch. Let's say that you are at the mall and suddenly your child has an intense desire to go eat somewhere and you have no idea what happened as you did not pass by that business or even a sign for it. However, maybe you passed someone holding a drink from that business and the child immediately remembered past pleasures of eating there and/or the great marketing for the place and voila, the intense desire to go there. It's all about connections, those intentional and those unintended.
I'll never forget one day watching television with one adult who, like most adults I work with, is mentally retarded. In his case – heck in the cases of many of these people I work with – there is much less of what I'd call media literacy, namely the ability to separate the fiction of marketing and commercials from the reality. Thus this guy watched infomercials and treated them like they were documentaries and so all he could talk about for more than two years – not to mention his Christmas present wish – was the exercise equipment used, as the ads said, by Chuck Norris and Wesley Snipes. To question whether the product was as essential as the ad suggested was, to him, to question if Chuck Norris was really a tough guy.
Anyway one day I counted and he changed his mind five times about where he wanted to go eat dinner. Those five switches occurred during a two or three-hour period with all five products mentioned during the television programs we were watching, some through commercials and some with just an announcer mentioning a business sponsoring the program. So it became "let's go eat at Taco Bell" followed a few minutes later by "let's go to McDonalds. I deserve a break today." Not only did he often repeat the same phrasing as in the commercial when talking about it but he'd appear surprised when I'd remind him that just ten minutes before he could only imagine enjoying one thing that night and that was pizza (Pizza Hut ad.)
I consider modeling and mirroring two types of the power of suggestion. Modeling – by which I mean how you behave as opposed to the stuff on Project Runway – is not just how one acts but, more importantly, how you want others to act. For example, when you tell your kids not to cuss but they hear you saying the f bomb on the phone you're doing a poor job of modeling and have only yourself to blame when they later cuss too. Maybe you think it's funny and cute when your kid says fire truck wrong (replacing the tr with a f) but you are a) encouraging him to do it more and b) setting yourself up to be embarrassed when, at some point, he'll say it at the wrong time and place (i.e. when talking to a firefighter.)
I ran into modeling a lot when I was student teaching. It was not enough to tell students what you wanted them to do but often I learned, through my mentor teacher, that it was also often essential to model what I wanted them to do. As a journalist-turned-educator, it took a while to get used to the idea that I couldn't just tell the students to write a paper explaining how they think the nation could be improved, but that in addition to talking about it and helping them think on this topic, I needed to have them see me writing a paper myself.
Often my own modeling outside of work isn't even conscious, which I'm sure parents can also attest to is often the case. You might be just minding your own business when suddenly you notice someone watching you and then copying in some form your own actions. This is what has been called mirroring.
I mentioned my own favorite example of this over at Firsty's great piece about getting children to read. I was meeting my niece, who was, at the time, about 2.:
I sat, as I often do, with one leg crossed over the other, and was reading a news magazine.Since I'm often reading or writing it isn't surprising that a child or adult will think that maybe they too should be doing more reading and writing. I make a point, for example, of always encouraging kids and adults to read more – not just saying that but sitting down and reading a story with a child whenever they want. If that switches from modeling to mirroring at some point that makes me even happier.
So she did the same. Well, first she went into room and grabbed something.
Then she sat down, crossed her tiny legs just like mine and picked up a magazine and began to also "read" it. It was the PBS guide and if it wasn't impressive enough that she could read it then surely the fact she was reading it upside down made it all the more amazing.
Mirroring is the most interesting part of this equation and it is also the part where I'm going to ask you guys to do an experiment. I have been doing mirroring when working with kids for years before I even knew what it was called. There are two parts to mirroring: mirroring someone else in hopes of a response or change and being the unwitting mirror.
The former is one I see in education, especially with discipline problems. Let's say you're a mature adult (Yeah, I know, that might be a stretch but work with me here) and you're trying to have a conversation with a teenager. Odds are good he'll give you grief both verbally and through body language. Here's what you do: Copy their body language. If, for example, that person has their arms crossed then do the same thing.
One of two things will usually happen: Either that person will notice what you're doing – which often depends on how aware they are of the situation as well as how angry they are – or they won't. In the former case you can just use their inevitable question ("Why are you copying me?) to turn the conversation into unfamiliar territory. Instead of going over the usual argument you can then try a new tact: "I was just wondering what you would think if someone you were talking to gave you this body language saying you don't want to listen," or something less confrontational like, "I'm trying to understand your position better and thought I'd also try to understand where you're coming from. Are you really comfortable standing like that?"
If they don't notice you're mirroring them that's when things get really interesting because after you mirror their body language, such as how they are sitting and standing, then you can try to use, yes, the power of suggestion. If you're both standing there, for example, with arms crossed then slowly uncross your arms and they, often without noticing, will start mirroring you and uncross their arms too. You've gone from mirroring to modeling without them picking up on it and you can then help them relax. Try this: Take a deep breath and they will probably do the same. Take actions to help relax you both because they will, at least temporarily, do what you're doing. Some might find the whole thing funny which also does wonders to relieve situations and problems.
Ready for your experiment?
Try both parts:
1)Mirror someone else when you're trying to diffuse a situation. Copy their body language. See if you can use mirroring to improve and relax the situation. Report back on your findings.
2)Mirroring doesn't have to be just about conflict and conflict resolution. It can often be about things that are much less important. Try this then: next time you're out drinking or eating with a group of people pay attention to when people drink. Wait until a moment when nobody has picked up their glass and then go ahead and take a drink. Now watch – casually – and I'll bet you that at least one other person will follow your lead and also take a drink. That will spark another person to grab a drink. Then someone two tables away will choose that exact second to take a drink. Is this modeling and mirroring or just random events that appear to have a pattern? Try it out and report back.
I notice it all the time at restaurants but you see it too at parties when someone pulls out a cigarette and suddenly three others choose that moment to do the same. It's kind of freaky – oh my god my actions affect others – but it's also, to me at least, fascinating.
I work with one guy who is diabetic and doesn't like to drink water. I buy him water and drink my iced tea and while he'll say he doesn't want to drink water each time I drink he will too. It works quite well. Now if I can just teach him to stop trying to cheat when we play Uno….
Listening Matters, Especially For Writers
(from 2007)
I have been thinking lately about the importance of listening. The most important thing to do in order to be a good reporter, and an even better interviewer, is to listen.
I hesitated when titling this because, really, listening is key to much more than writing. I know people who drove me insane because they do not know how to listen. Next time you are having a conversation try to talk less and listen more. You may be amazed by what you hear – habits of theirs that you never noticed before or them sharing a story you have not heard before because this time you are not the one steering the conversation Try to move out of the driver’s seat of the conversation and into the passenger’s seat and just listen for a while.
This also holds true as a writer. You want to absorb everything around you and that is hard to do if you are talking all the time. Instead, just listen.
I recently wrote about Annie Dillard and how I loved her as a writer but was frustrated by her as a reader. She is good because she knows how to listen. More precisely, she witnesses well by which I mean she observes, she contemplated and she relates what she sees. As a writer that is incredibly important. Writers and reporters are not, contrary to what Judith Miller of the New York Times famous implied, stenographers. They listen and pass on what they have heard but they must also think.
But sometimes listening can backfire and that is when the person you are listening to doesn’t talk in a straight rational line. Sure they may understand how they went from point a to point b but if you, the listener, can’t understand how the conversation just jumped from terrorism to why you prefer tea over coffee then there is the potential for both the speaker and the listener to become frustrating.
Dillard had that effect on me, she would switch topics and I’d be left wanting to interject a question, just as I do when talking to someone who is jumping topics. But I can’t ask Dillard to explain things and so I’ll be frustrated.
So how does this help you as a writer? Let me provide an example. Let’s say you are covering a fire at night. These days there is often only one person authorized to speak to the media and if you are a journalist on a deadline you are stuck with a common dilemma – the editor wants the story as soon as possible but you can’t write anything yet because you don’t have anything official.
Do you sit there and stew? No, what you do is the same thing a police officer would do – you canvas the neighborhood. In this case the members of the neighborhood, especially the nosey ones, are probably already at the scene. Do you start asking lots of questions? No, you listen.
This situation with the fire occurring on deadline happened to me several times and during one of them I noticed several children who were very animated. I listened for a few minutes before asking why they were so happy when there was a fire going on. It struck me as an odd emotion.
They told me that they had recently attended Children’s Village. Children’s Village is a local program all students are required to attend where they are taught about fires and fire safety and, most important, what to do if there was a fire. I learned that these kids had noticed the fire and followed the right steps in making sure the fire department was notified and that others in the building were contacted.
I knew immediately that I had my hook for the story. When I talked to the fire official later he gave me some boring facts but when I mentioned the kids he became animated about how proud they all were of them. The story made the front page and the kids were instant heroes. I would not have gotten that story if I had not listened.
People going into journalism often think they need to have a script and a set of questions for every story. I did that too once upon a time. But while it is good to have a list of topics or questions you want to make sure you don’t forget to ask what is most important is – all together now – to listen. Something you hear during the interview, or something someone does before the interview, can change everything. You need to be flexible, ready to change at a moment’s notice.
People going into journalism often think they need to have a script and a set of questions for every story. I did that too once upon a time. But while it is good to have a list of topics or questions you want to make sure you don’t forget to ask what is most important is – all together now – to listen. Something you hear during the interview, or something someone does before the interview, can change everything. You need to be flexible, ready to change at a moment’s notice.
As a writer you are used to focusing on your fingers for typing but what matters more is your ear, to listen for interviews, for ideas for stories, to remember ideas you hear for future stories.
Natalie Goldberg, in Writing Down the Bones, talks about being tone-deaf as a singer, an affliction with which I can relate. But she talked to a sufi who told her singing is 90 percent listening and soon she was able to sing perfectly in tune. I’m not sure if I buy all that – I’m not going to try out for a barbershop quartet or boy band any time soon – but it’s her next observation that interested me more:
I have saved my best tip for last: Using silence to your advantage. Up until now I have focused on how listening can help you collect information. But now I am going to shift the spotlight slightly to how listening can help you glean information, often the best bits, from others.
You know the saying, “silence is golden?” Normally I hate clichés but this one is so true. Many people are uncomfortable with silence especially when it happens during a conversation. While this is frustrating to others it is “golden” to you as a writer, especially if you are interviewing someone.
Next time you are talking to someone and there is an awkward pause let the silence fill the room. Whatever you do, don’t try to fill in the silences yourself. Instead, make the other person do that work.
Let’s say you are talking to someone about their father. They may finish their comments and you may ask a follow-up question and then there is a pause. The worst thing you can do then is to speak and fill that pause. Better that the other person feels the need to fill that pause with something. Odds are good that what that person says to fill that pause is something unplanned, often something better than anything that came before or after it.
Silence is a good thing. Embrace it; make it your friend. Learn to accept it and be comfortable with it. If you are uncomfortable with it then that will hurt you as a writer because you will be constantly seeking, sometimes subconsciously, distractions.
Avoiding the distractions is not easy. I’ve found I write better away from home because I have too many distractions at home, be it the tv/stereo/Internet calling out to me or my bed asking to sleep with me or whatever. But right now I’m sitting at a Border’s café, which is closing so I need to wrap this up. I had not planned to write this but as this place neared closing it became silent and I thought, ‘What better time to write about silence than right now when I have silence?”
And so I did.
. I hope these words have been helpful.
I have been thinking lately about the importance of listening. The most important thing to do in order to be a good reporter, and an even better interviewer, is to listen.
I hesitated when titling this because, really, listening is key to much more than writing. I know people who drove me insane because they do not know how to listen. Next time you are having a conversation try to talk less and listen more. You may be amazed by what you hear – habits of theirs that you never noticed before or them sharing a story you have not heard before because this time you are not the one steering the conversation Try to move out of the driver’s seat of the conversation and into the passenger’s seat and just listen for a while.
This also holds true as a writer. You want to absorb everything around you and that is hard to do if you are talking all the time. Instead, just listen.
I recently wrote about Annie Dillard and how I loved her as a writer but was frustrated by her as a reader. She is good because she knows how to listen. More precisely, she witnesses well by which I mean she observes, she contemplated and she relates what she sees. As a writer that is incredibly important. Writers and reporters are not, contrary to what Judith Miller of the New York Times famous implied, stenographers. They listen and pass on what they have heard but they must also think.
But sometimes listening can backfire and that is when the person you are listening to doesn’t talk in a straight rational line. Sure they may understand how they went from point a to point b but if you, the listener, can’t understand how the conversation just jumped from terrorism to why you prefer tea over coffee then there is the potential for both the speaker and the listener to become frustrating.
Dillard had that effect on me, she would switch topics and I’d be left wanting to interject a question, just as I do when talking to someone who is jumping topics. But I can’t ask Dillard to explain things and so I’ll be frustrated.
So how does this help you as a writer? Let me provide an example. Let’s say you are covering a fire at night. These days there is often only one person authorized to speak to the media and if you are a journalist on a deadline you are stuck with a common dilemma – the editor wants the story as soon as possible but you can’t write anything yet because you don’t have anything official.
Do you sit there and stew? No, what you do is the same thing a police officer would do – you canvas the neighborhood. In this case the members of the neighborhood, especially the nosey ones, are probably already at the scene. Do you start asking lots of questions? No, you listen.
This situation with the fire occurring on deadline happened to me several times and during one of them I noticed several children who were very animated. I listened for a few minutes before asking why they were so happy when there was a fire going on. It struck me as an odd emotion.
They told me that they had recently attended Children’s Village. Children’s Village is a local program all students are required to attend where they are taught about fires and fire safety and, most important, what to do if there was a fire. I learned that these kids had noticed the fire and followed the right steps in making sure the fire department was notified and that others in the building were contacted.
I knew immediately that I had my hook for the story. When I talked to the fire official later he gave me some boring facts but when I mentioned the kids he became animated about how proud they all were of them. The story made the front page and the kids were instant heroes. I would not have gotten that story if I had not listened.
People going into journalism often think they need to have a script and a set of questions for every story. I did that too once upon a time. But while it is good to have a list of topics or questions you want to make sure you don’t forget to ask what is most important is – all together now – to listen. Something you hear during the interview, or something someone does before the interview, can change everything. You need to be flexible, ready to change at a moment’s notice.
People going into journalism often think they need to have a script and a set of questions for every story. I did that too once upon a time. But while it is good to have a list of topics or questions you want to make sure you don’t forget to ask what is most important is – all together now – to listen. Something you hear during the interview, or something someone does before the interview, can change everything. You need to be flexible, ready to change at a moment’s notice.
As a writer you are used to focusing on your fingers for typing but what matters more is your ear, to listen for interviews, for ideas for stories, to remember ideas you hear for future stories.
Natalie Goldberg, in Writing Down the Bones, talks about being tone-deaf as a singer, an affliction with which I can relate. But she talked to a sufi who told her singing is 90 percent listening and soon she was able to sing perfectly in tune. I’m not sure if I buy all that – I’m not going to try out for a barbershop quartet or boy band any time soon – but it’s her next observation that interested me more:
Writing, too, is 90 percent listening. You listen so deeply to the space around you that it fills you, and when you write, it pours out of you. If you can capture that reality around you, your writing needs nothing else. You don’t only listen to person speaking to you across the table, but simultaneously listen to the air, the chair, and the door. And go beyond the door….But, Scott, you say, I’m not a journalist. I’m a regular writer. Yes, but listening is still key. Writers, both of fact and fiction, use what they see and hear around them. If you are not paying attention it’d be like watching a television program with mute on – you can guess what is going on but why guess when you can hear too. We have multiple senses so who not use them?
Listening is receptivity. The deeper you can listen, the better you can write. You take in the way things are without judgment, and the next day you can write the truth about the way things are.
I have saved my best tip for last: Using silence to your advantage. Up until now I have focused on how listening can help you collect information. But now I am going to shift the spotlight slightly to how listening can help you glean information, often the best bits, from others.
You know the saying, “silence is golden?” Normally I hate clichés but this one is so true. Many people are uncomfortable with silence especially when it happens during a conversation. While this is frustrating to others it is “golden” to you as a writer, especially if you are interviewing someone.
Next time you are talking to someone and there is an awkward pause let the silence fill the room. Whatever you do, don’t try to fill in the silences yourself. Instead, make the other person do that work.
Let’s say you are talking to someone about their father. They may finish their comments and you may ask a follow-up question and then there is a pause. The worst thing you can do then is to speak and fill that pause. Better that the other person feels the need to fill that pause with something. Odds are good that what that person says to fill that pause is something unplanned, often something better than anything that came before or after it.
Silence is a good thing. Embrace it; make it your friend. Learn to accept it and be comfortable with it. If you are uncomfortable with it then that will hurt you as a writer because you will be constantly seeking, sometimes subconsciously, distractions.
Avoiding the distractions is not easy. I’ve found I write better away from home because I have too many distractions at home, be it the tv/stereo/Internet calling out to me or my bed asking to sleep with me or whatever. But right now I’m sitting at a Border’s café, which is closing so I need to wrap this up. I had not planned to write this but as this place neared closing it became silent and I thought, ‘What better time to write about silence than right now when I have silence?”
And so I did.
. I hope these words have been helpful.
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