Interview! Innnnterrrrrvieeeeewww!!!
Jun. 10th, 2003 11:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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inannajones:
1. If you should represent yourself with a book, what book would it be and why?
No contest. Keri Hulme, The Bone People.
This very strange and uncompromising novel (New Zealand, 1986) had the most profound effect on me of any book I've read, certainly in the last ten years, if not ever. I don't claim that it's the best book ever written (although it's bloody good), but it went straight in and resonated with what's deepest in me. It was the direct and explicit reason for my planning a PhD in New Zealand fiction, and though I didn't go that route, I still re-read the book.
2. I have the impression you would make a good academic, and indeed occasionally you have sounded a little wistful at not being one. Is working as an editor your first choice or would you prefer to dive back into academia?
Well, as implied above, I came very close to an academic career. It's sort of the family business. Both parents, an aunt and an uncle are academics, and so were one grandmother, two grandfathers, a step-grandfather, one great-grandfather, and at least one great-great-aunt. So when I was doing my Masters (in creative writing), a PhD was the obvious thing to do next. I wrote a proposal, got the offer of a place, got funding - and then, one intense August night of conversation with an old friend revealed to me that I simply didn't want to do it, so I withdrew.
Yes, I get wistful. I know so much about academia, and it's something I really believe in (unlike, say, writing on-screen help for Web-based content management systems used by filthy stinking rich international corporations, which was what I ended up doing after I left college), but in the main, I'm happy with my choice not to pursue an academic career. It wouldn't stop me writing an academic book, if I felt like it.
Editing is fun, and I'm very good at it (boast, boast), but what I really want is to earn my living as a writer. Write, and maybe do some freelance editing, and maybe run writing workshops, because I love them too.
3. In your opinion, was the genetic engineering the women were doing in Gate to Women's Country morally right? If you haven't read it skip the question, ask me to elaborate or consultniallm.
Ah, jayzuz, don't do this to me :-)
Yes, I've read it, and I have to confess it haunts me. I love the idea that such a solution might work and be justifiable, but my problem with any kind of social engineering is in the whole certainty thing: people are flawed, and thus a judgement made by one person over another cannot be relied upon. Also, mass deception for what are essentially political ends doesn't seem intellecutally defensible. The women who run the system are aware of all this, and accept responsibility because of what they believe. And because the outcome within the parameters of the story is a desirable one, my emotional sympathies are all with them. But if the outcome were undesirable, that would be a different matter. So no, I don't that what they are doing can be described as "morally right". But that's sort of the point: Hell is Women's Country.
4. Do you read Bruno?
No...and no time to have a proper look before bed. Perhaps tomorrow.
5. Do you practice escapism? Why? What forms does it take?
Ah, yes. Like many, I practice escapism so as to feel in control and so as to grab a break from the more oppressive aspects of daily life. It generally has to be more or less plausible, though, for it to satisfy. Often it takes the form of daydreaming my way to a perfect house and a moderate private income. I read craft, gardening and DIY books as a substitute for actually doing the stuff they describe. I walk along imagining (word for word and refining as I go) phone conversations with people who want to be my agent or publish my book. I carry with me a perpetual sense of being just about to do everything in the world - at which point I'll be able to relax...
inannajones:1. If you should represent yourself with a book, what book would it be and why?
No contest. Keri Hulme, The Bone People.
This very strange and uncompromising novel (New Zealand, 1986) had the most profound effect on me of any book I've read, certainly in the last ten years, if not ever. I don't claim that it's the best book ever written (although it's bloody good), but it went straight in and resonated with what's deepest in me. It was the direct and explicit reason for my planning a PhD in New Zealand fiction, and though I didn't go that route, I still re-read the book.
2. I have the impression you would make a good academic, and indeed occasionally you have sounded a little wistful at not being one. Is working as an editor your first choice or would you prefer to dive back into academia?
Well, as implied above, I came very close to an academic career. It's sort of the family business. Both parents, an aunt and an uncle are academics, and so were one grandmother, two grandfathers, a step-grandfather, one great-grandfather, and at least one great-great-aunt. So when I was doing my Masters (in creative writing), a PhD was the obvious thing to do next. I wrote a proposal, got the offer of a place, got funding - and then, one intense August night of conversation with an old friend revealed to me that I simply didn't want to do it, so I withdrew.
Yes, I get wistful. I know so much about academia, and it's something I really believe in (unlike, say, writing on-screen help for Web-based content management systems used by filthy stinking rich international corporations, which was what I ended up doing after I left college), but in the main, I'm happy with my choice not to pursue an academic career. It wouldn't stop me writing an academic book, if I felt like it.
Editing is fun, and I'm very good at it (boast, boast), but what I really want is to earn my living as a writer. Write, and maybe do some freelance editing, and maybe run writing workshops, because I love them too.
3. In your opinion, was the genetic engineering the women were doing in Gate to Women's Country morally right? If you haven't read it skip the question, ask me to elaborate or consult
niallm.Ah, jayzuz, don't do this to me :-)
Yes, I've read it, and I have to confess it haunts me. I love the idea that such a solution might work and be justifiable, but my problem with any kind of social engineering is in the whole certainty thing: people are flawed, and thus a judgement made by one person over another cannot be relied upon. Also, mass deception for what are essentially political ends doesn't seem intellecutally defensible. The women who run the system are aware of all this, and accept responsibility because of what they believe. And because the outcome within the parameters of the story is a desirable one, my emotional sympathies are all with them. But if the outcome were undesirable, that would be a different matter. So no, I don't that what they are doing can be described as "morally right". But that's sort of the point: Hell is Women's Country.
4. Do you read Bruno?
No...and no time to have a proper look before bed. Perhaps tomorrow.
5. Do you practice escapism? Why? What forms does it take?
Ah, yes. Like many, I practice escapism so as to feel in control and so as to grab a break from the more oppressive aspects of daily life. It generally has to be more or less plausible, though, for it to satisfy. Often it takes the form of daydreaming my way to a perfect house and a moderate private income. I read craft, gardening and DIY books as a substitute for actually doing the stuff they describe. I walk along imagining (word for word and refining as I go) phone conversations with people who want to be my agent or publish my book. I carry with me a perpetual sense of being just about to do everything in the world - at which point I'll be able to relax...