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12-17-09: Ann and Jeff VanderMeer at the World Fantasy Convention
"It's easier now, to access books coming out of independent publishers, than it used to be."
— Ann VanderMeer
You're wondering if you're seeing, double, right? Because yes, I did recently air an interview with Jeff and Ann VanderMeer, but that interview was done with a purpose — to provide me with content for an NPR report, the pitch for which was inspired by this interview done at the World Fantasy Convention.
It just seems that I might a well get all my VanderDucks in a row and get everything out of the pipeline now. This interview at the World Fantasy Convention was just plain done for fun. I got both VanderMeers, some microphones and good room, and we just talked shop. Of course, in this case, shop translates to "talked about the literature we love and how it is made." It was like getting a convention of kids together in Toys'R'Us. Everybody is primed for a good time. You can hear the VanderMeers having fun talking about the world of genre fiction they sort of rule, by following this link to the MP3 audio file.
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12-16-09: World Fantasy Convention: Canonizing the Fantastic
Talk about fantastic! Forget about ghosts and time travel — a World Fantasy Convention Panel with Gary K. Wolfe (moderator), S. T. Joshi, Peter Straub, Time Powers and Brian Evenson — now that's fantastic!
My apologies for the ground hum that asserts itself partway through. Who knows what the hell was going on in that audio stuff — it wasn't under my control and I do think for the most part it worked out well. Nonetheless, this is a must-listen panel, ebcause it gets to the core of the quality and qualities of the fantastic with the best possible speakers thereof. I'll let Gary do the intros, by pointing you directly with this link to the MP3 audio file.
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12-15-09: Thomas Frank on Republican Purity Tests : Return or Re-Run of the Montagnards
Leave it to Thomas Frank to bring back the French Revolution, or at least the cool beheading action aspect. The columnist for the Wall Street Journal recently wrote about the proposed Republican Purity tests, in "Conservatives Want Republican Purge Trials" and I rang him up to draw out the violent details.
The problem with purity tests is that eventually, we're all going to fail them. The question is just who is going to be on the giving side and who is going to be on the taking side. Thomas Frank, author of 'The Wrecking Crew', decided to take those lovely current-day Republican litmus strips and run them past some of the would-be graven-in-stone heroes of the Republican party, in particular, one ex-actor and astrology fan who had his hand on the tiller of this (once) great nation. Frank and I have a pretty good idea that when they break out the guillotine "for reals," that we're not long for this world anyway. Why not start living dangerously now? You can up your danger content by following this link the MP3 audio file of our conversation, no test required!
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12-14-09: Connie Willis Interviewed at the 2009 World Fantasy Convention
"We have a real condescension towards the past"
— Connie Willis
It was almost an accident, talking to Connie Willis at the World Fantasy Convention. I wandered into the pressroom with some time to spare, and to my good fortune, there was Connie Willis — with time to talk. Fortunately, I had a friend's bag o' Connie Willis books and an ARC of her forthcoming novel, 'Blackout.'
Connie Willis and I had a wonderful conversation about her new novel and in general about the merits of time travel as a means of writing involving, interesting, historical fiction. One of the things that is true about Willis' work is that she manages to avoid the pitfall of having historical characters in historical setting, all accurately rendered and well-researched, only to have those characters think thoughts that seem dis-locatingly modern. Willis explained how she avoids this pitfall and drops a nice anecdote about WWII and Operation Overlord.
I was also interested, as ever, in why Willis works in genre fiction. Yes, this is a perennial subject when it comes to SF writers, but Willis has her own entertainingly enjoyable take on the matter. You can hear my conversation with Willis at the World Fantasy Convention by following this link to the MP3 audio file.
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