07-12-13 UPDATE:Podcast Update: Time to Read Episode 107: Ryan Coonerty, 'The Rise of the Naked Economy: How to Benefit from the Changing Workplace'
Click image for audio link.
Here's the one hundred and seventh episode of my series of podcasts, which I'm calling Time to Read. Hitting the two-year mark, I'm going to make an effort to stay ahead, so that podcast listeners can get the same sort of "sneak preview" effect that radio listeners get each Friday morning.
My hope is that in under four minutes I can offer readers a concise review and an opportunity to hear the author read from or speak about the work. I'm hoping to offer a new one every week.
"...there is no template golem, they're all different..."
— Helene Wecker
Helene Wecker is every bit as accomplished as her novel. She claimed that she was nervous but I certainly couldn't detect any sign as we talked about how she wrote 'The Golem and the Jinni.' What struck me as we spoke was how individual the writer's path must inevitably be.
For Wecker, 'The Golem and the Jinni' began on a dare while she was at the Iowa Writer's Workshop. That in itself is a surprise and it's not the last. One of her fellow writers challenged her to write a work that included genre elements and that challenge made her path clear — but not easy.
Wecker had lots of research to do and a limited amount of time to do that research on-site, so to speak, while she was living in New York. She had two very distinct realms of study. She had to understand the New York in 1899, at a cultural and a technological level. She needed intimate knowledge of the ethnic neighborhoods, their inhabitants, and their lifestyles. This was true for both European and ancient Syrian locales as well. That's a lot of real history to keep straight and within which to seek both stories and characters. Much had to be left on the cutting room floor.
But Wecker, who has an interest in fantasy and science fiction, was also creating historical figures of the fantastic; a golem and a jinni. There's plenty of lore about both these creatures, and as it turns out, much of it is self-contradictory. That means that Wecker had to obtain facts about non-existent creatures and try to reconcile them both with her historical setting and her own vision.
She and I also talked about her revision process, which, if you read the book, will come as something of a surprise. For me, 'The Golem and the Jinni' was a novel with a very organic feel, and Wecker did indeed write much of the book organically. But the polish you see here is the result of lots of first-reading and revising, second reading and revising, of back and forth. It sure does not seem like that when you're caught up in her story.
This conversation is a great example of hearing how a writer created her first book by following her own rules, which she pretty much made up as she went along, and anyone who is on this journey, or even in need of inspiration to write their umpteenth book can find it here, by following this link to the MP3 audio file.
New to the Agony Column
09-18-15: Commentary : William T. Vollman Amidst 'The Dying Grass' : An Epic Exploration of Simultaneity
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with William T. Vollman : "...a lot of long words that in our language are sentences..."
09-05-15: Commentary : Susan Casey Listens to 'Voices in the Ocean' : Science, Empathy and Self
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Susan Casey : "...the reporting for this book was emotionally difficult at times..."
08-21-15: Agony Column Podcast News Report : Senator Claire McCaskill is 'Plenty Ladylike' : Internalizing Determination to Overcome Sexism [Incudes Time to Read EP 211: Claire McCaskill, Plenty Ladylike, plus A 2015 Interview with Senator Claire McCaskill]
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Emily Schultz Unleashes 'The Blondes' : A Cure by Color [Incudes Time to Read EP 210: Emily Schultz, The Blondes, plus A 2015 Interview with Emily Schultz]
07-05-15: Commentary : Dr. Michael Gazzaniga Tells Tales from Both Sides of the Brain : A Life in Neuroscience Reveals the Life of Science
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Michael Gazzaniga : "We made the first observation and BAM there was the disconnection effect..."
04-21-15: Commentary : Kazuo Ishiguro Unearths 'The Buried Giant' : The Mist of Myth and Memory
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Kazuo Ishiguro : ".... by the time I was writing this novel, the lines between what was fantasy and what was real had blurred for me..."
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Marc Goodman : "...every physical object around us is being transformed, one way or another, into an information technology..."
Agony Column Podcast News Report UPDATE: Time to Read Episode 199: Marc Goodman : Future Crimes: Everything Is Connected, Everyone Is Vulnerable and What We Can Do About It
