Prime Time Replay:
Terry Bisson
on his completion of the late Walter Miller's
St. Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman
MsgId: *omni_visions(1)
Date: Thu Nov 6 21:30:49 EST 1997
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
Welcome to OmniVisions. Tonight at 10:00 PM EDT, our guest will be Terry Bisson. As usual, the show will take the form of an interview for about the first hour, and we'll open up to audience participation about 11:00 EST. Join us!Terry Bisson is author of about five original novels, a great many brilliant short stories, a scattering of plays, and a few movie novelizations. Most recently he completed the last 75 pages of Walter Miller's "St. Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman." We look forward to seeing you at 10:00.
Well, the clock on the virtual tells us it's about 10:00 PM EST, so we should begin. Are you there, T?
MsgId: *omni_visions(4)
Date: Thu Nov 6 22:01:27 EST 1997
From: tbisson At: 207.38.248.159
I'm here Jim
MsgId: *omni_visions(5)
Date: Thu Nov 6 22:03:49 EST 1997
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
Great! Let's start right in: How did your "collaboration" with Walter Miller (author of "A Canticle for Leibowitz") come about?
MsgId: *omni_visions(6)
Date: Thu Nov 6 22:04:09 EST 1997
From: tbisson At: 207.38.248.159
I'm online. Are you there, Jim? I was recommended for the job by Alice Turner, the fiction editor of Playboy.
MsgId: *omni_visions(8)
Date: Thu Nov 6 22:05:28 EST 1997
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
I am. This interface can be slow, and takes a bit of getting used to. Can you give us a bit of the background of what you had to do -- was Miller still alive, how much research did you have to do, did you know where he was going with the final pages, etc.?
MsgId: *omni_visions(10)
Date: Thu Nov 6 22:12:39 EST 1997
From: tbisson At: 207.38.248.167
Then to my surprise Miller killed himself. I had never met him and was very upset. But I knew what to do with the book. I went to work after rereading canticle several times.
MsgId: *omni_visions(11)
Date: Thu Nov 6 22:13:42 EST 1997
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
I think we missed the first part of your message. It must've been to long for this "wonderful" software to digest. Can you resend?
MsgId: *omni_visions(12)
Date: Thu Nov 6 22:15:48 EST 1997
From: tbisson At: 207.38.248.167
When I got the book Miller had written 600 pages and outlined the ending. He just didn't want to actually write it. The research I did was studying his style and his world -- the geography and the characters.
MsgId: *omni_visions(14)
Date: Thu Nov 6 22:17:11 EST 1997
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
Can you give us a brief description or precis of the book?
MsgId: *omni_visions(15)
Date: Thu Nov 6 22:18:57 EST 1997
From: tbisson At: 207.38.248.167
Sure. The book is about the struggle between the world and the spirit. Specifically, it's about a very unworldly monk who wants to get out of the monastery. This monk's problem is that he;'s a holy man (a man of God) even though he doesnlt want to be. So that everything he does, no matter how worldly or selfish, as a spiritual dimension. Blacktooth works for a gun running cardinal and falls in love with a mutant. It's pretty much your standard monk loves mutant tale.
MsgId: *omni_visions(19)
Date: Thu Nov 6 22:23:23 EST 1997
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
Oh, another one of those. :) What are you working on right now?
MsgId: *omni_visions(20)
Date: Thu Nov 6 22:24:12 EST 1997
From: tbisson At: 207.38.248.167
Right now I'm working on a very sweet little teen love story. She's a member of a school club called the kevorkians.
MsgId: *omni_visions(22)
Date: Thu Nov 6 22:24:57 EST 1997
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
Is this a short work?
MsgId: *omni_visions(23)
Date: Thu Nov 6 22:25:17 EST 1997
From: tbisson At: 207.38.248.167
The idea is, there IS a life after death. But it's only for teenagers who kill themselves.Not too short. I think it may be a noveleenie when it;s finished.
MsgId: *omni_visions(25)
Date: Thu Nov 6 22:27:43 EST 1997
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
Ooh, a noveleenie! A new category for SFFWA to worry about. This brings me (earlier than usual) to my favorite question: What are the differences for you between writing short fiction and novels?
MsgId: *omni_visions(26)
Date: Thu Nov 6 22:28:33 EST 1997
From: tbisson At: 207.38.248.167
Novels tend to be longer.
MsgId: *omni_visions(27)
Date: Thu Nov 6 22:29:06 EST 1997
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
Uh-huh.
MsgId: *omni_visions(28)
Date: Thu Nov 6 22:29:20 EST 1997
From: tbisson At: 207.38.248.167
Seriously, short fiction is held in imaginative RAM while you are working. Even if you don't now how the story will end --
MsgId: *omni_visions(29)
Date: Thu Nov 6 22:29:43 EST 1997
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
(Two can play this game. :-)
MsgId: *omni_visions(30)
Date: Thu Nov 6 22:29:57 EST 1997
From: tbisson At: 207.38.248.167
Even if you don't know how the story will end, the STORY knows. With a novel it's different. It gets BUILT as you go along. It changes (at least mine do). You work without seeing the end. (At least I do.) It's more like farming than gardening. Novel writing, that is. You go out to the same field, day after day. Nothing much changes from day to day. It takes patience and endurance.
Writing a novel is also a big investment of time and work. You are never sure a novel is going to work.
MsgId: *omni_visions(35)
Date: Thu Nov 6 22:33:19 EST 1997
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
So would it be fair to characterize your short work as being character and/or premise driven, rather than story twists?
MsgId: *omni_visions(36)
Date: Thu Nov 6 22:33:22 EST 1997
From: tbisson At: 207.38.248.167
With a story you know. A story only has to do one thing. It can be a big thing or a small thing. It only has to do it well. A novel, it it's any good has to do several things. And they all have to be related, in unexpected (sometimes) ways. Story driven and character driven is the same thing to me. I guess that means mine are character driven, yes. Though I think what really drives a story is a search for symmetry. There is an arc and an exit point that, if found, can turn a piece of writing into a story.
MsgId: *omni_visions(40)
Date: Thu Nov 6 22:40:12 EST 1997
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
What are the kinds of things you try to do with your novels? Let's say, "Pirates of the Universe" or "Voyage to the Red Planet?"
MsgId: *omni_visions(41)
Date: Thu Nov 6 22:42:35 EST 1997
From: tbisson At: 207.38.248.167
In my novels I try to do what every novelist tries to do: to create a pattern of character, language and incident so compelling and wondrous that everyone on Earth will stop what they are doing and pay attention. In the short run, I try to predict the future, seduce all the women, and rob all the men.
MsgId: *omni_visions(43)
Date: Thu Nov 6 22:45:01 EST 1997
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
But not necessarily in that order. Would you consider yourself a satirist?
MsgId: *omni_visions(44)
Date: Thu Nov 6 22:46:51 EST 1997
From: tbisson At: 207.38.248.167
A satirist? Occasionally, in short work like "The Toxic Donut." But in general, no. A true satirist, and I would consider Jim Morrow and Kurt Vonnegut to be true satirists . . . a true satirist has to be a bit of a puritan, I think. I'm a wishy washy liberal.
MsgId: *omni_visions(46)
Date: Thu Nov 6 22:51:00 EST 1997
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
I guess some of this hinges on our definition of satire. I think "Next" might be considered to be satirical, for example, whatever the politics from which it arose. And some aspects of "Voyage" might also run into that turf. Whaddya think?
MsgId: *omni_visions(47)
Date: Thu Nov 6 22:53:53 EST 1997
From: tbisson At: 207.38.248.167
The novel itself started as satire -- Don Quixote, which was a send up of the sword and sorcery romances of the day. And "SF" in particular started as satore -- if yo call Gulliver's travels SF. But along came Mary Shelly and SF started taking itself very seriously. Satire has to be mean. Miller is always funny, mordant, but never really satorical. He is too compassionate. And in a sense he never saw a sin he didn't adhare.
MsgId: *omni_visions(50)
Date: Thu Nov 6 22:58:20 EST 1997
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
I "do" call "Gulliver's Travels" SF, fwiw. How's about your plays? Do you set out to write in that form, or does a story somehow tell you that is how it would best work. (Does this question make any sense?)
MsgId: *omni_visions(51)
Date: Thu Nov 6 22:58:45 EST 1997
From: tbisson At: 207.38.248.167
Typo: Miller is always satorical, but never satirical.I olny set out to write a play once: a teleplay which will be published in S&SF next year. In general, a play for me is just a shrt story that looks like it will work on the boards.
MsgId: *omni_visions(54)
Date: Thu Nov 6 23:02:51 EST 1997
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
And yet, you've had an evening of theatre produced in NY, and at least one radio drama (so far).(Message to all: We have now opened the forum for audience participation. If you would like to add your comments or chat with Terry Bisson, use the dialog box which should have been added to your screen by now. (Click on "Pause While Typing", first.) Please don't forget to sign your messages so we know who you are.)
MsgId: *omni_visions(56)
Date: Thu Nov 6 23:04:38 EST 1997
From: tbisson At: 207.38.248.167
Yeah, but as you know it;s very hard to get small theatre produced in NY. It's an unfortunate side effect of the theatre boom.
MsgId: *omni_visions(58)
Date: Thu Nov 6 23:07:48 EST 1997
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
Indeed, but there's always hope and opportunity. I think we'll see more of your work on the stage. Have you considered writing a full-length play?
MsgId: *omni_visions(63)
Date: Thu Nov 6 23:13:55 EST 1997
From: tbisson At: 207.38.248.167
I hope to never write a full length anything.
MsgId: *omni_visions(57)
Date: Thu Nov 6 23:06:55 EST 1997
From: guest At: 150.176.249.54
Terry, Where do you see science fiction headed as a genre? Is that any particular direction or do you see it getting more diverse in terms of subject matter?
MsgId: *omni_visions(59)
Date: Thu Nov 6 23:08:18 EST 1997
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
Guests, please sign your messages.
MsgId: *omni_visions(60)
Date: Thu Nov 6 23:09:18 EST 1997
From: tbisson At: 207.38.248.167
The most hopeful thing, I think, is the new trend toward "hard" SF. I think KS Robinson's Mars books are very salutary in bringing SF back toward its roots as speculative literature. Social and technological speculation is something SF does very well. Stan and Wells are both Fabian socialists, each in their own way. This to me is SF playing with its strengths.
MsgId: *omni_visions(62)
Date: Thu Nov 6 23:13:28 EST 1997
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
What brought you to SF in the first place?
MsgId: *omni_visions(64)
Date: Thu Nov 6 23:16:12 EST 1997
From: tbisson At: 207.38.248.167
What brought me to SF was SF itself. The forst authors I read who actually MOVED me were Ray Bradbury and Clifford Simak's, SF great midcentury romantics.
MsgId: *omni_visions(65)
Date: Thu Nov 6 23:16:36 EST 1997
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
[grin] I meant a feature play. So far, they've mostly been short works.
MsgId: *omni_visions(66)
Date: Thu Nov 6 23:17:28 EST 1997
From: tbisson At: 207.38.248.167
Sorry I'm such a crummy typist. It's one of the key privileges of being a writer -- you get to correct yourself, (so you get sloppy).I could never write a three act full length play. I don't know how (or why) anybody does. Why would anybody sit through a play when they can go to a movie?
MsgId: *omni_visions(68)
Date: Thu Nov 6 23:18:25 EST 1997
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
Ah, Simak. I wish more writers would remember to acknowledge him. Could you elaborate more on some of your antecedants? It's the nature of chats to have bad tpyos.
MsgId: *omni_visions(67)
Date: Thu Nov 6 23:17:48 EST 1997
From: guest At: 150.176.249.54
There was an interesting discussion in one of the forums in the New York Times recently involving "Why does science fiction get such little respect?". I don't really agree with this assumption but I'd be interested to hear your reaction to it. Mike McCoy
MsgId: *omni_visions(71)
Date: Thu Nov 6 23:22:03 EST 1997
From: tbisson At: 207.38.248.167
Nowriter (or field) gets as much respect as it thinks it deserves. I think SF gets about as much as it deserves. I think you can count the really great SF writers on two hands, and most of them (all but Lafferty) have been recognized. Even if it, as with Dick, a day late and a dollar short
MsgId: *omni_visions(72)
Date: Thu Nov 6 23:22:17 EST 1997
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
Gee, and I just got back from London where one of my prime reasons to go was to see the theatre there. The theatrical mis-en-scene is so unique. I do think theatre can add a dimension to sf the genre would otherwise lack -- more of a potential for sense of wonder and audience involvement, for example.
MsgId: *omni_visions(73)
Date: Thu Nov 6 23:25:55 EST 1997
From: guest At: 150.176.249.54
What, if any, impact do you think the internet is having on the writing of science fiction? Mike McCoy
MsgId: *omni_visions(74)
Date: Thu Nov 6 23:27:43 EST 1997
From: tbisson At: 207.38.248.167
The impact of the internet on the writing of SF? Gee, I don't know. Am I missing something? What do you think it is? I think the internet is having an impact on the publication and dissemination of SF. Probably for the better. But the writing . . . I tend to be pretty old fashioned about writing. Fiction writing is a wrestling with dramatic structure that is largely independent of tools. I don't think the typewriter or the word processor changed things much.
MsgId: *omni_visions(78)
Date: Thu Nov 6 23:34:55 EST 1997
From: guest At: 150.176.249.54
I agree. It seems that with every new tool that comes along there is talk of a "revolution", but it's the actual writing that counts.
MsgId: *omni_visions(79)
Date: Thu Nov 6 23:35:50 EST 1997
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
What about hypertext? Do either of you see that as a legitimate potential for writing sf?
MsgId: *omni_visions(80)
Date: Thu Nov 6 23:38:39 EST 1997
From: tbisson At: 207.38.248.167
Hypertext to me is like karaoke. I'm out the door.
MsgId: *omni_visions(81)
Date: Thu Nov 6 23:39:21 EST 1997
From: guest At: 150.176.249.54
Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I prefer to read a book or story with some kind of 'ending' even if it is open ended at that. To be able to have multiple plots does not interest me that much. Mike McCoy
MsgId: *omni_visions(83)
Date: Thu Nov 6 23:40:37 EST 1997
From: tbisson At: 207.38.248.167
A writer's job is to fiund the best way to tell a story. Hypertext says there is no best way. If this is true, it undermines the illusion common to all art, that there IS a best way and that it CAN be discovered.I agree, McCoy. The point of a literary work is to impose a stillness of life. If you;re not going to pin it down, if it;s going to keep wiggling, what's the point?
MsgId: *omni_visions(82)
Date: Thu Nov 6 23:40:16 EST 1997
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
[broad grin] Have you considered writing for other media? Has writing novelizations, for example, given you a taste to try cinema?
MsgId: *omni_visions(86)
Date: Thu Nov 6 23:44:59 EST 1997
From: tbisson At: 207.38.248.167
You don't have to write novelizations to get a "taste" for cinema. Every writer in America (at least) imitates cinema, whether he wants to or not.Writing for cinema is something else. I think you have to be there to sell a screenplay (I have written one; unsold). And all the skills you have developed, except for dialogue and pacing, you have to throw away. All that intersting POV stuff you learned at Clarion -- chuck it.
MsgId: *omni_visions(85)
Date: Thu Nov 6 23:44:38 EST 1997
From: guest At: 150.176.249.54
In an Omni chat with Robert Silverberg, I believe he stated that he really didn't read much science fiction currently. How about you? Mike
MsgId: *omni_visions(90)
Date: Thu Nov 6 23:49:48 EST 1997
From: tbisson At: 207.38.248.167
I just finished Silvergberg's latest. But in general, no. I read my friends, of course; they'd know if I didn't. But I don't attempt to keep up with the field.
MsgId: *omni_visions(87)
Date: Thu Nov 6 23:45:21 EST 1997
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
Re hypertext: I really have no bone to pick on this, but I would argue that hypertext doesn't mean just non-linear writing. It can also be a way to add addenda in a manner books cannot, free from serial constraints. However, I'm no fiction writer.Was that screenplay based on any of your published work?
MsgId: *omni_visions(91)
Date: Thu Nov 6 23:50:48 EST 1997
From: tbisson At: 207.38.248.167
No, the screenplay I wrote was a blatant attempt to write a commercial soft core porn flick, set in VR.
MsgId: *omni_visions(92)
Date: Thu Nov 6 23:53:52 EST 1997
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
Maybe Fox will pick it up. :) Any chance of a movie or teleplay being done? I recall you had some work optioned.
MsgId: *omni_visions(93)
Date: Thu Nov 6 23:55:34 EST 1997
From: tbisson At: 207.38.248.167
Necronauts (pub in Playboy) was optioned by Universal. It looks oike they are doing a script for Necronauts. The writer is the same guy who wrote Event Horizon. An unfortunate film.
MsgId: *omni_visions(95)
Date: Thu Nov 6 23:56:50 EST 1997
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
Well, it's about time to wrap up for tonight. What's coming out in the near future?
MsgId: *omni_visions(96)
Date: Fri Nov 7 00:00:24 EST 1997
From: tbisson At: 207.38.248.167
I learned a couple of things: I was surprised when Johnny Mnemonic didn't work. But even the most popular and best known SF writer of the day (Bill Gibson) is a nobody when it comes to film. And loom at "Starship Troopers." The BIGGEST name in all of SF (Heinlein) and they don't even bother to put it on the posters.I have a new Wilson Wu story coming out in Asimov's sometime next year. And a short in F&SF. And hopefully, a book around the adventures of the mad mathemetician, Wilson Wu.
MsgId: *omni_visions(98)
Date: Fri Nov 7 00:04:19 EST 1997
From: guest At: 150.176.249.54
Thanks Terry. Enjoyed it very much. Keep up the good work. Mike McCoy
MsgId: *omni_visions(99)
Date: Fri Nov 7 00:04:41 EST 1997
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
I'll certainly be looking forward to these, as always. And of course, to Audience, don't forget "St. Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman" and "Pirates of the Universe" are on better bookshelves now. T, thanks for being here!
MsgId: *omni_visions(100)
Date: Fri Nov 7 00:05:35 EST 1997
From: Rob_Killheffer At: 205.198.117.135
I second that, Mike -- thanks for a great chat, Terry, and you too, Jim, for your usual wonderful job as host. Ellen will be back sysopping next week, when our guest will be S.P. Somtow, talking about his new novel, "Darker Angels." See you all then!
MsgId: *omni_visions(101)
Date: Fri Nov 7 00:06:31 EST 1997
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
Thanks, Rob! (Didn't know you was there)
MsgId: *omni_visions(102)
Date: Fri Nov 7 00:06:32 EST 1997
From: tbisson At: 207.38.248.167
Thank you Mike,. And Jim. And whoever else was around. G'nite--
MsgId: *omni_visions(103)
Date: Fri Nov 7 00:06:53 EST 1997
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
Good night, all.
MsgId: *omni_visions(104)
Date: Fri Nov 7 00:07:13 EST 1997
From: Rob_Killheffer At: 205.198.117.135
Goodnight, one and all.
