Prime Time Replay:
Jonathan Lethem
on Amnesia Moon and The Wall of the Sky, the Wall of the Eye
MsgId: *omni_visions(9)
Date: Thu Dec 26 21:45:54 EST 1996
From: jonathan_lethem At: 153.35.1.242
This is a test. Had this been an actual message it would have been interesting. This has been a test of the Jonathan Lethem broadcast channel. Jim?
MsgId: *omni_visions(10)
Date: Thu Dec 26 21:59:36 EST 1996
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
Hi Jonathan... Just getting stuff in order. Lovely interface, huh?
MsgId: *omni_visions(11)
Date: Thu Dec 26 22:00:21 EST 1996
From: jonathan_lethem At: 153.35.1.242
Hey, it's working. No crashes is all I ask.
MsgId: *omni_visions(12)
Date: Thu Dec 26 22:01:41 EST 1996
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
I just had one. (Non-chemical in nature.) At any rate, welcome!
MsgId: *omni_visions(14)
Date: Thu Dec 26 22:04:33 EST 1996
From: jonathan_lethem At: 153.35.1.242
Thanks, Jim. This interface is oddly lonely, after working at HotWired for so long. There you always had a list of who was lurking.
MsgId: *omni_visions(13)
Date: Thu Dec 26 22:03:50 EST 1996
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
I guess we shouldn't assume everyone has read _Amnesia Moon_ yet. Do you have a simple way of describing it? (Tough question, for a book with that much sub-text...)
MsgId: *omni_visions(15)
Date: Thu Dec 26 22:06:39 EST 1996
From: jonathan_lethem At: 153.35.1.242
Amnesia Moon: a road novel set set in a fragmented future America. A collage of disaster and dystopia scenarios. A psychic chase scene. Amnesia Moon is where I tried to dispose of all my impulses to destroy the world in one book.
MsgId: *omni_visions(18)
Date: Thu Dec 26 22:09:53 EST 1996
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
I shouldn't ask which psychics are being chased... -- If your first novel has been described (by me at least, and I think John Clute) as Chandleresque, Is _AM_ Kerouacian? Dickesque? Or simply Lethemian?
MsgId: *omni_visions(19)
Date: Thu Dec 26 22:11:50 EST 1996
From: jonathan_lethem At: 153.35.1.242
Well, it is an out-and-out homage to Dick -- the most overtly influenced book I'll probably ever write (Though the next one owes a lot to Delillo..) But also Kerouac. And Cornell Woolrich. And a lot of movies -- A BOY AND HIS DOG, AN AMERICAN FRIEND & KINGS OF THE ROAD (both Wim Wenders)....
MsgId: *omni_visions(20)
Date: Thu Dec 26 22:13:29 EST 1996
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
Are there any over-riding influences over your body of work? (I mean as opposed to any one story.)
MsgId: *omni_visions(23)
Date: Thu Dec 26 22:16:07 EST 1996
From: jonathan_lethem At: 153.35.1.242
A few overriding influences -- I'll just list them and you grab onto what you find interesting: Dick, Crumb, Hitchcock, Highsmith, Graham Greene, Calvino, Borges, Kafka, Howard Hawks, Orson Welles, Lewis Carroll, Robert Heinlein, ummmm...We're talking BIG UNDERLYING INFLUENCES, you understand. Shirley Jackson. THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH. Don Delillo. Marvel Comics. Fritz Lang. I could go on... George Herriman.
To answer a question I just realized you asked (implicitly): I think people draw the Kerouac comparison because they're groping for a way to describe what it is about AMNESIA MOON that feels like it isn't SF... not that it's a bad comparison (or not an influence).
MsgId: *omni_visions(27)
Date: Thu Dec 26 22:23:56 EST 1996
From: jonathan_lethem At: 153.35.1.242
Hmmm... I hear an echo. Am I interviewing myself at the moment? Fair enough. How did Robert Crumb influence AMNESIA MOON, Lethem? Well, the relationship of Chaos (protagonist) and Kellogg (villain in the early going) is very similar to that between Flakey Foont and Mr. Natural in R. Crumb's now-classic early "MR NATURAL" comics, which I recommend most highly.
MsgId: *omni_visions(26)
Date: Thu Dec 26 22:22:43 EST 1996
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
Sorry--got thrown out and had to reboot... "Well, the relationship of Chaos (protagonist) and Kellogg (villain in the early going) is very similar to that between Flakey Foont and Mr. Natural." -- That's enlightening -- complete with the abuse. Though I never saw the two of them as acting out their violent natures as such.
MsgId: *omni_visions(34)
Date: Thu Dec 26 22:32:10 EST 1996
From: jonathan_lethem At: 153.35.1.242
Okay, Chaos is Flakey Foont on a bad day... basically, I stole Mr. Natural's style of being a irreverent guru who makes fun of the sobriety of his follower for Kellogg. But there's also that WIZARD OF OZ influence in there... for me, the movie, not the books, which I never read.For me it's amazing how influential certain 'children's literature' has been... I graduated to 'adult' books (not porn, wiseguy!) quickly, but it seems like nearly all the kid's books I read were important. And I can trace their connections to my work... Lewis Carroll, as I said, The MOOMIN BOOKS (a Finnish writer whose name I'm forgetting) HARRIET THE SPY, etc.
But I could point out influences all day -- a fun sport for me, but I'm not sure it's so gripping if you didn't happen to write the book yourself. Let alone for those in our audience who haven't READ the thing.
MsgId: *omni_visions(37)
Date: Thu Dec 26 22:35:11 EST 1996
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
When writing a book, do you conscientiously think of the reader's experience when writing, or more of the characters? (Or is that question completely off the mark...?)
MsgId: *omni_visions(38)
Date: Thu Dec 26 22:36:43 EST 1996
From: jonathan_lethem At: 153.35.1.242
Hmmm... I'd say I remain conscious of the reader's (virtual) attention at every moment. I myself am a kind of reader even as I write, and I try to please myself. But I do find that stories live and breathe more if my characters are real enough to exert an influence, bend things, impress me now and then with their own notions. I wouldn't go so far as to say I ever surrender control, or make sacrifices in readerly pleasure to indulge them. My characters have gotten rounder lately.This also has something to do with creating plots/situations more improvisationally, so the characters are less hidebound by some overpowering plot mechanic. The book I'm writing now is freer in that sense.
MsgId: *omni_visions(41)
Date: Thu Dec 26 22:41:43 EST 1996
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
Which begs the question, what are you working on now?
MsgId: *omni_visions(43)
Date: Thu Dec 26 22:43:18 EST 1996
From: jonathan_lethem At: 153.35.1.242
Put this guy on stage and watch him blab away, eh? Well, as I was saying, the book I'm working on now is more character driven... it's a sort of Western-in-Space, told from the point of view of a 13 year old girl. Working title: GIRL IN LANDSCAPE. The book is very directly influenced by a John Ford film called "The Searchers". John Wayne is the hero of the movie; he's sort of the villain in my book. The writing is most influenced, in this case, by Shirley Jackson. Her prose, and her sense of character psychology.Of course if I had any commercial sense at all I'd be plugging the book that's about to COME OUT, as opposed to the one in the workshop. There is a new book out in March. But go ahead and ask me more about GIRL IN LANDSCSAPE if you like... it's certainly on my mind.
MsgId: *omni_visions(47)
Date: Thu Dec 26 22:48:09 EST 1996
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
Great movie, The Searchers. With so much of your work being influenced by visual media, have you thought of adapting, or having your stories adapted, to film?
MsgId: *omni_visions(48)
Date: Thu Dec 26 22:50:32 EST 1996
From: jonathan_lethem At: 153.35.1.242
Well, that's being taken care of for me, in a sense. Both GUN and AMNESIA MOON have been optioned by real hollywood producers, and so they'll get their shot in that high-stakes, low-odds world... I'm not involved in either project (beyond cashing checks) and that's probably for the best. In each case I said what I had to say.I did, however, collaborate in adapting one of my novellas, "The Happy Man", for a feature-length screenplay. The experience led to some meetings with producers, some quite flattering, some Barton-Fink-ish, but no cigar. I was pleased to get my brief taste of the screenwriter's life and get out, at least for now.
MsgId: *omni_visions(49)
Date: Thu Dec 26 22:52:46 EST 1996
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
The mind boggles at the thought of GWOM being filmed. In your fantasies, who would direct? (I think Tim Burton might be right for _Gun_)
MsgId: *omni_visions(52)
Date: Thu Dec 26 22:58:04 EST 1996
From: jonathan_lethem At: 153.35.1.242
Well, they offered it to Burton, I think. Personally I'd want someone less cartoony, who could bring out the serious side (since the jokes will take care of themselves, I suspect). Carl Franklin (ONE FALSE MOVE, DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS) would be good.
MsgId: *omni_visions(51)
Date: Thu Dec 26 22:56:36 EST 1996
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
A question from Neil Ira Belsky: (long time no see) -- A rather interesting choice for source material. Many people feel that John Wayne was already the villian for trying to reestablish the status quo for the girl. Have you decided how you are going to handle this?
MsgId: *omni_visions(53)
Date: Thu Dec 26 23:00:42 EST 1996
From: jonathan_lethem At: 153.35.1.242
Yes, Neil, you're absolutely right... the power of THE SEARCHERS is in the ambiguity around the John Wayne figure... I did my best not to underestimate the film... my character is flying more bluntly in the face of reality, let's put it that way. But he's not completely evil... the difference is more one of VIEWPOINT. I take the girl's throughout...
MsgId: *omni_visions(55)
Date: Thu Dec 26 23:04:14 EST 1996
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
It would be interesting to remake The Searchers completely from the Natalie Wood POV (which is somewhat what you're doing...)
MsgId: *omni_visions(56)
Date: Thu Dec 26 23:05:30 EST 1996
From: jonathan_lethem At: 153.35.1.242
My story is also one of COMPLICITY -- the community's need for a "John Wayne" figure -- which is a sub-sub-motif in the film, I think. Plus I complicate things in a lot of sillier ways. My aliens are less noble and less savage both than John Ford's Indians. They stand around making droll comments, mostly. The occasional pratfall, too.Martin Scorsese said the only flaw in THE SEARCHERS is that it's missing a scene between Debbie (Natalie Wood) and Scar, the Indian who she weds. That's why TAXI DRIVER has a long love scene between Jodi Foster and Harvey Keitel (her pimp)....
MsgId: *omni_visions(57)
Date: Thu Dec 26 23:05:56 EST 1996
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
What is your Gibsonesque thing for not having a computer? :-)(Yes, I know he has a Mac now, but you've been a chat host, and you're still bumming around for a login...:-)
MsgId: *omni_visions(61)
Date: Thu Dec 26 23:11:22 EST 1996
From: jonathan_lethem At: 153.35.1.242
Practical answers, Jim -- I'm fond of my old computer, a Toshiba laptop without a harddrive. And Wordperfect 4.2. I haven't spent a cent on computing (or a moment of writing time on learning curve stuff) for eight years... I still haven't been persuaded that I need e-mail -- I love postal mail, and I'm slave enough to the phone as it is.I'm very obsessive-compulsive about replies, and I think e-mail would be the death of my writing, frankly. Having said all that, I'll probably be upgrading and on-line tomorrow.
MsgId: *omni_visions(64)
Date: Thu Dec 26 23:13:52 EST 1996
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
Good answers. but then computing is an obsession (and profession) for me. Have you ever looked upon the computer as a medium (such as hypertext) you might work in in the future?
MsgId: *omni_visions(66)
Date: Thu Dec 26 23:17:06 EST 1996
From: jonathan_lethem At: 153.35.1.242
Short answer: nope. I'm linear and a control freak. Plus I've got friends who have that stuff covered, god bless 'em. I think they're breaking ground (as have other fiction/prose avant gardes) that will feed the traditional novel, which is my form. So I'll read them with interest, exchange thoughts with them informally and on panels, but never work in their medium.
MsgId: *omni_visions(68)
Date: Thu Dec 26 23:18:39 EST 1996
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
You say the novel is your form, but you've written some brilliant short stories. Have you given those up?
MsgId: *omni_visions(70)
Date: Thu Dec 26 23:22:03 EST 1996
From: jonathan_lethem At: 153.35.1.242
I misspoke myself. I hope never to give up the short story (another traditional form, of course), though I am writing fewer these days. The predictable career course, I'm afraid. I've been fantasizing about giving over a year to stories sometime in the next century.Oh, and thanks for calling them brilliant.
MsgId: *omni_visions(72)
Date: Thu Dec 26 23:26:45 EST 1996
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
Is it economically feasible to give oneself over to short stories these days? (I'm a big fan of the form, but so many writers say they just can't afford to do it.)
MsgId: *omni_visions(73)
Date: Thu Dec 26 23:26:47 EST 1996
From: jonathan_lethem At: 153.35.1.242
I would just as well economically writing short stories as novels if I wrote twenty or more in a year and sold them all to The New Yorker, Omni, Playboy and Harper's... but that's not too likely, is it?(oops. I just did the math and realized that makes it sound like I'm doing awfully well... a man can dream, can't he?)
The problem with stories is not just the economic disincentives. I've got 2.5 unwritten novels stacked up waiting to be written, and so there's a sort of internal competition for attention between the forms. I wish I could write faster.
MsgId: *omni_visions(76)
Date: Thu Dec 26 23:30:01 EST 1996
From: EllenDatlow At: 152.170.69.66
As a short story editor I have a problem pushing writers who started out writing short stories to continue to do so. I've lost wonderful writers who have gone on to novels and as you say, don't have the time or economic incentive to keep writing short fiction.So few markets pay authors well enough to allow them to keep writing short fiction. I tried for years to get Joan Vinge to write a story for OMNI (I got here after her fer- tile period of short story writing) and she said it took her as long to build an entire world for a story as it did for a novel.
MsgId: *omni_visions(81)
Date: Thu Dec 26 23:35:17 EST 1996
From: jonathan_lethem At: 153.35.1.242
Yes, Ellen -- my substantial stories (like the ones assembled in my collection, ahem) DO involve as much 'world-building' (that makes it sound a very scientific process, which it isn't) as a novel...
MsgId: *omni_visions(75)
Date: Thu Dec 26 23:29:21 EST 1996
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
Are these all sf books waiting to be writ?
MsgId: *omni_visions(80)
Date: Thu Dec 26 23:33:20 EST 1996
From: jonathan_lethem At: 153.35.1.242
Jim, you know me well enough to know I try to dodge questions of genre placement at every opportunity... I can only guarantee continued strangeness. One of the unwritten books is (probably) a contemporary crime novel with a sort of Oliver Sacks element... another is a novel-length party scene set on a generational spaceship... sf or not? I hope to raise that question, not answer it.
MsgId: *omni_visions(82)
Date: Thu Dec 26 23:35:25 EST 1996
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
Rob Kilheffer calls that 'Stealth SF'. A great name, I think. Your writing goes well in places like Crank and Century.
MsgId: *omni_visions(83)
Date: Thu Dec 26 23:36:05 EST 1996
From: jonathan_lethem At: 153.35.1.242
Jim, you probably ought to ask me a bit about the book coming in March, yes?
MsgId: *omni_visions(84)
Date: Thu Dec 26 23:38:01 EST 1996
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
*ahem* Jonathan, I understand you have a book coming out in March. Can you tell us about it?
MsgId: *omni_visions(85)
Date: Thu Dec 26 23:40:01 EST 1996
From: jonathan_lethem At: 153.35.1.242
"Must I do everything myself?" he raged, flattening several small Japanese cities with one mighty thrash of his magnificent tail.... ah, the new book is called AS SHE CLIMBED ACROSS THE TABLE. It's set on a college campus in Northern California, and involves a love triangle between man, woman, and void.Oh, there you are Jim, he said sweetly. Yes, in March. Yes, I'm quite proud of it. A funny book, and a real love story, I think. No crime/mystery influence this time. Calvino, Delillo, and Lem. Very rubbery science. "Alice in Wonderland meets White Noise" says the publisher. New publisher -- Doubleday.
MsgId: *omni_visions(92)
Date: Thu Dec 26 23:47:40 EST 1996
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
In the words of RA Lafferty, Does anyone else have anything further to add?
MsgId: *omni_visions(93)
Date: Thu Dec 26 23:48:22 EST 1996
From: jonathan_lethem At: 153.35.1.242
My eyeballs feel like superballs that the cat's been batting around the floor for a few hours... holiday hangover, etc. mind if we leave off here, having plugged?
MsgId: *omni_visions(94)
Date: Thu Dec 26 23:50:12 EST 1996
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
No prob. Well, when you all take back those crappy gifts you got for the holidays, exchange them for a copy of _Amnesia Moon_ and/or _The Wall of the Sky, The Wall of the Eye_ by Jonathan Lethem. Thanks for being here.
MsgId: *omni_visions(95)
Date: Thu Dec 26 23:51:03 EST 1996
From: jonathan_lethem At: 153.35.1.242
Thanks for having me, Jim, and Ellen. See you in the real world.
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