From archive (archive) Subject: Author Lists: David Brin From: JWenn.ESAE@XEROX.COM Date: 18 Apr 89 11:24:27 GMT David Brin is the award winning author of the Uplift series. (Startide Rising is probably the best). Aside for "The Practice Effect" (an amusing little novel, but completely light weight), I've found all of his stuff to be quite good traditional SF. He does good short stories too. Now what we need to do is clone him, so he can produce SF faster. [C] == Short Story Collection. [O] == Omnibus. Includes other books. /John arpa: JWenn.ESAE@Xerox.com ---------------------------------------------------------------- Brin, David [,Ph.D.] [U.S.A., 1950- ] The Uplift Series: Sundiver [1980] Earthclan [1987] [O] Startide Rising [1983] The Uplift War [1987] The Practice Effect [1984] The Postman [1985] The River of Time [1987] [C] Benford, Gregory & Brin, David The Heart of the Comet [1986] Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!sunic!news.funet.fi!news.eunet.fi!EU.net!sun4nl!hacktic!flatearth!kruisweg From: kruisweg@flatearth.xs4all.nl (Ruud van de Kruisweg) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written Subject: David Brin interviewed (LONG) Message-ID: <012795025819Rnf0.79b6@flatearth.xs4all.nl> Date: Fri, 27 Jan 1995 02:58:00 +0100 Organization: A Flat Earth Makes Work Easy! X-Newsreader: Rnf 0.79b6 Lines: 393 *************************************************************************** * This interview has originally been published in the Dutch SF magazine * * HOLLAND SF, April 94. This issue also had a short story by David called * * 'Gorilla, My Dreams'. For more information about HOLLAND SF, you can * * email me at kruisweg@flatearth.xs4all.nl. * *************************************************************************** INTERVIEW WITH DAVID BRIN by Ruud van de Kruisweg HSF: In the early eighties you were quite prolific with a new book coming out every year. 'Earth' and 'Glory Season' however took three years each, judging from the publishing dates. Were these two books more difficult to write than the others? Have you been doing more research for these novels? DB: Yes, especially EARTH, which was published in Holland as Aarde. It was a very complex and difficult book. Glory Season was simpler, but very long. Also, I became involved in many other projects, (Including an orchard and a new family.) I am hoping to write faster in the future. My latest book is the next in my Uplift Universe. HSF: I had heard of the computerprogram Life that plays such an important part in 'Glory Season', but I'd never it described as a strategic computer game like in the book. Is this an original concept, or is it based on actual programs? DB: There are many Game of Life simulation programs around today. Unfortunately, most of them are strictly for amusement (such as screen savers) so they are based only on the simplest version of the Game of Life. Very few programs allow you to adjust the recursion rules, in order to simulate general two -dimensional cellular automata, the way variants in Glory Season enable the user to create reversible scenes. I got advice about the game and its background from Rudy Rucker, the mathematician/SF author. HSF: For some reason the idea of single sex societies never died out (though there are enough awful books written about this theme). I could think of quite a lot recent novels about this subject, like Sheri Tepper's "The Gate to Women's Country" , Nicola Griffith's "Ammonite", Pamela Sargent's "The Shore of Women", maybe even Lois MacMaster Bujold's "Ethan of Athos". All these books were written by female writers, not male. What is the reason that men don't dwell on this theme anymore? Is the subject too hot too touch? Are women more interested in the 'war between the sexes', because they still feel that humans are still not created equal, never mind the official word? DB: As I say in my afterword, it is a topic in which men are often denied to have the same wisdom or insight as female authors. Fortunately, only a few silly people have said that about Glory Season... (although those few did make certain the book was not considered for the James Tiptree Award (for gender bending SF). HSF: Is there any particular reason why you think that feminist politics had the upper hand in not considering the book for the JTA? DB: Are you kidding? The award was designed specifically FOR political reasons! The only question was -- would it be controlled by feminists who are true citizens of science fiction... who want to explore ideas and solve problems ... or would they be self-righteousness junkies, holding everything and everybody to ideological litmus tests. I have met very many of the former, feminists such as Sarah Hrdy and Betty Friedan. Alas, there are also many of the latter in SF, who cannot bear the idea of a man writing about such topics... especially a man with liberal views, but views not on the officially approved list. I believe it is a topic of critical importance to the future of the human race,especially given how messy and unjust most patriarchic societies have been. I believe female attributes ought to play much bigger roles in our future, although HOW this shall be done is a crucial question. It is vital to note that not all matriarchal societies need be conservative/pastoralist, as I depict in Glory Season. or later... unlike some recent scenarios, such as women no longer mating with men, but instead with mating with _horses_ (Motherlines by Suzy McKee Charnas), for here Glory Season has one advantage over many of the other books written in this field. It posits a very simple biological mechanism - one so straightforward that I have very little doubt it WILL be tried, sooner or later... unlike some recent scenarios, such as women no longer mating with men, but instead with mating with _horses_, for heaven's sake! Other men who have written in this area include Poul Anderson (Virgin Planet) and Brad Strickland. And especially Phillip Wylie (The Disappearance.) HSF: Horses? DB: There have always been writers (and readers) in SF who don't care about plausibility, just whether it makes a neat image. HSF: Although I liked 'Glory Season' a lot, I was a bit disappointed in the ending. It felt rushed, and a number of plot lines didn't seem resolved. I was expecting to find out more about the war between the old Lysos. I had the feeling that Renna was going to show up in the end, and that the exploded rocket was just a trick to keep the suspense up, just like after the storm when Maia thought her sister had died. Since Renna played such an important part in the book and was not seen since his capture by the reavers, I assumed that he would show up in the end just like Leie had. Of course, this was not the case. Renna died rather anonymously and not very dramatically in a burst of flames. Where's the drama when you're expecting a trick? Then there was that job interview that Brill Upsala had with Maia. Brill knew about the childhood puzzle Maia had solved. How did she know? Brill told Maia that Leie had told her. My first idea was that that must mean that Leie and Brod were not held by Maia's captors anymore, and that Maia could walk out any moment. But the way Brill acted meant that she still felt Maia was in danger. The only one who would have known about the first puzzle must have been Renna. Alas, Renna did die in that explosion. Couldn't you have made his death a bit more convincing? Hidden messages to Maia telling her about his escape route, famou s last words, anything? What I also found surprising was that you dealt with Lysos society quite ubiased, presenting the good and the bad features of such a society. But no one in the book questioned the morality of Renna's culture that was willing to sacrifice not only simple scouts like Renna without much thought, but wouldn't feel much regret about iceships with tens of thousands colonists blown out of the sky. I saw a paralel between the colonization of the Americas and Australia where native peoples where overtaken and ruined by miliions of colonist, and wasn't too enamoured by Renna's world. I couldn't help feeling that the book was originally supposed to go on for quite a bit, but was eventually shortened. Especially the end seemed a bit rushed and uneven. There's enough room in 'Glory Season' for a sequel. Is there going to be one, or is it too soon to tell? DB: You are a very sharp-eyed reader, which makes it a shame that you were disappointed. Yes, I laced the end with hints that all things might not be as they seemed. I, myself, have not entirely decided what those hints mean, yet. But it hardly matters at this point whether I shall do a sequel or not. I would have inserted ambiguities anyway, because of one of my basic principles of writing -- that life itself seldom ties up all the loose ends and mysteries, so why should a novel? The matters you raised are off to one side of the crucial issues of the story -- the developing destiny of Maia and her world -- so I feel under no obligation to tie off every string. (In this specific case, it was important that Maia's destiny not revolve around that of a man. Surely you can see how THAT would have been targeted, by certain people?) I think there MUST be some mysteries and questions left hanging, or else to me no story can ever have the feel of real events. The camera does not fade out. It keeps on filming, even after the climax. Even after the music has died down and the heroine has laid down for a well-deserved rest. HSF: What I also found surprising was that you dealt with Lysos. society quite ubiased, presenting the good and the bad features of. such a society. But no one in the book questioned the morality of. Renna's culture that was willing to sacrifice not only simple. scouts like Renna without much thought, but wouldn't feel much regret. about iceships with tens of thousands colonists blown out of the sky.. DB: The book was MEANT to provoke uncomfortable questions and argument. Renna himself expressed unhappiness with the means that necessity had forced upon the Human Phylum, in order to prevent speciation of humanity's countless scattered fragments. Don't forget, Kees, that we live in an especially favored time of comfort (for we northerners, that is), in which we have grown up with the luxury to develop standards of guilt and kindness never before seen on a wide scale. I APPROVE of these standards. But never forget that history shows 99% of all societies lived under great stress, in which ALL males were soldiers, and all women and children had reason to fear soldiers' wrath. One reason I write SF is in order to provoke thought about possible errors that might bring back such times, as well as discussing some ideas about how to avoid them. HSF: Do you object to your email address being published in Holland SF? (The circulation of Holland SF is not very high, and only a small percentage of the Holland SF readership will have access to the Internet, so it's very unlikely that your mailbox will be swamped by fanmail from the Netherlands, but there's no harm in asking). DB: I would rather you acted as a mailbox for me. Although I have become a minor internet guru, because of EARTH, ironically, I am quite a curmugeon about today's VERSION of the internet. I've intentionally limited all my interactions on internet to little more than email itself... and even that I only read once or twice a week. The reason is that I see an immense tar-baby waiting to suck me in, and take away valuable life-span! Yes, I know I depicted Net Access as a wonderful, empowering thing, in EARTH. But that novel was set fifty years from now. The Netof those days WILL be empowering, if we all fight to make it so. Right now though, I see so many friends wasting SO much time... I refuse to let the present Net's many temptations turn into distractions. Unfortunately that inces most of the stimulating re.arts forums and nifty program exchanges. I hope you understand. I'd feel differently if life weren't so damn short. HSF: What is that you're wary of? Discovering the Internet and all it's myriad possibilities, or the Intenet discovering you (which could include all kinds of loonies hiding behind pseudonyms and anon servers) ? And what could we do to make thesituation improve? (BTW, I know that authors can work with the Internet without being abused by it. Terry Pratchett has a newsgroup devoted to him (alt.fan.pratchett), and he responds to postings by his fans quite regularly. Amrica On Line or Compuserve also seems to have good facilities for authors.) DB: I am wary of the net as a vampire, sucking out my lifespan! I only get another 40 years or so. That time is precious. The Net is dangerous precisely BECAUSE it is so fun and fascinating. I see countless friends having their time bled out of them by this primitive version of the medium, which CAN be empowering, but all-too often winds up REDUCING a person's productivity. Sorry, but I have a lot of things to accomplish before death drags me away, kicking and screaming. HSF: And what could we do to make the situation improve? It will automatically improve. Today's primitive gophers and agents will become the kind of software servants I depict in EARTH. When that happens, the Net will be incredibly empowering. I look forward to it. Until then, I remain wary.(Example... you found a way to contact me. Result? I've spent several hours answering questions. Hours I could have spent writing. It's been fun! For that very reason, I cannot allow this to happen too often!) HSF: I read somewhere that you wanted to write in a three-book cycle: a big serious book, a smaller 'entertainment' and an Uplift-novel. 'Earth' is a big serious book, your next book will be an Uplift-novel, but the one between must have gotten out of hand ..? DB: The second book in my pattern is not meant to be solely an entertainment. Rather, it is to be a straightforward linear novel with a single point of view character, and not part of any universe. (Fixation on writing in a single universe has ruined many good writers, I believe.) Obviously, Glory Season DID get out of hand. My fictional worlds tend to fascinate me too much, and so do my characters. Also, I should note that this pattern is just a rhythm that works for me, not as teadfast rule. HSF: One of the things I really liked about Earth were the thought provoking mini-essays that were all over the book. Two of them still stand out in my memory, the one about future archeologists studying our waste disposal sites as ideal dig sites to learn more about 20th century man, and the one about the ecolgical destruction of Easter Island. DB: Funny you should mention it. A recent issue of F&SF has my story, Detritus Affected, about urban archaeology. It will also appear this summer in my new short story collection, Otherness. Be warned -- the story is VERY weird. HSF: Have you ever written longer popular science essays? DB: Yes, quite a few. Some of them will appear in Otherness. I have many crackpot ideas. In California, the word Crazy is no insult. HSF: From an interview and letters in Locus I later found out that you even visited the remote island as part of your honeymoon. What came first: writing about the island in 'Earth' or your stay on the island. DB: Our visit to Easter Island was intensely moving. It outrages me that people fixate on asking what psychic or alien forces must have helped the natives carve and move those massive statues. That is NOT what we should be learning from those mighty, horrible figures. The real lesson is that the poor natives had to live in a hellish prison their ancestors had made of a beautiful paradise by chopping down every tree on the island. Their depression can be seen on the faces of the statues. Somehow they got it in their heads that, if they only built these things to appease the gods, the gods might then take them OFF that awful place. If you or I had such a notion, and were so powerfully motivated, we'd find WAYS to to cut stone and move it. So did the ingenious (if depressed) Pasquans. Bringing in flying saucers is patronizing and basically racist. HSF: Another thing I liked about the book was it was not only an written warning about the way we destroy our own planet, but it was also a positive book without the technology bashing that I normally associatewith 'green' subjects. DB: Thanks. Like everyone else in the modern West, I want to be a romantic, noticed iconoclast. Most people do this by complaining about this or that fault of western civ, and then posing as if they _invented criticism. In fact, criticism is imbued in all our myths and these people are only behaving as they were trained to behave. I, too, am a big believer in criticism (naturally, since I, too was raised in the same way!) Criticism is the only known anodyne against _error. The difference is that I notice the fact _that all this criticism is going on! Ironically, I find this a source for optimism, since it shows the crude beginnings of wisdom. No other civilization so institutionalized this strange tradition of training the young to complain. Besides, if the aim is to be different, it seems these days that it is rather stylishly unique to be an optimist. I find myself almost alone. The truth? I feel there is a 60% chance our descendants will inherit a glorious civilization... after some awfully difficult times. Does that make mean optimist? Hell no! Because there's a 40% chance we'll destroy this beautiful world, and ourselves with it. I find those odds just barely good enough to justify having children... and to stimulate me to work as hard as I can, all my life, to improve the odds. This, I think, is the real reason why so many people are cynics. They want to think the world's going to hell despite anything anybody does, because that excuses their laziness. Why bother, if we''re all doomed, anyway? Lazy fools. HSF: Is writing a full time profession, or just a _very_ succesful and rewarding 'hobby'? DB: The critical mass of English-speaking readers is adequate to make about half a dozen SF authors rich (eg Stephen King), to make about a thirty very comfortable, to give about a hundred full time employment, and about two hundred the ability to _pretend that it is their main job. I have been very fortunate, but to hedge my bets, my wife and I just planted an orchard of fruit trees, so we can still eat if the money stops. HSF: I noticed that early manuscrips of your books get to a _lot_ of people. Why so many? Orscon Scott Card seems to rely mostly on his wife for critical input. Did these readers have a great say in the final outcome of the writing process? DB: I repeat -- criticism is the only known anodyne against _error. I deeply believe it. That does not mean you accept everything everybody says. Quite the contrary! But listening helps... especially when it comes to finding out where the story gets slow. Anyway, why should I stop doing what works? Also, I am always trying new things, so I must keep getting feedback to see if I'm going off course. As for Orson Scott Card, he is very good at what he does, and is apparently not interested in writing about anything but agonized demigods in almost every book, so I can see why he feels he does not need to improve on his very tightly packaged form. HSF: And is the Caltech 'Spectra' SF club in any way related to Bantam Books and/or the research institute? DB: That's SPECTRE... and no, it's just the name of the SF club at Caltech, where I went to university long ago HSF: I get the impression that you not only leave unexplained mysteries and surprises in your books for the reader, but also for yourself to puzzle over while writing. This seems to tie in nicely with a rumour that one of the key questions in Startide Rising, the nature of the star fleet discovered by the humans, couldn't even be answered by the writer himself at the time of writing Startide Rising. Is this the case, and is this one of the reasons why Earth and to a lesser extent Glory Season were more difficult to write? (It seems to be a common problem for writers. Tad Williams had lots of problems finishing the concluding novel of his epic trilogy, because despite his global idea about the shape of the trilogy, his fictional characters still got out of hand in the second book, and it took him about 1500 pages to get things in order.) DB: True. I must, above all, amuse and intrigue MYSELF, or I won't be disciplined enough to work hard on the book. A little mystery helps Not a very professional at titude, I'm afraid. HSF: What can you tell us about the forthcoming book? When will _Sooners_ (if that is going to be the title) come out and (most importantly), will we find out what the Streaker has actually discovered? Or are there some mysteries that men were never meant to know :-) ? DB: Sooners was the working title for the present book, which is the next Uplift novel. It takes us one more step along the trail back toward what the Streaker has actually discovered. But it's going to take some time. HSF: I would have thought that modern publishing would have entered the electronic age years ago. With the popularity of word processors and electronic publishing the published book on the shelves of your local bookstore would be the only stage where actual printed paper would come in. This doesn't seem to be the case however from what I've read in articles. How do you feel about the subject as an environmentally conscious author? DB: Publishers are so conservative, I'm surprised they don't still use scribes writing on wet clay slabs. HSF: And before I forget, I wish you and your wife all the luck in the world with the newborn child. == This signature is for rent - Email or fax me for details ] Ruud van de Kruisweg - The Flat Earth Company - kruisweg@flatearth.xs4all.nl