Time travel to 2001 for Episode 7 of Eating the Fantastic with Samuel R. Delany
Originally published at Scott Edelman. Please leave any comments there.
The latest episode of Eating the Fantastic was recorded 15 years before Eating the Fantastic began.
How is that possible?
Well, when it comes to Chip Delany, all things are possible.
On June 18, 2001, while Chip was in the middle of a book tour supporting the 25th anniversary republication of Dhalgren, I interviewed him at Bistro Bis in the Hotel George. The recording I made that day wasn’t created to be heard, but was merely a tool so it could be transcribed and run as text in Science Fiction Weekly, a site I edited during my 13 years at the Syfy Channel.
It had been awhile since I’d thought of that interview, but once I got the first half dozen episodes of Eating the Fantastic live-all of which you can download from iTunes-I dug deep into the vault and found the tapes of that meal. And when I asked Chip if he’d mind me sharing that audio with you, he was gracious enough to say-go for it!
We took no photos that day- of either the food or each other-so this pic of us together during the 2014 Nebula Awards weekend will have to suffice. Knock off a decade or so of age and you’ll get the idea.
And now it’s time to time travel back to 2001 for lunch with Chip as we discuss the 25th anniversary edition of his magnum opus Dhalgren, the “sheer madness” of trying to write such a book in the first place, the state of the science fiction field during the mid-‘70s, the joys he receives from teaching, and much more.
Here’s how to pull up a chair at the table-
1) Subscribe at the iTunes store (and while there, perhaps download some of the older episodes as well).
2) Or use the RSS feed of http://eatingthefantastic.libsyn.com/rss to snag episodes on the device of your choice.
3) Or simply listen below.
I’m not yet sure of the identity of my next guest, but I’ll be at StokerCon in Las Vegas the second weekend of May-where I’ll either win a Stoker Award or, in losing, tie at six for the most nominations without a win-and while there I plan to record several new episodes.
So it might be award-winning poet Linda Addison. Or writer Mary Turzillo, who won a Nebula Award for a story I published when I edited Science Fiction Age. Or it could be writer Gene O’Neill, with whom I attended the Clarion writers workshop way back in 1979 when we were still both getting started. (More time traveling!)
Whoever it ends up being, I hope you’ll join us.