Three interviews

[nwhyte]

Yes, everyone, livejournal is back!!!!

And so I have three sets of interview questions, which I will answer as follows:

From loveandgarbage

1. Your LJ is always very interesting to read and you exhibit an eclectic range of interests. What has led you to have such a diverse range of interests; and do you feel that this range of interests led you to seek out your work

Comments

[watervole]

I gave up NEuromnancer after only one chapter and conculded it was not for me.

Media awards can be far more biased than Hugos. The Cult TV convention has a wide range of awards for things like sound production and editing as well as for actors and the like and I'm afraid they almost inevitably go to someone who has worked on whichever cult show has the largest number of fans attending. Fans often circulate lists of people from 'their' show who are on the list of nominations.

I always made it a principle not to vote unless I'd seen a minimum of 2 and preferably 3 of the five listed enties in each category.

[nwhyte]

I suspect that you are an unusually conscientious voter in that regard!

But it is telling that the Best Dramatic Presentation Hugos tend to get as many, or more, people voting in them as the Best Novel Hugos; although the latter are taken much more seriously by their recipients than the former!

[purplecthulhu]

I'm going to have to disagree with you about Neuromancer. This came along at a time when my interest in SF was waning, and it had the effect of being a total blast of fresh air. It seemed to me to be a new take on everything - the hard boiled plot and characters, the dark and apparently complex world, the twisted plot lines, the whole cyberpunk ethic.

Later pondering of Gibson's work suggest that a lot of the impact of his style is surface effect rather than coming from any deeper working out of his world, but that might not matter. As far as influence goes, the awards were well deserved - Gibson set the agenda for much of 80s SF with this book, and allowed other, possibly better, talents like Bruce Sterling to get their time in the limelight.

[nwhyte]

Sure, I know I'm in a minority on this one (as I am also, apparently, with The Gods Themselves). One of these days I shall write up my feelings about the book properly in my series on joint Hugo and Nebula winners.

[inulro]

I just reread Neuromancer this week (I'm in a book group and that's this month's book), and it's not nearly as bad as I remembered. I think I a) conflate it in my mind with every other bad cyberpunk book I've ever read, which I didn't think was any, and b) conflate it in my mind with everything else Gibson ever wrote, particularly Mona Lisa Overdrive, which was nigh on unreadable.

[strange_complex]

Some very interesting answers to some very interesting questions, there.

And yes please - I would very much like some questions. May be a few days before I answer them, but I've been dying to do this meme for ages, and simply haven't had the time before now.

[nickbarnes]

Spot on about parenthood. We never did agree about Neuromancer, but your views on The Gods Themselves made me re-read it, and come to agree with you. Huh: I liked it when I was 14 or 15.
Do ask me some questions; I could do with something to take my mind off things this week.

interview questions

[artw]

Let's see. Tell us:
1) an achievement from your working life, big or small, that you look back on with personal satisfaction
2) a book you read and loved before you were 11 which Joe has read and loved too
3) something memorable or life-changing that was said at a Quaker meeting you attended
4) a place you love to visit, that for you is magical
5) why salsa?
We're thinking of you.

Interesting stuff

[inulro]

Indeed, here in Belgium I think there is a vast untapped market for editing people's written English to make it sound more like a native speaker's

I'm flailing about looking for alternative employment at the moment, and that sounds like something I could do well, and love doing.

Favourite Languages

I didn't know Georgian had its own alphabet (how embarrassing) - I always figured they used Cyrillic.

We got a legal document from Cambodia at work this week. I've never seen that before either. At first glance it looked like the various Indian scripts, but on closer inspection, it's nothing like.

Re: Interesting stuff

[nwhyte]

that sounds like something I could do well, and love doing.

Yeah, but if you're in an English-speaking country that may be trickier to get into!!!!

Georgain/Cambodian - actually I think the Georgian scripts looks quite similar to Burmese! But almost no equivalence phonetically.

Re: Interesting stuff

[inulro]

Yeah, but if you're in an English-speaking country that may be trickier to get into!!!!

True; but I'm planning to finally get around to getting my British citizenship this year, so I'd be free to spend as much time in Brussels or, indeed, anywhere else in Europe, as I needed to.

I have never seen Burmese script either.

Burmese script

[applez]

Here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burmese_alphabet

and better still, here: http://www.mmtimes.com/