Sharona: If you read carefully, you’ll realize that Evie, Sophie’s sister, is married to a big, mute, vegetarian, powerful, peaceful silverback gorilla, though he’s not named as such. TQ: Tell us something about Invisible Beasts that is not in the book description. Sharona: Sophie, a naturalist who sees invisible beasts, tells playful tales mixing science with visions of love, truth, and a changing biosphere. TQ: Describe Invisible Beasts in 140 characters or less. Also, a lifelong love of Moby-Dick helps me to associate animals with learning, wisdom, mystery, and beauty. But my guiding light is Italo Calvino, who perceived the common inspiration of scientists and poets, and gave it enduring contemporary form. Moreau (“Are we not men?”), Mary Shelley, and ancient authors-Ariosto, who spent years on a lush fantasy epic in honor of his mistress Erasmus of Rotterdam, for his book in which the Goddess of Folly tells all Pliny the Elder, who died in an eruption of Vesuvius and medieval bestiaries. Sharona: When I was fifteen, I wrote a long fan letter to Isaac Asimov, in which, inter alia, I complained about boys who called feminists like me “castrating women.” The great SF author replied that if guys said that, I should ask them what they had to castrate. TQ: Who are some of your literary influences? Favorite authors? But I fall asleep later, so I can only do this on the few days when prayer and art may present their claims without discomposing Mammon (the god of lucre.) Otherwise I get up in the wee hours, recite a few psalms, and work till seven. Sharona: Working at a state school run on the “corporate model.” My writing gets left for when normal Americans take vacation, which I haven’t taken since the nineties. TQ: What is the most challenging thing for you about writing? But if there’s no flame-no transforming obsession that throws off casual smoke and hot light-there’s no point in writing. I tend to the crystalline, hoping to reach a point where structure and meaning are indissolubly wedded. Sharona: Italo Calvino draws the distinction between two schools of creativity: the flame and the crystal. Since then, science and the wonders it reveals have been my inspiration. My first published poem, in high school, entitled “Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation,” was printed in a medical textbook of that name. I started writing shortly after I stopped crawling, because it was a good excuse to hide under a table or piano, escaping the ruthless scrutiny that bipedalism had brought upon me. Sharona: Thanks, it’s great to chat with The Qwillery.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |