05-15-14:A 2014 Interview with Jeff VanderMeer, 'Authority' Edition
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"...the land people don't talk to the sky people don't talk to the water people..."
Jeff VanderMeer
Jeff VanderMeer wrote and asked me if I could snip off the bits of our interview done earlier this year that referred specifically to what is now his latest book, 'Authority.' I thought it might make a pertinent podcast to accompany my review of the book, which has a release date of last week.
I had an ARC of 'Authority,' a novel I really enjoyed, as it combined many of what I consider to be Jeff's strengths. I love VanderMeer's peculiar sense of humor, on full display here, and we talked about that approach in this novel. VanderMeer and I share a bit of background in that we both spent some time in the Tech world, and both found ourselves in companies where the workplace slowly morphed into something oddly funny. Jeff captures that feeling quite well in this novel.
You'll also hear Jeff talk about an adaptation, and refreshingly, it's the most realistic version I've heard. VanderMeer opines that he'd let the adapters take a stab at doing it their way. A book is after all a very different medium than a movie or, what we all want to see in this post-fantasy-blockbuster-that-needs-no-advertising-here world, a big ol' premium-channel no-adverts mini-series. By the way, if the studios were smart, they'd run those series in movie theaters for limited runs before they show up on the small screen. I bet they'd clean up.
05-13-14 UPDATE:Podcast Update: Time to Read Episode 162: Justin Go, 'The Steady Running of the Hour'
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Here's the one-hundred sixty-second episode of my series of podcasts, which I'm calling Time to Read. Hitting the two-year mark, I'm going to make an effort to stay ahead, so that podcast listeners can get the same sort of "sneak preview" effect that radio listeners get each Friday morning. This week, I'm way behind, but who knows what the hell might happen. I am hoping to get back up and stumbling. I have lots of great books in the hopper to review and lots of great interviews to podcast.
My hope is that in under four minutes I can offer readers a concise review and an opportunity to hear the author read from or speak about the work. I'm hoping to offer a new one every week.
"... the biggest bank robbery in the history of the world ..."
— Matt Taibbi
Alas, I missed Matt Taibbi when he was in town. His schedule was so packed between addressing the Commonwealth Club about his new book, 'The Divide' and working his new venture with Glen Greenwald that my last minute attempts came to naught. But thanks to his fearless publicist and the joys of ISDN connections, we were able to talk, at length, and still have one hell of a good time.
Make no mistake about it. Taibbi is dead serious in his examination of the New American Dystopia, but he and I also managed to laugh, early and often, at his wonderfully tweaked portraits of hell on earth. It's hard not to laugh at some of the mind-bogglingly outlandish exploits that Taibbi documents.
In our previous interview, he and I discussed material similar to this from 'Griftopia.' This time around, we once again were talking about the financial scammers who are real-life Bond villains. It's all in good fun until somebody steals 45 billion, that's BILLION with a B, dollars from millions of small investors and pension funds.
But the other half of what Taibbi talks about isn't as funny, though it is just as absurd. In his visits to the poor and the undocumented, Taibbi found plenty of fresh hells to discuss, and his approach was really interesting. It's not a beat that he's familiar with, and the writing is superb. Taibbi and I discussed this new direction for his explorations of the American economic and legal experience.
Taibbi is very comfortable and quite crisp when he talks about the writing and reporting process itself; and he's very clear that he feels he owes a debt to the legal scholars who write up the complaints. He's also clear about his debt to Molly Crabapple, whose drawings give the book a real Dickensian / Victorian feel. Shockingly, he was a bit nervous about the "lightning round" Time to Read mini-interview. I really don't intend for them to be on-the-spot tests. I do confess that I readily bring out my inner game-show host, then I snip it off the finished product.
08-21-15: Agony Column Podcast News Report : Senator Claire McCaskill is 'Plenty Ladylike' : Internalizing Determination to Overcome Sexism [Incudes Time to Read EP 211: Claire McCaskill, Plenty Ladylike, plus A 2015 Interview with Senator Claire McCaskill]
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Emily Schultz Unleashes 'The Blondes' : A Cure by Color [Incudes Time to Read EP 210: Emily Schultz, The Blondes, plus A 2015 Interview with Emily Schultz]
07-05-15: Commentary : Dr. Michael Gazzaniga Tells Tales from Both Sides of the Brain : A Life in Neuroscience Reveals the Life of Science
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Michael Gazzaniga : "We made the first observation and BAM there was the disconnection effect..."
04-21-15: Commentary : Kazuo Ishiguro Unearths 'The Buried Giant' : The Mist of Myth and Memory
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Kazuo Ishiguro : ".... by the time I was writing this novel, the lines between what was fantasy and what was real had blurred for me..."
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Marc Goodman : "...every physical object around us is being transformed, one way or another, into an information technology..."
Agony Column Podcast News Report UPDATE: Time to Read Episode 199: Marc Goodman : Future Crimes: Everything Is Connected, Everyone Is Vulnerable and What We Can Do About It
