PROBE
Jack McDevitt
(continued)
Interview by Alyce Wilson
I guess it just gets back to the genre of science fiction, and how you have this so-called hard science fiction, which is more technologically based. And maybe we're just seeing more of that now?
We seem to be. I suspect that the reason that fantasy has done so well is fantasy's not hard to understand. They don't bother trying to explain how the magic works.
How do you decide what details to include when you're setting up an
alternate reality? I mean, when you're sitting around in a room, you're
not thinking about how that light works. And you don't have conversations
about how it works. Maybe if you're fixing the light, you might be interested,
but otherwise...
Right. Well, you trust your instincts.
That's one of the problems that I'm having with the novels that I try to read now. There's so much stuff that's virtual that sometimes I can't tell where I'm standing. I don't know whether I'm in a real room or a virtual room. I don't know what the walls look like.
A room like this, you pick out one detail, like an old artificial tree standing in a corner and drab wallpaper, and people can see the room. You don't really need to go past a couple details. But it's just picking up the details that give you everything.
And you know, another thing that I think probably creates a problem, although I've been criticized with going the other way, is dealing with human beings who are really no longer human. They have, for example... they're zero-G human beings who have no need of light. So they've got human beings with four arms, human beings with all kinds of implants.
Well, we're getting to the point where we're starting to use implants in real life, in our own times. But a writer, if he's going to be effective, has got to create characters that people can identify with. It's why Superman has Jimmy Olsen. You've got...
You can see yourself in Jimmy if you can't see yourself...
You can't realistically see yourself as Clark Kent.
I've tried to avoid using protagonists who are brilliant scientists. Hutch is not the world's most beautiful woman. She's an ordinary woman who is smart enough to know what her limits are, and she has an imagination. She's resourceful. She doesn't give up easily. And she's usually smarter than the guys that she's with, which doesn't always take a whole lot.
But I think people can identify with her. She's been successful because both male and female readers can see themselves as her.
And when I was writing Moonfall, which is a novel about how a giant comet shattered the moon, and I had to violate one of my own principles. The main character in Moonfall is Charlie Haskell, who is vice president of the United States. And the book did not start that way. I did not intend Haskell to be the main character. I didn't want him as the main character because in my theory, people cannot identify with someone who's too high up.
So Richard Daley Haley was to be the main character, or something like that. He was a P.R. guy. He worked for the vice president. But the book didn't work. It was obviously Haskell's book, and in the end, Haskell came front and center. Because the thing got away from me — and I couldn't help that — I even... I killed off Richard Daley Haley fairly early.
And you said you also read poetry to get inspiration.
Sure. The Engines of God... now that I think about it, that whole series of books, with Hutch — the ones that started with The Engines of God and goes to Omega — was inspired by originally by an A.E. Housman poem.
Really?
There's originally a story, and I'm trying to remember. Yes. Absolutely horrible title, but the original story is "Mission to Iapetus." You've got to bear with me, because I have these problems with titles.
But there is a statue there, and it's a figure of... well, I guess it doesn't describe the statue, except to make the point that it is not human and it is clearly female. And Iapetus always keeps the same face to Saturn, and the thing is built facing towards Saturn. And there are footprints in the sand. And the thing's been there for probably 10,000 years, because nothing ever changes in this place.
And they look at the footprints; they look at the creature; they realize that the statue is a self-sculpture. And the creature that made the statue... they follow the footprints, and they go up onto a nearby ridge where the creature stood for awhile watching Saturn. And there's a female, and there are four or five guys.
And after awhile, the guys kind of wander off, and she stands, and she
looks at the statue and looks at the planet Saturn and realizes that the
sculptor stood up there for awhile, watching the planet, admiring or maybe
feeling whatever emotions. Who knew?
And she says, "Stranger, I don't know who you were, but I wish you well."
The Housman poem has Housman standing, watching soldiers marching off to the Boer War, and there is a moment when Housman's eyes lock with the eyes of one of the men. And they're all 19. And their eyes lock.
Housman delivers the same line: "Soldier, I know not who you are, but I wish you well."
So that gave me the original story, which was published in Asimov back in the '80s at some point. And when I eventually realized that I had the setting for a good novel, if I went to build on that, you know, monument makers. And somebody was going around making monuments.
And so I think if you look at the prologue from The Engines of God, Hutch and Richard Wald both land on Iapetus. The prologue takes place on Iapetus, where they remember the earlier expedition mentioned in the story, kind of comparable references to the early expedition. But Hutch has much the same experience. And the whole thing took off from there.
You also mentioned yesterday that you were influenced by the Greek
historian, Plutarch. You mentioned the vision of Athena he described that
villagers saw. That was supposed to be an historical account, not a fictional
account.
Plutarch says that happened.
He also says a lot of things.
Actually, Plutarch is fairly reliable, but in this case, it may be that he let his public relations get away with him. Maybe it did happen, but it doesn't matter. It's another one of these cases which deals with the issue: what happens when you get a clash between truth and a mythology that really is helpful? And you go with the mythology?
I think there's a line that shows up in one of those books somewhere, "The truth is overrated."
Omega, of course, is quite clear that. As a matter of fact, the city that they find is clearly an Athenian city. And Athena has a role.
