INTERVIEW - John Scalzi

The interview below was conducted via e-mail with John Scalzi in September. Tomorrow, we´ll be publishing a MEGA-Review of the Old Man´s War trilogy (plus commentaries on the additional stories in the same universe, Zöe´s Tale and The Sagan Diary)

PWT - You pay a tribute to Robert Heinlein, but your work also seem to have been heavily influenced by Joe Haldeman. What are your influences? Would Old Man´s War stand more to the side of Starship Troopers or The Forever War?

JOHN SCALZI - Actually Haldeman definitely wasn't an influence on Old Man's War, because I hadn't read Forever War at that point (I've since caught up, and in fact penned an introduction to a new edition of the novel that's coming out in 2009). As far as where my book stands between these two, I would suspect it leans a little more toward the Heinlein book, because it was patterned after it to no little extent. That said, I'm delighted to have my book be mentioned in the company of either book, or myself in the company of either author.

As for general influences, many of my influences are outside the genre. Two I like to mention are Robert Benchley and Ben Hecht, both humorists and screenwriters active in the first half of the 20th century, and both of whom have a way with dialogue and absurdity. They don't write science fiction, but I'm a big believer that reading only one genre (or being influenced by only one type of work) is a fine way to write very boring stuff.

PWT - What´s your all-time favorite SF writer? Why?

JS - Oh, I don't know. I'm obviously a fan of Heinlein, so that's the easy answer, but on the other hand I like Neal Stephenson, Orson Scott Card and Sherrie Tepper almost as well, and depending on the book, even more. I think this sort of question is actually not that interesting, because it doesn't reflect how people actually think about authors. I don't have a favorite author, I have a bunch of authors who exist on the sort of plateau of "interesting to read, interesting to think about" and I don't really privilege one over the other.

PWT - You are considered one of the big names of the New Space Opera, along with writers like Alastair Reynolds. Do you think that New Space Opera is a valid label, or, as China Miéville use to say referring to New Weird Fiction, it doesn´t really matter?

JS - Labels matter because they give people something to wrap their brains around, but they don't matter on my end -- i.e., regarding what I'm writing. I just write books I as a writer would like to read; if someone wants to call it "New Space Opera" on their end, I really don't care one way or another. I don't mind being lumped in with writers like Alastair Reynolds or Iain Banks in people's minds, since they are really wonderful writers, but I'm not 100% sure the grouping really works except in the most superficial of ways. In the end, what really matters is the reading: Does the book work for the reader? Are they entertained? Are they intruiged by the universe and the characters? If that's there, calling it "New Space Opera" or "New Weird" or "New [insert sub-genre here]" is an afterthought.

That said, I wish people would stop labeling perceived SF movements "New something or other." It's a cliche that goes back to the New Wave.

PWT - In The Ghost Brigades, the recourse of having Jared Dirac read Frankenstein is brilliant. This tip of the hat to Mary Shelley was meant to be seen only as a reference or as a commentary on prejudice?

JS - It's meant to give Jared context on how people like him have been perceived since the beginning, even when people like him were still fictional -- and to suggest that since the fact the author was able to pity the Frankenstein monster, that not all humans would in fact see him as a monster or a freak. The idea on my end was to get this across without dragging the story down into undue exposition. There's enough there for a perceptive reader to think about, but not so much there that the story drags to a halt. That's what I was gunning for, anyway.

PWT - What the real Stross think of the Gameran one?

JS - I think he was amused by it. Charlie put a shoutout to me in Saturn's Children, so I suspect everything about it was groovy by him.

PWT - You already wrote two sort-of sidelines to the story of Perry:
Zoe´s Tale and The Sagan´ Diary. And what about John Perry? Won´t we ever read the old man´s exploits again?

JS - He might appear in a short story or as a secondary character in another novel, but I believe in taking characters on a natural story arc and leaving them there when the arc is done and moving on to other characters, so, no, it's not at all likely he'll be the main character of another novel. I gave him and Jane their happy ending; I want them to be able to enjoy it.

PWT - Your blog, Whatever, is one of the longest-running writer´s blog in the SF community. What is the weight that it had in your career? Speaking of which, what do you think of writers´s blogs? (and of reviewer´s blogs, for that matter?)

JS - It's been tremendously important in my SF career, since I've sold two novels off of it, and won a Hugo because of the things I write there. So yes, it's been useful. As toward other authors' blogs, I think highly of them when they entertain me, less so when they don't -- just like any blog out there. And more to the point, I think having an entertaining blog is important, if one is an author and decides to keep a blog. Just as it is with any writer who keeps a blog (and all people who keep blogs are, by definition, writers).

PWT - Barack Obama or John McCain? And why?

JS - Obama. Because he's the better candidate and also because the GOP needs not to be in the White House for a while, on account that they are really BAD at it.