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Brown Rat · 29th June 2006, 04:19 PM

Geoff Ryman
Date: June 2006
Interviewed by: Carolyn Hill for the Chronicles Network

Part Four of Four: Miscellaneous Questions

Miscellaneous Questions

CN: One of the members of Chronicles Network complains that gay and lesbian characters in science fiction and fantasy don't often end up in happy relationships (rather than dead or 'reformed' or alone) at the end. Do you agree that unhappy endings are more prevalent than happy endings for gay and lesbian characters? If so, do you have any theories about why?

Ryman: So whose life exactly does end up happy? Divorce, the curse of heterosexuality? You have a choice, the relationship lasts until one of you dies, and then one of you ends up on your own. Or. The relationship fails and you end up on your own until you find the next relationship. It's only storytelling that gets us into such a muddle about love. It's not just that there are no happy endings in life, more like there are no endings at all period. Life just goes on.

The above is a complaint. When you think something is missing from stories, it's your cue to go and write something to fill in that gap. You'll probably find all kinds of people never realised they were waiting for that gap to be filled. In fact, what I complain about is all those TV-movie/Philadelphia gays who are so totally perfect, lest they offend.

CN: Is there really a Mind the Gap performance troupe, and did you ever participate as described in 253?

Ryman: Yeah, there was. It really did have a comic actor leading it, we really did sell tickets, he really did go running off and leave us when the police showed up.

CN: Did you really think of yourself as 'ravaged' (passenger 96 in 253)?

Ryman: Yeah, and that was in 1995... now the wrinkles are even deeper.

CN: A footnote in 253 (on pages 161-162) says that Canadian writers now express 'difference' instead of alienation. What's the difference between difference and alienation?

Ryman: Difference: you're a Canadian who was born in Hong Kong, lives in Vancouver and you've fallen in love with a moose.

Alienation: you're a presbyterian and everyone around you for miles in a frozen waste is also a presbyterian, only they think comic books are for kids and won't read one and so you're alone.

CN: Are people submitting to Another One Along in a Minute, the follow-up project to 253?

Ryman: They did. I blew it. I was faced with editing almost all of them since nobody followed the rules. I didn't have time to edit them, essentially write them all over again. Many of them were set in New York, not London. Or they were way too many words or way too few. People just didn't believe or see the fun in following the rules. So I just left the stories and wondered what to do about them. Then my Apple died completely and I moved to PC, most of the stories trapped like the passengers themselves, in a stalled machine.

CN: What book or novella would you recommend as a starting point to readers new to your work? (I'd recommend Was.)

Ryman: I would recommend Air if people like SF, Was if people are serious literary types, and 253 if they sound as though they like jokes.

CN: Your books are shelved under Fiction/Literature not Science Fiction/Fantasy in Barnes and Noble here in California. Where are your works shelved in the U.K.?

Ryman: In the UK the SF is under SF, and 253 and The King's Last Song are in mainstream. The problem is Was, which is not fantasy but was saved from extinction when Gollancz did a new edition in their wonderful Fantasy Masterworks series. So that's shelved with the SF.

CN: Please tell us about your latest work, The King's Last Song, which has recently been released to positive reviews. Give us a sales pitch?

Ryman: It links the era of Angkor Wat with modern Cambodia and the recent terrible history of the place. Cambodia's greatest King, the saviour of Angkor and its first Buddhist king, has written a fictitious memoir on gold leaves. In 2004, it is discovered and then stolen by ex-Khmer Rouges in protest at the direction the country is going in.

Two modern Cambodians work to get the book back. One is a policeman, an ex Khmer Rouge who fought from the time he was 12 in 1970 until the civil wars ended in 1998. He loves war and is not quite sane, but he's still a respectable man. William is a younger Cambodian who doesn't really remember the wars. He's canny but commercial and in his heart, peaceful. The two become friends, but William doesn't know that the policeman shot his parents at the end of the Pol Pot era.

So it has quotes from the ancient book, all very poetic. It has scenes from Jayavarman's extraordinary life. There's 20,000 words of the policeman's life in the 1980s, fighting the civil wars, and of course a lot about trying to get the book back in 2004. There is no chapter set in the Pol Pot era, as there are so many fine books translated into English about that time written by Cambodians.

The novel covers quite a lot of ground. I think people going to Cambodia would get a much more 3D view of the country if they read it. The Cambodians are delightful, but they are still going through ****. You won't know that as a tourist, but you might like to know that. It might explain why some of the beautiful smiles are fading.

Whew!

CN: Thank you, Geoff, for spending so much time and energy answering these pesky questions!

Bibliography and Awards

The Unconquered Country, 1986, novella with separate book publication (British Science Fiction Award, World Fantasy Award, and nominated for the Nebula Award)

The Warrior Who Carried Life, 1986

'Love Sickness', a separately published extract from The Child Garden (British Science Fiction Association Award for short fiction)

The Child Garden, 1989 (Arthur C Clarke Award, John W Campbell Memorial Award; shorter magazine version British Science Fiction Association Award)

Was, 1991 (Eastercon Award for most enjoyable novel)

253: A Novel for the Internet in Seven Cars and a Crash, 1996, interactive novel on the World Wide Web http://www.ryman-novel.com/ (Philip K Dick Award for best novel not published in hardback)

253: The Print Remix, 1998

Unconquered Countries, 1999, short story collection

Lust, 2001

V.A.O., 2003, a novella published separately by PS Publications and in a themed collection of four novellas for Gollancz

Air: or Have Not Have, 2005 (Sunburst Award in Canada, James W. Tiptree Award for best novel on gender issues in the United States, British Science Fiction Association Award, Arthur C. Clarke Award, nominated for the Nebula Award, and placeholder in the John W. Campbell Memorial Awards)

Tesseracts 9, 2005, edited with Nalo Hopkinson, an anthology of original Canadian SF stories

The King's Last Song, 2006

29th June 2006, 04:19 PM	#4 (permalink)
Brown Rat wandering & wondering Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 945	Re: Geoff Ryman Interview, in Four Parts Geoff Ryman Date: June 2006 Interviewed by: Carolyn Hill for the Chronicles Network Part Four of Four: Miscellaneous Questions Miscellaneous Questions CN: One of the members of Chronicles Network complains that gay and lesbian characters in science fiction and fantasy don't often end up in happy relationships (rather than dead or 'reformed' or alone) at the end. Do you agree that unhappy endings are more prevalent than happy endings for gay and lesbian characters? If so, do you have any theories about why? Ryman: So whose life exactly does end up happy? Divorce, the curse of heterosexuality? You have a choice, the relationship lasts until one of you dies, and then one of you ends up on your own. Or. The relationship fails and you end up on your own until you find the next relationship. It's only storytelling that gets us into such a muddle about love. It's not just that there are no happy endings in life, more like there are no endings at all period. Life just goes on. The above is a complaint. When you think something is missing from stories, it's your cue to go and write something to fill in that gap. You'll probably find all kinds of people never realised they were waiting for that gap to be filled. In fact, what I complain about is all those TV-movie/Philadelphia gays who are so totally perfect, lest they offend. *CN: Is there really a Mind the Gap performance troupe, and did you ever participate as described in 253?* Ryman: Yeah, there was. It really did have a comic actor leading it, we really did sell tickets, he really did go running off and leave us when the police showed up. *CN: Did you really think of yourself as 'ravaged' (passenger 96 in 253)?* Ryman: Yeah, and that was in 1995... now the wrinkles are even deeper. *CN: A footnote in 253* (on pages 161-162) says that Canadian writers now express 'difference' instead of alienation. What's the difference between difference and alienation? Ryman: Difference: you're a Canadian who was born in Hong Kong, lives in Vancouver and you've fallen in love with a moose. Alienation: you're a presbyterian and everyone around you for miles in a frozen waste is also a presbyterian, only they think comic books are for kids and won't read one and so you're alone. CN: Are people submitting to Another One Along in a Minute, the follow-up project to 253? Ryman: They did. I blew it. I was faced with editing almost all of them since nobody followed the rules. I didn't have time to edit them, essentially write them all over again. Many of them were set in New York, not London. Or they were way too many words or way too few. People just didn't believe or see the fun in following the rules. So I just left the stories and wondered what to do about them. Then my Apple died completely and I moved to PC, most of the stories trapped like the passengers themselves, in a stalled machine. CN: What book or novella would you recommend as a starting point to readers new to your work? (I'd recommend Was.)** Ryman: I would recommend Air if people like SF, Was if people are serious literary types, and 253 if they sound as though they like jokes. CN: Your books are shelved under Fiction/Literature not Science Fiction/Fantasy in Barnes and Noble here in California. Where are your works shelved in the U.K.? Ryman: In the UK the SF is under SF, and 253 and The King's Last Song are in mainstream. The problem is Was, which is not fantasy but was saved from extinction when Gollancz did a new edition in their wonderful Fantasy Masterworks series. So that's shelved with the SF. *CN: Please tell us about your latest work, The King's Last Song, which has recently been released to positive reviews. Give us a sales pitch?* Ryman: It links the era of Angkor Wat with modern Cambodia and the recent terrible history of the place. Cambodia's greatest King, the saviour of Angkor and its first Buddhist king, has written a fictitious memoir on gold leaves. In 2004, it is discovered and then stolen by ex-Khmer Rouges in protest at the direction the country is going in. Two modern Cambodians work to get the book back. One is a policeman, an ex Khmer Rouge who fought from the time he was 12 in 1970 until the civil wars ended in 1998. He loves war and is not quite sane, but he's still a respectable man. William is a younger Cambodian who doesn't really remember the wars. He's canny but commercial and in his heart, peaceful. The two become friends, but William doesn't know that the policeman shot his parents at the end of the Pol Pot era. So it has quotes from the ancient book, all very poetic. It has scenes from Jayavarman's extraordinary life. There's 20,000 words of the policeman's life in the 1980s, fighting the civil wars, and of course a lot about trying to get the book back in 2004. There is no chapter set in the Pol Pot era, as there are so many fine books translated into English about that time written by Cambodians. The novel covers quite a lot of ground. I think people going to Cambodia would get a much more 3D view of the country if they read it. The Cambodians are delightful, but they are still going through **. You won't know that as a tourist, but you might like to know that. It might explain why some of the beautiful smiles are fading. Whew! CN: Thank you, Geoff, for spending so much time and energy answering these pesky questions!** Bibliography and Awards The Unconquered Country, 1986, novella with separate book publication (British Science Fiction Award, World Fantasy Award, and nominated for the Nebula Award) The Warrior Who Carried Life, 1986 'Love Sickness', a separately published extract from The Child Garden (British Science Fiction Association Award for short fiction) The Child Garden, 1989 (Arthur C Clarke Award, John W Campbell Memorial Award; shorter magazine version British Science Fiction Association Award) Was, 1991 (Eastercon Award for most enjoyable novel) 253: A Novel for the Internet in Seven Cars and a Crash, 1996, interactive novel on the World Wide Web http://www.ryman-novel.com/ (Philip K Dick Award for best novel not published in hardback) 253: The Print Remix, 1998 Unconquered Countries, 1999, short story collection Lust, 2001 V.A.O., 2003, a novella published separately by PS Publications and in a themed collection of four novellas for Gollancz Air: or Have Not Have, 2005 (Sunburst Award in Canada, James W. Tiptree Award for best novel on gender issues in the United States, British Science Fiction Association Award, Arthur C. Clarke Award, nominated for the Nebula Award, and placeholder in the John W. Campbell Memorial Awards) Tesseracts 9, 2005, edited with Nalo Hopkinson, an anthology of original Canadian SF stories The King's Last Song, 2006