Sci-Fi and Slow Stillness
Photograph by Sigrid Estrada I had such a great time chatting with Mark Alpert , author of The Orion Plan and The Six (read my reviews here and here ), in New York last week that I forgot to get a pic {Marge Simpson sound}. Mark suggested meeting on the Upper West Side at a classic New York diner , and it was a good place to sit down and discuss what motivates and informs his content, themes and style. Remember when you had to discuss “the author’s intent” in high school English? And then you heard an author say about their book, “Oh, well that’s great if that’s what you got out of it, but that wasn’t intentional”? There’s a caveat in that. Those exam questions make us assume that we can ascribe things to writers that are not necessarily there, and we should learn to drop that presumptive approach to literature the minute we’re out of school. Case in point: I learned things about this author that surprised me because I had reflected on his books with my ...
