I am only an activist today in the local politics of my town, Davis, California, where I am trying to fight a real estate development proposed by the university. It’s pretty draining and uphill work. I think of my writing as an activism, and we give financial support to a lot of activist causes.
You were a student of the famed post-modernist Fredric Jameson. How has he influenced your work?
Famous Marxist Fredric Jameson, you mean. What he managed was to rearrange everyone’s definition of postmodernism from a fashion or a style, to a period in the history of capital and the world. So that was quite an accomplishment. And his persistence over the years has given a kind of lens for leftists and everyone else to understand modern history in Marxist terms. So, that has been a major influence on everyone, I think, even if for most people it is indirect.
For me it was direct. Fred is very educational in person, a great teacher, and after our time together at UCSD I kept reading him, and by reading all his work gave myself a good ground for understanding world history and our moment today. That’s a great thing for a novelist to have. I’ve stayed in touch too and he is a good person to know, perpetually interesting.
I understand that you live in a utopian community. How does that work? Is it pre or post modern?
A little of both I guess. The model is an English village really; about eighty acres, a lot of it owned in common, so there is a “commons” and no fences except around little courtyards. There are a lot of vegetable gardens, and the landscaping is edible, meaning lots of fruits, grapes and nuts.
It’s really just a tweaking of suburban design, but a really good one. Energy mattered to the designers and we burn about 40 percent the energy of an ordinary suburban neighborhood of the same size. That’s still a lot, but it’s an improvement. If every suburb since this one was built (1980 or so) would have followed its lead, we would have much less craziness in America; because the standard suburb is bad for sanity. But that didn’t happen, so for the 1,000 people who live here it’s a kind of pocket utopia. Not the solution, but a nice place to live right now, and it could suggest aspects of a longterm solution. It’s been a real blessing to live here.
You gave one of the Google talks. Was that cool or what? What did you tell them?
It was a lot of fun. The Google people were great, and their free cafeteria is out of this world. They put the talk online so you can find it on YouTube. It was my first Power Point talk ever, so that was a bit clunky, but fun. It was configured as a talk to the Googlers, telling Google what it could do to fight climate change and enact utopia. I’m not sure the folks at Google.org (their charitable/activist foundation) were listening, but it was worth a try, and basically a way to frame my usual talk about what we all should do. Mostly I say, go outdoors and sit and talk to a friend: this is our primate utopia and very easy on the planet.
Your latest work, yet to be published, is about Galileo. Or about the relationship between science and politics. Or is it ambition and religion? Or work and age?
A bit of all those things, but mostly I was thinking science and history; what science is, how it has affected history, how it could in the future. And also about Galileo’s actual work, which is ever so interesting. He was a great character.
What’s you favorite city?
San Francisco is my favorite city, but I also like New York, London, Edinburgh, Paris, Venice, Sydney, Vancouver, and Kathmandu.
You broke into print the “usual” (old) way for SF writers—through short stories. Do you plan to go back to short fiction? What do you think of today’s dwindling story “market?”
I don’t rule out going back to short fiction, but I like novels better and that’s what I’m focused on; that may never stop. I think it’s too bad about the dwindling market and wonder if reading habits are changing with the Internet. In a way shorter fiction should possibly benefit by the quickness of web life, but I don’t know. I’m enough outside it not to be thinking about it too much.
SF used to have an agenda—the future, and in particular, space travel. Does it have an agenda today?
I don’t know! I think it has to have the agenda of the future. But when the future doesn’t include space travel as the obvious next step, it gets a lot more complicated. Things on Earth don’t look so science fictional. And yet the whole world in a sense is in a science fiction novel that we write together. So it’s all very confusing. My response is to say “just keep writing, one novel at a time” and hope for the best.
Do you think there is life on other planets? Intelligence? Do you think we will even “make contact?”
I do think there is life on other planets, and also intelligence, but what kind of intelligence I think is very mysterious, and making contact will be a serious problem, maybe too much a problem to ever really happen, partly because of the size of the universe (bigger than we think) and also the potentially inexplicable nature of alien intelligence, so that we won’t be able to communicate with it (the Solaris problem, after Lem’s great novel).
How come there is no space travel in Years of Rice and Salt ? Do you think space travel is a Eurocentric enterprise?
No, I think any technological civilization would think about space travel, because of the moon, and the simplicity of rockets, and so on. I didn’t have it in Years of Rice and Salt partly by accidental omission, partly because that book only takes history about seventy years past us; and I think without Percival Lowell, we might not have gotten to the moon yet, and might not for another century or so. That was a freak event, with a genealogy that runs from Lowell’s fantasia to the novels of Lasswitz/Bogdanov/Wells to the German Rocket Society to von Braun to WWII to NASA. Without all those elements, including Lowell’s hallucinations about Mars, we might still not have gotten to the moon. So, in my alternative history, I thought it was okay to leave it out. It would have only gotten a sentence or two anyway if I had thought of it.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOKS
The Wild Shore
Novel. Locus Poll winner, Best First Novel; Philip K. Dick Award Runner-up.
a. Ace Books, 1984.
b. Futura (UK), 1985.
c. McDonald (UK) 1986.
d. Bastei (W. Germany), 1986.
e. Hayakawa (Japan), 1986.
f. J’ai Lu (France), 1986.
g. Ediciones Jucar (Spain), 1989.
h. Interno Giallo (Italy), 1990.
i. Zysk (Poland), 1998.
j. HarperCollins (UK), 1997.
k. Tor Orb, 1997.
l. Polyaris (Russia).
m. Laser (Czech Republic).
n. Minotauro (Spain) 2006.
Icehenge
Novel.
a. Ace Books, 1984.
b. Futura (UK), 1985.
c. McDonald (UK), 1986.
d. Denoel (France), 1986.
e. Editrice Nord (Italy), 1986.
f. Bastei (W. Germany), 1987.
g. Tor Books, 1990.
h. HarperCollins (UK), 1997.
i. Tor Orb, 1998.
j. KZ Zagrebacka Naklada (Croatia).
k. Minotauro (Spain).
l. Gallimard (France), 2004.
The Novels of Philip K. Dick
Criticism. (UCSD dissertation)
a. UMI Research Press, 1984; paperback, 1989.
b. Chapter 4 reprinted as “Introduction” to Heyne edition of PKD’s The Man in the High Castle, Heyne, 2000.
c. Shayol (Germany) 2005.
d. Les Moutons Electronique (France), 2005.
The Memory of Whiteness
Novel.
a. Tor Books, 1985.
b. McDonald (UK), 1986.
c. Futura (UK), 1987.
d. Bastei (W. Germany), 1987.
e. J’ai Lu (France), 1987.
f. Tokyo Sogensha (Japan), 1996
g. Tor Orb, 1997.
h. HarperCollins (UK), 1999.
i. Librarie Generale Francaise, (France).
The Planet on the Table
Stories. New
York Times Notable Book.
a. Tor Books, 1986.
b. Futura (UK), 1987.
c. J’ai Lu (France) 1989.
d. Bastei (W. Germany), 1988.
e. Editorial Caminho (Portugal), 1989.
f. Tor Orb (w/Remaking History), 1995.
The Gold Coast
Novel. John W. Campbell Award runner-up; New York Times Notable Book.
a. Tor Books, 1988.
b. Futura (UK), 1989.
c. J’ai Lu (France), 1989.
d. Hayakawa (Japan), 1991.
e. Bastei (Germany), 1989.
f. Ediciones Jucar (Spain), 1990.
g. Ultramarine Press, 1995.
h. HarperCollins (UK), 1997.
i. Tor Orb, 1997.
j. Akti-Oxi (Greece), 1998.
k. Polyaris (Russia).
l. Minotauro (Spain) 2006.
Escape From Kathmandu
Stories.
a. Tor Books, 1989.
b. Unwin-Hyman (UK), 1990.
c. Grafton (UK), 1991.
d. Easton Press, 1989.
e. Bastei (Germany), 1990.
f. Zysk (Poland), 1997.
g. Tor Orb, 1996.
h. AST (Russia).
i. Epos (Slovakia).
j. Heyne (Germany), 2001.
Pacific Edge
Novel. John W. Campbell Award winner, Best Novel; New York Times Notable Book.
a. Tor Books, 1990.
b. “Oh See” (from Chapter One) The Los Angeles Times, May 1989.
c. Unwin-Hyman (UK), 1990.
d. Grafton (UK), 1991.
e. Easton Press, 1990.
f. Bastei (Germany), 1992.
g. HarperCollins, 1997.
h. Tor Orb, 1997.
i. Polyaris (Russia).
j. Minotauro (Spain).
A Short, Sharp Shock
Novella. Locus Award winner, Best Novella.
a. Zeising Books, 1990.
b. Tor Double no.23, 1990.
c. Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine Magazine, November 1990.
d. Bantam Books, 1995.
e. HarperCollins (UK), 2000.
f. US Audio Book.
Remaking History
Stories.
a. Tor Books, 1991.
b. J’ai Lu, 1991.
c. HarperCollins (UK), selection as “Down and Out in the Year 2000,” 1992.
d. Tor Orb (w/Planet On the Table), 1995.
e. HarperCollins (UK), selection as “Vinland the Dream,” 2002.
Red Mars
Novel. British Science Fiction Award winner; Nebula Award winner; Seiun Award winner (Japan).
a. HarperCollins, 1992.
b. Bantam Books, 1993.
c. Bruna (Holland), 1993.
d. Heyne (Germany), 1997.
e. Easton Press, 1993.
f. Minotauro (Spain), 1995, 2007.
g. Presse de la Cite (France), 1994.
h. Interno Giallo (Italy), 1995.
i. Prosznyski (Poland), 1997.
j. Nemira (Romania), 1997, 2008.
k. Opus (Israel), 1998.
l. Izvori (Croatia), 1997.
m. Faces Publishing (Taiwan), 2000.
n. Bard (Bulgaria).
o. N & N Kiado (Hungary).
p. Tokyo Sogensha (Japan), 1998.
q. Polyaris (Russia).
r. Si Chuan Science and Technology (China).
s. Meia Sete (Brazil).
t. Recorded Books, Inc. (audio), 2000.
u. Vita Breva (Greece), 2000.
v. Kabalci Yayinevi (Turkey).
w. Moc Knjige (Serbia).
x. Banshies sro (Czech Republic).
y. combined edition, Red Green and Blue, Omnibus (France), 2006.
z. Beijing Hongwenguan (mainland China).
Green Mars
Novel. Hugo Award winner; Locus Award winner; Ignotus Award winner (Spain); Gigamesh Award winner (Spain).
a. HarperCollins, 1994.
b. Bantam Books, 1994.
c. Heyne (Germany), 1998.
d. Minotauro (Spain), 1997.
e. Presse de la Cite (France), 1996.
f. Nemira (Romania), 1997.
g. Proscynski (Poland), 1999.
h. Bruna (Holland), 1998.
i. N & N Kiado (Hungary).
j. Bard (Bulgaria).
k. Izvori (Croatia).
l. Polyaris (Russia).
m. Opus (Israel), 1999.
n. Faces Publishing (Taiwan), 2001.
o. Tokyo Sogensha (Japan), 2002.
p. Si Chuan Science And Technology (China).
q. Meia Sete (Brazil).
r. Recorded Books, Inc. (audio), 2001.
s. Kabalci Yayinevi (Turkey).
t. Easton Press, 2001.
u. Moc Knjige (Serbia).
v. Banshies sro (Czech Republic).
w. Beijing Hongweguan (mainland China)
Blue Mars
Novel. Hugo Award winner; Locus Award winner; Ozone Poll winner (France); New York Times Notable Book.
a. HarperCollins, 1996.
b. Bantam Books, 1996.
c. Heyne (Germany), 1999.
d. Presse de la Cite (France), 1997.
e. Minotauro (Spain), 1998.
f. Nemira (Romania), 2000.
g. Bard (Bulgaria).
h. Polyaris (Russia).
i. Opus (Israel), 2001.
j. Faces Publishing (Taiwan), 2001.
k. Tokyo Sogensha (Japan).
l. Easton Press, 1996.