Interviews
Mar. 20th, 2010 11:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ellenkushnerTime was when I dreamed of being interviewed. Many questions would be asked by interested parties well-versed in my art, and I would get to talk endlessly about Me, Me, Me!
Well, several ahem years and many interviews later, and . . . .
I'm Guest of Honor at this year's Finncon, because Johanna Vainikainen-Uusitalo did a gorgeous translation of Thomas the Rhymer last year, and I won a prize. So a lovely man from a Finnish F/SF magazine has read all my work - including the short stories (! see, I told you he was a lovely man) - has e-mailed me many flattering and intelligent questions to answer by return e-mail. Like, 20 of them.
Mind you, back in The Day, an interview consisted of someone buying you coffee if they were local, or phoning you if they weren't, and paying flattering attention as you spoke, and rapidly scribbling it all down, with maybe a cassette on the table for backup. Weeks later, the interview would appear in print, and you'd read it and go, "I never said that!" or "This makes no sense without the punctuation!" or "But I was laughing when I said that! In a mocking and cynical way!" And you'd call all your friends and read it to them, and they'd tell you it was fine, really, it doesn't make you sound like an idiot (or, if it was really bad, that no one reads that rag anyway). But you did get to just talk about yourself for 20-60 minutes, and that was that.
OK, so they really are terrific questions. I'm even asking his permission to reprint some of them here.
But typing all those answers still feels like homework.
Well, several ahem years and many interviews later, and . . . .
I'm Guest of Honor at this year's Finncon, because Johanna Vainikainen-Uusitalo did a gorgeous translation of Thomas the Rhymer last year, and I won a prize. So a lovely man from a Finnish F/SF magazine has read all my work - including the short stories (! see, I told you he was a lovely man) - has e-mailed me many flattering and intelligent questions to answer by return e-mail. Like, 20 of them.
Mind you, back in The Day, an interview consisted of someone buying you coffee if they were local, or phoning you if they weren't, and paying flattering attention as you spoke, and rapidly scribbling it all down, with maybe a cassette on the table for backup. Weeks later, the interview would appear in print, and you'd read it and go, "I never said that!" or "This makes no sense without the punctuation!" or "But I was laughing when I said that! In a mocking and cynical way!" And you'd call all your friends and read it to them, and they'd tell you it was fine, really, it doesn't make you sound like an idiot (or, if it was really bad, that no one reads that rag anyway). But you did get to just talk about yourself for 20-60 minutes, and that was that.
OK, so they really are terrific questions. I'm even asking his permission to reprint some of them here.
But typing all those answers still feels like homework.