“An Interview With Gene Wolfe”, 2007-08 (; backlinks):
[cf. his 1988 interview] Reprinted from Amazing Science Fiction Stories, September 1981, Hall’s interview takes place at the 1980 World Science Fiction Convention in Boston.
Her conversation with Wolfe explores his development as a writer, his use of symbolism and intertextuality, his sense of humour, and his major themes. In a series of brief exchanges, Wolfe reflects on the state of fantasy and science fiction, his early fiction, his writing schedule, and his appreciation of the innovations of Ursula Le Guin, R. A. Lafferty, Ron Golan and Somtow Sucharitkul.
[Keywords: Gene Wolfe, Melissa Mia Hall, symbolism, humour, themes, Ursula Le Guin, R. A. Lafferty, Ron Goulart, Somtow Sucharitkul, Amazing Science Fiction Stories]
…Gene Wolfe: The art comes first or the message doesn’t come at all. The message comes from me. I am a religious person (Roman Catholic). I am, I suppose, in a very, very minor way, something of a mystic and when you read my material, I think it comes through.
…Melissa Mia Hall: You use a large amount of cultural jumping, for example. Tommy Kirk, Mickey Mouse, etc. in ‘Three Fingers’—the list is endless. There are constant asides throughout your short stories (Huck Finn, Little Nell, etc.). It’s as if you’ve undertaken a holy cause to further engrave them upon the minds of your reader. Do you realize that you’ve been doing this?
G Wolfe: No, it just happens. I think you would say these things are symbols that have emotional power and a person who is doing literary writing must deal in emotion charged symbols—and so you end up writing about things like death and lions and sacramental meals, perhaps because those are emotional things that wake certain feelings in the deep spring of the individual. I’m using it as I have to, to engage and stir the reader’s emotions. And if fiction doesn’t do that, then it’s failed. That’s the purpose of fiction.
…M Mia Hall: What have been some of the major influences on your writing?
G W: Obviously, some things are more important than others. Probably the earliest influences I had that were of any importance, were the Oz books and the two Alice books which I read as a child. G. K. Chesterton has undoubtedly been a major influence. So has Borges, who was also influenced by Chesterton. So has Dickens … H. G. Wells … Bram Stoker … Mervyn Peake. Modern writers. R. A. Lafferty, Ursula K. Le Guin. Damon Knight has influenced me, not so much as a writer, but as an editor. I think Knight is probably as good as editors ever get.
…W: This is my current schedule … it changes, depending on how things are going. I get up at 5:15 a.m., shave, wash my face and by about a quarter to 6, I’m in the basement at the typewriter and I write till about a quarter to 8 and then Rosemary has my breakfast ready. I write each morning. But when things get tight, and I’m up against a deadline, I also write in the evening … now I’m a technical editor. I was an engineer for 16 years. But I am now a senior editor on the staff of Plant Engineering magazine. Basically, my writing experience combined with the engineering degree, too, enabled me to get this job which is, frankly, a good job and a lot of fun.
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