Saturday, June 30, 2007

Richard Morgan on writers and liars

From a Powells.com interview with today's featured contributor to the Page 69 Test, Richard K. Morgan:
Writers are better liars than other people: true or false?

Well, from personal experience I'd say false. I'm a catastrophic liar, so bad in fact that these days I don't even bother to try. I think the point being missed here is that a good writer isn't lying when they lay out their fiction for you — in the act of writing, you believe in the characters and situations you're creating almost as much as you do the real people around you, and certainly as much as the semi-real people we see on our television screens day to day. You have to, otherwise you couldn't make it matter enough to write it all down (and, no, the money you make from it wouldn't, on its own, be enough to force the issue — well at least it wouldn't for me — and that's the truth, honest!)
(Not that I doubt Morgan, but his answer did bring to mind the Epimenides' paradox.)

Also in the interview, Morgan was invited to "Recommend five or more books on a single subject of personal interest or expertise." He named "Essential Reading for Modern Humans: Six Books That Will Change the Way You View the World (Though You May Not Thank Them for It)."

Read the entire Powells.com Ink Q & A with Richard Morgan.

The Page 69 Test: Thirteen.

--Marshal Zeringue