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Esta es una entrevista que le hice a Kij Johnson, una escritora de ciencia ficción y fantasía. Una traducción fue publicada en la separata Generación del periódico El Colombiano el 27 de marzo de 2011. Acá está la original. Es sobre dos historias cortas que me gustan mucho, que son Spar y 26 Monkeys. También los invito a leer Ponies.
With “26 Monkeys” I had a strange feeling, the same one I had with “Spar”. The feeling of being lost. How we think something’s definitely wrong with our world, but there’s no solution! Are they related in some way?
They are related, and that's clever of you to see that. They're both about people recovering from (or involved in) terrible things in their lives, and how they fail to cope with it. Aimee's world is like our
world , with two exceptions: the monkeys and her despair. (Not that we don't feel it! But despair is personal, and her world is shattered because of it.)
The world of the woman in "Spar" is like ours, in that women often find themselves in relationships like that, where their partner "cannot speak, or will not, or does not choose to speak." The alien is the other half of an unhappy marriage.
Did you expect so many nominations with Spar and such acceptance from readers?
I did not! I knew it was a good story, but I thought it would be too offensive to too many people. I also feared that people wouldn't see the metaphor.
I understand your Heian trilogy was written after a very long investigation about japanese culture. What called your attention in that subject?
It's sort of a long, windy road. I love reading historical diaries, especially those of women. In the '80s, someone suggested I read THE PILLOW BOOK OF SEI SHONAGON, in translation by Ivan Morris, which I totally loved. There was an excellent introduction to Heian culture, THE WORLD OF THE SHINING PRICE, by the same man, so I read that. I found out that Heian literature is dominated by monogatari -- stories or memoirs written by women, so I started tracking down and reading those, as well. And because many of those women were noblewomen and lived at court, I started learning the history of the period, as well. At this point, I have seveal hundred books in my reference library for
the Heian books, and that's after getting rid of many of them.
What was the key element for you to write Spar? Did you use prompts or any other method?
I have no idea where the story came from. While I was working on the lyrical story, "At the Mouth of the River of Bees," I used to joke about wanting to write something totally different, and I thought a
human and an alien having sex in a lifeboat was as different as I could get. I didn't excpect to actually write it, though!
How was it working with Wizards of the Coast, Microsoft and Dark Horse Comics? Did those experiences helped your writing?
I loved those jobs! Working in the fields of games and comics meant I saw a lot of ideas in a hurry. Their story-telling is quite different than novels and short stories, because they have some unique
characteristics: comics often mix very short story arcs open-ended storytelling, where a story arc can go on for years (or forever); and they have pictures, of course. Games don't actually tell stories; they give the game master a tool kit of characters, situations,and places that they can write their own stories for.
How did you start writing poetry and non-fiction essays?
I wrote poetry and had diaries long before I ever wrote a short story. They weren't very good, but I was writing them by the time I was 14 or so, and I didn't start writing fiction until I was 25.
Are you planing on writing more novels?
I better! I plan on writing a third Japan novel, set in the far north, with a monkey as the central character. (Sort of.) I am most of the way through a science-fiction novel set in the 18th century. I need to finish them!
