Interview
by Craig Harvey
I was browsing through Barnes and Noble looking for some new reading
material (as I always am) when a book entitled "Idlewild" caught my eye.
What caught my attention even more, was the name of the author, Nick
Sagan. I thought, could he be related to the late Carl Sagan? Upon
flipping to the back of the book, I found that he was indeed Carl's son
from his first marriage. Well, being that Carl Sagan was one of my
personal hero's, I had a good bet that his son would be a great author
as well so, I put all my other items back and bought Idlewild instead.
As it turns out, Nick is indeed an incredible author, and knows how to
keep you on the edge of your seat, with a futuristic novel that is full
of mystery, intrigue, and most importantly about the human spirit. I
emailed him about a possible interview and he was delighted to oblige
Movement with his ideas and opinions. For those fans of thought
provoking Science Fiction, I suggest you pick up a copy of Idlewild, you
won't be dissapointed.
Tell us a little about Idlewild. What inspired the story? I thought
there were some "Matrix" references perhaps?
I've heard some readers describe my book as "what if Neil Gaiman and
William Gibson rewrote The Matrix." I think that's terrific, but it was
never my conscious intention. Idlewild is a science fiction murder
mystery. The story comes from a curiosity about what the future of
education might be like, combined with my lifelong interest in
mythology. Comparisons to The Matrix arise because I explore how virtual
reality might be used some 75 years from now. It's a weird, dark, fun
thriller that allowed me tackle some deep themes. I had a blast with it,
and so far the response has been phenomenal, including a rave review
from Neil Gaiman himself. He called it "a rollercoaster ride of fusion
fiction," and "the kind of book you simply don't want to stop reading."
I'm a big fan of his work, so I couldn't be more thrilled.
When did you decide you wanted to become a
writer? I'm sure your father was a great inspiration.
Both my parents were wonderful inspirations and still inspire me to this
day. But my path to writing was an odd one: I was a troubled kid,
frustrated with school, without any real sense of what I wanted to do
for a living. For years I'd been labeled an underachiever. Everything
changed the day I went to my local video store - my mother recommended
episodes of a television show I hadn't heard of before, Patrick
McGoohan's The Prisoner. I took those episodes home and watched them,
and stepped out of my room with a sense of purpose I'd never known. The
writing in that show was brilliant, and not just entertaining, it
operated on a social level, an ethical level, and a religious level. For
some reason, I hadn't realized that this was possible until then, and
immediately realized it's what I wanted to do. Everyone said, "that's
great, but you're failing out of high school." So I dropped out, took my
high school proficiency exam, and enrolled in Santa Monica College.
Being able to study the subjects I wanted was so liberating - I made the
Dean's list, transferred to UCLA Film School, and graduated summa cum
laude. At UCLA, I wrote a screenplay that the head of the writing
program really liked. He offered to send it to an agent. I took him up
on it; that agent called me back the next day and said he wanted to
represent me. Soon I was off and running, adapting science fiction
novels into screenplays and writing Star Trek episodes.
You have done screenplays, animation episodes,
and computer games. It seems like you have a lot of interests. Will
writing novels become your full time career now?
Novel writing is so different from screenwriting - when you work for
Hollywood, you have to pay a lot of attention to structure because
movies and TV shows cost millions of dollars to produce. With such high
stakes, studios don't tend to be all that receptive when you deviate
from traditional act structures. By contrast, novels cost less to
produce, so you have more freedom as a writer. You can write whatever
you want, however you want, as long as it engages the reader. I enjoy
that freedom a lot, so I expect I'll keep writing books for a while. At
the same time, there's something I love about screenwriting, so my plan
is to write the stories that call to me in whatever medium seems best.
Some ideas might be better as screenplays, others books, and others
still as games. It's a bit of a juggling act, but so far it's a lot of
fun.
Your voice is on the Voyager spacecraft that is
making its way outbound into interstellar space. How does that feel?
Perhaps in some ways a part of you will always be immortal?
How does it feel? Wonderful and strange. When it happened I
had no idea what to make of it. My parents were working on the Voyager
Golden Record, compiling sights, sounds and songs of Earth, and
collecting "greetings from Earth" in over 50 languages. They had adults
represented, but no children, and they wanted a child's voice for one of
the greetings. There I was. They plopped me down in front of a
microphone; I said, "Hello from the children of planet Earth," and that
was that. At the time, it was just another day in my childhood, but now
I can appreciate what a great honor it is. My voice is preserved and
there's a kind of immortality in that. At the same time, it's like I've
lost a piece of myself. As if the six-year-old version of myself is on a
ship that's fleeing Earth, never to return. That record is the most
distant human-made object in the universe; every year it flies another
320 million miles from home.
I know this question has probably been asked a
lot but what was it like to grow up with Carl Sagan as your father? I
can imagine he was a great educator and I'm sure every day you could
always learn something new.
Absolutely. He was the best teacher I ever had. He inspired so many
people to ask questions about the universe, and I feel so fortunate to
be his son. So many kids grow up with parents who are indifferent to
their questions, but he encouraged mine and was always giving with his
answers.
What was the most inspirational thing he ever
said to you?
There are so many things he said, it's hard to narrow down to any one,
but if you've read Pale Blue Dot, the sentiments in that book are some
of the most truthful and moving I've ever heard. When you take the time
to absorb the scale of the universe and what a tiny portion of it we
inhabit, you really have no choice but to refocus your priorities. We
used to talk about that a lot. Here's a quote I like from the book:
"Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it
everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every
human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our
joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and
economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward,
every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant,
every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child,
inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt
politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and
sinner in the history of our species lived there - on a mote of dust
suspended in a sunbeam."
Regarding the characters in Idlewild, did their
personalities take a long time to develop, as far as character creation?
Actually, not that long. When there's a story I want to tell, I often
find that I have the characters' voices in my head already. It's just a
question of listening to them and putting them on the page.
Will there be a sequel to Idlewild?
Yes, I'm working on it right now and hope to have it in stores sometime
in 2004.
What are some of your favorite science fiction
authors?
I've discovered so many good ones over the years. Growing up, my father
introduced me to terrific science fiction from Ray Bradbury, Robert
Heinlein, Kurt Vonnegut, and Isaac Asimov, who I remember coming to my
mother's dinner parties. Mom introduced me to Middle Earth, Narnia, and
The Dark is Rising books, which I especially loved. Then, as a teen, I
read as much H.P. Lovecraft, Michael Moorcock and Roger Zelazny as I
could get my hands on. Since then, my list of favorites has grown to
include Neil Gaiman, Iain Banks, Jack Womack and Stephen Baxter. Of
course, there's a whole other list from outside the genre: Raymond
Carver, Jim Thompson, Flannery O'Connor, Vladimir Nabokov, and Ryunosuke
Akutagawa to name a few.
As far as future novels go, will you stay in
the realm of science fiction, or venture into some other areas?
As genres go, science fiction/fantasy is by far my favorite. It gives
you so much freedom as a writer, and you can explore the important
questions: who are we, where are we going, why are we here? And there's
nothing like creating your own world, your own mythology. At the same
time, some of the stories I want to tell don't have a science fiction
element. So I expect I'll venture out from the genre and tell them, but
there's no immediate rush.
Your father was a great supporter of S.E.T.I.
Do you feel that we might actually pick up a signal in our lifetime, or
because of the vastness of interstellar space that it could take
centuries or even millennia?
I don't think finding a signal in our lifetime is very likely, but it's
certainly possible and I hope that we do. When S.E.T.I. started, my
father believed that the odds were good that we'd discover a signal in
his lifetime, and that the universe might be teeming with technological
civilizations. We haven't found anything yet. Is life that rare? Are we
alone in the universe? When civilizations reach a certain level of
technology, do they tend to blow themselves up - is that why we haven't
found anything? We don't have any answers yet, but the questions all
point to the fragility of life on this planet.
How do you feel about the state of scientific
research (in all areas) today? Do you feel that it has taken a backseat
to religion, as far as a priority among the general population? I think
that this was the message in Carl's book "The Demon Haunted World."
Interesting question. Well, there's no stopping science but it has been
slowed down a bit lately here in America, especially in our schools. Our
educational system is in need of reform and/or additional funding, and I
just don't think we're inspiring as many people to go into the sciences
as we should. That might hurt us down the road. But the problem isn't
just that; there's also a lack of critical thinking in our culture. As a
civilization we don't put enough emphasis upon it, and that's why people
come to believe in psychics and UFOs and all sorts of wild claims. But
I'd be careful about lumping religion in with that group because I don't
think that science and religion are inherently incompatible.
If you could say anything to the kids growing
up in today's society, what would it be? (Besides study hard!)
Take a long view. When you're growing up, everything seems incredibly
important, but almost nothing is as serious as it seems. Use the time to
figure out who you are. Nourish your creativity and your intuition, keep
an open mind, and discover the things that are important to you. Once
you've found them, everything will fall into place.
