Schrijvers die er toe doen: Stephen Donaldson

Zoals al gezegd, ben een tijdje weggeweest. Toen ik bij wijze van voorbereiding een boek aan het scoren was in de Scholten&Wristers kreeg ik bijna tranen in mijn ogen bij wat ik aantrof: een boek van één van mijn eeuwig favoriete schrijvers, Stephen Donaldson, en wel een nieuwe kroniek van Thomas Covenant! Zegt je vast nix, maar ik heb de eerste twee kronieken, een dubbele trilogie, opgevreten en minstens vijfmaal herlezen. De hoofdpersoon, Covenant, stierf in de laatste, dus een nieuwe kroniek was een verrassing. Je zult begrijpen dat ook dat eerste deel van de nieuwe kroniek inmiddels opgevreten is en een schrijnende honger heeft achtergelaten voor deel twee. Die staat gepland voor eind 2007, dus dat wordt een lange zit. Als heel klein troostprijsje een interview uit 1999 van uw blogger met de schrijver (uit de Diemensies).

Cyber-Interview met Stephen R. Donaldson, auteur

Geloof mij, broeders en zusters, ik ken het Internet, ik heb zelf ooit gewerkt als ‘Internet Application Engineer’ en het Internet is bijna nergens goed voor. Bijna: zo lukte het mij wel om het e-mail adres van één van mijn favoriete auteurs, Stephen Donaldson, uit te vinden. Ik mailde de beste man en hij bleek zo sportief om een paar vragen van een fan en diemensies-correspondent te beantwoorden. De vragen zijn redelijk onbegrijpelijk als je niet eerst wat info hebt over ‘s mans boeken. Laat ik nou toevallig bereid zijn u wat info te geven:

Donaldson werd wereldberoemd met zijn ‘Kronieken van Thomas Covenant, de Ongelovige’, een Tolkien-achtig verhaal over een aan lepra lijdende schrijver, die door een soort magie in een andere wereld terechtkomt (hij wordt gestuurd door een zwerver die later als een soort god optreedt), waar hij niet wordt uitgekotst, maar erkend als de langverwachte Redder. Covenant weigert echter te geloven dat hij in een andere wereld zit en blijft beweren dat hij droomt. Intussen blijft het Kwaad, Heer Veil (Lord Foul), terrein winnen, omdat Covenant weigert gebruik te maken van zijn krachten, je kent dat soort toestanden wel. Uiteindelijk gelooft Covenant in het Land en weet het, in zes boeken (!), te redden. Zeer populair, en niet voor nix.

Zijn tweede belangrijke werk was Mordant’s Need, een verhaal over een vrouw die zo weinig eigendunk bezit dat ze aan haar bestaan twijfelt. Om zichzelf te overtuigen heeft ze haar hele huis met spiegels volgezet en natuurlijk komt ook zij in een droomwereld terecht, waar zij een sleutelrol speelt in een sterk geënsceneerd paleisdrama, waarin niets is wat het lijkt.

Zijn laatste grote succes was een echt hard-science-fiction cyclus, genaamd de Gap-serie, waarin een politiek gevecht tussen een principiële legerleider, Warden Dios, en zijn baas, Holt Fasner, de officieuze leider van de mensheid, gespeeld op macro- en microscopisch niveau. Politieke intriges en de invloed daarvan op individuen meeslepend verteld in vijf boeken. Hiermee werd Donaldson één van de best verkopende schrijvers ter wereld, we hebben het hier niet over zo maar een pipo. Donaldson wordt beschouwd als een schrijver die SF en Fantasy op literair niveau schrijft, heeft verscheidene internationale prijzen (Hugo, Nebula etc.) gewonnen en woont in Albuquerque, Verenigde Staten.

Het interview, in het Engels:

The only bio I could find on the Internet was quite old, could you tell our readers in short about yourself.

I've always said there isn't much to tell--mostly because I don't think my biography sheds much light on my work. I was born in 1947. From 1951 to 1963 I lived in India (my father was a medical missionary for the Presbyterian Church). I graduated from college with a degree in English literature in 1968, served two years as a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War, and received an M.A. in English literature from Kent State University in 1971. (By the way, I was at Kent during the infamous shootings in 1970.) In 1972 I dropped out of my Ph.D. program to write full-time, and I've been doing it ever since--first in New Jersey until 1977, since then in New Mexico. During that time, I've published 18 books--six Covenant "Chronicles," three pseudonymous crime novels, two short story collections, a two-volume fantasy, "Mordant's Need," and the five-volume sf saga which I call "the GAP sequence." I was awarded an honorary Doctor of Literature degree by the College of Wooster (my alma mater) in 1993. And in 1994 I earned a black belt in Shotokan karate from Sensei Mike Heister at Anshin Personal Defense. In addition, I've had several disastrous marriages which somehow produced two wonderful children.

Are you asleep yet?

I have read all of your books (except the newest, because it isn't out here yet) and I found that there are certain themes that return in every story:In the Covenant-chronicles the God/Vagabond is a being with almost unlimited power, but still he/it is left powerless and has to trust on Covenant to help him, Covenant himself has the power of his ring and still he cannot freely use it, thus alienating from the people that trust him, the King in Mordant's Need must play the fool in order to save his kingdom, however much he frustrates the ones that love and trust him and finally in the Gap-series Warden Dios has to play the Dragon's humble servant and seems effectively powerless, to achieve his goals, he too frustrating the ones that trust him. Summarizing we could say that you depict a very powerful person that is left powerless by circumstances and seems to let down his followers. What can you tell us about this, is this a metaphore for God (Dios)?

Certainly you could call it a metaphor for God. You could also call it a metaphor for any creative artist: no creative act can ever produce art until the thing created has an internal integrity which enables it to stand separate from its creator; and that requirement binds the creator until he/she appears powerless. (Compare God as a creator--and as a massive disappointment to all His/Her/Its followers.) However, I prefer to think of this power/powerlessness paradox as a study in ethics. Remember, in every case you've mentioned the relative powerlessness is self-imposed. Thomas Covenant, King Joyse, and Warden Dios all consider themselves the servants of something larger than themselves (the Land, Mordant, humankind); and in order to fulfill their chosen functions they must respect the integrity of what they serve. Warden Dios is a good example. He recognizes (as does any true artist, or any true God) that he simply cannot serve humankind by depriving individuals humans of their core humanity (their freedom to choose, to be themselves). He can only use his power by restricting it.

Your choice of (male) heroes is also very extraordinary: Thomas Covenant is a self-pitying rapist, Geraden a clumsy student, and in the Gap-series Succorso seems to be the hero and Thermopyle his adversary, but the tables turn and Thermopyle becomes, though he is a murderer and sadistic rapist, a hero. Nothing, nobody is what it seems. Is that your point?

I have too many "points" to list here. One is simply that my stories happen to the people who most need them. Thomas Covenant, Terisa Morgan, and Angus Thermopyle are all "lost souls," and their only hope of "redemption," of true humanity, lies in the kind of arduous journey my stories provide for them. But another is that only people who have been truly lost are truly qualified to evaluate what personal integrity and responsible ethics are worth. In the same way that only a person who BECOMES educated can appreciate the value of education (see Milton's "On Education"), only a person who GAINS integrity can appreciate the value of honesty.

Your female heroes are stronger and more integer. That's not coincidental is it?

My female protagonists may not be as different as you think. Consider Linden Avery, Terisa Morgan, and Morn Hyland. However, it's true that my "secondary" female characters tend to have more integrity (and to see life in simpler terms) than my male characters. For example: the GAP books offer men like Vector Shaheed, Sixten Vertigus, and Dolph Ubikwe; but they offer more women like Lane Harbinger, Koina Hannish, Min Donner, Liete Corregio, Sorus Chatelaine, Mikka Vasaczk, and (in her own way) Norna Fasner. My troubled, ambiguous characters, such as Godsen Frik, Hashi Lebwohl, Sib Mackern, Davies Hyland, and Ciro Vasaczk, are most commonly male. Why? Your guess is as good as mine. No doubt the explanation resides in those parts of my biography I don't choose to reveal.

The Gap-series is in my humble opinion brilliant. I love the plot, I love your style and I love the way you keep changing viewpoints and still don't loose the main objective and the smoothness of chronology. The Gap seems almost orchestrated, composed. How do you write an immense story like that, do you plan the main scenario from the start or does it 'write itself'?

I'm a planner. In particular, I can't even start to write a story until I can see its end clear before me. For example, I couldn't begin "Lord Foul's Bane" until I knew the climax of "The Power that Preserves." The climax is my whole reason for telling the story. However, as I've become more experienced, I trust myself more; and so I now do much less mid-range planning than I once did. In "The First Chronicles" I worked out the entire three-volume story before I began writing the first book. But in the GAP sequence I only worked out the general shape of events (what I call the "architecture"): how many "movements" (books)? what do I need to accomplish in each? where do I want reach to end?--that sort of thing. Nothing "writes itself." But some of my characters do seem to arrive with a life of their own, and to tell me what their role must be. One reason I no longer plan everything in advance is to leave room for such characters to help me out, in a manner of speaking.

As stated earlier I loved the Gap-series. Well, except for the end that is. In the end of 'This day all gods die' there seems to be a uncharacteristic almost-hollywood-style showdown. Or am I missing the point?

I'm sorry you had that reaction. Of course, my work has always been full of blazing battles and cinematic special effects. But I certainly wasn't TRYING to produce an "almost-hollywood-style showdown." I was aiming for the kind of inevitability that comes when each character's necessary crisis helps catalyze the crises (and resolutions) of all the others.

What writers, books are your own favourites, who influenced your work, your style? Is there underlying story-telling culture that molded you?

The only "story-telling culture" that had any early effect on me was the homilectic mythology of the missionaries. Much of my taste in literature was formed in college and graduate school, where the culture focused on analysis rather than narrative. However, the greatest benefit I derived from that culture was not the analysis per se, but rather the appreciation for excellence. So my literary "idols" were writers like J. R. R. Tolkien (his work opened the door for mine), Joseph Conrad (he demonstrated that "blazing battles and cinematic special effects" can be used for the most serious literary purposes), Henry James (I admire enormously his mastery of story design, of narrative "architecture"), and Fyodor Dostoevsky (he taught me the importance of respecting the integrity of my creations). Also the poets William Butler Yeats and Gerard Manley Hopkins.

Science Fiction and Fantasy as a genre is by some still not acknowledged as literature, though I think that for example Isaac Asimov, Julian May and yourself are brilliant writers. Then again SF&F sells very good and some great writers like Dan Simmons or Orson Scott Card, every now and then publish a book that is not up to their standards to be honest. Another example of commercial thinking: Simmons started the Hyperion-series founded on the three poems of Keats Hyperion, Fall of Hyperion and Endymion. I cannot tell you how very dissapointed I was when i discovered that Endymion was not the concluding part of the series. Dan Simmons had decided to exploit the succes of the series at the cost of it's integrity. Your work however is always up to (high) standard, but aren't you afraid you will never be acknowledged as a great writer? Do you plan writing a non-SF&F book ever?

First, am I "afraid" I'll never be acknowledged as a "great writer"? Define "great." In my opinion, time is the only true test. And the only true thing I can say about that test is that I won't live long enough to find out whether it honors me or finds me wanting. Which is a great blessing: since I'll never know the answer anyway, I don't need to be afraid of it. Of course, I yearn to produce work which deserves to be considered literature. Day in and day out, I strive to do the best work I can. And I think I've maintained a "(high) standard" because, as I like to say, I only write for love. I've never written for money (or fame, or respect, or ego, or fandom), and I never will. (Yes, I do SELL my work for money. But selling doesn't have anything to do with writing.) I write always because at a particular time in my life a particular story becomes so compelling to me that I wouldn't feel alive if I didn't tell it. As for the issue of writing non-sf/f: I've already published three crime novels (all long out of print), and I'm writing a fourth. Ever since the original "Covenant" books, I've found that I need to write a crime novel before I can go on to another large project. God knows why. Incidentally, under pressure from my publisher my three previous crime novels were published pseudonymously, by the neglected and (I think) under-rated "Reed Stephens." With the book I'm writing now I hope to bring ol' Reed out of the closet.

And last, but not least: could you tell us as a little about your latest book 'Reave the Just' which will be in our bookstores too, shortly.

Of the eight tales in "Reave the Just," five have seen print earlier. Of those, two violate my personal commitment to write only for love. In fact, you could say that those two stories taught me to never make that mistake again. All I can say in my own defense now is that both were written in the first half of the 80's--and I was much younger then. The three new works in the collection are all novellas, all fantasy; and I'm especially proud of them because I think they all demonstrate that I'm still capable of growth.

Tot zover het interview (duh!), waarbij de opmerking dat vooral de laatste antwoorden inmiddels gedateerd zijn. Lekker belangrijk. Tchüss!