This is a selection of the questions that have been sent in through the Internet,
with Jeff's answers. If you missed the session and would like to send in a
question, you can send him and Ringpull, the publishers of Pollen, an email with
the mail form on the other pages.
Paul from state51 asked:
There's a traditional poem...,
Jeff Noon answered:
The song John
Barleycorn must Die by the Traffic was the main inspiration for the book. It was
a Sixties pyschedelic interpretation of an old English folk song, and I was
interested in the way that myth changes over time. I don't know how different my
JB is from the original JB because I was never around to meet him, although I
have downed a few bottles of his finest blood-red
wine!
PS. Sorry about the glitches - technology can be very trying!
Jeff Noon
answered:Hello, Paul! can you connect to me?
PS. Sorry about the glitches - technology can be very trying!
Jeff Noon answered:Hello Paul! Is
there anybody out there?
Yes Jeff - I'm here. What about the hayfever? Do you suffer?
Jeff Noon answered:I used to suffer
when I was a kid, but I managed to defeat the urge to sneeze. Really, I was
interested in taking a mild disease and turning into a killer. It's another way
of looking at all the new diseases that currently want us for
dinner.
You have dealt with things from outer space and things from myth invading Manchester - what's next?
Jeff Noon answered:It next book is
called Automated Alice and it's a welcome change from the complexity of Vurt and
Pollen. It's still about Manchester and the weird things that go on here, but
told through the eyes of Lewic Carrol's Alice. Basically, Alice travels through
time, lands in 1998, in Manchester. Here adventures in the
city.
You have dealt with things from outer space and things from myth invading Manchester - what's next?
Jeff Noon answered:It next book is
called Automated Alice and it's a welcome change from the complexity of Vurt and
Pollen. It's still about Manchester and the weird things that go on here, but
told through the eyes of Lewic Carrol's Alice. Basically, Alice travels through
time, lands in 1998, in Manchester. Here adventures in the
city.
What's the idea behind the Vurt - Do you think our desire to escape reality will lead us to such extremes?
Jeff Noon answered:Vurt is a metaphor
for the human skull, and the many worlds that live within. It's a kind of
internal manchester I'm writing about, and then laying it over the real
Manchester. I think some people will find their escape route from reality through
future means; most of us will content to live in the here and
now.
I read somewhere that you are really influenced by music. What kind of music do you listen to & how does it influence the way you write. Are you into the same things as Mr Gumbo Ya Ya?
Jeff Noon answered:Music is my fave
artform; I can't write without it. I love the psychedelic music that Gumbo's
into, but I also love Jungle, reggae, dub, jazz, and any mixtures
thereof.
You are writing at a time when books seem less and less important. Is it that society moves on, or are books just not as good as they were?
Jeff Noon answered:There are many
different ways to be human, and many different ways to enjoy being human. Books
are a unique experience that people will never want to give up. There will be new
ways of journeying through stories, but the book will never die, because it
occupies a special place in the psyche. We are still waiing for the first genius
of non-linear narrative. Until then, books will hold
firm.
Pollen inspirations WHERE DO YOU GET THE IDEAS FOR WHICH YOU PUT INTO YOUR WORK? WHAT WOULD YOU SAY HE MAIN INFLUENCES WERE IN WRITING THIS BOOK?
Jeff Noon answered:I get my ideas by
allowing my head to open up to chance. After writing and creating music and
paintings for most of my life, my mind is now pretty well trained. I can spot a
weirdness from a mile off; then I pounce upon it, see what it is, then use it or
let it loose. I write by improvisation, like John Coltrane blowing words through
his sax. It's an organic process. Sometimes the ideas don't come at all, and
that's terrifying!
Has Vurt been published anywhere aprt from Britain? If it was, how did they get on with robodogs and crusties? Do you think people outside this country can understand thses things?
Jeff Noon answered:Vurt has been
published in the States and in Italy up to now, with about a dozen othere
translations pending. I find that readers in other countries think I've made it
all up! I love to claim I invented the word crusty! On tour I have to explain all
dogs on strings and all that. Other countries see my work as more SF than British
people do. They think Manchester is an alien place, somewhere close to
London!
What do you read? Do you avoid reading other peoples books when you are writing your own in case you are influenced by them?
Jeff Noon answered:I read all the
time. A lot of American crime, for instance, some pop. science. A little bit of
SF. Anything that takes my fancy. I have a very curious mind. I can't say I'm
influenced by anybody in particular, except for the current record I'm playing as
I write, which in this case is trans Atlantic 4.
If you had to put Pollen into a genre, which?
Jeff Noon answered:Avant
Pulp.
Your picture on the state51 website strikes an unsacnny resembalence to Keith Chegwin. Are you related?
Jeff Noon answered:Is it my fault
that I'm not webgenic? I come from good northern stock, designed to work. I'm a
writer, not a male model.
There is a theme in sci-fi; nature out of control. It seems to touch many of our insecurities. Why do you think it is so powerful?
Jeff
Noon answered: SF was invented at a time when technology first started to show its
true power. The late nineteenth century writers were concerned about this, and
their work dealt with that concern. I think by now we're coming to see technology
as less of a threat, especially in the cyberpunk books of the eighties. Tech is
something to used, revelled in, celebrated, turned around. Nature is therefore
making a comeback in SF. This vast organic machine in which we live is finally
showing its true strength. Pollen was part of that
struggle.
Thanks for your time, Jeff. And sorry about the picture! When your ready, we'd better call it a day.
Jeff Noon answered:OK. Thanks a
lot.
