You always have such great guests on your channel! I wouldn't even know where to begin with approaching a well-known person for an interview or discussion. I admire any writer who can write an adult book told from the point of view of an animal. It seems trickier to execute well when it's not a children's book. Now I'm reminded of Like Water on Stone, a novel in verse about the Armenian Genocide where one of the main characters is an eagle watching over the orphaned children hiding on a mountain.
I agree! It takes such skill to find that balance … a little too much of this, and you’ll fall into the childish or cartoonish; a little too much of that and your story will read like a documentary. The way the protagonist of Ka (a crow) looks at the world comes across completely natural, including scenes that are repugnant to humans but clearly not to crows. A real “virtuoso achievement”.
Thank you Tripp!! I would love to hear back from you once you’ve read it. Please let me know (even here under this comment) what you think of it once you’ve read it. It’s not a simple book as you can imagine but SO incredibly rewarding.
No worries Lee this was not a live interview, we recorded it earlier today. Such a great coincidence that you are reading Little, Big!! Would really love to hear your thoughts about that novel.
@@tomlabooks3263 Ok, I have managed to listen to all of this interview!!! Really well done gentlemen, really well done. I will have to grab Flint and Mirror. Little, Big is very slow going for me as I am not a fantasy (or even fantasy type) reader. I have been scientific and non Fiction all my life and I find that I get frustrated and annoyed with fantasy. However, I have always loved the entire idea of Irish fairies.... for some reason I can totally accept them !! LOL
@@Leebearify You know, I think I understand you very well when it comes to fantasy, because I also don’t resonate with many stories that seem to lack at least an anchor in reality, and a lot of the fantasy genre, let’s face it, does not come across as “adult”. In fact, the way itself in which many fantasy stories are told is the way a child would tell a story: incoherent, illogical, and without some fundamental points of reference. That, I don’t like 😅 John Crowley’s work, of course, is totally different. That’s why I consider him almost an author who writes within a genre of his own. Thanks for watching our interview!
Thank you, Cristina 🤗 I know your TBR is like mine, a wall that we can’t see the top of, but I would strongly recommend both KA and Little, Big. His new novel “Flint and Mirror” also sounds awesome!
I guess I know what I’ll be watching tomorrow! Wow, what a guest to have on your channel! Funny, because Haven Kimmel was a guest on my channel either last year or the year before, and if memory serves, she and Crowley have known each other a long time...
All credit goes to Jordan, who has been a fan of his work forever and inspired me to pick up “KA”. I was really floored by Crowley’s style. In my ignorance about American authors, I know of Haven Kimmel but haven’t read anything by her - any title you’d suggest me to start from?
@@tomlabooks3263 Her memoir A Girl Named Zippy is her claim to fame. One of the funniest books I’ve ever read. And her novel The Solace of Leaving Early is beautifully midrashy.
With animals other than ourselves I think we come from the wrong side of the concept of intelligence. They aren't almost as smart as us, We're just barely more intelligent than they are. Its probably more lateral than that but you get the idea.
Whether one agrees with your statement or not, it is a philosophical or theological matter rather than biological. Biology tells us that no animal has a brain cortex as developed as ours, but that doesn’t draw a definite line between humans and animals. I’m catholic, so I do draw a line: there is something “made in the image of God” in humans that no animals have. But I know that many people like to think that we are just like any other animal, with various degrees of pessimistic articulations to this concept.
@Tom LA Books you are most likely right about that. I'm barely educated, 😄. I'm not coming from a materialist point of view, and I actually believe in God or gods myself. As an inevitability, you know the whole "as above so below" thing. Anyway thanks for replying. And God bless you
