|
The Lightsabre Interview L Neil Smith
Welcome to
Lightsabre. Our latest guest is the
author of the Lando Calrissian trilogy, The Probability Broach, The American
Zone and Forge of the Elders. Please
welcome to Lightsabre L Neil Smith. Q – L Neil, welcome
to Lightsabre. A - Thank you, Mark, it's a pleasure to be
"here", in the virtual sense. Q – You’ve written
many novels, including The Probability Broach, The American Zone and Forge of
the Elders, but you are widely known for the Lando Calrissian trilogy. Is that a burden or a pleasure? A – I've written twenty-six books, altogether,
including two political "thrillers" and a collection of essays. But
I'm very happy to be known for having written the Lando books, and I'm
pleased that folks have continued to enjoy them. Q – Tell us something
of your career. Where did you begin as
an author and what led you to today? A - I've
been writing for as long as I can remember. I made my first attempt at
fiction when I was seven or eight years old and there were occasional
eruptions after that. I wrote three
short stories for the market in 1967, when I was 21. (I wrote them on my
honeymoon - I wonder what that says about me?) They were rejected by every
magazine in Sciencefictiondom, but Judy-Lynn del Rey bought them ten years
later for her Stellar Science Fiction series of anthologies, and, at her
request, they formed the basis for my novel, The Gallatin Divergence. The politics of individual liberty has always
been supremely important to me, and I wanted to write an action-adventure
novel that would do for freedom what H.G. Wells and Edward Bellamy had done
for the form of serfdom we call socialism. Only in Bellamy's case, less
boringly. I also had Ayn Rand as a model: her books Anthem and Atlas Shrugged
are first-rate science fiction, even if she was unaware of it. So in 1977, I outlined a novel to be called The
Constitution Conspiracy, talked about it with some friends at the national
Libertarian Party convention in San Francisco that year, returned home and
broke my foot in a Tae Kwon Do class, and had no choice but to sit down and
write the damned thing. Along the way, I changed the title to The Probability
Broach (the original title is still there as the name of a chapter) and it
was bought by the first publisher - Del Rey of Random House - who read it. I'll leave it to the reader to decide how well I
achieved my original objective for the book. Q – What is it like
to be a part of the Star Wars phenomenon? A- I can't honestly say. Aside from keeping me alive
during a very slim period, the books haven't impacted my life all that much.
After some unpleasant experiences Brian Daley had, my editor deliberately
kept me away from Lucasfilm, Ltd. and its rather sordid corporate politics.
So I've been more or less completely out of the loop. And probably happier
that way. Q – The Lando books
are unique among the wider Star Wars Expanded Universe, carving their own
niche in the saga, and the chief of your original characters was Vuffi
Raa. What was the inspiration for this
enjoyable character? A – It makes me very happy that you like Vuffi Raa.
He was a pleasure to create, I enjoyed writing him, and I regret very much
that I don't own him and can't use him. Physically, I have always been
interested in marine life, and was intrigued by the deep-sea brittle star.
That was my model for Vuffi Raa. As a character, he's very much of a piece
with some of my other wisecracking sidekicks. I guess he's more like Oasam in
Forge of the Elders (who has the very last word in the 600-page epic) than
anybody else.
Q – Lando is such a
striking character. Did you feel for
his predicament in Empire Strikes Back? A – I was always a big fan of Han Solo, which made me
like Lando very much, too. I spotted him as a gambler and a wheeler-dealer
right off, and I don't imagine that he viewed what happened at the Cloud City
as much of a predicament. More like a problem that could be solved by a
sufficiently intelligent con-man. And when you get right down to it, his
adversary, Darth Vader wasn't really very bright, and had no sense of humor
at all. Q – What were your
feelings on Revenge of the Sith? Did
it satisfy your fan appetite, or simply whet it for more adventures to come? A – I saw all three of the later movies, and I think
I was less disappointed with them than most people, but it was all very
cartoony, with a lot less character development than the first three movies.
And as I grow older, for some reason, as a writer and a human being, I'm more
and more interested in the phenomenon of character. Q – Given you had to
design a slightly younger Lando, where did you begin? What cues did you follow to retrofit the
character? A – To paraphrase Michael Mann, first, I removed his
moustache. For some reason, that helped me with the rest of the
characterization more than anything else. He was a gambler and a con artist -
but a young one, still learning his trade. As he went along and learned from
life, he had Vuffi Raa, his Watson, to explain his discoveries to. Q – Was there ever
any opportunity to write further Star Wars adventures, and if given the
chance today would you be interested? A – No such opportunity has ever presented itself. If
it did, I'd have to be paid a hell of a lot more than I was to begin with. Q – Tell us something of your other interests outside of Star
Wars? You are known to be a keen
marksman. A – I have been called one of the foremost
authorities on the ethics of self-defense. But I just like things that go
bang!, and I also like the way, in the words of an old ad for the 1907
Savage, they "Banish Fear!" A capable weapon in the hands of a competent user
is government's worst nightmare, because the combination demonstrates, for
all but the most retarded among us, that government is essentially unnecessary. Remember the fable about Chanticleer? That's the
government, wanting us to believe it makes the sun rise, when in fact - as we
see with George Bush and Tony Blair - its actual effect is to bring about a
new Dark Age. Ahem. Sorry about the lecture (not really). My
favorite sport, one I pursued for many years, is handgun silhouette shooting.
That's a pistol or revolver fired at thick steel cutouts of game animals -
grouse, peccaries, wild turkeys, and Sonoran desert rams - at ranges most
individuals think only rifles can achieve. My version tops out at 100 yards
with half-sized critters. Another version goes to 200 meters, and I'd love to
compete in that. It's a splendid past time, which I describe in some detail
in my novel Pallas. My personal choice of weapon for what's formally
called "NRA Hunters' Pistol" is the 6" barrelled Smith &
Wesson Model 610, a revolver that shoots the 10 millimeter auto cartridge. Q – You are deeply interested in politics, as seen on your
personnel website. Tell us a bit about
why you are so inclined? A – Very simple. With freedom, you can do anything.
Without it, you can do nothing. History proves that over and over and over
again. I can make all kinds of intellectual arguments about it, but in the
end, it's a visceral thing. Some people seem happy being domesticated animals
- you and I both know plenty of specimens like that - and some can't be. The
problem arises when the former try to afflict the latter with their own
disease.
Q – What would you like to see in the forthcoming Star Wars
television show? Young Lando? A - I confess I wasn't aware there was going to be a TV show. If there
were, Cirroc Lofton should play young Lando. Q - What lies ahead
for you in the future? A – Lots of things. As we speak, I'm in the process
of acquiring an agent again, after a long period without one. I have begun to
expand Pallas into a four-book "family saga", and finished what
will be the third book, Ceres, late in 2005. I'm working on the second book,
Ares, now. Both are about the terraformation and settlement of new worlds.
The fourth, Beautiful Dreamer, is a large-scale love story, a bit like
Hilton's Lost Horizon (1939 novel published by Ballantine, the first
published in paperback). I'm also writing TimePeeper, a project I
originally conceived as a movie, but which will make its first appearance as
a webcomic at www.BigHeadPress.com where people
can also find the webcomic version of The Probability Broach and the epic
science fiction western spy story, Roswell, Texas. I've also begun outlining
my first vampire novel, Sweeter Than Wine. Q – A quick question
about our site, Lightsabre. Any
comments? A – Quite amazing, really. The consistent dedication
of Star Wars fans never fails to suprise and please me. Q - It's been a great
interview, and thanks for being our guest on Lightsabre. Just one final question. Twiki from Buck Rogers, Daggit from
Battlestar Galactica and Vuffi Raa have entered a Robot Wars
competition. Their aim is to build the
biggest, baddest Robot, designed to destroy the others in the arena. Which one builds the killer robot? A – Why, Vuffi Raa, of course, first because, unlike
the other two, he's both sapient and rational. And then again because his mom
and dad are - but that would be telling, wouldn't it? |
