Daryl Gregory’s collections Impossible contains a series of short stories inspired by brain science, including “Digital,” how human knowledge moves from head to toe, and “Glass,” in which sociopaths “heal” by launching their nerve glasses.
“It’s great to have a job where you get permission to feed your interests and buy as many books as you want, that’s why I buy brain science books,” Gregory says in Section 484 of Geek design in Galaxy Podcast. “I’ve been fascinated by this for a long time, so I’m always looking for ways to make these stories.”
In his article “Dead Horse Point,” the skilled scientist has a strange problem that causes him to disappear from his mind for weeks. Gregory says the story was inspired by a friend. “He wasn’t completely flawed as my storyteller, but he was very good at math, and when he did hard work, he spent a few days wandering around, eating alone, he couldn’t talk to people,” said Gregory. and your sons, and I will come three days to see how he is doing. “
One of the most interesting stories in the book is “Second Person, Present Tense,” in which a young person is addicted to drugs that disrupt the connection between his cognitive mind and his entire brain. “He takes drugs,” says Gregory, “and then a new way of knowing things, and he knows exactly what happened – he can even remember the old man’s memory – but he doesn’t look like that person. He feels like a new person.”
Gregory thought the idea was fictional, but then he realized it was something that could happen. “I got an email from a young professor, and he’s like, ‘I read this article, and this happened to me, except that it wasn’t a drug, it was a motorcycle accident. When I woke up in the hospital, I knew I was someone else, but I wasn’t as brave as a person. Your eldest – I’m just going on, ” says Gregory.
Listen to the full interview with Daryl Gregory in Section 484 of Geek design in Galaxy (above). And see some of the highlights from the discussion below.
Daryl Gregory on his article “The Continuing Adventures of Rocket Boy”:
“[Gordon Van Gelder] has done me a great favor in ‘The Continuing Adventures of Rocket Boy,’ which is a band, written by Gordon. … He said, ‘Look, this is not a science fiction story. It is a well-known science fiction novel. That’s why I can’t take it, I can’t buy the story. ‘And I said,’ Yes, that makes sense. ‘ But I said, ‘You know, I believe that fictional scientists can read, because it’s about me as a reader, growing up.’ I kept writing some of Gordon’s stories, and then he came back to me and said, ‘Look, I can’t think of this story. Let’s run. ‘And he ran it, but it’s a denial – not for sex or violence, but for lack of a genre of music. ”
Daryl Gregory on his book He will stretch it out:
“I am fascinated by the idea of gods who are not real gods, demons who are not demons. So as in this new book He will stretch it out, there is a family in the Smoky Mountains, in the 1930s and 40s, and for generations they have been worshiping their mysterious deity, and claiming to be a god, but what really is it? One of the secrets of this book is, ‘Well, what is this? We have made it into a god, and it is doing things, and it seems to be spiritual, but is there something else, a fictional description of science? ‘… One of the secrets of this book is that it is a science fiction novel. I wrote so that it would seem strange and fictional, but scientists explain everything that is happening. ”
Daryl Gregory pa Roger Zelazny:
“I grew up reading people like Roger Zelazny, who mixed science fiction and fantasy. … Zelazny wrote this great book that fascinated me Master of Light, which is actually a science fiction novel about future civilization – we hear later that they came aboard – but their superior expertise, for some of the former members, made them gods, and took part in the Hindu movement. It’s fun. I was amazed when I read my second year of high school, and when you read something at that age, it can make a big difference in your brain. And another part of me, a few years later, wants to be Roger Zelazny more than anything else. I want to grow up to be her. ”
Daryl Gregory on his old book Dr. Moreau:
“I thought, ‘Well, all the people who are suspected will be human pets – there’s a baby bat and an elephant, and they’re all suspicious.’ … I had five boys who were born in a secret place of science and raised by geneticists, and they lived all the time together, and found out how to communicate with each other, as brothers, and how each of them would have a different personality, which was very interesting in the book. So before I started about the plot, I sat down and let them talk – I just kept writing, trying to talk – and when I found the book, it was about five guys, how they were arguing, and how each of them could laugh in a different way. ”