![]() HD: Oh, are you sure?! Research presupposes a scientific protocol, a method that I don’t think translates very well into the realm of literature. I was interested in that “Planet Mars,” or the equivalent for the West-the set of expectations with which we walk into a story, rather than the actual geographical conditions. It was a red world of adventure, a desert. But every science-fiction writer agreed on what Mars looked like. Back then, it was a planet we knew very little about. For example, as I was writing some of the desert scenes, I thought of the desert as planet Mars in early science-fiction. I wanted to repurpose the Western, and to translate different genres into each other. Can one be a foreigner if there isn’t really a context? Can one be anything but a foreigner in those conditions? This made me think of translation and genre. I wondered what “foreignness” would mean in the middle of nowhere. But the kernel was always a desert narrative. But the actual writing process was about six years. ![]() Hernan Diaz: There are two answers one is, 20 years, which is how old the idea is. ![]() ![]() This interview was conducted over Skype, where Diaz was able to demonstrate how to pronounce his name, and that of his protagonist Håkan Söderström, and over subsequent e-mails.Īaron Brady: How long did it take for you to write this book? ![]()
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