(2007-01-06) Johnson Interview

Nice broad interview with Steven Johnson. That's what I'm interested in, in cultural systems (Human System). That's a theme of a bunch of my books. Some of my favorite parts of Ghost Map are the analysis of why miasma theory was in place: biology, governing ideologies at a given time, and particular accidents in history, all those things coming together. Doing that kind of analysis about why people were wrong for so long, that's fun.

This linked to an older interview with Erik Larson, author of Devil In The White City which takes place at the time of the Chicago Worlds Fair, and sounds pretty good. Maybe someday I'll do a Novel, but right now, I so much enjoy narrative Non-Fiction. The research appeals to me - I love looking for pieces of things in far-flung archives - but the beauty is that the complexity of the characters is there. You don't have to make it up.