My first conversation in the series is with novelist Danyl McLauchlan.
Spherical spores produced by Emericella nidulans fungus (Image by BASF licensed under Creative Commons)
Atwood has described Oryx and Crake as speculative fiction and “adventure romance” rather than science fiction because it does not deal with things “we can’t yet do or begin to do” and goes beyond the realism she associates with the novel form.
Danyl and I talked about Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake as a science fiction novel and how the genetic engineering fear in it looks 14 years later.
Danyl and I ended up talking about a lot of other books. And I’ve put a list of these on the wordpress page for you to have a look at: betterreadnz.wordpress.com
One issue with the recording is that there is some cell phone noise in it. After checking both our phones Danyl worked out that the interference was coming from people walking past the room we were in. There was something very odd and almost science fiction about that in itself. So sorry but also … weird.
Danyl’s Oryx and Crake Reading List:
Red Plenty by Francis Spufford
Shaman by Kim Stanley Robinson
French film La Jetée by Chris Marker
The Sense of an Ending; Studies in the Theory of Fiction by Frank Kermode
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
The Drowned World by J.G. Ballard
The Road by Cormac McCarthy ‘a long shear of light and then a series of low concussions.’
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
The Elementary Particles or Atomised by Michel Houellebecq
Book of the Long Sun by Gene Wolfe
The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert
Seven Eves by Neal Stephenson
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
The Passage, The Twelve and The City of Mirrors by Justin Cronin
The Stand by Stephen King
Wellington poet Bill Nelson is the next guest on the Better off Read Oryx and Crake Series.
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Or you can listen to it here:
Episode 45: Oryx and Crake Series 1 – Pip Adam talks to Danyl McLauchlan
Better off Read 