{"id":597445,"date":"2023-01-14T05:49:21","date_gmt":"2023-01-14T11:49:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sellorbuyhomefast.com\/index.php\/2023\/01\/14\/immer-zlaz-reveals-the-private-life-of-a-sci-fi-genius\/"},"modified":"2023-01-14T05:49:21","modified_gmt":"2023-01-14T11:49:21","slug":"immer-zlaz-reveals-the-private-life-of-a-sci-fi-genius","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2023\/01\/14\/immer-zlaz-reveals-the-private-life-of-a-sci-fi-genius\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Immer, Zlaz\u2019 Reveals the Private Life of a Sci-Fi Genius"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Roger Zelazny, with two of his children in his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1980.<\/span>Buddy Mays\/Alamy<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/header>\n
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Roger Zelazny, author of novels such as Lord of Light<\/em> and A Night in the Lonesome October<\/em>, was one of science fiction\u2019s most treasured voices. Sci-fi author and editor Warren Lapine<\/a> credits Zelazny\u2019s books with rescuing him from the life of a juvenile delinquent.<\/p>\n

\u201cRoger Zelazny is a writer\u2019s writer,\u201d Lapine says in Episode 534 of the Geek\u2019s Guide to the Galaxy<\/em><\/a> podcast. \u201cHe makes people want to write. You read what he\u2019s doing, and you can tell he\u2019s having so much fun, you\u2019re like, \u2018I\u2019ve got to be able to do that.\u2019 And so I immediately wanted to become a writer. Well, you don\u2019t drop out of school and learn how to write, so I was suddenly a straight-A student, and I went to college, and I had a whole different life than I ever would have had, had it not been for Roger Zelazny.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Podcast<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n

Lapine\u2019s latest project is Immer, Zlaz<\/em><\/a>, which collects hundreds of letters that Zelazny wrote to his best friend Carl Yoke. Zelazny was a private person who rarely spoke about his opinions or personal life, and his letters offer a rare glimpse into his thought process. \u201cIt\u2019s just really, really fascinating,\u201d Lapine says. \u201cIf you want to know who Roger Zelazny was, these letters do that for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zelazny\u2019s early work was showered with praise, but critics were less enthused with his later output, such as the popular 10-volume Amber<\/em><\/a> series. But Lapine says that critics are off base when they dismiss Amber<\/em> as lightweight, commercial writing. \u201cMost of the critics in science fiction don\u2019t even have a degree in English lit, and so they haven\u2019t even got a clue,\u201d Lapine says. \u201cAll the stuff that\u2019s going on in Amber<\/em>, the levels and the number of literary allusions in there is absolutely gobsmacking. There\u2019s almost a literary allusion on every single page. But if you haven\u2019t read all that stuff, you\u2019re not going to catch it. If you haven\u2019t read any of the Jacobean plays, you\u2019re going to miss all those.\u201d<\/p>\n

In recent years Lapine has worked closely with the Zelazny estate to bring many of Zelazny\u2019s older titles back into print. He believes strongly that all of the author\u2019s dozens of books are worth reading. \u201cEven his most slight book is better than a lot of writers\u2019 best books,\u201d Lapine says. \u201cI know we\u2019ll have other people who will be able to show just as much virtuosity, but it hasn\u2019t happened yet in my lifetime\u2014before or since his passing. There\u2019s just nothing like reading Zelazny.\u201d<\/p>\n

Listen to the complete interview with Warren Lapine in Episode 534 of Geek\u2019s Guide to the Galaxy<\/em> (above). And check out some highlights from the discussion below.<\/p>\n

Warren Lapine on meeting Zelazny:<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m interviewing Roger, and I\u2019ve got the tape there, and at some points he\u2019s sitting in the chair upside down, with his head hanging where people\u2019s feet would be, talking in the direction of the microphone of the tape recorder, and he\u2019s spinning around in the chair. At one point he\u2019s standing on top of the chair, talking down to it, and then he\u2019s standing on the top of the back of the chair. He was in constant motion, just kind of twirling around in the chair, up and down and around. I\u2019ve never had anyone I\u2019ve interviewed be anything like that. It was fascinating. And he never broke a chain of thought. He was really focused, really good at answering interview questions. But it was surreal.<\/p>\n

Warren Lapine on Deus Irae<\/em><\/a>:<\/strong><\/p>\n

[Zelazny] showed the chunk that he had written to Philip K. Dick<\/a>, and Dick got unblocked and immediately wrote the next chapter and sent it to Roger, and then Roger read it, and then he\u2019d write a chapter and send it back to Philip K. Dick. And what\u2019s really interesting for me in those letters is you can see that when the letters start, Philip K. Dick is in a horrible place. He has no money, no prospects, nothing\u2019s going right for him. And in the last letter, he\u2019s talking about how [Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?<\/em>] is doing wonderfully. The money is coming in, and this book sold better than anything he\u2019d ever written before. Philip K. Dick was just in so much of a different and better place than he had been when they were writing to each other during the very early days with the book.<\/p>\n

Warren Lapine on George R. R. Martin<\/a>:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Reading [Immer, Zlaz<\/em>] today, a modern reader will think that Roger is dropping George R. R. Martin\u2019s name all over the damn place. But what they won\u2019t realize is that [George] hadn\u2019t written A Game of Thrones<\/em> yet, and he wasn\u2019t half as well known as Roger. So [Roger] was just talking about his friend. It may feel like he\u2019s dropping the name of the most famous fantasy author in the world, but he wasn\u2019t. \u2026 I remember when I first met George, and people would be like, \u201cWho\u2019s George R. R. Martin?\u201d I\u2019d be like, \u201cOh, he wrote Fevre Dream<\/em>.\u201d That was his best-selling novel, a New York Times<\/em> best-selling vampire novel. That\u2019s what he was known for. I remember hanging out with him at conventions, and there was nobody around but a couple of us. Now you couldn\u2019t get close to him at a convention.<\/p>\n

Warren Lapine on Zelazny versus the critics:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some people are like, \u201cIt\u2019s like he had all these magic tricks, and he just kept putting them back in his bag.\u201d And I\u2019m like, \u201cWell, how many times do you want to watch him pull a rabbit out of the hat?\u201d I mean, if he\u2019s pulling the same rabbit out of the same hat, when does it stop being a trick? He was doing all these tricks, and doing all these things he wanted to see about, and I\u2019ve never quite understood why\u2014once he was finished trying all those experiments that he was after\u2014that they thought he should keep experimenting on stuff that didn\u2019t have any interest for him. They all wanted him to keep being this dazzling writer who went places no one had ever gone. And he was just like, \u201cBut I was done with that now. I knew where the edges were.\u201d<\/p>\n

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More Great WIRED Stories<\/h3>\n