I read an interview with Steven Spielberg once in which he said making movies was a bit like having therapy, only better: you get to go on at length about things that preoccupy you, but instead of having to pay someone to listen to you, they paid you. You could say the same about writing books.
What’s more you don’t just get to lie on the couch and go on at length, you also, if you’re lucky, hear a thoughtful voice that speaks from across the room when you pause for breath:
‘What you seem to be saying is…’
Here, for instance, are Steven Shaviro’s comments on Dark Eden as ‘speculative anthropology’ (a description of what I was trying to do which I really like.)
And here, from a few days previously, are the comments of Andrew Dunlop who, as an Anglican minister, naturally enough picks up on the Biblical themes that the book draws upon.
I’m grateful to both for their interest.