Ask the Author: Lev Grossman
Answered Questions (79)
Lev Grossman
Interesting. Short answer is no, I finished the first Bioshock but punked out somewhere in the middle of the second one. Not for lack of interest but b/c I ran out of time w/ kids and work etc. And then Bioshock Infinite happened ... obvs I have a lot of catching up to do.
I also need to play Skyrim -- I ran into one of the developers once who said they'd been reading The Magicians while they worked on it, and there was some cross-pollination there.
I also need to play Skyrim -- I ran into one of the developers once who said they'd been reading The Magicians while they worked on it, and there was some cross-pollination there.
Lev Grossman
Humbled? I get asked this a lot, and I think sometimes people wonder if the comparison bothers me. But I'm a serious Harry Potter fan: I love Rowling's work and remain in awe of it. "Good"and "gratefuly" is how I feel about those comparisons.
Lev Grossman
I was tempted to give him an interesting discipline, but I could never find the right one, and after a while -- after the first two books -- I realized it was because he didn't have one. He had a boring one.
Lev Grossman
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Lev Grossman
Susanna Clarke, most of all. I started writing The Magicians almost as soon as I finished JONATHAN STRANGE & MR. NORRELL.
But also George R.R. Martin, Larry Niven, Neil Gaiman, Erin Morgenstern, Joe Abercrombie and Kelly Link. They've all been transformative influences on me, one way or another.
But also George R.R. Martin, Larry Niven, Neil Gaiman, Erin Morgenstern, Joe Abercrombie and Kelly Link. They've all been transformative influences on me, one way or another.
Lev Grossman
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Lev Grossman
Not pressure exactly. I do think it's a constructive comparison. I mean, Rowling is obviously (beyond obviously) a massive influence on me. And as a writer there are many, many things that she does that I just can't. I admire her so much.
But I've made my peace with it. So I don't feel pressure, exactly. I feel like I have a good sense at this point of the ways in which my work is different from Rowling's, and what its strengths and weaknesses are. I used to worry that my stuff would be too similar to hers, but that hasn't ended up happening. As it turns out, I'm just too weird.
But I've made my peace with it. So I don't feel pressure, exactly. I feel like I have a good sense at this point of the ways in which my work is different from Rowling's, and what its strengths and weaknesses are. I used to worry that my stuff would be too similar to hers, but that hasn't ended up happening. As it turns out, I'm just too weird.
Lev Grossman
It's really a tribute and a satire at the same time. I love Narnia and always have, it was the first fictional world I really fell in love with. But as I've gotten older I've also discovered that I have some differences with it too. For example: how does the Narnian economy work? The ecology? Why does Mrs. Beaver have a sewing machine, while everybody else is working w/ basically feudal-level technology? Why is Aslan so hard to find, and why is he so slow to help his subjects when they're in need? Why can't Susan come to Narnia anymore? So I have complicated feelings about Narnia. But I still love it.
That said, as far as I can tell there is no Narnia in the Magiciansverse. In all other respects the Magiciansverse is our world plus magic, but that's the one exception: they have Fillory instead of Narnia.
That said, as far as I can tell there is no Narnia in the Magiciansverse. In all other respects the Magiciansverse is our world plus magic, but that's the one exception: they have Fillory instead of Narnia.
Lev Grossman
I'd like to see Quentin sit down with the Grey Mouser, from the Fritz Leiber books. They're both clever, and they both have a lot of pain in their pasts. I think they'd hit it off.
Plus the Mouser could help Quentin with his swordplay, which is still pretty bad. And if nothing else they could talk about wine.
Plus the Mouser could help Quentin with his swordplay, which is still pretty bad. And if nothing else they could talk about wine.
Lev Grossman
The Beast is the only part of the books that comes from a dream. A bad dream, obviously.
Lev Grossman
I spent five years talking to people in Hollywood about The Magicians, and almost all the interest was from TV people. I think the sheer quantity of plot in the books scared people off: too much happens, and the events are too load-bearing. It would get too squashed if you tried to tell the story and explain the world in 2 hours.
I also suspect -- though I don't know -- that it would be a big bet for a movie studio, financially. Magic's not cheap, and while the Magicians books are popular, they're not Twilight-popular. There isn't a guaranteed blockbuster audience. Whereas with TV the economics are different, and they can build popularity as they go.
I also suspect -- though I don't know -- that it would be a big bet for a movie studio, financially. Magic's not cheap, and while the Magicians books are popular, they're not Twilight-popular. There isn't a guaranteed blockbuster audience. Whereas with TV the economics are different, and they can build popularity as they go.
Lev Grossman
Doctor Strange. He was a big influence on the Magicians books, as you can probably tell. Particularly his style of magic -- the hand positions.
Lev Grossman
That was there from the start. It may be the whole point of the series. Partly it just had to do with the way magic was described -- I wondered what would happen if I experimented with how I wrote the magic. What if you described magic in a very precise, everyday, realist way, like you'd describe a chair? How would Hemingway have written magic? How would Woolf have done it? I wanted to play around w/ using realist tools to describe fantastical things.
I also thought that probably most people who learned magic would also be fantasy fans, and thus more self-aware than you generally see in fantasy novels. That's where the whole Fillory/Plover dimension comes from.
I also thought that probably most people who learned magic would also be fantasy fans, and thus more self-aware than you generally see in fantasy novels. That's where the whole Fillory/Plover dimension comes from.
Lev Grossman
Well played -- yes, that was in the mix.
Lev Grossman
I haven't read Powers (I know, I know) but Stross: definitely. I'm a major Laundry fan.
Lev Grossman
Definitely hard SF. I'm plucking up my courage.
Lev Grossman
Susanna Clarke, Joe Abercrombie, GRR Martin, Michelle Hodkin, Catherynne Valente, Hilary Mantel, Kate Atkinson, Neal Stephenson, Jonathan Franzen, John Green, Jhumpa Lahiri, Kazuo Ishiguro, David Shafer, Junot Diaz, Neil Gaiman, Kelly Link ... I know there are more, but that's all I can think off the top off my head.
Lev Grossman
I don't. It's one of those good habits I've always meant to pick up but haven't. I love reading other writers' journals -- Virginia Woolf for example -- but I can't imagine doing it myself. I'm not one of those logorrheic writers, I write slow and steady and painfully. I don't do it in my spare time. In my spare time I read and drink and play iPhone games and hang out with my kids.
Lev Grossman
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