From: Mike Glosson
Location: Normal Heights, San Diego, CA
Date: 02/08/2010
Greg:
While it's extremely obvius that parts of your novel EON are like Rendezvous with Rama on Steroids, how much of a thematic influence did Blish's CITIES IN FLIGHT have on the concept of Axis City and it's journey?
From: Greg Bear
Date: 02/11/2010
I love Blish. I think his influence is obvious on nearly all my stories, including EON.
From: Joseth Moore
Location: Lincoln, Nebraska
Date: 02/12/2010
For the record, "Eon" was the first novel i read by Greg Bear. and every since then i've been a great fan of his work! Then "Rogue Planet" from the Star Wars universe, some short stories...
ANYONE ELSE WOULD LOVE TO SEE "EON" TURNED INTO A MOVIE? PERHAPS PRODUCED AND DIRECTED BY J.J. ABRAMS? that would be nice, especially since he did such a great job with 'Star Trek'!
From: Mike Glosson
Location: Normal Heights, San Diego, CA
Date: 02/13/2010
Me too! So much of Blish's work and the "mythos" he created has seeped into my tool-set...just got to novel to of CITIES IN FLIGHT and slapped my head with my hand hard...this was where I lifted my concept of San Diego's City Fathers...which have been woven into this urban legend myth I've been propogating: That the City Fathers have been keeping the worst of the weather and quakes out of here, giving is climate instead of weather, using a set of Reality Generators they found burried east of the central core...and I lifted those generators from another author...I think he used to be local...:)...mostly drop that one on Burners and Hipsters when they are more than buzzed...saying it with a straight face.
When Bill's store went out of business I replaced most of my missing Blish...it's been a fun rediscovery, as it's been 3 decades since I've read him...having wrapped up the Cities Books right before I spoke to you about Blish in the spring of '80.
As I am reading these books there is the historical "burp" that also sets EON/ETERNITY no in our time line: the continuing existence of the USSR into the 21st Century.
Which then jumps to the sense that Stapledon may have gotten it right for the 21st Century: A Show down between China and America...even though he got the rest of the 20th century totally wrong.
City Fathers...City Princes...I've been inspired enough to dig out my notebooks on Dazeit, crouching on an obsidian plain under a white dwarf noon, 30 Billion years from next tuesday. The City Fathers of Dazeit might not be to eager to have me spill the beans on their civic and temporal enginerring...>:)
Mike
From: Andrew Carpenter
Location: France
Date: 02/18/2010
Next topic of study= Blish!.. Greg, can you ask Amazon to stock more of your books? I'm finding it really hard to access them! One book of your still hasn't been available after about a year.
From: Greg Bear
Date: 02/18/2010
Always good to dream!
From: Greg Bear
Date: 02/18/2010
Watch it, Mike! My screen is starting to act strangely...
From: Greg Bear
Date: 02/18/2010
Some are OP except in electronic or on-demand editions. We're working on that. And Europe is rapidly dropping my newer titles as the economy falters. Let's hope things improve soon!
From: Mike Glosson
Location: Normal Heights, San Diego, CA
Date: 02/18/2010
And our current manifestation of the City Fathers have been working overtime, making this last week one of those San Diego in Winter Postcards weeks...but they weaken, and the rains return.
We finally got around to watching the final David Tenant Dr. Who Episode last night, it's only been sitting in our DVR sinc Xmas...she dreading the end of the 10th Doctor, me vaguely anxious if their THE END OF TIME would have any bleed over/resonance with CITY, as "Utopia" vaguely did. I was expecting there to be Dr. Who versions of Gapes and Terminus...but the temporal anomolies they had were tame by comparison, and the Time War/Final play of the Time Lords whimpy compared to the Typhon's Multiverse sized Alkaseltzer moment....
Currently torn between another processing of Dazeit's Story, and my endless project on Blake's Mythos...and wondering just now of the two can collide.
Urizen staring as something like "The Mad Mind"? Never fully satisfied with Farmer's usage of that Mythos...
MG
From: Greg Bear
Date: 03/04/2010
Looking forward to the new series and the new Doctor. I was very impressed with the Torchwood finale, CHILDREN OF EARTH. Very John Wyndham.
From: Jon Kroll
Location: Ann Arbor Michigan
Date: 03/22/2010
Per Greg Bear's comment "I love Blish. I think his influence is obvious on nearly all my stories, including EON." I picked up a used paperback copy of Cities In Flight from the Dawn Treader used book store here in Ann Arbor. Thanks for the tip. I am anxious to dive in.
Jon
From: Greg Bear
Date: 03/26/2010
Take a look also at A CASE OF CONSCIENCE and BLACK EASTER.
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