Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Roy was very cool, and I loved his house.  In fact, that might explain
why I was so completely taken at the first sight of the house we are
now renting.  It's a *much* smaller version of his house.

Well, Powers, I'm sorry to say that the official part of this
interview is drawing to a close.  Officially, our two weeks are up
tomorrow, but I understand that you have to dash off across country
tomorrow to attend some function or another.

We can, of course, continue talking up until your departure, and I
hope that you will continue to check back upon your return to see if
anyone has had anything new to add.

I know that William Ashbless is very busy these days, but I was kind
of hoping that he might have come up with a fitting epitaph for this
dialog.  Is it possible?
  

    

Not William Ashbless, but another William -- this passage from "Richard II"
reminded me a bit of LAST CALL:

   'So sighs, and tears, and groans,
    Show minutes, times, and hours; but my time
    Runs posting on in Bolingbroke's proud joy,
    While I stand fooling here, his Jack of the clock.
    This music mads me.'
  

    
This has been a lot of fun.  Thanks, everybody!

Ashbless is seldom sober at this hour, but he did manage to produce
the following:

     Escort Powers back to his cell.
     Here's told what there was fit to tell,
     With elegies reckoned
     From _Richard II_ --
     And all's well that ends on the Well.
  

    
Well, if nothing else, you've got a new fan.  I've finished The Anubis Gates
and will be off to the bookstore this weekend to beef up my Tim Powers
shelf.
  

    
heh (TM)
  

    
Slippage. My kingdom for slippage.
  

    
Great interview. Thanks Tim...  and Linda!
  

    
Tim, and Linda, what a great interview team! Thank you both so much; I've
loved this, and I'm looking forward to reading a whole bunch of Powers.
  

    <scribbled by silly Sat 7 Jul 12 21:35>
  

    
silly, I don't think Tim Powers is checking in on this topic anymore.
  

    
I don't think Powers is on the well, is he? Maybe he used to be. Maybe
he still is. 

Anyway, I re-read Last Call on an impulse and find that some sections
of it probably inspired the movie BEING JOHN MALKOVITCH. Not the
overall theme of the book, but the sub-strand about entering and
sharing others' bodies and viewpoints psychically...the way it's
described is so like certain scenes in the movie. And the book has been
optioned--Hollywood people were interested more than once. Of course
it's not the kind of thing you can sue over. 

Does this transfer or whatever over to the science fiction conference
topic on Powers?
  

    

Nope.  No topics are linked from inkwell to any other conferences on the
WELL.  

I'll hail him in e-mail, though and see if he wants to respond.  I think
his guest account has expired, though, so he'd have to respond via e-mail.

I just want to say that "Being John Malkovich" has become my favorite
movie of all time, so I'd be tickled if there were a connection.
  

    
Hey, Linda...looks like Tim's account is still active.
  

    

Cool!!  I've sent him e-mail, so we shall see...
  

    
Well, hello again, all!  Linda, I had assumed my account had lapsed
too -- but at least it appears to work today.

     Silly, I don't know if I'll teach that extension course again or
not!  So far they haven't asked me to again, which might be a clue.

     John, I haven't seen _Being John Malkovich_ yet -- it would be
flattering to think the writers had read _Last Call._  Every now and
then I do wonder about some things I see -- I remember an episode of
_The Simpsons_ that seemed to be based on a bit from my _Anubis Gates!_
 

     What really bothers me is when some bit parallel to something of
mine shows up _before_ my book can get published!  Just before the
publication of _Last Call,_ which concerned Bugsy Siegel, a whole bunch
of movies about Siegel came out; and just as I was finishing _The
Stress of Her Regard,_ which involved Byron and Shelley having
supernatural adventures, a lot of similar books and movies appeared.  I
suppose it's just some pollen floating around in the cultural breeze
that we all reacted to at about the same time, but I always first
imagine that my house is bugged, and some incomprehensible conspiracy
is at work to anticipate Powers novels.  Therefore I have been, in a
real loud voice, telling my wife over and over again that my new book
is going to be about Fulton, the steam-boat man; it's not, but if I see
a lot of Fulton books and movies a year or so from now, I'm gonna be
mighty mad.
  

    

I do remember reading LAST CALL and thinking, "Geez, this guy's damn
well tapped into the Bugsy Siegel zeitgeist!" right off the bat.
  

    
Hey, how about a sequel to BOTH novels that brings Byron, Shelly, and
Bugsy Siegel together? "Let's do the time warp again..."  !
  

    
Man Tim I know what you mean about stuff being in the air and you're
working on something and then...It's happened to me again and again. I
suppose all we can do is to try to use it as a spur for originality.
Anyway in the case of your books, your take on these subjects always
has a far, far more original spin, and depth of quality, than any of
these other bozos could hope for. So it doesn't matter.
  

    
Must be that Y2K bug that got the Powers account going there.
  

    
     John, thanks, good of you to say!  It is just a fact of life that
that happens.  My new book is about Kim Philby, the British secret
service guy who turned out to have been working for Moscow all his life
-- I hereby predict that in a couple of months we're going to see a
lot of books & movies about him!  

     Jon L, right -- Siegel probably would have been a tremendous
poet, if he'd only been given a chance!

     Martha, I guess so!  Worse things were predicted!
  

    
This is a Y2K bug I can live with.
  

    
I was confusing Kim Philby and Herbert Philbrick, the guy Richard Carlson
played in the 50s television series.
  

    
Of course, Tim, we all realize that your announcing that your new book
is about Kim Philby is just a dodge to throw off the culture snoopers!
It's actually about Sidney Hook... 

I loved Last Call, by the way. It gained resonance for me due to the
fact that the Flamingo was the first hotel that I stayed in in Vegas.
  

    

First place I ever stayed, also!
  

    
I got really plowed at the Flamingo, does that count?