1/12, Monday, 7pm at Elliot Bay Books.
Ted Chiang in conversation with Eric Heisserer on Heisserer's debut novel Simultaneous.
Heisserer is the screenwriter of Arrival which is adapted from Chiang's novela Story of Your Life.
I'm a little surprised that the event ran along mostly about Heisserer's book, even audience's questions. I, and I'm sure many others, came because of Chiang. I not only registered, but also showed up 5 minute before the schedule - very rare for me. The room was almost full. Chiang is a bit tongue-tied, even though it appears that he had prepared for event. A minute or 2 after he started speaking, it ran smoothly. Seems to me that he is composing his sentence in his mind. Heisserer is a much better talker, funny too. Tonight's event started by him reading a short passage of his book. It feels very movie-like, natural output of a screenwriter. They discussed time-travel, and how it may fall apart. Also how irrational the TV/movie studios work: time pressure, boss' taste, AI. Audience asked work+creative life balance (answer: none, need to alternate), how much magic can a fantasy story use (answer: 1).
Both authors are very down-to-earth, amicable. I really enjoyed it.
