For those with even a passing interest in science-fiction literature, the name Kathleen Ann Goonan should ring a bell. A leading light in literary sci-fi for many years, Goonan has garnered starred reviews for each of her seven novels by such renowned review journals as Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Review and Booklist. In 2007, Goonan received the Campbell Award for best science-fiction novel for In War Times. Goonan recently stepped away from her keyboard to tell the Alumni Magazine why she loves writing science fiction and teaching the topic to students at Tech.
You earned a degree in English and were a Montessori teacher for a decade. Where did your interest in science fiction originate?
My father was an engineer and read science fiction when I was growing up, so there were always sci-fi paperbacks around the house. Though I didn’t interact with the genre much as a kid, I always thought of science fiction as very intellectual literature, and the older I got, the more interested I became.
Your books are a wonderful mélange of concepts involving consciousness,
literature, music and sci-fi. What’s your primary wellspring for ideas?
It really depends on the work. Some ideas come from life—you read something interesting in the newspaper and say to yourself, “What if the characters were in a different environment or a different technological period?” Others appear randomly. For example, I got the idea for my novel Queen City Jazz while jogging—I had a vision of a city with large flowers on top, which in turn suggested giant bees, and I thought “How did this situation come about?” Then I thought about bees—how they communicate, how they perceive the world, etc.—and the story spun out from there.
In a 2001 Library of Congress talk, you spoke of the ghettoizing of science fiction in the U.S. and expressed hope that this was changing. Have your hopes been realized?
No. The attitude that science fiction is less serious literature remains entrenched in our culture. The face of the genre today is gaming and movies, both of which are very different from literary science fiction. Many view science fiction as literature for children and young men, which seems particularly sad to me because we’re living in a deeply technological age.
You’ve observed that “the job of science fiction is to imagine what will later be made real.” What are you imagining these days?
I’m very interested in neurological developments and brain science. Our lives have been dramatically altered by antibiotics, germ-free surgery and advanced communication tools, and I think humanity will be similarly changed as we learn more about the human brain and the brains of other creatures who inhabit our world.
You teach creative writing; literature; and science, technology and ideology at Tech. What do you enjoy most about the pedagogical process?
I love finding ways to get individual students into a subject—I try to construct a bridge of relevance between them and their environment by showing them how they can be part of a subject that they want or need to learn about.
Why Georgia Tech?
I was invited to teach here by Lisa Yaszek in 2010, shortly before my novel This Shared Dream was published, and I jumped at the opportunity. The School of Literature, Media and Communication is an amazing place. Students here are well-versed in the technological world, so I have the pleasure of teaching them to interact with the imaginary world by acquainting them with the history of science fiction and how it’s related to the history of technology.
What issues occupy your students’ minds, and how do they manifest in their work?
My students are very preoccupied with the idea of the apocalypse—radical change on a deep societal level. They’re worried about what’s coming next and how that’s going to affect their lives.
What’s the most important concept you want your students to take away from your classes?
I want them to know that they can make a difference, in their own lives and in the lives of others.
You’ve been praised for your powerful imagination. How do you treat technology in your daily life?
I embrace any technology that makes my job easier and my work more fun.
You’ve been a leader in literary science fiction for years now. How would you like to be remembered?
As someone who took my imagination to the limit and mastered the skills necessary to bring my vision to the public. I’m always working to be a better writer, someone with more depth who communicates with others in ways that are important. I’m different, and I have more novels left in me!
Five Important Works of Sci-Fi Literature, According to Kathleen Ann Goonan
- Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley (1918): “Widely regarded as the first sci-fi novel, it remains relevant as we edge closer to understanding consciousness and developing artificial intelligence that has the potential to be self-aware.”
- Anything by H.G. Wells and Jules Verne: “Contemporaries who generated interest in explorations of Earth and the moon, first contact scenarios, time travel, and our kinship with other forms of life. Their work remains a template for science fiction that focuses on the wider moral and social questions we continue to face today as technologies evolve.”
- The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula K. Le Guin (1968): “Le Guin pioneered the science-fictional exploration of gender and became the first woman to win the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award for Best Novel.”
- Neuromancer, by William Gibson (1984): “This book introduced cyberpunk and the intense, compact style that has made Gibson an international best-selling author and social visionary. It won several awards, and predicted the worldwide web and its hackers.”
- Patternist, Parable and Xenogenisist series by Octavia Butler: “Butler received a MacArthur Genius Grant for groundbreaking work that shows humanity immersed in radical, unavoidable change, often over vast periods of time.”
Twitter