Boxing Day Q&A: Call for Questions
I’m going to do a readers Q&A for the Monday post next week, since it’s Boxing Day and probably not a great day for reading about Crash. Whereas just after New Year’s seems downright perfect.
I’ve already solicited some questions via Patreon, and I’ll answer all of those, but I’m willing to answer a few more than just those, so if you’ve got a question you’ve been dying to have me answer, leave it in comments. If it catches my fancy, onto the list it shall go.
(And of course there’ll be a Doctor Mysterio review somewhere around there too.)
December 20, 2016 @ 3:39 pm
Ok, questions:
-I’ve heard you bring up The Love Witch on twitter as a very good movie. What is it about and where can I watch it?
-What’s your favorite thing you’ve ever cooked?
-Are there any projects you considered doing, but then didn’t?
-What was your favorite chapter(s) of Jerusalem?
-What are you reading right now and is it any good?
-Warren Ellis, Kieron Gillen, or Neil Gaiman?
-What is your least favorite Blake poem?
December 20, 2016 @ 4:34 pm
A while back I said I couldn’t impose my will on the world, and you said I might be a bad magician, but I wondered whether it might be that my self-hatred is a better one. Every real success in my life has been accompanied by a campaign of not thinking about it at all.
My question is: Is that a thing?
December 20, 2016 @ 6:02 pm
“Destiny has no beeper; destiny always leans trenchcoated out of an alley with some sort of Psst that you usually can’t even hear because you’re in such a rush to or from something important you’ve tried to engineer.” -David Foster Wallace
December 20, 2016 @ 6:23 pm
Notably, when using sigils in your magic, you’re supposed to forget about them after you’ve launched them.
December 20, 2016 @ 8:31 pm
Oh, this is so exciting! Okay, here we go:
-What do you think is the most underrated work of a Doctor Who writer as part of or outside of the show?
-I’ve seen you defend Man of Steel and Sucker Punch, but dislike Watchmen. What did you think of Batman v Superman (if, that is, you bothered to see it)?
-Do you watch any comic-based TV series? If so, what do you think of them (whether that be as adaptations or just pure quality)?
-Who would you pick to be the 13th Doctor (in the sad scenario where Capaldi leaves)?
-What is the worst thing that Moffat/Davies/Holmes/Dicks ever wrote for Doctor Who?
December 20, 2016 @ 8:52 pm
You’ve written a lot about narrative as something that gets collapsed, substituted—as something that’s almost magically alive.
So what narrative do you wish would just die already? (Whether with Doctor Who or global politics or whatever.)
December 20, 2016 @ 9:58 pm
Ooh, cool.
Have you ever thought about what Doctor Who would look like if you were head writer / executive producer / emperor supreme? Are there any particular stories you’d want to tell using the show? Specific ideas you’d want to explore?
December 21, 2016 @ 11:56 am
What are the best and worst things the USA has ever given to the UK?
What are the best and worst things the UK has ever given to the USA? (excluding Doctor Who, if necessary)
December 21, 2016 @ 12:18 pm
Are we still fucked?
Is there a possible redemptive reading for the Brexit/Trump phenomenon?
Who would win in a fight between William Blake, David Whittaker, Grant Morrison and Alan Moore?
December 21, 2016 @ 5:45 pm
OK – Here’s an offbeat one for you Phil – When I was 13 I recorded the vocals for this Planet Ha Ha track with my brother. It was released on EMI but withdrawn from release a few days after going on sale due to ET rights issues.
Should it have been a hit or was Time right to have washed it away?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Us5WfWM9l0&list=PLeHmofOAlwy5pCawLRWCsKD4VNX4yskdo&index=1
Happy Holidays!
December 21, 2016 @ 10:44 pm
What do you think of the stuff the people you hire prodominately cover (LOST, Star Trek, the need to destroy capitalism, etc.)?
December 22, 2016 @ 8:31 pm
Assuming that this Q&A works the same way pestering Phil with anonymous asks on tumblr used to:
Diana Wynne Jones? I introduce her to people as a sort of missing link between Ursula K Le Guin and Neil Gaiman – an interesting contender for a cameo in a later Last War in Albion volume, maybe.
December 22, 2016 @ 8:49 pm
In the same vein as the above: Catherynne M. Valente?
And also: some time ago on Tumblr you mentioned researching cyberpunk – is there any particular reason cyberpunk spoke to you / you think it’s relevant right now?
Also also: is the Blake annotations project something you’re still interested in doing?
December 23, 2016 @ 1:41 am
Hi Philip,
Just thought I’d tell you that Alan Moore gives a great two part interview ( some of which covers magic in detail) on a podcast called Someone who isn’t Me. Also he gave a great interview on the Guardian UK site on a podcast with Steward Lee ( he talks about his second novel). Hope you have a great XMAS. Rob
December 23, 2016 @ 2:55 pm
Thanks! I’d seen the first one, and knew the second would be a thing, but had missed downloading it.
December 25, 2016 @ 9:46 pm
-Leonard Cohen?
-Rogue One? (Allowing for your stated issues with Star Wars)
-Assuming you read it, Baudrillard’s The Gulf War Never Happened? (inspired by this Quietus article (http://thequietus.com/articles/21423-2016-review-history-trump-brexit-disaster-beset-by-bellends) giving 2016 a similar reading)
-Chicken and egg: the post scarcity thing or the complicity thing? And does the one follow the other?
-Where to go with Stephenson after Snow Crash? (Having trouble picking out of Diamond Age, Cryptonomicon or the Baroque Cycle. Or even Seveneves.)
-You’ve, not unreasonably, put the boots to Žižek but you’ve also spoken positively about his work (even cited him as an influence iirc). Assuming the prosecution’s case is straightforwardly self evident, what does the defence’s case look like?