Ellen Kushner Interview
Steve Berman at Strange Horizons interviewed Ellen Kushner (2002.11.11).
In what seems like a quick interview, Ellen talks about musicallity in her use of language; working against genre in Swordspoint; changes in the field since Swordspoint first appeared; other, hopefully forthcoming Swordspoint related material…The most interesting, to us, is a brief discussion by Ellen on her use of ballads, modernity vs. tradition , and the tension between what is gained and lost when tradition is left behind.
This is where I would have liked to see Steve, the interviewer, expand in the interview. When you have a real expert on a topic, one they’ve thought deeply about and worked in for years, let them talk about it. Gay sex/future appearances/birth of the “interstitial” genre are topics that have been done elsewhere. No need to go into them here, again, an exploration necessarily limited in scope and meaning because its been done so many times before.