SF Site Interview with LKH

[delphinapterus.livejournal.com]

I found the following interview with Ms. Hamilton done September 2004 by the SF Site. The Complete Interview


There were a few choice bits that just had to be brought up. Ms. Hamilton is in italics. My comments are plain.

I have two degrees: English and biology. . . . I also was about two or three classes from having a history or Political Science major (it would have depended on what classes I finished up with, which the degree would have been in).

This is the first time I have seen her mention an English degree. The verve and originality for punctuation that she displays in her published works make one wonder how she got an English degree. I was under the impression that to acquire an English degree one had to grasp at least the basics of punctuation; full stop, comma and apostrophe.


Between the age of thirteen and fourteen I discovered fantasy and horror. From that moment on, I was hooked.

WTF! All those times she fondly talked about wanting to watch horror movies a 2, and Granny telling her fables didn't happen? Or don't they count as horror and fantasy?

And then farther on in the interview she says this:
I've been fascinated with horror movies since I was a very little girl, like under six. When I discovered the old Hammer vampire films around seven or so, I was enthralled. . . . my Scottish-Irish grandmother used to tell me that Rawhead and Bloody Bones would get me if I wasn't good.

And just something unabashedly interesting and potentially good.
We will be going back to New Mexico and doing a follow up book with Edward and his would-be family. We will see how the children have coped with what happened. . . . [it will happen during one of] the next five books probably.

Comments

[delphinapterus.livejournal.com]

Yep, same interview.

[troubleinchina.livejournal.com]

I will pay good money if she *doesn't* go back to Edward and his would-be family. Leave Edward alone!

Also, one can *claim* to have an English degree if one wishes. I could claim one. Doesn't mean I have one....

[dragonfanguk.livejournal.com]

She can claim all she wants, though if the same rules apply in America as they do in England, the minute she puts those letters after her name without the certificate to prove it, she can be taken to court for it.

I can't remember the technical term at the moment, but I've heard it often enough from my tutors.

[troubleinchina.livejournal.com]

Really? I didn't know that.... *ponders* I wonder if it is different in the US.

With Canada, at least, I can claim to have a B.A. without stating what it's in (Political Studies and History for me). And I don't think I've ever seen her write her name with BA after it....

[delphinapterus.livejournal.com]

That's true, but most people assume that if someone says "I have two degrees: English and biology" they mean one degree majoring in English and one degree majoring in Biology. That assumes a BA - English and BSc - Biology at the very least.

[vanity-lost.livejournal.com]

I was under the impression that to acquire an English degree one had to grasp at least the basics of punctuation; full stop, comma and apostrophe.
Well, she didn't say she graduated with honors. And we don't know the GPAs involved. Maybe 'finishing up' a class is code for 'retaking because I flunked it.'

Oh, and side note that I just learned on History Channel: Scots-Irish does not mean Scottish and Irish descent. Scots-Irish were Irish who were protestant and didn't want to be associated with that mass wave of Catholic Irish immigrants. So leave Scotland alone, LKH.

I think she did just contradict herself in the same interview. Unless she meant 'fantasy and horror' books. But still. The Hammer vampire films explains her current grasp of plot continuity...

I am not sure I want to see her write the Edward book. I'm kind of scared of seeing Edward as The Matador, with kids. Or Mr and Mrs Smith-ing it. Yipes. Worse will be if the kids are now the MiniDeaths.

[delphinapterus.livejournal.com]

Well there was that mention of Edward phoning Anita to ask for parenting advice. Or was it sex advice? Could this be a hint as to what revisiting Edward and Co. will be like? *engaging optimistic drive* Maybe that will involve a lot of plot, little sex, and Anita maturing.

[mneiai.livejournal.com]

Great movie comparisons, there! Though, how would MiniDeaths be worse than Matador!Edward? The lil' boy was already pretty close there at the end of OB.

...Nothing could be worse that Mr and Mrs Smith-ing it. I have to go and attempt to dig that image out of my brain with a spoon.

[vanity-lost.livejournal.com]

I suggest brain bleach. The spoon always misses a bit.

I was thinking of the Matador with MiniDeaths. But the idea of Edward as playing daddy to two kiddie asassins just reminds me of Spy Kids for some reason. *shudder* I watch too many movies.

[mneiai.livejournal.com]

Ah, see, you have to approach it from a comic book pov. There's some pretty freaky examples of parents and kids going around killing people. Like, in WildCATS they have this thing called "The Nuclear Family" which is this family of CIA assassins who act like some 1950s sitcom family when they're not kicking ass with huge guns ^.^

[delphinapterus.livejournal.com]

What is WildCATS? I keep finding sports teams and I know that isn't right.

[mneiai.livejournal.com]

It's a comic book, superhero type deal but with a few more antiheroes than average.

[delphinapterus.livejournal.com]

Mr and Mrs Smith-ing wouldn't even be following the cannon Donna character. LKH has never reversed a charater to the extend of what would be needed to change Donna from her OB incarnation to a Mrs. Smith charater. So I think that option is out. Unless, Donna gets taken out and a new lady-love appears for Ted/Edward the grieving widower with two children.

[mneiai.livejournal.com]

I was thinking more along the lines of her becoming an assassin.

[delphinapterus.livejournal.com]

That's just too awful. It would be like another Richard-turn about.

[mneiai.livejournal.com]

Because LKH would just NEVER change a character.

It's not just RAZ who's had a turn about, Edward used to be a really awesome sociopath.

[delphinapterus.livejournal.com]

I look at Ted as Edward playing around. Ted is a cover and he's not going to drop Ted just for Anita, especially when he's in Ted's home turf. Maybe he lets Anita glimpse that Edward is still there but that's not the same as dropping cover. See OB, not as Edward's story, but as the story of one of Edward's covers makes his behavior much more acceptable and incharacter.

[mneiai.livejournal.com]

Perhaps, but OB is all from Anita's near-omniscient POV, which means that what Anita thinks can basically be said to be canon. And Anita thinks Edward isn't a sociopath, isn't some sort of psycho, no, she thinks Edward has Dissociative Identity Disorder, or multiple personalities. Ted is Ted and Edward is Edward. And he displays enough signs of this that if one were to take Laurell's usual half-assed research into account...well, it's probably true. Sociopaths aren't like that, they only embrace society and its ideals as much as they want. With everything that happened in OB Edward's pretty far from the true sociopathic bent and pretty far into the "truly crazy in a complete different way".

[delphinapterus.livejournal.com]

You know that just makes me sad. I know only a very general intro to psych, but yeah that sure sounds a lot more like Edward. I guess my pet theory doesn't hold up.

[http://users.livejournal.com/belladonna_/]

Yes, she could easily have, like, an associates' in English from some craptastic two-year community college.

[mneiai.livejournal.com]

I'm so scared of what more she'll do to mess Edward up....Though, it would be kinda cool if Edward was secretly training the boy in some sort of paramilitary, assassin sorta way....

My mother got her English degree in '71 and, though it's been over 30 years since she'd done anything involving her degree, she's still a total grammar nazi. The fact that LKH isn't makes me think her degree must have been pretty half assed. Or maybe she took all "literature in film" classes or something.

And, ot, but it just amuses me so much when people say "full stop". It took me, like, a month in Europe to realize what it meant. ^.^

[saadiira.livejournal.com]

I've got a degree in English and PPA, and was a Dean's list student. She probably stuck to creative writing wherever she could. My use of punctuation could be pretty creative even after the degree, and it didn't hurt me a bit, really, so long as I made a general attempt at spell checking, and could create a reasonably grammatically correct sentence, they really didn't seem to care overly much.

I've since tried to clean up my act quite a bit, but I could see her having an English degree. I could even see her having gotten decent grades, and having gone to a decent school, like I did.

Thing is? Degree was back like 20 years ago, for both of us, and as I said, cleaned up the act since. She's writing long term professionally, so even less excuse.

-Dira-

[delphinapterus.livejournal.com]

I need an editor. :^)
I've never fallen into the trap of thinking that I'm good enough to write without an editor.

[sweetpirate.livejournal.com]

The verve and originality for punctuation that she displays in her published works make one wonder how she got an English degree.

Well, I have a friend who just graduated with a BA in English from a pretty decent college and she tells me that now that she's got an English degree, she's allowed to make her own rules of grammer...

Maybe LKH is of the same mindset?

Of course, my friend isn't a published author--and the book she's trying to get published is grammatically accurate...

[holyschist.livejournal.com]

I was under the impression that to acquire an English degree one had to grasp at least the basics of punctuation; full stop, comma and apostrophe.

English degrees are about literary criticism, not grammar. If she is documentably dyslexic, they would have made provisions for that, too. I've met a lot of English majors who couldn't punctuate to save their lives, and not all of them were dyslexic (like being a doctor -- what do you call someone who had a C average in med school?).

But I'm kind of peeved about the endless snarking of her grammar -- if she's dyslexic, that just means she needs a good editor and proofreader, not that she should be forbidden to write. If she's not dyslexic, okay, she's just lazy. But none of us have seen her learning disability evaluations.

There are plenty of OTHER reasons she shouldn't be allowed to write.

[demoncougar.livejournal.com]

My issue with her claiming dyslexia is that she uses it as an excuse whenever her glaring and CONSISTENT spelling errors get pointed out. I mean...come on. Diety? WTF! The woman needs editors...she needs them even moreso if she has a learning disability.

I hate how she uses it as an excuse. HATE IT.

[delphinapterus.livejournal.com]

You've summed up my thought on this, thanks.

[briary-flower.livejournal.com]

Oh, please, oh, my God, did she say the next five books? The next FIVE BOOKS?! The five books she is cranking out continuously, writing with both hands and both feet? No checking, no copyediting, no proofreading? AAAAAH!

[delphinapterus.livejournal.com]

Well she didn't give a time frame so it doesn't necessarily mean that she'll crank them out. Just because the last ones have been turned out quickly, and she's complaining about being rushed doesn't mean the trend will continue. *cue optimism* Maybe with her daughter getting older, and her and Jon doing family things, she'll want to take more of a break between books.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

As a BSc with a major in biology - I want her out of the fraternity! Honest to god. She's not worthy of the white lab coat.

I don't know how it is elsewhere with science, but where I studied? if you could not write a coherent essay (with proper punctuation and references) then there was a good chance you would fail the course and have to repeat. And scientific essays are a tough beast to write - you have to be coherent, pursuasive, intelligent and get all your research across in a succinct manner. You have no real room to waffle on and dance about the point - you make your point, you back it up, you move on. It's taught me how to write with brutal efficiency. Also, I pwn at essay writing.

Other disciplines aren't quite so tough on essay writing - I know in psychology you could get away with fudging a bunch of stuff so long as you had evidence to back up your opinion.

And for creative writing (yes, I did that too!) - that was the class I slept through and got high distinctions. Mostly because A) I'd learned how to write the Essays of Doom, B) can do it without excess fluff, and C) know thy punctuation and spelling.

Every time I read about how she/Merita have a biology degree, I imagine her saying it in a Ralph Wiggum voice. "I'm a scientist!"

No, lady, you're not. You're an embarrassment to the sisterhood. It's hard enough to be a woman that studies science, and it's people like you that give us all a bad wrap. Get off my fucking island. Now.

[ninjacooter.livejournal.com]

Is it me or is she the most evasive 'interviewee' ever?