Drew Magary
A cure for death, for aging. If it was discovered, it’d turn upside down whole our civilisation. Such a future is described in a great novel The Postmortal. It’s author, Drew Magary, is known in Internet as a critic on sport blogs (Deadspin and Kissing Suzy Kolber). But it was his book that made him famous. He was so kind to give answers to our questions, enjoy reading our short interview with Drew Magary.
Kocham Książki: Hello! First of all, I am very thankful that you decided to give this short interview to Kocham Książki and all your Polish fans! I think that writing books needs a lot of imagination. Where do you find inspirations for your work?
Drew Magary: For this book, I saw a TV report about anti-aging medicines and made it think about how a world without aging would really play out. It was really just playing out an experiment in my head.
KK: How did you start being a writer? Is it difficult to start writing a first book, novel?
DM: I started off in advertising, which is actually good training because you have to do lots of writing on lots of different subjects. Then I moved to blogging, mostly about sports. I never thought I’d be writing books, but once I broke the workload down into smaller, blog-sized segments, it didn’t seem as daunting.
KK: How did you feel when your first book was published?
DM: It’s actually a bit of a letdown, because you see advance copies first and many people you know have already read it. IT’s not like the book magically appears one day. There’s a ramp-up that takes so long that the actual publication day becomes something of an afterthought. But I still drank like a fish that night.
KK: Many writers have some specific preferences concerning their writing conditions. How about you? Do you need peace and silence to create, or just the opposite?
DM: These days I need quiet. I used to listen to music but I can’t anymore.
Drew Magary, "The Postmortal"
KK: The Postmortal is a completely different world than ours, people have a totally different way of thinking about life and future. Was it difficult to find out how people would behave if they were immortal?
DM: I basically took American life now and put in our steroids, with more hedonism and consumption, and tried to see where it went.
KK: Would you take this medicine if there was such a possibility?
DM: HELL YES.
KK: Is there a character in your book that you identify with?
DM: There are bits of me in John Farrell, but he’s got parts of other people in him, too.
KK: How do you see the future of mankind? Are you an optimist or a pessimist?
DM: I’m actually an optimist. People, in general, are all right. When you drive down a highway, people aren’t just randomly trying to throw knives at you. Unless you live in Columbia.
KK: The last question is also about future. Can you tell us something about your writing plans?
DM: Secret for now.
KK: Thank you very much! Now I’m waiting impatiently for your next book. Good luck!
