How one family inspired my Nigeria-set story – Geoff Ryman

Geoff Ryman was born in Canada, in 1951, and moved with his parents to the United States at age 11. He went to UCLA, bagging degrees in History and English, before moving to England in 1973, where he has lived, up till today. The writer’s books include ‘The Unconquered Country’ (1986), ‘The King’s Last Song […]

Geoff Ryman was born in Canada, in 1951, and moved with his parents to the United States at age 11. He went to UCLA, bagging degrees in History and English, before moving to England in 1973, where he has lived, up till today. The writer’s books include ‘The Unconquered Country’ (1986), ‘The King’s Last Song (2006)’, and others, have garnered rave reviews and numerous awards. Also a playwriter, he currently lectures in Creative Writing for the University of Manchester’s English Department. A regular on the Nigerian literary scene, the famous science fiction writer also administers the Nommo Awards, which rewards excellent science fiction and fantasy created by Africans. Daily Trust Saturday cornered him for a chat, during which his earliest work, current projects, finding inspiration in Nigeria, and more, are discussed. Herewith, are excerpts:

 

Daily Trust: It’s a long time ago, but what are your memories of the very first time your work was published?

Geoff Ryman: My mom wrote a column for a small town local newspaper in Canada, and she published part of a fantasy I wrote based on Sinbad the Sailor in her column. I was seven years old. It was nice seeing work in print, but I knew it only happened because it was my mom.  There was a long gap after that. Not until I had finished university did I finally sell a story. It was in a series called New Worlds, which was literary and experimental Science Fiction. And then another long gap.

DT: At what point did you realise you wanted to be a writer for a living?

Ryman: I always assumed that if you published a book, you’d make a living. Not true. It’s very hard to make a living being a writer, unless it’s journalism, advertising, or your work finds a really big audience. And I think it’s more difficult now than it was then. I made my living doing other things, and that meant I could write.

DT: You’re described as a sci fi writer before – or even if – anything else. How does that feel?

Ryman: I am a science fiction or fantasy writer. I just am, but it’s partly because science fiction isn’t a genre, or a marketing category. It’s an audience. The audience is amazing-conventions of ten thousand people. Lots of people writing reviews. It’s companionship and friendship. And that audience calls up stories from the writers and film-makers. I presented the Hugo Awards one year-a live audience of 5,000 people cheering the winners, and a live stream audience of many thousands more. The audience creates the fiction, not the writers. So, do I feel good about being part of that? You bet!

That audience has given me 17 or 18 awards, so I feel more than validated by them.

Having said that, three of my books are not really fantasy or Science Fiction at all.  One, ‘253’, is about 253 people sitting on a London tube train.  It was done in 1994 on the Internet with links between all the characters. I was doing web design at the time, and coding 253 was a great way of learning about it. ‘Was’ is a book about the settling of the Midwest in the USA that was turned into a play then a musical.  ‘The King’s Last Song’ is a novel about Cambodian history. I really got into Cambodia and wrote a series of stories.  None of those were remotely science fiction-but the people who paid attention were Science Fiction and Fantasy fans.

DT: You’re a bit of a frequent traveller to Nigeria, and you even wrote the novelette ‘What We Found’ set in the country. Do you have plans for more stories based here?

Ryman: I wrote ‘What We Found’ mainly because an African family I knew had such a similar history to my own family that I found myself writing about family issues, only set in Nigeria.  The story won a Nebula Award, which made this old guy feel good.

Now, I’d done a lot to tell people about Cambodian fiction and young Cambodia’s terrific take on rap music. But really, you can’t speak for people. You have to try to clear a space for them to tell their own stories. So, with the interest in Africa, I wanted to be a better window than a door. I think the days are passed when there is much interest in Western writers trying to tell African stories. Point to the African writers, and the work being done here, and try and get the message out to Africans and Westerners that there was all this fiction being written.

With the success of the ‘Black Panther’ movie, there is a lot more interest in African stories, but they really need to be told by Africans. That’s the challenge right now. A lot of people would like to be Africans, but they aren’t, and it shows up in the writing. The geography doesn’t feel right, the dialogue doesn’t feel right, the magic feels like it’s come out of reading a couple of books on Yoruba folklore and Amos Tutuola. It doesn’t feel dusty and lived-in like the work of someone like Nnedi Okorafor. So, it’s great that she’s been given the chance to write for Marvel Comics. Two of her comics have been nominated for Nommos.

DT: Your science fiction work is described as ‘mundane science fiction’. Can you please tell us more about the subgenre?

Ryman: It came about when I was teaching at the old Clarion workshop in Michigan.  There was a group of young writers who weren’t getting published. They were left wing, progressive, but interested in fresh new speculative ideas.  Mundane SF said, ‘Look we might not get to the stars.  We might not get really fast sub-light speed travel. Time travel doesn’t really happen; there are no magic wands. And anyway, the future for most of the world isn’t among the very few who might get to the stars. What does their world look like?’

It was a way to focus on the need to remember that the future is for everybody. A writer isn’t mundane-just one of your stories. You agree for that story not to write about certain tired old ideas, to open up space for new thinking. People loved the political aspect, but coming up with new fresh ideas was really difficult.  We did a special Mundane issue of Interzone. It didn’t really take off. Africanfuturism does a much better job of imagining a different future.

That’s why I spend time now helping with the Nommo Awards for Speculative Fiction by Africans. The awards recognize fiction and comics created by Africans.  The organization behind it is the African Speculative Fiction Society. They have about 170 members, all of them African writers, editors, or illustrators. They nominate in four categories, and then vote for the winners.

DT: Of all your works, which would you say is your favourite, and why?

Ryman: ‘Air’ was about a village in a made-up country, a high mountain isolated village with no internet.  Then in comes a mental, spiritual internet and this village really has to catch up fast.  It’s about accelerated change and how arrogant the big countries can be.  It won four awards, and tells my simplest most direct story, so I’m happy with that.

I also think ‘253’ being online (www.ryman-novel.com) is kind of fun in places. The train crashes, so it’s a tragedy. But it’s also full of humour, so I like the mix. Then ‘Was’ is my big, heavy, tragic novel. But it’s really a history of the American fantasy, ‘The Wizard of Oz’.