“A good book is a good book, and there are a lot of different ways to approach writing or reading one.” Quote by Emily Barton
“There are as many different ways to write a novel as there are varieties of human consciousness, so I am totally delighted if people want to use words that come from genres to describe how this book functions because those words are accurate.” PeopleIfsWayWantWritingHumansBookDifferentUseConsciousnessNovelFunctionVarietyGenreDifferent WaysAccurateDelightedHuman Consciousness Author:Emily Barton
“[Michael] Chabon, who is himself a brash and playful and ebullient genre-bender, writes about how our idea of what constitutes literary fiction is a very narrow idea that, world-historically, evolved over the last sixty or seventy years or so - that until the rise of that kind of third-person-limited, middle-aged-white-guy-experiencing-enlightenment story as in some way the epitome of literary fiction - before that all kinds of crazy things that we would now define as belonging to genre were part of the literary canon.” WorldWayWritingYearsKindPersonsIdeasStoriesLastsGuyWhiteFictionCrazyMiddleEnlightenmentThirdsAll KindsGenreBelongingSixtySeventiesMiddle AgedCanonCrazy ThingsEpitomeWhite GuysThird PersonBrash Author:Emily Barton
“[Michael] Chabon is arguing in favor of what is at the same time an old-fashioned and very forward-thinking opening up - of taking off the class associations with those labels, because we grew up, or I certainly grew up, feeling that, "Oh, there's literary fiction, and beneath that, there's these other things." He's actually saying that they're all of equal merit, and in many cases, that work in the genres, or work that draws from the genres is more entertaining for readers, since it is our job to entertain people.” PeopleThinkingFeelingsJobsFictionClassCasesGrewReaderEqualGrew UpDrawsArguingFavorsOpeningLabelsGenreMeritAssociationEntertainingOld FashionedOpening UpGenre IsForward Thinking Author:Emily Barton
“One of the things that's exciting for me about this novel is that, to me, Brookland and The Testament of Yves Gundron were both, in certain regards, crypto-steampunk. They're both books that are interested in an alternate technological past that in fact didn't historically come to pass. If you were to ask me what my novels were about, I would say, well, these are novels about technology and how we relate to technology and what technology means.” IfsWellsMeanBookFactsPastCertainAsksTechnologyNovelExcitingRegardRelateAsk MeTechnologicalTestamentSteampunk Author:Emily Barton
“I'm not for it [Brookland and The Testament of Yves Gundron ], I'm not against it, I'm just interested in it and how it functions, but I think that, in some senses, in those two novels, that was difficult for people to see.” PeopleThinkingTwoDifficultNovelFunctionSensesTestament Author:Emily Barton
“Nobody thinks that there were never mechanical horses in the world. Everybody knows that there aren't really golems.” ThinkingKnowsWorldHorse Author:Emily Barton
“I think that novels are one of the best means that we have to communicate both with the past and with the future.” ThinkingMeanPastNovelCommunicate Author:Emily Barton
“A novel is a way to rethink and rewrite and re-envision the past, and also a way to speak to people who haven't been born yet about what we think about right now.” PeopleThinkingWayPastSpeakBornNovelHavensRight Now Author:Emily Barton
“Historical fiction is a collaboration between the time in which it's written and the time that it's writing about and the far future, when we don't know what people are going to think about yet.” PeopleThinkingKnowsWritingFictionWrittenHistoricalCollaborationHistorical Fiction Author:Emily Barton
“Teaching and writing, really, they support and nourish each other, and they foster good thinking. Because when you show up in the classroom, you may have on the mantle of authority, but in fact, you're just a writer helping other writers think through their problems. Your experience with the problems you've tried to solve comes into play in how you try to teach them to solve their problems.” ThinkingWritingTryingMayPlayFactsHelpingShowsProblemTeachSupportTeachingAuthoritySolveHelping OthersClassroomGood Thinking Author:Emily Barton