Saturday, August 30, 2008

Watch This

Carl Zimmer and Richard Preston on BloggingHeads.tv


I've got a suggestion for a great way to spend fifty minutes: go watch the diavlog between Carl Zimmer and Richard Preston on BloggingHeads.tv.

Zimmer and Preston are two outstanding science writers. You might know Zimmer from books of his such as Parasite Rex and Microcosm: E. coli and the New Science of Life, his contributions to The New York Times, and his delightful blog, The Loom.

You might know Preston from books of his such as The Hot Zone and The Cobra Event, as well as his regular contributions to The New Yorker.

Their diavlog is structured as a loose interview of Preston by Zimmer. They start by discussing some of the essays in Preston's new book, Panic in Level 4, and then go on to talk about the art and craft of science writing. Topics covered include self-cannibalism, how humans have sex at the top of a tree, and worries about being evicted from your apartment for calculating too many digits of pi. It's just an absolutely wonderful conversation to hear.

More information, including links to all of their books, is available by visiting Carl Zimmer's web site and Richard Preston's web site.

12 comments:

John Evo said...

I started listening early today and had to stop. It's one of those interviews that demands your attention and I couldn't give it. The last thing I heard was Preston driving a couple of self-cannibals into quicksand. But your reminder is appreciated.

Preston was one of those who kind of turned me away from fiction and towards non-fiction science. Hot Zone, obviously.

bjkeefe said...

SPOILER ALERT: You may want to watch (the rest of) the diavlog before reading this comment.

I know what you mean about changing to a preference for non-fiction, although it happened a lot earlier for me. I used to go through stretches, sometimes lasting months or even years, where I read no (non-required) fiction at all. I still have some intervals like that, although not usually longer than month-scale. Consequently, I often feel like an illiterate, at least culturally.

Grass is always greener, isn't it?

I did like The Hot Zone the first time I read it, although I didn't love it. It felt a little fear-mongerish, for one thing. More off-putting was a sense that Preston was self-consciously trying to write like John McPhee, who was and remains my all-time favorite author. While I could certainly understand the instinct, not to mention the desire, to write like John McPhee, it felt like an unsuccessful impersonation. Some sentences were almost comical, as though one had in mind Raymond Chandler and then picked up some Tracer Bullet panels. Except, of course, that Watterson was intentionally being comical.

Preston's revelation in the diavlog that he'd taken McPhee's writing course made me more sympathetic to The Hot Zone, in retrospect. (And jealous of Preston, of course.)

I've liked other things that I've read by him better, like The Cobra Event and stuff for The New Yorker. Unless somebody else also did a magazine length piece on those mathematicians, that's a standout.

I have to say, there was something about his personality during the diavlog that made me like him. I can't really say what it was. Maybe it was the description of how hard he works and how hard it is for him to write. This sounded completely believable, and not self-promoting the way it usually does when people talk about such things.

But, yeah, you made the right call to postpone watching until you could pay attention. It was a good one. I never fail to be impressed by just how good an interviewer Carl Zimmer is.

John Evo said...

Most regs on the diavlogs have an agenda. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but it's the difference between them and a guy like Zimmer. Carl just looks for the most interesting lines of questioning that he wants to find out about. It's as if he is interviewing for a book or article, rather than trying to ingratiate himself with the audience by showing his knowledge. It works well for him.

Anonymous said...

Brendan, you said "I have to say, there was something about his personality during the diavlog that made me like him. I can't really say what it was. Maybe it was the description of how hard he works and how hard it is for him to write. This sounded completely believable, and not self-promoting the way it usually does when people talk about such things."
That's quite accurate. Also, his demeanor denotes balance and thoughtfulness. He has a "calming" effect. I was most impressed by his compassion. The work he did with the L-N guys wasn't just about getting the information he needed for his article. He went beyond that. He wanted to connect with them at a human level, and also he wanted to give them something. He succeeded in both. Intelligent, knowledgeable, humble and compassionate, it's refreshing to remember there are people like that. :)

bjkeefe said...

Intelligent, knowledgeable, humble and compassionate, it's refreshing to remember there are people like that.

A reminder which you needed after dealing with the likes of me?

But seriously ...

Glad to hear you got the same vibe from Preston.

Anonymous said...

"A reminder which you needed after dealing with the likes of me?"


You are right. I should have said: "besides Brendan". I just thought that was obvious... :)

bjkeefe said...

@John:

Yeah, Zimmer does a nice job, doesn't he? When you first watch him, you don't appreciate how much he has prepared, because of his low-key nature.

John Evo said...

To tell you the truth, the first time I saw him on Bh.tv, I probably would have shut it off, had I not already read a couple of his books. He seemed slow and unsure of himself. All the time I was thinking - but this is ZIMMER! Anyway, it's just his style and after you get used to it, you glean a lot from his interviews.

bjkeefe said...

I could see that -- if you didn't know Carl at all, and you're condition by the Internet Age to make snap assessments, he could put you off at the start, especially if you have less liking for geeks than I do.

Why do you think so few people left comments on this diavlog? Was it like (my theory of) the UN Plaza diavlogs, do you think, where about as many people watch, but the conversation is at such a high level that it's hard for people to know what to say in a comment?

Granted, SciSat diavlogs never get as many comments as, say, the Bob and Mickey show. But this one seemed unusually sparse.

Anonymous said...

"Why do you think so few people left comments on this diavlog?"

A couple of thoughts to answer that question,
a. a vast group stopped watching right at the beginning when they were talking about self-cannibalism. After puking, they quite never got the courage to resume...

b.In spite of the content, their voices were so calm and subdued that everybody felt "stoned" at the end and forgot everything that they heard,

c. Your last post:
*Flees before endless philosophical discussion flares up.*
scared the hell out of the commenters with vivid imagery of B'N's verbosity. Not of mine, of course.

What do you think? Consider not everybody is as brave as we are...

bjkeefe said...

I think (a) is a good guess. The first couple of minutes were pretty tough to take. I remember almost giving myself a pep talk: all right, relax, this is a science discussion.

On the other hand, while I take your point (self-flattery?) about not everyone being as brave as we are, I don't think of the overwhelming majority of the regulars as shrinking violets, and I also expect it they're savvy enough to realize that one can skip ahead. But I wouldn't be surprised if you were right about some people.

(b) sounds plausible, too, and sort of goes along with my guess about the content being too high-level, or maybe too "complete" in some sense, to afford easy entry into the discussion.

As to (c), I'd think as long as the discussion hadn't actually started ... You think one worried sentence from me could stampede that many people?

Anonymous said...

"You think one worried sentence from me could stampede that many people?"

I think that:

a. my comment didn't succeed in communicating the humor behind it,

b. or, you didn't drink enough coffee before reading it,

c. or, you are in a crabby mood and intentionally disregard humor,

d. or, I'm the one who didn't have enough coffee, I'm crabby, and I'm unintentionally missing your humor.

e. or, lastly, all of the above apply.

Pick whichever you like best! :)

*Why can't I get the smiley right?*

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