Matthias Penzel Interview to Rudy Rucker for Frankfurter Rundschau. London.
Q: Unlike with rock�n�roll interviews, the preparation for writers� interviews is immense (weak excuse, mediocre explanation). Unfortunately I have not managed to read all your books before this interview. Which one (talking about your fiction) would you single out as your masterpiece? A: That�s like asking a father which child he likes best. I love them all in different ways. I do feel that as time goes by I get more mastery of my writing, so in that sense I usually think my most recent book is the best. Today that would be Realware. As a practical matter, it is in any case better for me to believe that my latest book is my best. I would not want to think that a book I wrote a long time ago is better than a book I can write now. I feel like I am still on the upward part of my trajectory. Q: Although having been translated into German by Udo Breger who could probably be regarded as one of the country�s leading translators, your books never quite cracked the German market � is that because they will always only appeal to a smallish cult audience anyway, or is it the matter of language? A: Maybe as the years go by, the mass of people will like my books more than they do now. It could be a matter of my being ahead of my time. Or it could be that my books are a little too esoteric for a true mass popularity. I write intellectual, high-literature, counter -cultural science fiction. It could also be that my style of humor appeals more to Americans than to Germans. But at least one other country likes me: my books seem to be quite popular in Japan, perhaps even more so than in the U.S. I think all my novels are in print in Japan, which still remains an impossible dream for me in the U.S. But I still think my day will come. The trick is to try and have it happen before you die. I�m sure that Udo Breger did a great job in translating my books into German, he was very meticulous and sent me lists of words he wasn�t sure about how to translate, which is something very few translators think of doing. I wish they all would. In any case, it�s not in my interest to take the number of copies sold as my supreme yardstick of success. I�m happy that I�m published at all, and that my books do indeed speak deeply to some individual readers. Q: What do you think is your most important activity? A: At the personal level, the most important thing I ever did was to father and help raise our three children. At the public level, my most important activity is writing, although maybe in the long run it�s my sensibility that will have the most lasting influence: my combination of humor, anarchy and scientific engagement. Q: Do you listen to your rock�n�roll on vinyl or CD? A: CD. I have a large collection of my old vinyl records, most in bad shape from much party use. The sound system I happen to have these days isn�t compatible with a turntable so I can�t play my vinyl records anymore. They�re in boxes in the basement. My children want to inherit them. Q: Who do you rate the most important writers of this century? A: I�ll certainly vote for myself! Otherwise, not to make too long a list, let� s say Kerouac, Pynchon, Borges, Burroughs, Kafka, Poe. Pynchon is really the best of all. He is our James Joyce. The richest language, the deepest feeling. I was so sorry when I was done reading Mason and Dixon. Borges has the best ideas, the fine language also, the dryness. Borges has a phrase that�s of comfort to me (he�s writing of Melville and Edgar Allan Poe), �Vast populations, towering cities, erroneous and clamorous publicity have conspired to make unknown great men one of America�s traditions.� Sometimes I like to imagine that�s a description of me. Kerouac and Burroughs are a special case. It�s hard to point to many books by them that are really impeccably great. It�s more a matter of great passages and of a great vibe, the beatnik vibe that had such an influence on me growing up. Speaking of beat sensibility, I always liked Charles Bukowski a lot as well. I like to think of cyberpunk as a new kind of beat movement. The beats had Kerouac, Ginsberg, Burroughs, Corso. The cyberpunks had Gibson, Sterling, Rucker, Shirley. Burroughs was the oldest of the beats, and I�m the oldest cyberpunk. Poe and Kafka are a bit like the beats in that their sensibility has perhaps a greater influence than their individual works. In both cases there are not any fully successful novel-length works, although there are any number of perfect gem-like passages and stories.