{"id":364,"date":"2023-07-30T02:16:00","date_gmt":"2023-07-30T02:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/on.patronhunt.com\/orionsbeltmag\/?p=364"},"modified":"2024-02-22T02:34:07","modified_gmt":"2024-02-22T02:34:07","slug":"exclusive-interview-with-john-johnson-walking-in-the-starry-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/on.patronhunt.com\/orionsbeltmag\/exclusive-interview-with-john-johnson-walking-in-the-starry-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive Interview with John Johnson: “Walking in the Starry World”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Noah Codega: I find that \u201cWalking in the Starry World\u201d can be read with equal validity as an account of supernatural events or a journey through a dream. Do dreams and dream consciousness hold a particular interest for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

John Johnson: About 20% of my published poems are literal transcripts from my dreams. I think when I\u2019m stressed about something, my subconscious mind\u2014the 600-pound gorilla in my brain\u2014tells me parables about my predicament\u2014in the form of Vampires, Evil Governments, etc. Also, to answer your question in a different way, I think the real world is kind of a dream world anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The narrator of \u201cWalking in the Starry World\u201d says nothing about themselves directly, but we glean a lot about them through their actions\u2014there’s a sense of mischief in the batting of the star, an almost forbidden-fruit-like tint to the drinking of the starmilk, all done while away from the rest of the village. Did you start the poem with a strong sense of the narrator’s personality, or did it emerge in the writing process?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started the poem about ten years ago as a flat-earth poem. It was situational, not character-based, somewhat from a Ted Chiang story, his \u201cTower of Babylon.\u201d I had written the first draft for a friend, who did not like it. I wrote a sequel, \u201cThe Secret Edge of the World,\u201d which was published right away, but it took me ten years to get the first poem worked out. It took that ritual, almost liturgical form to make it work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But you\u2019re right, the voice always has to be the main thing, in any story or poem. The voice in the poem is kind of the typical young seeker who finds things out about the world that everybody else hasn\u2019t realized. I think that\u2019s the voyage for most artists and sensitive souls. The voice was slightly influenced by an SF story I read as a child, about pioneers on Mercury who grew up and died in only seven days, and a young seeker who finds the actual truth of their situation. It was also slightly influenced by my own early transgressions, like sneaking out at night in junior high to ride bikes and smoke cigarettes with my friend Jeff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I like all your insights into the poem. I really hadn\u2019t thought consciously about them as I wrote it, but you\u2019re right, they are all there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are some other projects you have in the works right now?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re buying a house two blocks away from where we live to put my wife\u2019s art business in. That\u2019s going to take up the rest of my summer. But I would like to turn \u201cWalking in the Starry World\u201d into a comic book to go with my other comic books, \u201cStairs Appeared in a Hole Outside of Town\u201d and \u201cThe Book of Fly.\u201d I also would like to put together a regular book of poems, mixing my SF stuff with my regular literary stuff. I\u2019m not sure, though. It’s kind of oil and water. I might have to put a warning label on the cover: \u201cCaution: Contains Science Fictional Material.\u201d Which would be the total kiss of death for sales. It\u2019s a quandary. Maybe I\u2019ll just write short stories instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you write to music? If so, what kind?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Occasionally a tune comes to mind\u2014sometimes after church I have a melody in my head that would fit in with the rest of the 18th Century. Or sometimes I have a little pop tune that would fit in with 70s soft rock. I tried to write one down once. It took forever in front of the piano to pick out the notes and take note of them, and then where do I go from there with it? It\u2019s hard enough to write poems and offer them to everybody else.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Noah Codega: I find that \u201cWalking in the Starry World\u201d can be read with equal validity as an account of supernatural events or a journey through a dream. Do dreams and dream consciousness hold a particular interest for you? John Johnson: About 20% of my published poems are literal transcripts from my dreams. I think […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","ph_site_tiers_settings":[[{"Price":"1.00","Tier_name":"Voyager","Tier_id":"prod_PbejBstAbzGx6D","Selected":true,"Tier_status":"publish"},{"Price":"2.00","Tier_name":"Pioneer","Tier_id":"prod_Pbekxd4dT46vIU","Selected":true,"Tier_status":"publish"},{"Price":"5.00","Tier_name":"Cosmonaut","Tier_id":"prod_PbenhwsNUd6XSB","Selected":true,"Tier_status":"publish"}]],"_ph_post_tiers":["prod_PbejBstAbzGx6D","prod_Pbekxd4dT46vIU","prod_PbenhwsNUd6XSB"],"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/on.patronhunt.com\/orionsbeltmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/on.patronhunt.com\/orionsbeltmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/on.patronhunt.com\/orionsbeltmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/on.patronhunt.com\/orionsbeltmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/on.patronhunt.com\/orionsbeltmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/on.patronhunt.com\/orionsbeltmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":365,"href":"https:\/\/on.patronhunt.com\/orionsbeltmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364\/revisions\/365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/on.patronhunt.com\/orionsbeltmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/on.patronhunt.com\/orionsbeltmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/on.patronhunt.com\/orionsbeltmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}