SF Online Interview with Hagio (Part III-1)

(Continued from Part II)

Sakai:

So what do you read these days in terms of SciFi?

Hagio:

"Steel Beach" was very interesting among things I've read recently. Now I'm looking forward to the final installment that I heard is coming soon—the "Kirinyaga" being serialized in "SF Magazine."

Mizutama:

Ooooh.

Sakai:

Ooooh. I'd better call Hayakawa Shobo and tell them they should write "Acclaimed by Moto Hagio!" on the obi [Note 1] when it gets republished as a book.

[Note 1] Obi is a strip of paper dressed on books in Japan like a belt or obi (the word traditionally refers to a sash for kimono) to cover the lower part of the book's cover where promotional copies are placed. These days almost all books published in Japan come with obi, and your book's resale value will go down without it, so my husband tells you not to throw it away. I find them irritating, since they come loose (you have to keep re-wrapping it around the cover) and don't really have any function other than for PR.

Hagio:

You see, the pacing of the writing is very relaxed, so I cannot help but use the 3% of my brain to think about how it ends. Then at the end, it reaches an [unexpected] conclusion after overturning all the possible variations I could come up with myself—that gives me such pleasure: "Ah, you could make that move!" So for the final installment I have been enjoying thinking about the possible variations.

Sakai:

John Varley often depicts worlds in which sex gets interchanged. [Note 2]

[Note 2] Sexual ambiguity and androgyny are common themes throughout Hagio's works as well.

Hagio:

Yes, "The Ophiuchi Hotline" was also about a society where sex change occurs frequently, but I felt it was more of a fantasy if you depict it without involving personality. But in "Steel Beach" the changes are made at gene level. As the male protagonist transforms into a woman, the author describes how he becomes aware of his gradually feminized self during the process. That was interesting.

Mizutama:

Was it in "The Phantom of Kansas," included in the anthology "The Persistence of Vision," that a protagonist is about to be killed by his sex-changed clone—well, he gets killed in the end—but there is a clone and the one that didn't get a sex change is the original. The story was more focused on identity than the ethics of cloning.

Hagio:

Oh, that sounds interesting.

(Continues)

SF Online Interview with Hagio (Part I-3)

(Continued)

Hagio:

I was reading those. Then in middle school there was a magazine called "Middle School Course" that came with a supplement of SciFi or mystery stories adapted for younger readers. Among them was "Planet SOS" [adapted from "The Currents of Space"] by Asimov, and I was engrossed in it completely. I got addicted to SciFi then and started to hunt for them.

Mizutama:

"I need…more SciFi!"

Hagio:

Yes, exactly. Until that time I was at a point where I would read it if I could find it, but I didn't care if none was available. But when I entered high school there was a rental bookstore nearby and, was it from Sogen? There was a series of slender books. The series contained both mysteries and SciFi.

Mizutama:

Wasn't it from Hayakawa Shobo?

Sakai:

Yes, from Hayakawa.

Hagio:

Hayakawa, I see.

Mizutama:

They were slightly elongated and on the spine of each book was a red "SF" logo against a silver background.

Hagio:

Yes, that's it! So I rented one every day for 10 or 15 yen per volume. And I also hunted for "SF Magazine" in the used bookstores.

Mizutama:

Ah, I see you started to look for more potent stuff. (laugh). At that point you might have been able to trace back all the way to the first issue of SF Magazine?

Hagio:

I did find and read three thin issues that appeared to have come out shortly after the launch of the magazine, but it was around the time of the final installment of "Endless Flow" [probably this?] when I started tracking issues consciously, so perhaps they were from a bit later?

Mizutama:

So what was the lineup of the books you rented on a daily basis?

Hagio:

Mainly SciFi from the 50's, I think. "Inter Ice Age 4" by Kobo Abe, and something by the title of "Time Machine" or something, was it by Paul…?

Sakai:

"Time Patrol" perhaps? That's by Poul Anderson.

Hagio:

And also "Lest Darkness Fall" and so forth. I think the mix was about 90% translation, 10% original Japanese.

(Continues)