GUEST POST | Ken Scholes on Libraries and Memory, Knowledge and Power

Art  by Marc Simonetti

I’ve always loved libraries…and librarians.

It started in my elementary school, even before I fell in love with reading. A room full of books – many of which had pictures! At first, it was just the picture books that drew me in but once I started reading, I just couldn’t stop. When I learned that there was an even bigger library than the one in my school, I was elated. I checked out as many books as I was allowed and churned through sometimes one or two books a day, and even more in the summer.

So around the time the time the writing bug bit me, I decided that a real writer should probably work in a library, surrounded by books. At the age of fourteen, I started showing up at the Enumclaw Public Library, filling out applications regularly even though the librarian told me (in a very friendly but quiet voice) that I had to be sixteen to work for the library. Still, I was back every so often to try again. For two years.

Persistence paid off and when I turned sixteen, I started working as a library page, shelving returned books and doing whatever odd jobs needed doing. It was Heaven. No fines for late books and at the front of the line for anything new and exciting to come in. And pick of the litter when it came to books being disposed of. I still have some ancient volumes of Shakespeare in my personal library from that time.

Yes, I’ve always loved libraries.

Which is why, on the first page of the first chapter of my first novel, I blew one up.

And somehow, despite this, the American Library Association put that first novel, Lamentation, on the RUSA Reading List for Best Fantasy.

Maybe it’s because of how seriously my protagonists took this devastating act of terror and the hole its destruction left in their world. Or maybe because re-building the library became an important aspect of the story. No matter the reasons, I’ve had a lot of support for the series from libraries and librarians and I’m glad for it.

When I conceived the notion of the Great Androfrancine Library, it was initially just the background for a short story. It wasn’t until I started stitching together the two stories that became the beginning and middle of Lamentation that I saw clearly the re-building of the library – or the notion of a hidden replica of the library. I was drawing a bit from the murky soup of history – the destruction of the Library of Alexandria in Egypt, which is not quite as easy to pin down as legends would have us believe. That library appears to have gone through a series of events that eventually led, over time, to its loss. In reality, no one seems certain exactly what happened and when though speculation points widely to various events between approximately 50 BCE and 650 AD.

But in my world, I wanted it gone quickly, along with its Androfrancine keepers, and I wanted to explore how that kind of loss would play out while my characters sought to solve the puzzle of who destroyed Windwir and why. The “light” of human knowledge and accomplishment, dug painstakingly from the ruins of the Old World and stored away for safekeeping, suddenly snuffed out, and the glue that held a carefully monitored society of survivors suddenly burned away.

And there’s a deeper exploration there:  What happens when one group of people controls the flow of knowledge and what happens when another group takes away that knowledge?  Because knowledge is power but it is also memory.  And if you control or eliminate that memory, the river of history flows in favor of whichever group holds that power to impose their own recollection of how things are and should be.

As we progress deeper into the Psalms of Isaak, we see that it’s about much more than a destroyed library – it is about a sudden and unexpected war of cultures with blurry lines of motivation and intent on both sides.  And moreso, it is about how people react to those sudden, violent changes.

So like I said, I love libraries.  And librarians.  I think the world is a darker, colder place without what they do for us.  So I’ll try to go easier on them in my next series.  

*******

KEN SCHOLES is the author of the acclaimed series The Psalms of Isaak, which comprises Lamentation, Canticle, Antiphon, and now Requiem.  He lives near Portland, Oregon, with his wife, Jen West Scholes, and their three-year-old twin daughters. Visit him on the web at www.kenscholes.com.


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INTERVIEW | Ken Scholes author of Canticle (The Psalms of Isaak)

Ken Scholes has been garnering accolades for many years for his short fiction including being a finalist for the Endeavor award for his short story collection Long Walks, Last Flights,  & Other Strange Journeys.   Only this year did his debut novel Lamentation release to start The Psalms of Isaak series, which just came out in mass market last month.  This month saw the publication of volume two Canticle.   Lamentation had been hanging around my to-read shelf since its release and when I heard the second book was about to come out I thought it was high time I got to it.  After reading both volumes back-to-back it would be an understatement to say this series will be anything other than memorable for years to come. The characters are well done and the plotting is unbelievably deep. 

MH:  Hello Mr. Scholes, welcome to Mad Hatter’s Bookshelf. Firstly, can you tell us a little about yourself? 

SCHOLES:  Sure.  I grew up in a small logging town near Mount Rainier in rural Washington State.  I spent some time in both the Navy and the Army and have a degree in History. 

I've worked in a variety of fields including some good stretches in the nonprofit sector, the ministry and in local government.  I spent about a decade writing short stories before I tackled my first novel.  I'm a winner of the Writers of the Future contest—a program I heartily support for new writers trying to break in.  

I live in Saint Helens, Oregon, with my wife Jen West Scholes and our brand-new twin daughters, Rachel and Lizzy.

MH: For those who haven’t read Lamentation, what would you say perspective readers to whet their appetite?

SCHOLES:  The scholarly city of Windwir and its Androfrancine Order, after two thousand years of digging knowledge and relics from the ruins of civilization, has been utterly destroyed.  Its sole survivor—a steam-powered metal man that once worked in its Great Library—claims to be responsible.  But as alliances shift and armies come together around the Desolation, it's quickly apparent that there is more to it than meets the eye and the world is changing once again....

MH: The Psalms of Isaak is a very difficult book to classify.  There are strong Fantasy elements as well as Sci-Fi aspects along with a smattering of Steampunk.  How would you describe the world?

SCHOLES:  I have an unfair advantage over my characters, who believe firmly that they're in a fantasy novel or my readers, who have to wait for the gradual reveal.  I guess I would call it a post-apocalyptic epic.

MH: What music did you listen to while writing Lamentation:

SCHOLES:  Simon and Garfunkel, Matchbox 20, Carbon Leaf, Augustana, Five for Fighting, Alanis Morisette, Tori Amos, Eva Cassidy, Goo Goo Dolls, Paul Simon, Don McLean, Live and much more.

MH: I know it is difficult to pick favorites, but what is a short story of yours you feel best encompasses your strengths as a writer and why?

SCHOLES:  It really is difficult to pick favorites.  But I think the one that feels the most like "me" is "Last Flight of the Goddess."  It's available as a .pdf download through www.tor.com here.  [There is also] a link at http://www.kenscholes.com/.  It really captures what I think is most important in life and is a gift I wrote for my wife one Christmas.

MH:  If you could be any character from a Fantasy book who would it be and why?

SCHOLES:  Oh, Bilbo Baggins definitely.  Before the ring turned sour on him, of course.  I love the notion of the ordinary and simple becoming heroic when placed in extraordinary circumstances.

MH: I’ve noticed similarities between Walter M. Miller, Jr’s A Canticle for Leibowitz and The Psalms of Isaak.  Did reading Miller’s work have a hand in Lamentation?

SCHOLES:  Only in as much as it was part of the canon of post-apocalyptic literature that influenced me as a teen.  That and Hiero's Journey and Earth Abides and host of others, mixed in with a generous helping of Clark Ashton Smith and Cordwainer Smith.

MH: Between Lamentation and now Canticle it is clear this world is heavily influenced by Religion.  How has your own spiritual quest influenced your writing?

SCHOLES:  Well, I could spend a few years on this question and still not quite convey how deep the influence goes.  I think writers are influenced by all the different facets of life and certainly our desire to connect with our environment at a spiritual level is a part of that. 

And my spiritual travels have taken me down some interesting roads.  I've moved glacially through a more fundamentalist interpretation of Christianity (and indeed was a minister for a time) into a more ecumenical and contemporary expression.  Along the way, I studied many other religions—particularly in the context of world history—and eventually landed in secular humanism as more of an agnostic atheist (i.e. can't know for certain and don't have a belief in gods).  But because I've believed some things Very Strongly, I think it gives me the ability to explore these notions in the context of fiction in a different way than if I still practiced a religion.

MH: You’ve said The Psalms of Isaak will be 5 books long.  When can we expect volume 3 Antiphon?

SCHOLES:  I'll be done revising Antiphon at the end of October.  You should see it in September 2010.  And ideally, Requiem will follow 9-12 months later with a similar stretch between that and the final volume, Hymn.  Of course, things could change on those last two—could happen somewhat faster or somewhat slower.

MH: That is quite a schedule.  What, if any, plans do you have for books outside the series?  Are you working on any new short stories we can check out soon?

SCHOLES:  Well, I have a rich world to mine for more series—both before and after the events in The Psalms of Isaak.  And possibly during.  I also would like to adapt my short story, "Invisible Empire of Ascending Light," into a trilogy.  My most recent short story, "Love in the Time of Car Alarms," will be in DAW's anthology The Trouble With Heroes.  I have a few other short projects in the pipe for 2010 (along with a second short story collection) and a short novel for sometime in 2011 when I finish Hymn but nothing I'm able to announce yet.

MH:  How has being a Dungeons & Dragons player influenced your writing?  Do you still play regularly and what is your favorite Character Class?  Lastly, what is the best character name you’ve created for D& D?

SCHOLES:  D&D was a huge influence.  It taught me what I call the storyteller's waltz—the give and take between player and Dungeon Master is much like the give and take between a reader and a writer.  I don't play at this point and wish I had the time to.  Last time I touched it was 2001 and that was the first time I'd played since the 80s.  My favorite classes was the paladin or the half-elvish fighter/thief in AD&D.  Best name—well, I lifted it from a SF movie and changed the spelling—Ankharr Mohr. 

MH: What are 2 things about you most people don’t know?  Do you have a pet monkey you keep sequestered in the backyard? 

SCHOLES:  Well, most people don't realize I'm actually an introvert if they meet me in public.  It's actually the one thing people often refuse to believe about me.  I tend to be outgoing and gregarious but I actually get my energy from being alone and people wear me out quickly.  And many probably don't know that I play guitar and harmonica, with over 60 songs written and hundreds of covers memorized.

I always wanted to have a pet monkey, but alas, I do not have one.

MH: To go along with the theme of this blog: What is your favorite type of hat?

SCHOLES:  My green superman ballcap.  Which is, alas, missing at the moment.  But I will find it.  Someday, I will replace it with a Batman ballcap.

MH: Is there anything else you’d like to say?

SCHOLES:  Yep.  Hope you all enjoy the books and that you'll look me up at http://www.kenscholes.com/!

MH: Thank you for your time.  I’m looking forward Isaak’s further chronicling of this strange and wonderful world.


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