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Sean Michaels: I was shocked. I was really discombobulated by the turn of events.
Your win surprised a lot of people. The Toronto Star called it an "upset victory." What do you think Us Conductors winning the Giller says about the state of writing in Canada?
I think it speaks to the curiosity of the jury that selected it. But I also think that it's a reminder that Canadian literature is not the same kind of hoary tales of sadness and wheat fields that we think of as "Can Lit." Certainly Us Conductors isn't, but even having read most of the rest of the nominees—and I read a lot of Canadian literature—there's such a wide variety of voices. But it still feels like a little bit of an outlier on the list of Giller winners.
Let's talk about your research for the book. Why was it important for you to go to Russia?
A lot of the research was to fill out the details of the book. I was not that interested in the detective work: the facts, places, and times. You know, facades of buildings, every little detail… But at a certain point, as I was editing the book, I really felt strongly that I wanted to be true to the ambiance, to the big picture. Particularly of the Russian scenes. And, ironically, that was one of those areas where the big picture was harder to be truthful about than the little picture.
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I started searching, struggling to find English speakers in Magadan, and someone suggested that I try couchsurfing.com. Not because I needed a couch to surf on, but because I could find English-language profiles. So I found this couple, and we corresponded, and they offered to put me up. And when I arrived, it turned out they didn't speak English and they had just been using Google Translate for the whole correspondence. But still, they showed me all around the city in their little hatchback, playing A Tribe Called Quest out of the stereo, and it was fun.Tell me a little bit about how this all started. Do you remember the first time you heard a theremin, and was that the spark for the book?
Somebody turned me on to the story of Lev and Clara about six or seven years ago. Just kind of, "Oh, have you ever heard the story of this guy? He had this crazy life." The greatest theremin player, he fell in love, and then he left. And that was rattling around in my head for a long time. And it definitely started to rattle in kind of harmony with this experience I had a few years before that. I was in the car one night, my parents' car, home for the summer or something, driving, and I turned on the radio, and this beautiful aria was playing. It was a soprano singer, a beautiful piece of music. I didn't recognize it or anything, it was just one of those beautiful music moments. And then at the end of the segment the presenter said that I'd been listening to Quebec thereminist Peter Pringle playing on the theremin. That hadn't been a singer at all. And that was my first experience. And still, most people haven't even had that experience, the beautiful theremin. I realized the story of Lev and Clara doesn't need to be the story of a goofy, mad scientist with his crazy contraption. Actually the contraption itself can contribute aesthetically to a story of love and distance.
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Yes. The best recollection I have is this guy Dean Kamen, the guy who invented the Segway like 10 years ago. I remember before he announced his invention, just that kind of rhetoric about how it would transform everything. And he had this pedigree—people thought he actually was a genius. And I think that in the same way, people were kind of imagining, like—I remember articles like, "What could the invention be? How could our world be transformed?" So I think there is capacity for a really charismatic and brilliant inventor to kind of force people to imagine things. Maybe even that guy from Tesla. People just want to imagine that technology, an invention, could transform everything.
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Well, yeah. So I mean, could there be someone like Termen? Yeah, because he was ultimately a disappointment.There's tons of disappointing scientists in the world!
We also forget, I think, now that technology is everywhere, the kind of disorienting experience of the truly new. So the theremin was, for tens of thousands of people, their first time not just seeing music played in the air, but their first time hearing synthetic music, that weird, electric noise… I tried an Oculus Rift a month or two ago. And I was also, like, "Holy crap! This is actually something I've never experienced before."In a way, this innocent yearning for discovery sort of explains steampunk—these people with a boner for an older, authentic, wondrous, yet simple time…
…With wooden cabinetry.Exactly. I know you from living in Montreal, I kept noticing the names of familiar Montreal places like "Green Room," and "Nouveau Palais." And then there was one name that popped up: Andre Markov, who was both a Russian mathematician around the time of Termen but also a defenseman for the Montreal Canadiens…
No, that guy was definitely named after the hockey player.[Laughs] That's great. How much did Montreal influence the writing of the book?
When I was kind of conceiving the book, I really didn't like the idea of writing this dry, stuffy, historical novel—because up until now I've only ever written contemporary stuff, never historical fiction. And I remember reflecting quite strongly, on the trailer of Sophia Coppola's Marie Antoinette, where she used New Order's "Age of Consent" as part of the soundtrack. And I really love that idea, the reminder that these past times have the same kind of thrilling energy as our contemporary times. I decided at some point that I wanted to use new wave, post-punk music, and cold wave, as a secret soundtrack for the book. So the chapter titles are all nods to music from that era. I was trying to give it this up-to-date feeling from this musical side, but also at the same time, I think I was also very deliberately imbuing it with my Montreal experiences of the past 16 years. That feeling of going out partying on those endless nights, I wanted to kind of capture some of my own experience of that, filtered through the electric 1980s, and then filtered through the Prohibition-era New York.In terms of the idea of taking someone else's story and fictionalizing it, was there any internal struggle in terms of doing these people's story justice, or changing it?
Yeah. Well, I feel very strongly about the ethical dimension of being a fiction writer, or being a writer in general. I did spend a lot of time thinking about it. I eventually came to the decision, "It's fine. Do whatever you want." So long as I'm being very, very explicit and clear that this is a work of fiction. But I did think about it a lot. But I'm not now struggling with it.Are there surviving relatives? Have they read the book?
There are. I don't know if anyone's read the book, though. When I was going to Russia I reached out to Termen's grandson, who was furious to hear about my book. He was instantly cranky. And then he asked me what my source material was for the book, and I mentioned that I was using this Glinsky biography, and he was like, "Oh, that's a terrible [book]!" He hates that book. I feel like the family really has kind of turned those ancestors into saints, as these perfect people, when the evidence is clear to me that—not only is nobody perfect, but in Termen's case in particular, I think he was a bit of a jerk. But I do know a thereminist who liked my book a lot was going to meet them this fall, to see the Termen family. So I don't know if he'll help the discussion. I met Steve Martin, not the actor, but the filmmaker who made the Theremin documentary, and we had a very nice chat in Los Angeles. And then he went home and blasted me online. It was one of the cruelest moments I've experienced.Really! What do you mean he blasted you?
Well, I remember that he called me a "slob." He was like, "And that smug, asshole slob." He just doesn't like that I was "lying." He thought my book was full of inaccuracies. The theremin really is this world where there's this small amount of turf, and there are a lot of people who really try to have that be their turf.Theremin beef. Well, hopefully this Giller will shut those people up.
Yeah. "Let's see your prize cabinet."
@katigburgers