My interview on G.R. Yeates

Recently I had the opportunity to be interviewed by G.R. Yeates, as part of a series with the authors of Phobophobia from Dark Continents. I had a chance to speak about Star Trek, philosophy, and my story, Y is for Ymophobia. Here's a bit of that interview now for your skimming pleasure.

Your story in the Phobophobia anthology is about Ymophobia – the fear of contrariety. Whilst reading it, I was reminded of Darren Aronofsky's Pi – any influence there or were your sources different?

I originally wanted to write something about the fear of mirrors when I received the letter Y, but the alphabet didn't have that in the cards for me. Instead I ended up using reflections as a way to manifest that fear of contrariety so it worked out, but mirrors were still the real anchor for the story, at least in my mind. I was aware of the similarities to Pi at the time (Aronofsky's one of my favourite directors as a matter of fact), but it wasn't really present in my thoughts as I worked through the story.

Elias Paulson is loosely based on, among others, John Nash. At the time I was researching Game Theory and the RAND Corporation, and developing an interest in the mathematical principles of predicting behaviors.  I wasted many an afternoon on Adam Curtis documentaries and John Nash interviews on the subject, trying to tease out a clinical use of these principles that still managed to sound vaguely convincing coming from a layman like me. (I guess you could say this is more A Beautiful Mind than Pi.)

You can read the rest of the interview at G.R. Yeates' website.