Q: What brought about your interest in Copernicus?

V: Well, I used to like H.P. Lovecraft when I was in high school and I think it was Fritz Leiber who called him “a literary Copernicus.” His reason was that Lovecraft took horror from the human heart, where it was all internal and he moved it way out into outer space, where human beings were insignificant and just the prey of Cthulhu and all these very powerful aliens. I always thought that was interesting and when I got a little older and was capable of thinking about things a little more seriously, I wondered what it was like to suddenly relegate the Earth from the center of the Universe to an orbiting planet.

So I was very curious to learn more about Copernicus and as I looked into it, of course, it turned out that it wasn’t sudden. Like most people in history, Copernicus had predecessors and he did part of the job but not all of the job, but to me that just made him all the more human and believable and a little bit more endearing in a way. I’m very impressed with this shy, reclusive guy who never saw a planet in his life except as a point of light and nevertheless worked out this mathematical system that wasn’t completely right but which was better than anything before and couldn’t really be explained away. So he did this amazing thing and then was kind of worried about what it was that he had done and what the implications might be, probably to himself personally but maybe also to his Catholic faith. He kept quiet until his deathbed and then afterwards people really suffered because of Copernicus.

Q: Did you go out stargazing working on the book?

V: I thought about doing it but then I thought that wouldn’t have been what Copernicus could have done. [The research of Copernicus predates the telescope.] I love astronomy books and for years I had one beautiful book of planets after another and I like looking at those and thinking about those. Copernicus says the moon is perfectly round and made out of perfect imperishable superlunary material–and here’s a picture of the moon with all of its craters and it’s beautiful in a way, but very different from what Copernicus could have imagined. It’s very interesting to think about that stuff.

Q: You sometimes talk about writing for future generations and also sometimes speak of writing not just for American audiences in mind. I’m wondering how writing for translation and future generations affects how you think about your work?

V: I just try to make the most beautiful interesting books that I can and if there is a reference that I think might date, if I can I’ll try to make it clear by context which a lot of people don’t do. But I just hope that the books will speak for themselves. They’re the best books I can make and I take a lot of pleasure and pride in writing them.

Q: What are some experiences that you treasure from your work in journalism?

V: Well, most of the case studies in Rising Up and Rising Down came about because I had a press card and a magazine was going to pay for those things. I’m doing the Noh book mostly on my own nickel and that gets expensive and there’s no way that I could have gone to Yemen and also tracked down the Opium King and also met the Yakuza and so on with my own resources, and even if I’d been independently wealthy, people would have been less interested in meeting me if I didn’t have the press card. So, I have to be grateful that I’ve seen as much as I have.


More of this interview is available on the Poets and Writers website