[escepticos] Más Connie Willis

[Adela <torresad@...>]

Transcribo, en inglés, algunos trozos de la entrevista que
hacen a Connie Willis en la página donde está el fragmento
de su libro. ¡Es de las nuestras! Sabía que lo era, pero no
hasta qué punto lo era. Al loro, porque no se corta un pelo.
Fijaos, fijaos:

*****
[...]
Q: Has there been any reaction yet from the spiritualists
and such that you poke fun at in the book?

A: Not yet. If the book captures general public attention,
that might be a problem. Bantam is trying very hard to
market this as a crossover or mainstream book so who knows
what the Mr. Mandrakes [a non-scientific researcher] of the
world will think. I started out the book by reading all the
near death experience (NDE) books and was appalled and angry
with them because I feel they prey on people's wishes and
their fears in a very callous way. I think the NDE
phenomenon has a great deal in common with the old
spiritualist movement -- the same idea of being in contact
with people from beyond the grave and scientific proof of
the afterlife. The spiritualists did the same thing, they
preyed on people who were very vulnerable because they were
grieving and sad and lonely and wanted to be in touch with
their loved ones. I think this does a real disservice to
them because death is just a huge and shattering experience,
whether you believe in the afterlife or not. To reduce it to
a touchy-feely, dumb, shallow, "everything-is-just-fine,
fuzzy-and-warm, big-hug," kind of thing is reprehensible.
It's a way of lying about death that in the end leaves
people more alone and more vulnerable than they were before.



Q: Are you tempted to become the Harry Houdini of the NDE
movement?

A: You know, if I were not a writer, I think that would be
my career. If I had any dexterity -- which I clearly don't
-- so that I could become a magician . . . I admire Houdini
and the Amazing Randi tremendously. There is so much of a
need for skepticism in the world. People will believe
anything! It just drives me crazy! James Randi has sort of
taken on Houdini's job now of debunking and he works very
hard. He is basically the debunker for Uri Geller --
although Johnny Carson also participated in that. I was so
proud of Johnny Carson. You can't fool an old magician.
Johnny Carson started out as a magician so when Uri Geller
was on the "Tonight Show" he just totally saw right through
Geller's tricks and announced it on the show. It was great!
People are so gullible. Then you add the intensity of them
wanting to believe -- [the afterlife] would be a very
pleasant thing to believe in -- so these people get away
with murder.

[...]

I'm also working on a UFO novel, a comedy set in Roswell.
Nobody has done a comedy about Roswell, in fact, all the
books about Roswell are very unfunny. It'll be set now, but
with an explanation of what happened in '47 and explanations
of all the UFO phenomenon. So I'm reading all that stuff
which is almost worse than reading the near-death stuff,
because people will believe anything! It's just so
irritating that they just don't use simple logic skills to
figure out that this is all a crock. My job is to be out
there debunking like crazy. Because nobody is! I was telling
my publisher what I really should do is a Whitley
Strieber-kind of thing, go out and say, "Oh yes, I was
abducted," and add a few details and everybody would just
fall over themselves! As opposed to when you say, "No, no,
no. There are no aliens in Roswell." No one will listen to
you. But somebody ought to do it. I'm not constitutionally
able to do the Whitley Strieber thing, so I will do the
other, the Harry Houdini thing. Harry still has his fans.
I'm a big fan.
*****

Morwen
--
Adela Torres
OSU, Corvallis, OR
USA
http://daurmith.blogspot.com