In Conversation with speculative technology novelist Brian Van Norman

You have entered a room softly lit, the walls lined with deep rich mahogany shelves filled with wonderful journeys and adventures yet to be experienced. Just inside the doorway you stop to delight in the intoxicating woody, earthy, smoky aroma of old books.

Crossing the threshold a low murmur of amiable voices gently greets your ears and immediately you sense you are among friends. Noticing there are still a few empty seats you sink down into the arms of a luxuriously padded wing back chair savoring the smoky, musky scent and comforting feel of its buttery soft leather as all your cares drift away.

A hush falls over the room as a well modulated baritone voice begins, “Welcome to the Reading Room, my friends. We’re glad you could join our conversation.

Please join me in welcoming Brian Van Norman, author of The Betrayal Path, Immortal Water, Against the Machine: Luddites and the recently released novel Against the Machine: Manifesto to be released October 1st with Guernica Editions.

James: How has life been different for you over the past 18 months, my friend?

Brian: Strange and stranger. I guess everyone will say that. For the first time in eight years Susan and I stayed home for the winter. I found I enjoyed our home far more than I expected. The lock downs also gave me plenty of chance to write.

James: Yes, Chris and I were snowbirds for a number of years but are now quite content to hibernate until this old world finds a new sense of normalcy.

What has been your greatest adventure?

Brian: Really, just living! There is so much in every day. I often reflect on different places, people, events and friends, I find I’m still learning every day too. I think the most successful adventure is the ability to be truly living in the present and accepting each event as it comes, opening up the senses and really exploring even the smallest of events.

James: A very life affirming philosophy, my friend.

What do you most value in a friend?

Brian: The ability to share intimacies is something I value most, along with the trust that goes with it.

James: Where do you draw your greatest writing ideas from?

Brian: Ideas can come from anywhere. When I was writing historical fiction I found many ideas from what I call ‘holes in history’: creating characters and conflicts where no explanation is offered. This is best served by using an example. I wrote “Immortal Water” because the entire ship’s log of Juan Ponce de Leon’s second voyage to Florida was lost. It gave me the opportunity to create that voyage in fiction. Again, though, I’m a curious person and I tend to explore new experiences as fully as I can and often times, something gels.

James: That is a fascinating and singularly extraordinary concept, Brian.

What part of your writing process do you find the most difficult?

Brian: All of those things around writing: sales, promotions, reviews and interviews. I am a somewhat introverted character so public appearances always concern me. There are, however, certain people who somehow put me at ease, like you in this interview. Perhaps the other element which I find difficult to deal with is the ideas which come at the most inopportune times… just before falling asleep or even after that, when dreams awaken me and I write down ideas in a small, blank book I keep by my bedside. I often find the next morning that I either can’t read, or can’t make sense of what was so clear in my mind.

James: I can empathize as I am ill at ease in social encounters, and in fact, tend to avoid public social interaction preferring to communicate through writing.

Which book, Against the Machine: Luddites or Against the Machine: Manifesto did you have the hardest time writing and why?

Brian: I believe “Manifesto” was most difficult. The research regarding the science of computing took me to places I’d never thought I would find myself. Then, “Manifesto” emerged from my imagination and every so often one or more of the characters would take me off on some surprising turns; some of which remain in the novel, many others were edited out.

James: I can appreciate that, Brian, as I am technologically illiterate.

Which of the characters in Against the Machine: Manifesto do you most relate to and why?

Brian: I’d say because of my age I related most to the protagonist, Mel Buckworth. His humiliation of his character and beliefs I could easily feel as I too feel I’m falling behind both culturally and technologically. I tend to be able to adapt to circumstances where Mel does not, but I do have that side to me. I also found I related to Dani Buckworth because of her courage in the face of adversity. I based her character on two young women I’ve known for years.

James: Your characters are meticulously drawn, strong and well developed. I found myself empathizing with their profound moral dilemma in pursuit of freedom, justice and basic human rights.

I understand you are planning a third book in the trilogy; can you share a little bit about your plans for it?

Brian: I’ve begun the third of the trilogy “Against the Machine…” with the working title “Evolution”. As you know, Luddites and Manifesto feature the human/machine interface from different time periods and using different writing styles in keeping with my thematic concept. Luddites was set in 1812, Yorkshire, England while Manifesto was set near the present, in 2012, Waterloo Region, Canada. This novel then, the final of the three, will be speculative fiction set in 2212 in a place called Toronto MEG.

James: I read mostly science fiction as a teenager and found George Orwell’s dystopian social science fiction novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four” commonly referred to as simply, “1984” scintillating. I look forward to your next instalment of the Against the Machine trilogy with great anticipation.

What perspectives or beliefs have challenged you the most in writing these first two books of your Against the Machine trilogy?

Brian: Well, it’s the actual theme of the trilogy. Before I wrote on the human/machine interface I was a bit of a Neo-Luddite in my beliefs. Have researched both time periods fairly deeply I can say my opinions on machines overcoming humans leaving destruction in their wake as long passed away in my mind. I can see what happened to human societies in the two hundred years after 1812. Those with access to new technologies advanced both their cultures and their knowledge as they adapted to change and gained the expertise both to enjoy the new discoveries and even manipulate them.

James: To quote Robert Redford, “One of the things that will always be inevitable is change, full of both vague uncertainty and brilliant promise.”

What was it that inspired you to undertake such a momentous project?

Brian: I believe we are in the midst a new Renaissance matching the power and evolution of the original Renaissance. I think we are nearing the end of an Industrial Revolution and are witnessing the beginnings of a Technological one. I am sure we are on the cusp of significant social change along with climate, political, economical and psychological transformation. The very young people of today will be, I believe, the saviours or destroyers of our world by finding ways to adapt to technological innovation and live as comfortably with it as we do now with the benefits. I wanted to write about its sweep and potential future as it is just beginning. I have been fortunate to be a part of it. I still have my Fortran punch card from fifty years ago when I was a student at U of Waterloo.

James: Unlike the three industrial revolutions that came before (steam and water power, electricity and assembly lines, and computerization), this industrial revolution is unfolding within and around us, pushing beyond new forms of mechanization and challenging our ideas about what it means to be human.

One of the features of the 4th Industrial Revolution is that it isn’t changing what we are doing, but it is changing us” – Klaus Schwab, Founder of The World Economic Forum (WEF) and author of the book: “The 4th Industrial Revolution.”

Even as the world reels from a series of unprecedented shocks in the form of Covid-19, the lock-downs and the resultant social and economic crises, the WEF stepped into the vacuum and confusion to announce its ‘Great Reset’ initiative, the single most decisive, concrete and ambitious attempt by any organization to shape the contours of the post-lock-down world.

Thank you for sharing your far-reaching and astute insights with us, Brian. It has been very thought provoking and a great pleasure spending time with you, my friend.

I hope you will visit with us again after the launch of your final book in the “Against the Machine” trilogy.