As others don't see us

[shewhomust]

Radio 4's Today programme this morning was guest-edited by Sir Paul Nurse, President of the Royal Society. He introduced one item by saying "I imagine many out there are opening their Christmas books, their new novels; but I suspect they won't find many books that touch on science or scientists - "

Wait, what?

" - and you're one of the few authors who doesn't seem frightened to do that." What follows is an interview with Ian McEwan (who observes, among other things, that some readers glaze over mentally when confronted with sauch technical terminology as 'percentage'). (There's a soundclip on this page, though I don't know how long for, or how internationally available).

Perhaps Sir Paul is an Ian McEwan fan, making an excuse to chat to a favourite author; we all have our fanboy moments, after all. But if he actually wanted to know why so few of his Christmas presents were books with science in them, he is talking to the wrong Iain. Or he could just have visited a bookshop and looked for the words 'science' and 'fiction'.

I'll say this for the Today programme, it gets me out of bed in the morning.

Comments

[calico-pye.livejournal.com]

I used to listen to the Today programme for years - interesting that they chose McEwan. Tried to listen to iPlayer, but to no avail :-/

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

I got the impression McEwan was regarded as writing literature with science in it; I don't read him, sp wouldn't know.

Sorry the clip wouldn't work for you.