Jonathan Carroll interview

Singularity.net has published the first in series of interviews, this one with Jonathan Carroll:

JC: When you're working in the fantastic it's as if you're boxing with the gloves off. There are no rules so anything goes. You want God to appear eating an ice cream cone? Fine. You want a woman to give birth to Hitler#2? Fine. When there are no rules there is certainly more chaos and it can be a lot harder work for the reader, but there's also a lot more room to move and maneuver. You can talk about things on the page that you couldn't in more "stable" fiction" because of that anything-goes element. When you read ["Corrections" author Jonathan] Franzen, you're going to a Chinese restaurant. You get what you expect and the only surprise is if the food there, invariably Chinese cuisine, is wonderfully prepared. When you go to my restaurant you have no idea what the food is going to be or if it will be well prepared. There's an element of doubt that isn't in the Franzen restaurant, maybe even dismay, but there's potential for wonder and all out delight that cancels out the other negative stuff if you like this "anything goes" sort of place.