Emily St. John Mandel discusses how science shapes her fiction and new novel Exit Party
Summary
- Author Emily St. John Mandel spoke on the Unexplainable podcast with host Byrd Pinkerton about how she brings science into her fiction.
- Mandel, who has no formal science training, worked for years in a cancer research lab and was great with grant budgets.
- She used the simulation hypothesis to make time travel work in Sea of Tranquility, her first book with a hard science-fiction component.
- Her new novel Exit Party, about doppelgängers, uses the multiverse to explain where the doubles come from and presents two dark visions.
- Mandel says she aims for science that is plausible within the context of a literary novel and focuses on characters over technical mechanics.
Reactions
- Mandel said she puts scientific concepts at the heart of her books because they are so interesting.
- Mandel said the time-travel narrative falls apart instantly, and the simulation hypothesis was her solve in Sea of Tranquility.
- Mandel said both visions in Exit Party are fairly dark, but she finds hope in transience, the idea that nothing lasts forever.
- Mandel said she does not feel trapped by the science when borrowing scientific concepts, which may annoy some readers of sci-fi.
- Pinkerton said that even without clear answers, strange ideas can help people think deeply about themselves and their world.
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- How science informs author Emily St. John Mandel’s fiction
vox.com· 2d
A Vox article follows a Unexplainable podcast episode in which host Byrd Pinkerton talks with Station Eleven author Emily St. John Mandel about how she brings science into her fiction. Mandel, who has no formal science training but worked in a cancer research lab, says the simulation hypothesis made time travel work in Sea of Tranquility and that multiverses and doppelgängers shaped her new, deliberately dark novel Exit Party, where she finds hope in transience.
