Ask the Author: Boria Sax
Answered Questions (7)
Boria Sax
Thank you very much for asking. One thing that is very important about crows is their relationship with human beings, which is more mutual and more equal than any other we have with another animal. Some animals, such as rats and pigeons, can profit from the environments that human beings create. Still others, such as dogs, can share affection with us. But crows are, so far as I can tell, the only other animal that seems to have an active curiosity about human beings. Just as we study them, crows are constantly studying us. They understand human body language as well as dogs and much better than chimpanzees. They can distinguish and remember individual human faces. Human beings are generally rather lonely animals, and in crows we have a full partner.
Boria Sax
Getting ideas is never a problem. I have an idea for a book just about every day, and the difficulty is to choose among them. Being inspired is not enough. Given the limitations imposed by time, energy and the literary market, I need to choose very carefully. But at times it is a suggestion or opportunity that makes the difference. My major publisher, Reaktion Books in Britain, recently asked me to write a cultural history of relationships between human beings and birds, and, after a little consideration, I accepted. It is a vast project, that promises to take years, and I do feel a little overwhelmed by it. But, with an overarching theme of such magnitude, perhaps I can work the smaller projects in.
Boria Sax
My writing has never been primarily for the market. I have always seen the world a bit differently from other people, something that is at once a blessing and a curse. My writing is, in large part, driven by alienation, that is by a desire to negotiate that difference. A sense of frustration often impells me to ask weighty questions about matters such as, for example, what it means to be human. When I do that persistently enough, writing will generally follow.
Boria Sax
I have recently finished Dinomania: Why We Love, Fear and are Utterly Fascinated by Dinosaurs, forthcoming from Reaktion Books in early October, 2018. When I finish a major project like that, there is an intense feeling of relief. "At last," I think, "my time is my own." But after a while I begin to get fidgety, and feel lack of purpose. That is not likely to happen again for a while. I have recently accepted a commission from Reaktion Books to write a cultural history of birds and their relations with human beings. It is to be about 90,000 words long, with around 200 illustrations, though I will have several years to complete it. The project is exciting, but pretty daunting as well. I hope that I can do the topic at least a bit of justice.
Boria Sax
In the end, there is only one legitimate reason for writing - because one loves to.
Boria Sax
One is always working on writing, but at times it is unconscious. Ideas need time to rise to the surface of awareness. They come when they are ready, not when we are. If the texts do not come immediately, don't worry. Just give them time.
Boria Sax
We all have a profound need for solitude, yet there is very little place for it in contemporary life. So many tasks, expectations and opportunities are constantly clamoring for attention. Furthermore, Puritanical traditions make the time spent in solitude seem self-indulgent. But, as a writer, you have a good excuse for walking through the woods or simply brainstorming with a notebook. You are even allowed be distracted or idiosyncratic, because that is part of your vocation.
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