The sleepy narration and somehow campy intro distract only slightly from Stanley Wiater's intriguing interview with author Harlan Ellison. In this first chapter, Wiater and Ellison discuss the increasing stupidity and ignorance of the general public.
What's great about this interview is that Ellison weaves the entire human experience into that of the writer. We are obligated to be educated, to be inquisitive and question what we're being told. Writing is a craft, part of a discipline that allows the artist to funnel his experiences, his outrage, his passion and that sense of wonder that connects with a reader in a unique and profound way.
It is not enough that the writer regurgitate his or her own fantasies or wants onto a page in the hope that someone will just consume it like so much fast food. A writer MUST create something that transfers all of those ingredients to the reader and, though the crafted story, connect and change that reader in one way or another.
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