Written Interview: Errol Morris interviews Stephen King
Via the NYT:
In the Nov. 13 issue of the Book Review, the documentarian Errol Morris reviews Stephen King’s new novel, “11/22/63.” The book, like the film Morris is currently completing, is about the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Because of their overlapping interests, and because Mr. Morris’s technique as a filmmaker is to chase down every clue, he requested an interview with Mr. King after finishing his review. The resulting Q. and A. is below, with Mr. Morris’s introduction. — The Editors
An excerpt:
Q. Your protagonist is sort of guilt-tripped into the past. He wasn’t even alive when Kennedy was shot. But he has nothing to lose; his life is a shambles.
A. Well, it’s true that he doesn’t have much of a life in 2011. He goes back into the past and finds a life, which is probably another kind of romantic, sentimental idea, but I like it. I like the idea that he finds somewhere that he would like to stay, and I like it at the end he realizes that he cannot. If he learns anything, he learns that you have to leave things alone. Things are better left the way that they are.
Q. Do you think that’s true?
A.No, I don’t think it’s true for us, because we can’t see the future. We don’t know the influence that our actions have. It’s something that’s unique to the time-traveler’s story; he’s screwing with the cogs and wheels of the universe. But for most of us, we go along and we do the best that we can and we try not to hurt other people. Most of us do, anyway. I guess there are always, you know, the Ted Bundys of the world. If you could go back and stop Hitler or something like that, you would, wouldn’t you?
Q. Would I stop Hitler? Yes.
A. Yes, sure you would.
Q. My mother’s dead, but I think my mother would be proud of me.
A. But, of course, she wouldn’t know who Hitler was. Because he would have been totally whisked off the stage. This book is, in a way, like a photo negative of my novel “The Dead Zone.” In that book, Johnny Smith is the guy in the high place with the rifle who feels like he’s seen the future. He’s seen this guy, Greg Stillson, and he sees what he’s going to do when he becomes president, because he has this precognitive talent. And he feels like he has to kill him. At the last moment, fate intervenes. I got really uncomfortable with the idea of saying, “Well, under certain circumstances, assassination is a good thing.” And this book is a chance to do it the other way and to take the assassination back.
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