Fascinating Look at Language Use in a Powers Interview

Wow--this blogger (Language Log) listened to the Studio360 interview (see yesterday's posts) and deconstructed it to place where Powers uses falls or rises within the context of his speech patterns and the context of the substance of what he is saying. Fascinating--not sure I'd want to be examined at quite that level of detail, myself.

Studio360.org Clip of Powers Reading from Generosity

To go with their interview with Powers, the folks at Studio360.org have also posted a clip of Powers reading from Generosity. See below:

Interview with Powers on Studio360

From the Studio360 website:

For years Richard Powers has based his novels on challenging ideas and controversies from modern science. His latest is Generosity: An Enhancement -- Powers tells Kurt how he came to the story of an inexplicably happy young woman and the genetic engineer who wants her secret.

Powers Story in Black Clock 11

"Over the Limited," a Powers story "freely adapted" from Generosity, appears in the forthcoming issue of Black Clock, Number 11.

Peter D. Kramer Has More To Say

Hmmm. After writing a review of Generosity in Slate, in which he takes Powers to task for allegedly basing his novel on faulty science, Peter D. Kramer now weighs in with a semi-apologetic partial recanting of his position in a column in Psychology Today.

Powers's Granta Story Now Online

An essay by Powers, "Soaked," is included in the current issue of Granta (#108), which features everything Chicago.

Wall Street Journal Interview with Powers

This interview centers on Generosity.

From the intro:

As novelists go, Richard Powers may be uniquely qualified to write about the budding genomics industry. In 1991, he wrote "The Gold Bug Variations," a novel about scientists who discovered the chemical structure of DNA. In 2008, he became one of the first nine people in the world to have his entire genome sequenced —a process that involves mapping out and analyzing some six billion DNA nucleotides. The experiment showed, among other things, that Mr. Powers, 52 years old, shares genetic traits with the Yoruba population of Ibadan, Nigeria, and that his 11th chromosome carries a longer version of the DRD4 gene, which predisposes him to seeking out new experiences.