SunLit: How has your relationship with technology influenced the science in “Conscious Designs ” ? I like to write alone, in a dark room, with no stimuli (except coffee). White: I usually write early in the morning, before my mind is filled with traffic of the day’s thoughts and responsibilities. SunLit: Walk us through your writing process: Where and how do you write? SunLit: In a highly politicized atmosphere where books, and people’s access to them, has become increasingly contentious, what would you add to the conversation about books, libraries and generally the availability of literature in the public sphere? White: I hope that the book encourages its readers to stay human, to resist technologies of escape in favor of finding fulfillment in each other rather than machines. SunLit: If you could pick just one thing – a theme, lesson, emotion or realization - that readers would take from this book, what would that be? I feel so fortunate that Miami University Press chose “Conscious Designs” as the winner of their 2022 novella prize, but I was a bit terrified about how the book would be received as it is not only my first book, but a work that is personal and meaningful for me. White: One of the hardest things to do was to put this book out into the world. SunLit: What were the biggest challenges you faced in writing this book? I felt as if I needed to explain every little detail and all the technical workings of the near future I had created, instead of letting the readers fill in gaps for themselves. One of the main pieces of feedback I received was to trust my reader a bit more. In terms of craft, I was lucky to have a great editing team at Miami University Press who helped mold the book to what it is now. SunLit present new excerpts from some of the best Colorado authors that not only spin engaging narratives but also illuminate who we are as a community. I realized that I don’t want to be like Eugene, with all his feelings of inadequacy, unable to move beyond a negative self-model. White: In some ways, this book became a cautionary tale to myself, warning me of the dangers of becoming consumed by disability and my feelings of self-doubt. SunLit: Are there lessons you take away from each experience of writing a book? And if so, what did the process of writing this book add to your knowledge and understanding of your craft and/or the subject matter? I just created the world and dropped my main character in it to see what he would do, how he would react, what decisions he would make. When I set down to write the book, I didn’t have much of a plot outlined. There was some catharsis in heaping my pain onto the main character Eugene. White: The book, as I mentioned before, was a way of coping with the pain and trauma of my own spinal cord injury. What influences and/or experiences informed the project before you sat down to write? And once you did begin to write, did the work take you in any unexpected directions?
SunLit: Tell us about creating this book. I really enjoy this part of the book because it begins to explore some philosophical questions that I think about a lot: What is selfhood? What would it mean to be human if we could copy our minds? Would a simulated universe be any less real than a physical one? Are we already living in a simulation? Nate White wrote a character as proxy to face pain from disability CloseĮach week, The Colorado Sun and Colorado Humanities & Center For The Book feature an excerpt from a Colorado book and an interview with the author.
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