Ground Zero
by morgan on Feb.04, 2010, under F. Paul Wilson
Paul, in your latest “adult” Repairman Jack novel, you tackle a topic that couldn’t have been easy. Jack is tangled up in a mystery involving 9/11 conspiracies, an alternative history regarding the collapse of the Twin Towers and Osama bin Laden.
Was tackling these topics a difficult choice? What was at the root of the decision to take the story in this direction? Were you happy with how it turned out?
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- Welcome our next guest… Our next guest is F. Paul Wilson, author of the Repairman Jack novels. His latest, especially for young adult readers, is a Young Repairman Jack novel called Secret Circles. His latest book in the adult cycle is Ground Zero. Please join me in welcoming him to Babel Clash and please...
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The first novel in the brilliant new Newsflesh trilogy--about an America shattered by a terrible pandemic, and a race for the White House that no one may survive.
February 4th, 2010 on 2:58 pm
GROUND ZERO is a Repairman Jack novel and Jack tends to take few prisoners. I upset a lot of Scientologists with CRISSCROSS, and heard from a lot of angry ufologists who thought I made fun of them in CONSPIRACIES. The fact is, some novels are omelets and require the breaking of eggs.
I didn’t want to break any eggs in regard to 9/11. Even after all these years, an enormous storm of emotion still swirls about that event, and rightly so — people lost thousands of friends, relatives, and loved ones that day. I respect that. I would not in any way diminish or denigrate their losses. People told me not to go there. But 9/11 is part of our history. I’ve written about Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima. Why can’t 9/11 serve as the linchpin of a novel?
Much of my fiction plugs into an uber-conspiracy theory I’ve developed over the years called the Secret History of the World. When I realized that a tale about the secret history of 9/11 would fit right in, the book began writing itself.
I don’t think anyone who approaches Ground Zero with an open mind will be offended. Closed minds are another story. The novel was published mid-September last year (I swear it’s pure coincidence that the street date was only a few days after the anniversary) but before it hit the shelves, people — 9/11 Truthers among them — were incensed that I dared to meddle with the backstory. They hadn’t read the novel, only heard about it, but somehow they were offended. I love email, pro or con, from readers, but the operative word there is =reader=. Read the book, then we’ll talk.
February 4th, 2010 on 3:33 pm
I read the book and enjoyed it tremendously! People who judge without knowledge are hurting themselves most of all.
February 4th, 2010 on 4:14 pm
Stumbling into a 9/11 Truther website was the spark. Conspiracy theories have always fascinated me—how they’re triggered and how they take on a life of their own. Theories involving Pearl Harbor, UFOs, satanic ritual abuse, New World Order, etc. all have their faithful adherents. It was only natural that a mind-numbing shocker like the attack on the Trade Towers would generate its own mythology. The way the towers collapsed like a controlled demotion added high-octane fuel to the fire that became the 9/11 Truth Movement.
Perusing the Truther scenarios unveiled all sorts of mysterious and fascinating events leading up to that day. Did you know that just a week before the attacks the Chicago Options Exchange saw huge spikes in puts on American and United—the airlines used by the hijackers? A few people seemed to know that their stocks would tumble and were trying to cash in. I wove a lot of tasty bits like that into GROUND ZERO.
February 4th, 2010 on 4:51 pm
I have to admit, I purchased this book with some trepidation. “It’s too soon,” I thought. “He can’t go there!”
Fortunately, he didn’t go there. If this book is any indication, F. Paul Wilson has very strong feelings towards the events of 9/11. Like most Americans, he is enraged at the senseless violence perpetrated on innocent victims. His own story isn’t really about the terrorists, but just connects at a high level to weave it into his existing stories.
I would question the wisdom of marketing the book by associating it with the twin towers, but some believe any PR is good PR. There’s nothing objectionable between the covers, but if the cover gets you to talk about the book, so much the better.
February 4th, 2010 on 9:56 pm
As I’ve mentioned before, I have a technique for story generation: I take something hackneyed and turn it upside down and inside out. For instance, in THE KEEP, I took the old vampire bit of pretending to be a normal human to hide its true parasitic self, and then I pushed it another step: What if what you think is a vampire is only pretending to be one because it’s really something so much worse that you’d feel more comfortable with a vampire?
I did the same with the 9/11 conspiracy theories—which, depending on what variation you choose, point to Big Oil, Wall Street, Dick Cheney, or the New World Order as the string pullers behind the attacks. I pushed them a step further: An organization bigger, older, and more evil than anything you can imagine was the real instigator, and they’ve planted false clues and bogus evidence to keep investigators and conspiracy theorists looking in every direction but the right one.
March 1st, 2010 on 12:31 pm
For me, what makes reading F. Paul Wilson’s books my favorite down-time activity, is that they ALWAYS make you think outside the box. Whether you agree, figured it out ahead of time(not likely) or are completely insulted (not likely either unless you are a complete sheeple), you will start thinking of other ways to think about what we think is going on, (or has happened, or will happen), and as a result maybe think of a different and better solution to problems. And Wilson related things keep happening in my life: I have not read Ground Zero yet. I had not even connected it to 9/11 in my mind. (now that I look closer at the cover I see it, however!). This past Saturday night I spent several hours watching the videos on a “9/11 Truther website”! Finding out the truth about how it happened would seem to me to enrich and validate the lives of those died and their families, AND help prevent from happening again… and again…..