Transcription
Story Behind the Story: An Interview with Novelist Cassandra Clare (1:04-4:50)
Holly Black: So speaking about structure, one of the things I’ve heard you talking about before is: how much you like to set up love triangles, and why you like them, and I was wondering if you would talk a little bit about that. I knew we’ve had this conversation many times, and I always enjoy hearing your take here.
Cassandra Clare: I know that not everybody loves love triangles as much as I do but I truly do. I mean (pointing at Holly) she doesn’t like them. Um, for me, love triangles are fabulous themes for character development because usually at a love triangle if you do it right, the two points of the love triangles you will have two choices that you can make. Um, represent choosing different kinds of life for yourself. So really in, for instances, in the Mortal Instruments, Clary chooses between Jace and Simon. And Jace represents the magical world, the shadow world, as well as demon hunters that she has only just encountered. It’s very dangerous but also exciting. Simon represents the normal world, having a normal real life, having a family and children, having the kind of life she always thought she was gonna have. So choosing between these two boys is also about choosing what kind of life she wants to have for herself. For me, love triangles when they are fun, when they are done right, they teach you these things about the characters.
HB: In the Mortal Instruments, you had a lot of characters and you had Clary. You had Jace. You had Simon. You had sort of your main characters, but a lot of people came on and off the scene throughout the series. Are there any characters you wish you had a little bit more time with?
CC: Okay, um, I will say a character who really only appears in the third book, although his appearance is sort of foreshadowed in the earlier books. His name is Sebastian. He’s on the cover of the third book, which you can see over there. Many people have asked me if that’s Simon or if that’s Alec. It’s neither of them. It’s Sebastian. This is the first book in which he made his appearance, but my cover designer felt that his appearance was spectacular enough and he won the cover. He is also a shadow hunter. He comes from Idris, which is the shadow hunter’s home country, and um he is someone that Clary meets when she travels there, who helps her with her quest to find something that will save her mother and, since I only got to write about him in this third book, I kind of was sad that I didn’t get to spend a little bit more time with him because he’s a lot of fun. For me, he’s different from the other characters.
HB: Alright, the final question for you and this is asked with complete sincerity. Is it true you collect the tears of your readers? And if this is true I wanna know what is it that you are planning on to do with them.
CC: They keep me young, I’m actually seventy-five years old. (Laughs) I just have to sprinkle them on me every morning.
HB: And how did you collect them I was wondering...
CC: They emailed them to me, in attachments. I don’t enjoy the pain of readers, even though at many times get many emails from readers, they’re like “why are you torturing us with this, uh, you know, romance of Clary and Jace, with these other unanswered questions? Why won’t you, you know, tell me, tell me the ending?” Um, I never tell the ending I do believe that the best way to experience the resolution of a plotline or question is to read it. It’s not as much fun if somebody just tells you what happens. Um, I don’t enjoy the suffering of my readers, but I have always been a reader who, you know, reads books and get extremely invested in them and suffers when bad things happen to the characters, but I feel that that also compounds my enjoyment when the book is resolved in a satisfactory way. Without the pain, you don’t get that happiness. (laughs) and so I hope when people finish “City of Glass” they will feel that their suffering is worth it. If not, you can mail all your letters of complaint to Holly and she’ll pass them on to me.
HB: So remember, you can turn to the last page first.
Judith Rumelt (born July 27, 1973), better known by her pen name Cassandra Clare, is an American author of young adult fiction, most known for her New York Times bestselling series The Mortal Instruments. The first installment of The Mortal Instruments, City of Bones, is scheduled to hit theaters in August 2013. Following in the blockbuster footsteps of Twilight and The Hunger Games, City of Bones is said to be on its way to becoming the next big teen-book-turned-movie sensation. 