{"id":25201,"date":"2018-08-24T07:40:28","date_gmt":"2018-08-24T11:40:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/?p=25201"},"modified":"2018-08-24T07:40:28","modified_gmt":"2018-08-24T11:40:28","slug":"dive-into-vietnamese-seafood-noodle-soup-with-rachel-pollack-in-episode-75-of-eating-the-fantastic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/2018\/08\/24\/dive-into-vietnamese-seafood-noodle-soup-with-rachel-pollack-in-episode-75-of-eating-the-fantastic\/","title":{"rendered":"Dive into Vietnamese Seafood Noodle Soup with Rachel Pollack in Episode 75 of Eating the Fantastic"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s time for the second of three episodes recorded during my recent trip to Quincy, Massachusetts for Readercon<\/a>, following up on last episode\u2019s lunch with horror writer John Langan<\/a>, and preceding next episode\u2019s dinner with comic book writer and old Marvel Bullpen pal Don McGregor. This episode, you\u2019ll get to sit at the table with the award-winning writer Rachel Pollack.<\/p>\n

We had lunch on the final day of Readercon at Pho Pasteur<\/a>. This Quincy restaurant is a 2017 spin-off of the original Boston Vietnamese venue which has been open since 1991, and since that cuisine is one of her favorites, I thought we should give that venue a try.<\/p>\n

Rachel Pollack<\/a> is someone I’ve been connected to for a third of a century, even since I ran her story “Lands of Stone” in a 1984 issue of Last Wave<\/em>, a small press magazine I edited and published. But she’s gone on to do so much more since then! <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Her novel Unquenchable Fire<\/em> won the 1989 Arthur C. Clarke Award, and her novel Godmother Night<\/em> won the 1997 World Fantasy Award. Her other novels include Temporary Agency<\/em>, which was a 1994 Nebula Award nominee. Her comic book writing includes an acclaimed run on Doom Patrol<\/em>, as well as New Gods<\/em> and Brother Power the Geek<\/em>. She is also an expert on the Tarot and has published many books on the subject, including a guide to Salvador Dali’s Tarot deck. Her comics and Tarot loves blended when she created the Vertigo Tarot Deck with writer Neil Gaiman and artist Dave McKean. <\/p>\n

We discussed why Ursula K. Le Guin was such an inspiration, the reason celebrating young writers over older ones can skew sexist, what Tarot cards and comic books have in common, how 2001: A Space Odyssey<\/em> isn’t a science fiction movie but an occult movie, why Captain Marvel was her favorite comic as a kid (Shazam!), the serendipitous encounter which led to her writing Doom Patrol<\/em>, how she used DC’s Tomahawk<\/em> to comment on old Western racial stereotypes, the problems that killed her Buffy the Vampire Slayer<\/em> Tarot deck, how she intends to bring back her shaman-for-hire character Jack Shade, and much more.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how you can rip into those chicken wings with us—<\/p>\n

1) Subscribe over at the iTunes store<\/a>, where you’ll also be able to peruse all 74 previous episodes.<\/p>\n

2) Listen to the episode via the RSS feed of http:\/\/eatingthefantastic.libsyn.com\/rss<\/a> on any device of your choosing.<\/p>\n

3) Or simple listen using the embed below.<\/p>\n