Q&A w/ Author Mary Roach

On Tuesday, I had the pleasure of chatting with Mary Roach, one of my absolute favorite writers. You might know her from essay books, Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife, and Bonk: the Curious Coupling of Humans & Sex. Her latest book, Packing for Mars: the Curious Science of Life in the Void, came out in August of 2010 from W. W. Norton.

I just barely avoided turning into a fanboy and #squeeing through out the entire phone call. Read on. She talks about her latest book, how she gets into her subjects, what she loves about Philadelphia, and dishes out advice for budding essay writers. And be sure to catch Mary at the First Person Arts: Philly vs. Boston Storyslam (April 15th) and at the Franklin Institute this Saturday (April 16th).

Oh! And her wonderful publicist (what up Whitney!) was kind enough to drop off a copy of Packing for Mars. Leave a comment about what planet you’d travel to and why, for a chance to win a copy. I’ll email the winner sometime next week.

So Mary! Tell me a little bit about your latest book, Packing for Mars.

Packing for Mars is a book about the very surreal and entertaining challenges of keeping human beings alive and happy in space… which is a place they really aren’t suited for. There’s nothing up there that can keep them happy and thriving.

All these peculiar things happen to the body in zero gravity, and all the things that go on up there are done down here in simulations. They can simulate moon dust (there’s a company that does it and I like to hand out little packets), you can lay down for three days straight to simulate zero gravity, etc. It’s really an exploration of all the things that happen to human body in space, since space is so foreign and hostile.

In Stiff, Spook, and Bonk, you were able to actively engage in a lot of your research first hand. Mars is about space! How did you get into this subject?

Well that’s partly why I was so interested in the simulations. It allowed me to sort of go into space without leaving Earth. There’s even a simulated Mars mission going on over in Moscow, and I got to check it out. I was out on Devon Island where NASA was doing an early logistics rehearsal with simulated space suits and a hum-vee, and figuring out how a two rover six day expedition would work. What happens when you lose radio contact? Parts of the arctic look like the moon, parts look like Mars. I was able to immerse myself in it without actually going there.

And speaking of subjects, how do you choose yours?

It’s more a massive process of elimination. Most things won’t really work, partly because I like to immerse myself in the topic. Something completely abstract, like physics or genetics, would be tough. Mathematics, etc. That kind of subject, even something like drugs… well that’s sort of in your own mind. It’s kind of hard to put it on the page, so people could be there with you. It has to fit that qualification, something I can have some fun with. Roachy. Roachable, if you know what I mean.

It doesn’t HAVE to be science. But I enjoy explaining science it to the general public. It’s actually hard for me to find things that fit all those qualifies. I’m always looking for ideas. Do you have any ideas? Send me ideas!

So you’re headed to Philadelphia this weekend for the Science Festival and a First Person Arts event. What are some of your favorite Philly cultural institutions?

Oh I will be at the Mutter Museum on Thursday doing research for the new book (there’s a tantalizing hint for you), I love that museum. I did a talk there once on one of my book tours. The Mutter is fantastic. I’m a big fan of the old style natural history museum. You know the kind, where they have the taxidermy specimens. There’s nothing wrong with modern museums, but I just love the old style.

Any time I’m traveling I go straight to the natural history museum. The Mozambique Museum had animals fighting, blood dripping everywhere, etc… I don’t know WHO had that vision, but it was gross and violent. In Dublin, their museum had a display case full of Irish leeches. That kind of thing just sends me, I love that kind of stuff.

Atlas Obscura, that site is great. It’s a good resource for finding those kinds of places. Moscow has a lot of obscure museums too, a museum of street lighting. The California Academy museum has a basement of fish, bearded sea dragons that mimic seaweed… just amazing, weird creatures.

Philadelphia has a pretty bright literary scene. What advice can you give budding essay writers?

Just read other peoples essays and learn from them. This isn’t to say you should imitate them. There’s just so much to be learned just from reading. I was reading not too long ago from Anne Fadiman’s At Large and At Small, traditional recorded essays. Not first person opinion. It’s first person and reporting about the natural world. Just reading her essays was an education.

Another author, Jill Sisson Quinn, wrote this amazing personal essay about the natural world. All about how the natural world and her belief in the afterlife shifted. Sounds sort of woo woo, but yeah, it’s an amazing essay rooted in fact. Personal, beautifully crafted.

I didn’t go to school for writing, I tried to get into a writing class at Wesley but didn’t get in. Reading other peoples essays, you just adsorb so much from them. It’s not like its laid out, but you just get an intuitive sense. I see what she’s doing, this is why this works, etc.

Reading widely, the work of good essayists. There’s some amazing ones out there. To read one or two of their works… to read one or two of their works is, to me, a classroom.

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You can learn more about Mary Roach at her official website. I also recommend following her on Twitter.