A Conversation with Nina Schuyler, by Swetha Amit
What was the inspiration for Afterword? How did the idea initially come about?
Inspiration doesn't come from a singular moment. It can come from many things. For me, the list is long. I wanted to interject the messiness of this creativity. Much of it is my exposure, thinking about death, what makes it human, and what if we don't die. I am always thinking and reading widely, staying open to ideas. I started paying attention to AI in 2017. I became curious about what is going to become of this technology. Living in the Bay Area gave me access to people working in technology. I have a background in reporting, so it was easy for me to meet and interview these people. I talked to people from this industry and learned more.
How long did it take you to write Afterword? Tell me more about the research process.
I read an excellent book called Artificial Intelligence by Jerry Kaplan. I read that earlier on to get the fundamentals down. I constantly kept reading newspaper articles, blogs, and the news. Everything started with Alan Turing in the 1950s when he gave us the Turing test. When will a computer be [so much] like a human that we mistake a computer for a human? My curiosity fueled this research process, which started in 2017-2018. But life intervened since I also teach, so I took some time with it.
The novel alternates between third person close and first person from the perspective of Virginia. How did you make this choice to alternate points of view?
It goes back to what I believe is the longevity of a writer: try[ing] something new that you haven't tried before. I wrote my previous two novels using close third, and I have never tried anything in the first person. I wanted to bring the intimacy of the human being on the page. It's also blended with epistolary form, and there is some voyeurism. As a reader, I like it when the author invites me to a private place. That was my thinking behind it. So much of it was intuitive.
How did you find the voice of your character Haru, who is an AI instead of a human character?
I was teaching a class about heteroglossia. It's a term by Mikhail Bakhtin that emphasizes that fiction, especially novels, can employ different speech sounds. I needed to make Haru's diction different from my other main character, Virginia. I wanted to expand and create variability for him and make him sound more human. I wanted to contrast Ishiguro, who flattens the language often for his characters in Klara and the Sun. I wanted to show Virginia had a different sound and invite a fuller depiction of technology that humanizes it.
"Language is what makes us human." is a pertinent line in your book. Do you feel human communication and interaction have reduced with the advent of technology and increased loneliness? Do you see AI as a boon or bane?
The answer is yes and no. With large language models, it [AI] is now becoming better every month. It feels like you are talking to a human. Recently, the U.S. Surgeon General just reported an epidemic of loneliness. Japan and the U.K. have appointed ministers of loneliness to address this problem. The technology Replica, for example, provides the feeling of a best friend who can listen to humans sharing their stories. Recently, somebody discovered that replicas could be sexual companions and role-play with you at a sexual level. While it is a support group, I won't advocate AI companions to humans. On the other side of the coin, online conversations move to extremes and decisiveness. Humanity and patience get subtracted during online exchanges and tend to become polarized.
Your book has a delicate balance that brings out human emotions and talks about AI. It's a blend of suspense, love, and science fiction. How did you manage this balance? Did you consciously plan that out while penning down this book?
The book's heart, for me, was always a love story. I always kept track of it. One of my main characters, Virginia, has a memory of this man embedded in her to a large extent. There is this delusion that we know everything about each other. I wanted to tackle that aspect. I didn't intend for it to be science fiction. One of my M.F.A. professors always talked about taking out the genres and bringing back the character in them. Those words are embedded in me. This novel was an exercise in writing to discover what was unfolding on the page. I didn't think a play would be in the middle, but a play appeared. Every writer needs to find a private space that let the messy, chaotic creativity unfold. This place is to explode and transgress out of what is expected and break all those proper habits in writing. Russians have a name for this, “Vnye,” which is being within a context while remaining oblivious to it.
What do you want readers to take away from this book?
Whatever the reader is searching for, whether it's an experience, escape, a dream, or a fantasy. The premise of this is that what if you can continue a conversation with your loved ones. What if there was no finite death? Are we still human if we can transcend those boundaries of death? What will our relationship with machines be? It's an AI age, and we are living in it. It is the time to be thoughtful and think about such things.
Who are the authors/books that have influenced your writing process?
There are so many. I admire Virginia Woolf for her syntax and rhythm; James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, William Faulkner, and James Salter for eloquence and compression; Elena Ferrante for her honesty and bluntness; Shruti Swamy for her imagery; and poets Jude Nutter and Elizabeth Bishop. I read more poetry and cultivated this practice of memorizing poems.
Are any more books in the pipeline?
I have just finished a novel's first draft, and it’s in a private space now. I have an ending in mind, and I am waiting to get back to it.
Favorite childhood memory?
I had an imaginative experience of death when I was five or six. I am unsure what the trigger was, but I realized I came from nothing and will eventually return to nothing. I think it was a profound moment.
Any strange writing habits?
I always have a notebook and jot down what I see, hear, or think of something. I usually do this when picking up my boys or at a dentist appointment.
What is the strangest place you have visited?
We are living in a great space right now. There is much upheaval, and everything will turn out differently. I am reading everything I can about Chat GPT and am at the cusp of this upheaval.
