Episode 607 – Christopher Brown

Virtual Memories Show

Virtual Memories Show 607:
Christopher Brown

“I wanted to combine the nature writing style I had been riffing on in my FIELD NOTES newsletter, with the potential for lyrical, descriptive translation of the richness of the world into language, and also provide an effective information delivery vehicle, like classic American non-fiction, and then telling a story in a way that a novel or a good memoir tells a story.”

With his phenomenal new book, A NATURAL HISTORY OF EMPTY LOTS: Field Notes from Urban Edgelands, Back Alleys and Other Wild Places (Timber Press), Christopher Brown shifts from novels into a new mode and I am HERE for it. We talk about the eco-cosmos of East Austin, TX, the years of observation that opened him to the hidden pockets of wildness in urban environments, why solitude in nature is a myth, what we have to gain from taking a long walk, Long Time vs. the short presence of Anglos in Texas, how 2020’s lockdown turned off global capitalism and showed how society might truly change, and how this book mutated from when we talked about it at Readercon 2023. We get into Bruce Sterling’s unforgettable critique of his writing, the process of turning a narrative of colonization into one of decolonization, (eco)psychogeography & the Situationists, why he (begrudgingly) brought the personal/memoiristic into the book and how it helped him come to terms with himself, and what a workshop with horror writers taught him about the truth-telling power of non-redemptive storytelling. We also discuss the design flaws of the agricultural revolution, how his readers in different regions respond to his FIELD NOTES newsletter, the nature of mysticism and writing a narrative about transcending the self, hiking a Massachusetts marsh in summer with Jeff VanderMeer, and plenty more. Give it a listen! And go read A NATURAL HISTORY OF EMPTY LOTS!

“Solitude in nature is a myth. What you find in nature is a much deeper connection with all this other life around you, a connection that precedes language and the alienation that’s embodied in language.”

“To me, the most dramatic lesson of COVID wasn’t how much of nature was out there, hiding in plain sight, but the possibility of change, the immediate, sudden change in how we live and work, the idea that global capitalism could be completely turned off for weeks at a time.”

“Preoccupation with planning for the future is tied up with that preoccupation with accumulating surplus to survive the season and all the unhealthy things that produces, even if that’s the killer app of our civilization.”

“The narrower the aperture, the more plausible the ambition.”

Enjoy the conversation! Then check out the archives for more great episodes!

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About our Guest

Christopher Brown is the Philip K. Dick, World Fantasy and John W. Campbell Award-nominated author of the novels Tropic of Kansas, Rule of Capture and Failed State. Also an accomplished lawyer, he has worked on two Supreme Court confirmation hearings, led the technology corporate practice of a major American law firm, and been the General Counsel of two public companies.

Follow Christopher on Bluesky, Instagram and Mastodon, and subscribe to his FIELD NOTES newsletter. (And go listen to our 2018, 2019, lockdown, 2020, and 2023 conversations.)

Credits: This episode’s music is Fella by Hal Mayforth, used with permission from the artist. The conversation was recorded remotely via Zencastr. I used a Heil PR-40 Dynamic Studio Recording Microphone feeding into a Zoom PodTrak P4. All processing and editing done in Adobe Audition CC. Photo of Christopher by Gina Grande. It’s on my instagram.