66 newyork| november25–december8, 2019
allowed to go there. And the FBI investiga-
tion was curtailed. They were directed basi-
cally not to talk to certain people. So to me—
do you know what a stitch-up is, Molly?
No.
Something for you to look up. It’s an Eng-
lish term. It means you’ve been framed, or
that it’s been fixed. The fix was in. You know
that saying, The fix was in? Yes? Okay.
And the drinking should have been
looked into because it was—
The question is, did this person lie to Con-
gress? That was carefully tiptoed around. As
soon as somebody asked him about his
drinking, he had this explosion: “I like
beer.” That wasn’t the question. Were you
ever blackout drunk? So one theory is that
he was blackout drunk. So he may have
been telling the truth when hesaid he
couldn’t remember doing such a thing. It’s
very possible he couldn’t. But why? If you
read this interesting book called Talking to
Strangers by you-know-who—
Malcolm Gladwell.
Yes. He has a thing about excessive
drinking and what it actually does to the
brain. You can be walking aroundand not
remember a thing because, after a certain
amount of alcohol, your short-term mem-
ory retention kicks out, so you really cannot
remember what happened. If you’ve ever
known any blackout drunks, asI have,
that’s what they tell you.
Gladwell, in Talking to Strangers, is dis-
cussing the effect of alcohol in relation to
the Brock Turner case.
Yeah. In other words, you arenot the
person you think you were when you’re
sober. You’re a different person.
And two recollections of reality can be
both true and conflicting.
It’s the same with religious visions. It’s
true that that’s what you saw, but it doesn’t
necessarily mean that thing was there.
People that delve into psychedelic drugs
and consciousness-altering drugswill tell
you in great detail what they saw. It’s often
quite boring to you but not to them.
Have you ever experimented with a
consciousness-altering drug?
Of course. What do you takeme for,
Molly?
Care to share any epiphanies?
It was kind of boring, I’m sorry to say.
Maybe I had the wrong trip-taking partner,
who talked all the time about his relatives.
But I had some interesting experiences
with the carpet.
Was the carpet responsive?
No, it didn’t reply. But it was quite
three-dimensional.
In your novel Oryx and Crake, shortages
of meat have led to the invention of a
chickenlike substance called ChickieNobs.
Have you tried an Impossible Burger^8 —
the lab-grown beeflike substance?
Yes, I have. I thought they dida pretty
good job. I had them at a very nice wedding
reception, and they were passed around as
little sliders. I thought they were yummy.
A convincing simulacrum?
Well, I thought so, but I’m old.
That doesn’t have anything to do with it.
It might have. Maybe my taste buds are
fading away.
Has anything over the pastdecade
really shocked you?
I think surprise is different from shock.
Of course, there are always surprises. You
think, Who knew that?, or, Well, that
explained something. But How can any
human being do such a terrible thing? That
kind of shock? Not anymore.
So not drone warfare or kids incages?^9
Seen it before. Well, what do you mean
by shock? “This is appalling”? Yes, this is
appalling. “I am shocked because I never
could have imagined such a thing”? Not
that kind of shock. We’ve seen worse. We’ve
seen it on a mass scale. But what I don’t like
is the reprise. I don’t like it that it’s so much
like those other things. It ought to be better
than that. It ought to be living up to the
best version of itself.
Maybe there’s still hope.
There is. I’m quite hopeful. For instance,
Virginia just went Democrat, which means
that the Equal Rights Amendment might
finally be ratified.^10
You’re turning 80 next week. Happy
birthday. Do you have any plans?
The plans have been made for me, Molly.
I have plans whether I like it ornot. So
you’re a Scorpio?I am a Scorpio. Are you an astrology
person?
Of course.
Really?
It goes way back, Molly. Once upon a
time, you had to know this stuff to study
English literature, because in the Renais-
sance, that was the science of the day. And
if you go to Spain and look at Pilatos, there’s
always going to be an astrology scene and
different planets and gods and what have
you. Astrology and palmistry, they’re
related. And I learned mine from an art
historian from Holland in 1969 who was
studying Hieronymus Bosch, and she came
up with a theory, now validated, that a lot
of the things in his paintings are astrologi-
cal, because why would they not be? If
you’re arranging stars in the sky in The Last
Judgment, you would make surethat the
planet of Calamity was in opposition to
planet of Fortune, and you wouldarrange
your sky to reflect this calamitous event
that was happening.
I wonder what sign HieronymusBosch
was.
That would be interesting to know.
Aries?
No, no, no. Something much moredevi-
ous. He was probably a Scorpio. Iwishwe
could do a palm reading.
You wish what?
Just a quick one. [Takes interviewer’s
hand.] Sometimes you have to workat hold-
ing it together emotionally, Molly.
I do?
You do, or you will. You’re right-handed?
Ye s.
Okay. Heavy artistic interest ontheright
hand but, oddly enough, not on theleft one.
What’s the bad news?
You’re quite stubborn. You don’tcare
about wallpaper, Molly. Just notasmuch
interest to you.
Wallpaper?
Outside influences like theweather,
what’s around you, things like that.Pretty
focused on your main drive, whichis your
quite strongly marked career line.We could
go into great details, such as yourfinger-
prints, if I had a magnifying glass. Howlong
before you take over the world, Molly? ■6 Al ek Minassian 10
identified with incels,
“involuntarily
celibate” men who
believe they are
entitled to women’s
affection and
some
viole
don’t
Th e vegan burger’s meaty
taste comes from plant
acted from
bined with
yeast, and then fermented.The ERA, whichgrants
eq ual rights toall people
regardless ofsex,passed
Congress in 1972but
ha s yet to beratifiedby
th e 38 statesnecessary
to turn it intolaw.Illinois
be came the 37thin
201 8, and Virginia
co uld soon tipthe
sc ales.
PHOTOGRAPHS: WIN MCNAMEE/GETTY IMAGES (HANDMAIDS); MICHAEL THOMAS/GETTY IMAGES (BURGER); PHOTO/ROSS D. FRANKLIN, POOL, FILE (CAGE)7 8 9