Maybe if I'd studied writing instead of anthropology, I'd be more sensible. You know - pick a genre, follow the rules, stay in the box - but let's face it. Sensible people don't major in anthropology.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I've often been accused of making anthropology into literature, but anthropology is also field research. Writing is central to it.
Younger anthropologists have the notion that anthropology is too diverse. The number of things done under the name of anthropology is just infinite; you can do anything and call it anthropology.
I wasn't a big fan of social anthropology. And, luckily, that created room for me to work in visual arts because I sort of ignored my requirements. I think I was attracted to social anthropology because I liked to travel and was always interested in far-off places.
Cultural anthropology is more and more rapidly getting to realize itself as a strictly historical science.
It's always amusing to look at how something early in the 20th century was written in anthropology and how it's written now. There's been an enormous shift in how it's done, but yet you can't put your finger on someone who actually did it.
I think of myself as a writer who happens to be doing his writing as an anthropologist.
I never got any training in how to write novels as an English major at Oberlin, but I got some great training for writing novels from anthropology and from Margaret Mead.
I started out in anthropology, so to me how society works, how people put themselves together and make things work, has always been a big interest.
Anthropology never has had a distinct subject matter, and because it doesn't have a real method, there's a great deal of anxiety over what it is.
I honestly think anthropology is one of the most useful fields a fantasy writer can study, more so even than history.