Q&A with Ben Robinson
Writer, Poet and Author of Alas the Day and Space 2047
Q: Could you introduce yourself?
Ben Robinson: Hello, I’m Ben Robinson, a writer and poet from Dorset in the United Kingdom. Writing gives me the opportunity to explore ideas, imagination, humour and the world around us. I also enjoy spending time in nature, which is where I find much of my inspiration and do a great deal of my writing.
Q: What was your first book?
Ben: My first book was Alas the Day, a collection of poetry. Poetry gives me a different way of expressing thoughts and observations about society and life. The collection contains poems dealing with subjects that matter to me, as well as pieces inspired by places and the world around us.
Q: What is the poem “Alas the Day” about?
Ben: “Alas the Day” looks at the erosion of freedom of speech and at poor education and the damage I believe these can cause to the world. It is a poem about serious issues and reflects my concerns about society and the direction in which it can sometimes travel.
Q: Tell us about “London Town.”
Ben: “London Town” is the longest poem in Alas the Day. London is such an enormous subject for a writer because it has history, people, culture, contrasts and an identity all of its own. It gave me a great deal to work with creatively, and the result became my longest poem.
Q: You moved from poetry into science fiction. How did that happen?
Ben: I enjoy having the freedom to write in very different ways. Poetry allows me to express ideas and observations quite directly, while science fiction gives my imagination an enormous playground. With science fiction, virtually anything can happen, and that freedom eventually led me to Space 2047.
Q: What is Space 2047?
Ben: Space 2047 is my first science-fiction book, but it is very much a comedy as well. It follows a group of intergalactic delivery drivers travelling through space and getting caught up in all sorts of strange and ridiculous situations.
The crew spend much of their working lives transporting supposedly important packages between planets and space stations, while desperately trying to escape the boredom of long-distance space travel.
Q: What is the name of their spaceship?
Ben: It has the rather appropriate name Are We There Yet? The crew spend huge amounts of time travelling through the emptiness of space, so the name suits them rather well. At one point they have spent months travelling after leaving a planet called Boring746759, desperately hoping that something interesting will finally happen.
Q: What sort of science-fiction world have you created?
Ben: It is deliberately absurd. This isn’t a future in which everything has suddenly become sensible just because technology has advanced. There are robots, spaceships, strange planets and futuristic technology, but there are still jobs, wages, arguments, relationships, bureaucracy, bad decisions and everyday frustrations.
The difference is that an ordinary delivery might involve transporting hundreds of thousands of pairs of glow-in-the-dark underpants to a space station!
Q: So Space 2047 doesn’t take itself too seriously?
Ben: Definitely not. I wanted to have fun with science fiction. The book can move from spaceships and alien worlds to something completely ridiculous without warning. There are sentient robots, bizarre technology, strange planets and some very unusual conversations.
At one point the characters are discussing the possibility of adventures involving robots, aliens and enormous creatures, only for the conversation to wander into terrible wages and the state of the intergalactic economy. That mixture of the fantastic and the mundane is a big part of the humour.
Q: Who are some of the characters readers meet?
Ben: The crew includes characters such as Brian, Cedric, Sarah, Salomina and Karen. They are not conventional heroic space explorers. They’re ordinary — although very eccentric — people trying to get through life and their work while travelling across an extraordinary universe.
The relationships between the characters are important too. Beneath all the absurdity, they’ve spent years together and developed a genuine bond as a crew.
Q: Where does your sense of humour come from?
Ben: I like absurdity and taking an ordinary situation and pushing it somewhere completely unexpected. The idea of space delivery drivers appealed to me because it combines something incredibly futuristic — travelling across the universe — with something completely familiar: having a job, making deliveries, getting bored and wondering what on Earth, or what in the universe, is going to happen next.
Q: Is there satire beneath the comedy?
Ben: Yes. Humour allows you to play with subjects such as work, money, technology, human behaviour and society without turning the story into a lecture. Space 2047 exaggerates things enormously, but some of the humour comes from taking recognisable human behaviour and transplanting it into a ridiculous future.
Even advanced technology isn’t necessarily helpful. In one scene, a digital map argues with the crew and reminds them just how dependent they have become on technology.
Q: Your poetry sounds much more serious than Space 2047. Do you see them as completely different sides of your writing?
Ben: They are different, but they both come from me. Alas the Day allows me to address serious subjects through poetry, while Space 2047 lets me explore ideas through comedy, imagination and absurdity. I don’t think a writer has to stay within one genre or one tone.
Q: Where do you find inspiration?
Ben: Nature is very important to me. I enjoy spending time outdoors, and that is where I find much of my inspiration and where I do a lot of my writing. Being surrounded by nature gives me space to think and allows ideas to develop naturally.
Q: What do you hope people get from your writing?
Ben: Above all, I hope people enjoy it. If somebody reads my poetry and it makes them think, or reads Space 2047 and it makes them laugh and takes them somewhere completely different for a while, then that means a great deal to me.
Q: How important is feedback from readers?
Ben: Very important. Writing begins as something personal, but once a book is released it develops a relationship with its readers. Different people notice different things, interpret poems differently and laugh at different moments. I am always interested in hearing what readers think.
Q: Finally, what would you like to say to somebody discovering your work for the first time?
Ben: Welcome to my writing. Whether you begin with the poetry of Alas the Day or join the rather unusual crew of Space 2047, I hope you find something that entertains you, makes you think, makes you laugh, or perhaps does all three.
I hope you enjoy my work, and feedback is always welcome.
— Ben Robinson
Writer and poet from Dorset, United Kingdom