Patrick Ness: "If I were fifteen years old, I would ask myself why I receive information through social networks"

There are few writers whose work is aimed at young audiences with the stripes of Patrick Ness (Fort Belvoir, Virginia, age 49). Not only in the number of sales, but in the awards curriculum. Residing in England - he has dual American and British nationality - he has twice won the Carnegie Medal of British Librarians for the best book published in that country for children or young people, and his long collection of recognitions includes a nomination to the British Librarians. Goya for the adaptation of

A monster comes to see me,

his homonymous novel, directed by Juan Antonio Bayona.

So sooner or later the American audiovisual would cast the networks on one of its nine novels for those readers (it also has two books for adults and several collections of stories).

Another thing is that the result was up to the task, a question that Ness shuns in a telephone conversation.

The reason for the interview?

The premiere of

Chaos Walking,

Doug Liman's vision of

The Knife in His Hand

, the first book

in Ness's

Chaos Walking

trilogy

, which has gone a long way to hit theaters: it was shot from August to November 2017 starring Tom Holland, Daisy Ridley and Mads Mikkelsen.

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In

Chaos Walking,

the viewer is immersed in a planet where only men live, whose thoughts are seen and heard. There is therefore no privacy or the capacity for rebellion. “I found it very difficult to translate that on the screen and I think the result has been achieved; It was the first conversation I had with the producers ”, intercedes Ness. "We wanted the special effects to be subordinate to the emotions." That balance is thrown into the air when an astronaut (Ridley) lands, who will become friends with the protagonist (Holland).

The project started in 2011 and found, after several attempts, a director in Liman, a filmmaker who has ended up arguing with half the industry. The premiere, scheduled for March 1, 2019 (due to its long post-production), was postponed when the studio decided to take new takes. In April of that year Liman, helped by director Fede Álvarez, spent 15 million dollars (12.3 million euros) in those 20 days of added work. Why so late? For the agendas of Holland (the Spider-man of the new age) and Ridley (in the

Star Wars

universe

).

And when the movie was finally finished, the pandemic and the lockdown arrived. Its launch was postponed again. “I was always very calm,” insists Ness, in an answer that seems to be recited mechanically, “because the project was in good hands; Liman always shoots new sequences because he creates on the go; it was more complicated by the other work of the actors ”. The reviews are not saying the same. The author, who participated in the script, may not want to get into trouble: after writing the

Class

series

for the BBC, he has two new projects underway as an adapter, based on comics by other creators:

Snow Blind,

by Ollie Masters and Tyler Jenkins (with Jake Gyllenhaal as the hook for a production starring two teenagers), and

The Ghost of Anya,

by Vera Brosgol (here the teenage protagonist is related to a ghost).

"They're in development, a very Hollywood term," he laughs.

No privacy on social media

When

The Knife in Hand

was published in 2008

with that concept of null privacy, little could be intuited of the current empire of social networks among adolescents. “I wrote it on instinct. Today that noise is terrible, and its misuse, or the propagation of manipulated information, has made the world brutal ”, acknowledges Ness. “A pertinent question now is where this empire is going to take us. And if I were a fifteen-year-old, I would ask myself at all times why I receive information and from whom ”. Very bad time to be a teenager. “Between confinements and social networks it is complex, of course. Because a good use of new technologies allows you, for example, to contact people with the same tastes, but ... be careful what you share ”.

Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley, on the set of 'Chaos Walking'

Ness never thought of being a writer.

“I was born in a small town in Virginia, and I grew up on the other coast, the West.

No one around me had ever had anything to do with books.

So it didn't seem like something ... allowed for someone like me.

Bayona says of the author that he is "a special man, with strong values".

The aforementioned responds: "Jota taught me the importance of listening to everyone on a set, in which a set cannot be governed by ego, but any contribution, wherever it comes from, can raise the quality of a film" .

He pauses his answer for a moment and ends:

“A monster comes to see me

is the best adaptation of my work.

It made me feel so proud and happy ... Possibly, if I may, it is Jota's best film. "

Interestingly,

A Monster Comes To See Me was

born from the talent of writer Siobhán Dowd, who died of cancer at age 45. In 2014, Ness, encouraged by his editor (the same as Dowd's), took up his characters and the story line of the novel, which had been truncated. “I feel like a storyteller always on the alert, and therefore, constantly searching for new tools to reach more people and for new challenges. For example, writing science fiction is a lot of fun because you build the whole world in which you will develop your story ”.

As the author of plots with teenagers, the author follows a rule: “People forget, but we've all been teenagers. It is only necessary to recall those pains, feelings and discoveries. And when I write, I think about the stories that I would have liked to read, and take myself seriously. These are years in which you experience your emotions in a wild way, and for me emotions are fundamental in fiction ”. Any advice for teenage Ness? "I know you don't like people giving you advice, but let me tell you one thing: I trust you."