Ron Miller Interview

INTERVIEW WITH RON MILLER FROM TheCelebrityCafe.com ARCHIVES

DM) I understand that Bradamant is based upon a 16th century poem. Is this true, and how does your version differ from the original?

RM) The title character of "Bradamant" is one member of the huge cast of Ludovico Ariosto's epic poem, "Orlando Furioso".(a list of just the characters alone in "Orlando" is some 40 pages long!). I was very taken with the idea of female knight serving in the army of Charlemagne.

I only excerpted a very small thread and adapted a few characters from the incredibly convoluted maze of plots and characters in the original . Then I retold it in my own words. The best analogy I can give you--and, in fact, one of my role models for "Bradamant"--is the retelling of "Morte d'Arthur" as "The Once and Future King". In fact, Ariosto himself did not invent Bradamant (or Bradamante, as she's known in the Italian). She was a character in an earlier poem by Boiardo to which "Orlando" is a sequel . . . and at least one other poet used her before Ariosto.

DM) So where did you remain faithful to the original and where do you expand it?

RM) I expanded it much everywhere--often going from only a few suggestive lines in the original to several pages, or even most of a chapter, in the novel. I tried only to remain faithful to the general spirit of the novel and to how I thought Ariosto perceived the character of Bradamant. I didn't, however, feel any special compunction to not change things where I wanted to or even invent out of whole cloth.

DM) Do you remember the first time you read the poem and what did you think?

RM) I was astonished! I had been looking for it ever since seeing the Dover reprint of Gustave Dore's 19th century illustrations and when I finally found a copy, I literally couldn't put it down. More adventure, sex, romance, humor and action than any 10 sword and sorcery novels put together.

DM) Do you still have that original copy?

RM) Sure do! It may even still be in print (it's the Oxford World's Classics edition, though Penguin also has an excellent verse translation in print).

DM) Do you remember the first book you ever read?

RM) No . . . but I remember the first "real" book that I ever read, the first full-size adult book. That was Jules Verne's "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea." It took me weeks to get through it but it left an impression that is still with me. Aside from a real influence on my own writing, I grew to love Verne's works (I have copies of nearly every one of the 66 books he wrote and have also translated, edited, retold and illustrated editions of 20,000 Leagues, as well as having numerous magazine article published about the author and his work). Verne also introduced me to an abiding interest in science.

DM) How often do you read now?

RM) All the time--I usually have anywhere from two to four books going simultaneously.

DM) Did you receive any criticism for expanding where you wanted to?

RM) I think of what I did as being comparable to modern retellings of the Arthurian legends--such as Thomas Berger's, John Steinbeck's or T. H. White's--where the essential core of a classic, even seminal, story is used as the skeleton for an entirely new, and hopefully different, interpretation. I think this is the very essence of mythology: that each person retelling it has an obligation to add something to it. Those who would codify and fossilize it into some sort of "standard" form--such as Bulfinch, for example--actually work against the spirit and intent of myth.

DM) If you could interview one famous author about how they write, who would it be?

RM) A living author, I take it . . . Hmmm . . . Maybe Tom Robbins.

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