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Lucy Hawking is a world-renowned and acclaimed writer, science promoter, and philanthropist whose book series on the boy George and his adventures can be considered one of the most famous science book series for children.
In an exclusive interview 15 minutes Lucy Hawking spoke about her life in Moscow after the collapse of the Soviet Union, her relationship with journalism, her childhood, and what would happen if she were involved in a black hole.
– Your parents are scientists and your father is the world-renowned physicist Stephen Hawking. Did the fact that your father was the center of attention of the scientific community have any effect on you?
“When I was little, my father wasn’t famous yet, so there were really no problems with that. Yes, it was well known among theoretical physicists, but there weren’t that many back then. He found himself in the center of everyone’s attention at the beginning of my studies, so the focus he had on me didn’t affect me as a child. However, in the 1970s, it was quite unusual to see a family in which one of the parents had a severe disability. We get a lot of attention for that. Many people were noble and helpful, but some were not. I hope parents with disabilities and their children today do not face the public criticism and comments that we have encountered.
My mother is a talented writer, singer, and scientist. It had a huge impact on me as well, revealing to me the magic of art and how compelling creativity and acting can be.
– Have you ever thought about studying physics yourself?
– When I was about ten years old, I saved up and bought a microscope so I could take pictures with it! He was very interested in the natural world, he had a lot of books about animals, birds and butterflies. I was thinking of becoming a doctor because there were doctors even in several generations of my family. But the physics, well, not much. Not least because my dad heard that physics would end at the end of the 20th century!
– Before becoming an author of children’s books, he studied journalism and worked as a journalist. He has also written for media giants like The New York Magazine, The Guardian, The Times, and more. Why did you decide to leave the media world?
– I love journalism, the opportunity to follow developments directly, the opportunity to meet and speak with intriguing and interesting people. But the media world is very fast and ruthless. When my son was three years old, he was diagnosed with autism. Then I realized that I couldn’t keep up with life and give my son the kind of attention he needed. I knew that I still wanted to write, so the switch to book publishing seemed natural to me.
– Have you thought about going back to the media?
– Of course. I still write articles sometimes, I always did.
– In recent years, the media around the world are experiencing a certain crisis: the work of journalists is constantly questioned, fake news (ang. fake news) has become a constant in our daily lives, and mistrust between the media and readers is increasing. What do you think of this crisis? What are the biggest threats lurking beneath its surface?
– In fact, this is a very delicate problem of our time. In January, I published the latest book in the George series, a collection of children’s essays written by leading scholars and experts. Much of the content in the book consists of texts that I had validated and edited for previously published volumes in the George series, but I also wanted to include some texts on current affairs. An essay, titled “Flat Earth Farmers, Skeptics and Antiskeptics Landing on the Moon,” was written by the great scientist, Dr. Sophie Hodgetts, who studies the psychology of conspiracy theories. The text writes about the public’s growing distrust of science and how alternative narratives are gaining more and more attention.
It was impressive to see with your own eyes the collapse and breakdown of the ideological system.
The essence of the public engagement project, represented by the entire George series, an adventure novel introducing complex science to children, is to stimulate the need for critical thinking from an early age and to show how essential the foundations of science are. at a very young age. We tried to create a fun and friendly access to science, so that the content was fun and accessible. Perhaps what I said is not directly related to the crisis in journalism, but the problems themselves are really interrelated. Everything revolves around how we teach young people to use content.
– You spent time in Moscow before studying journalism. What was life in Russia like in your eyes immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union?
– I first visited the Soviet Union with my father, where he attended a physics conference in 1984. I was captivated by a completely different environment, warm people, and passionate friends that could become the people we met. I wanted to learn more about that environment, so I started learning Russian in school. This led me to spend a period of my life in Moscow after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It was a chaotic and dangerous time to live in Moscow. At that point, everything basically collapsed. It was impressive to see with his own eyes the collapse and destruction of the ideological system.
– Your early novels have nothing to do with what you later wrote about George and his research. Why did you decide to write for children? What did you find so attractive in children’s literature?
– I started writing to children after a child at my son’s birthday party asked my dad what would happen if he fell into a black hole. It was such a good question that my father’s answer – “turn into spaghetti” – gained immense popularity among the children there. I thought I wanted to write a story about a boy and a black hole, but I also want to see that the physical part of the story is correct. This is how the whole book series started! You can never know when inspiration will catch you.
– How is writing for children different from writing for adults?
– In literature, children need to find a balance between simplicity and wasting time. The characters have to be as colorful and attractive as the adults in any novel, but the stories they act in vary greatly. You should write from the perspective of a child, not from that of an adult. You have to create an attractive and not obvious plot, but you have to keep in mind that the range of what is available to actors who want to carry out their mission will be completely different. Well, let’s say kids can’t drive alone if, for example, they need to go somewhere and parents don’t agree to drive them.
Children are very interested in the strangeness of space, the potential of extraterrestrial life, and of course the exotic phenomena of physics, say, black holes.
– Is it difficult to talk about science with children? How do readers react to your stories?
– I speak a lot in public and it seems that the children’s audience gets involved with scientific issues quite easily. My languages are based on books, so I can also imagine how children react to books. Children are very interested in the strangeness of space, the potential of extraterrestrial life, and of course the exotic phenomena of physics, say, black holes.
– You are a woman who promotes science. Is it important for women to be heard in science?
– I think it is very important that girls know that science is not only for men or boys. Otherwise, they may realize that they do not belong to this medium, they are not welcome here, and they will not fit in. In that case, the range of talent available to science would be cut in half.
– What idea does your literature send to young women about science?
– That science is for them as much as for the close boys.
– What are your writing plans for the future? Will you continue to write to children?
– I am currently working on a new series of books, in which I will introduce a completely new range of characters, a different setting, but, again, it will tell about the biggest problems of our time.
– Thanks for the answers.
Hawking will also be heard at the LOGIN conference on September 24-25 at the Litexpo showroom.
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