DL: What themes do you find most compelling to include in your writing? PB: I seldom think about theme when I'm writing except, sometimes, in the final edit. I'm more worried about world building and characters and the thematic element just follows as part of the story.
If I'm compelled by anything in my work, it's the belief that the world can be a nasty, dismal place that seeks to drown its victims in a mire of despair. As I am an incurable optimist, I find myself writing about people who are learning to swim in the mire rather than sink.
DL: What do you think is the important function of Fantasy?
PB: This question usually comes up in some variant as a panel topic at science fiction conventions, and I've even been a participating panelist on it a time or ten - and I think that the answer varies with the author, the book and the reader. The most obvious function of fantasy literature is escapism. Allowing people to put aside the trials of their lives to live in a different world is valuable to our society. Escapist art reminds us that there is beauty in the world when our lives look pretty bleak. The best art, whether books, paintings, or music can console us, lift our expectations. When I was in high school, I used to take Christopher Stasheff's wonderful novel, The Warlock In Spite of Himself with me to dentist visits - or any other high stress times. I wore out five or six copies -- that was in the days before he made a big splash so those copies were hard to find. No matter how upset I was, I could always laugh when I read that book.
Another traditional role of fantasy (and science fiction) is to disguise some current issue and examine it in abstract. George Orwell's Animal Farm was a grim fantasy designed to make us examine our lives. Voltaire's lively fable Candide made fun of complacency and the general self-congratulatory spirit of his era. Ellen Kushners' brilliant At Swords Point gently asks us to evaluate our place in society. Sometimes taking away the familiar norms of our world allows us to see things in a different light.
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