| ‘How do you tell a story of intellectual passion while making it warm enough to be accessible?’ Richard Powers in the Great Smoky Mountains, Tennessee. Photograph: Mike Belleme |
Interview
Richard Powers: 'We're completely alienated from everything else alive'
After writing novels on artificial intelligence, neuroscience and genetics, Powers’ has turned to trees. While on a hike through the Great Smoky Mountains, he talks about environmentalism and not having children
Emma John
Saturday 16 June 2018
To reach the Great Smoky Mountains in eastern Tennessee, you must first pass through the lurid streets of Gatlinburg. Hokey attractions line the route – theme parks, rollercoasters, mini-golf – in a shock of honkytonk tourism that ends only at the gateway to the national park. “Why would you come to the Smokies and think, ‘What I really want is a Ripley’s Believe It or Not?’” says Richard Powers, “There’s more believe-it-or-not here than there is in that place!”