<!--
	Title: Behind The Budayeen
	Subtitle: An Interview with George Alec Effinger
	Source: Computer Gaming World, v10(7)
	Date: Jul-Aug 1990
	Transcription by Steve Derby
-->

<img class="float-right" src="/public/img/articles/cgw-george-alec-effinger-interview/george-alec-effinger.jpg" alt="George Alec Effinger">

**Mr. Effinger** is a science fiction author who has created a fictitious
universe that became the setting for Infocom's *Circuit's Edge*.

*CGW:* First of all, we want to ask a few questions about the
books which form the background of *Circuit's Edge*. For
instance, how did the books come to reflect Islamic culture?

**Effinger:** Actually, *When Gravity Fails* is based on the French
Quarter in New Orleans, but it has been transmogrified into the
Budayeen. In general, I wanted to avoid the Japanese-dominated
future described by William Gibson in his books, *Neuromancer*,
*Count Zero* and *Mona Lisa Overdrive*, and Lucien Shepherd
had already staked out Central America for his dark future, I
decided that the Islamic world offered the best potential for merging
a lesser known culture with an advanced future.

*CGW:* There is one particularly unique facet about your world
in both the books and the game. We're talking about the sexual
crossovers. Was there a social agenda in depicting characters
with switches in sexual identity? In fact, doesn't Marid seem to
prefer people who have changed their sexual identities?

**Effinger:** I don't know exactly how it happened, but I was
trying to create a world where people could not pigeonhole
others based on sexual identity. Once I had created the world,
having Marid be completely heterosexual would have been
cowardly. I think you'll like the third book of the series. It has
kind of a soap opera between Yasmin (Marid's former lover), the
widow, and Marid.

*CGW:* Now, to be a little more relevant to the game itself, what
was your involvement with the game?

**Effinger:** Basically, I demanded a certain degree of control in
order to be certain that the on-screen messages would appear in
my style. I wrote almost all the messages that appear on the
screen. In fact, I probably wrote about 75% of everything on the
screen. There are only a couple of side-plots that I didn't see.

Beyond that, I provided **Westwood Associates** *[Ed: The
developer used by Infocom in producing the game.]*) with a
list of all the characters and places in gravity and fire and they
placed them the way they wanted.

*CGW:* Your books have some pretty mature themes in them
with plenty of sex and violence. Was there any problem in transforming
your fiction into a computer game?

**Effinger:** Actually, references to sex and drugs were a problem.
I wrote the sex scenes in a tasteful way, but the drug stuff
had to go. **Mediagenic** didn't want any references to drugs. Personally,
I don't want to be supporting drug use or anything like
that, because in the books, whenever Marid uses drugs he gets
punished in some way or another.

I also don't know why Mediagenic took the condoms out. I was
trying to say something positive by mentioning them.

*CGW:* Getting into the fiction a little bit, if you could have the
kind of "moddie" (a personality modification chip which plugs
into the brain and enables one to take on the personality characteristics
of either a real or fictitious character) you describe in the
book, what moddie would you most like to use?

**Effinger:** Lou Gehrig, probably, I'm the biggest baseball fan in
the world. Of course, it would be great to experience Bob Feller.
I'm a long-time Cleveland Indians fan.

*CGW:* We understand. Some of us like the Chicago Cubs. Getting
back to the game, though, we wonder about the amount of
violence in your books, as well as the game. For example, your
short story, "No Prisoners", seems to justify war as an instrument
of social policy.

**Effinger:** I'm actually anti-war in my philosophy, just on this
side of being a pacifist. With regard to "No Prisoners", I believe
that war can be like surgery in a World War II setting with clear-cut
villains. However, if you were born in an Islamic country, war
would be understood differently. Frankly, I think one of the
reasons we have difficulty in dealing with Islamic countries is because
we know as little about them as we did about the Vietnamese.
We don't know what is important to them and we are ignorant
of what motivates them, even trying to convert them by
force.

*CGW:* Do you think that the study of Islam in preparation for
writing the books and the game has changed you yourself in any
way?

**Effinger:** Well, Islam has, basically, five e pillars that the devout
follower tries to keep: testify to one god with Mohammed as his
prophet, pray five times a day, make pilgrimage to Mecca, keep
Ramadan and give to the poor. That last pillar has probably
changed my attitude the most. I've learned to be more generous.
Did you know that there are documented tales of one beggar
passing another on the way home and giving his alms to the
other?

*CGW:* No, but we were impressed with how Marid learned to be
more generous in *A Fire in the Sun*.

**Effinger:** In fact, Marid is almost completely autobiographical.
Many of the gorier things in "Gravity" were actually witnessed by
me at one time or another. I have sort of a fascination with the
way things are in the lower rungs of society. In fact, I've probably
done a lot of foolish things, but I've got a writer's curiosity about
the lower depths of society. The main story in "Gravity" was
based on a transvestite dancer I knew that was murdered.
The police in the real city didn't do anything about the crime.
They didn't care about those people and felt like they had gotten
what was coming to them. The ending, by the way, was
true.

*CGW:* So, you transformed the story and set it in the
Budayeen? Are there other times you've drawn from real life?

**Effinger:** Well, "Fire" is based on another true story. Paul
Jaworski is the name of the man who really killed my
grandfather. In 1928, my grandfather was killed in the line of
duty. He was always a big hero in my family and is still
honored in a station house in Cleveland.

*CGW:* How was working on the game compared to writing
science fiction novels?

**Effinger:** Actually, I found working on the game much
tougher than I thought it was going to be. I was very proud
when Infocom asked me to work on the project and it was
more work than I thought it was going to be. Working with
the Westwood people and the Infocom people, has been a
real pleasure. The parts of the game I've played, I've enjoyed
very much.