karmadrome interviews me

[mik3cap]

1. What one book that you read as a child had the greastest impact on who you are now, and why? Do you still have a copy? Do you still read it from time to time?

I spent a bit of time trying to find the right cover of the book online, with no success. Because, in all honesty, the cover itself was what impacted on me the most and inspired me to pick the book up. The year was (I think) 1981, I was six or seven years old, and the book was that year's paperback edition of The Stand. It was in the bathroom in my house in New Haven, and my parents were reading it. When I went into the bathroom, day after day, the cover of the book haunted me. It was all black, an evening sky above a city or desert plain, and hovering above it was a massive pair of orange eyes, with only a hint of the outline of a face on either side of them. Next time you're in a used bookstore, see if you can find it on the shelves. It's damn spooky.

This was one case where a book could easily be judged by its cover; it scared the hell out of me inside and out. Yes, it's true - I read Stephen King's The Stand when I was in elementary school. I was always a very precocious reader; there were no advanced programs in the New Haven public schools, so they actually just sent me to do work in higher grade classrooms during the day at various periods. In second and third grade, I was doing classwork three and four levels higher at the Woodward School. Maybe being exposed to advanced reading materials helped me expand more intellectually; but I am at least certain that Stephen King is responsible for my voracious reading habits, my love of the surreal, and my occasional enjoyment of horror. I only wish his work hadn't declined so much in his later years, and I wish he hadn't taken such a large hand in the movie productions of his works.

I do have a hardcover copy of the "uncut" anniversary edition. I have not picked it up to reread it in quite some time, but I'm sure I will again some day (probably once I've gone through more of the unread books on my shelves).

2. In 20 years, you will best be known for....? However, you would rather that the world knew you for...?

That will be the year 2027, and hopefully I'll be 52 years old. I'm sure that I'll be best known as a loving and generous family patriarch and a man with too many friends to count. But I would also hope to be known as a bestselling author.

3. You don't often write about sports. Stretch out a little bit. Tell us your sports story.

This I was not expecting. I'm just not a sports person, and I'm not sure why not. I've heard of recent research that shows that people who enjoy watching sports are actually experiencing a kind of "groupthink" where they perceive themselves as sharing in or performing the actual activity even though they're just watching. I can't say that I really feel that way when I watch sports; maybe a couple times I've gotten interested when really crazy shit happens, but I could never bring myself to regularly watch.

As far as playing sports goes - many people don't know this, but I did just about everything under the sun when I was a kid. My parents insisted that I keep trying different sports, maybe in the hope that I would find one that I liked; I played baseball, basketball, football, and tennis and participated on teams for each. But none of those sports ever caught my interest, and I was never even friends with any of the kids on any of those teams. I've never had "team spirit" I suppose.

I loved riding my bike. That was about as physical as I got when I was a kid. I really wish I could ride one today (it's been twenty years since I last rode one), but I'm probably several years of weight loss, surgery, and physical therapy away from riding a bike again. It is a mid-term goal of mine though.

4. Republicans. Can you describe the moment when you realised they were evil?

I'm embarrassed to say that it took me a while, even into my early twenties. I was even one of those people who said: "Wait, vast right wing conspiracy? Hillary, you're smoking crack, it can't be a conspiracy." In high school, I was actually enamored with the idea of the Contract With America where they promised to reform Congress and be conservative; reining in spending, being responsible, balancing the budget. Small government! It was so seductive. I even listened to Rush Limbaugh briefly, and bought into the liberal bias in the media line for a little while. It seemed like an alternative media where there wasn't one previously.

But Hillary was right. The Republicans really are waging an organized campaign of class warfare, sponsored by multinational corporations and the wealthy elite. I guess I had my first inklings of it in the late 1990s. But the particular moment... I'm not sure I can identify it precisely. But over the last 8-10 years it has just been getting clearer and clearer that the Republicans have been throwing the country down the toilet since the 1950s. The word "Republicans" appears frequently in the book Fast Food Nation next to the words "passed legislation" that usually relates to something friendly to giant corporations and detrimental to public health and safety.

5. This one is my vanity question. What do you think is in store for us in Planetary #27? It seems to this untrained eye that most of the loose ends are from the "Planet Fiction" story. What will become of Ambrose Chase? Will the significance of the white suits and the meaning of the odd exchange between Ambrose and the fourth man be explained? What of the creature the Four brought back from the fictional reality? I'd love to hear your speculation on this one.

Geez, I really have no idea. You're definitely right about those being the loose ends... I think the significance of the white suit is just that Snow is the equivalent of a white blood cell.

Tell you what: I'm going to go and pull out all my issues and reread them, and then I'll post some specific speculations on these questions. Give me a couple days. :)

Comments

[karmadrome.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for taking the time to do answer those. Those are probably better answers than the questions deserved, especially the intentionally off-kilter sports question.