Thanks to Eileen Tabios for inviting me to participate in the Next Big Thing.
What is your working title of your book?
In the House of the Hangman, which is out of Theodor Adorno’s “In the house of the hangman one should not speak of the noose, otherwise one might seem to harbor resentment.” (Adorno et al, Guilt and Defense: On the Legacies of National Socialism in Postwar Germany, and also Adorno, “The Meaning of Working Through the Past”)
Where did the idea come from for the book?
It was time to speak of the noose, to fresco the hell panel of the chapel-for-no-god I’m building.
What genre does your book fall under?
Mashup / collage / whatever fits and is necessary. It’s made mostly of text.
Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
Marie Osmond, because she did such a great job performing Hugo Ball's “Karawane”, if it’s all to be read in one voice; if it’s to be read in many, then the original “unwitting contributors”.
What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
“A poem including history” (Pound) as composed by “Hannah Hoch with a heart condition” (Anne Gorrick), or “No Future” (Sex Pistols and Ernst Bloch before them). OK. That's not exactly a sentence. So how about this (it's by Sean Bonney, and it's exactly as far as ITH has got as I put this down): "Imagine all the clocks on the planet were melted down, and each of their separated minutes, past and present and future, were enclosed inside a wall about five metres thick, all stacked vertically and sealed with lead, the whole covered with a smooth wooden map, a system of financial bukkake, an infrageography that would never could never be ours."
Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
Neither, probably. But it will be published if I stay lucky.
How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
The constraints employed do not allow me to think in terms of drafts. The book will take about 5 ½ years to write, if I work approx. 6 hrs every day.
What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
Lenin’s Materialism and Empirio-Criticism, Kenneth Goldsmith, Day, Kathy Acker, you name it, Walter Benjamin, Passagenwerk, I’ll Drown My Book, (eds. Caroline Bergvall, Laynie Browne, Teresa Carmody, and Vanessa Place); Omo Bob, No Sounds of My Own Making, Rob Kovitz, Ice Fishing in Gimli, Tony Lopez, Only More So, Berrigan/Padgett/Brainard, Bean Spasms maybe, all of Jerry Rothenberg’s anthologies, Capitalism and Schizophrenia, Tom Raworth’s in-person delivery, the CCRU, Facebook, Max Ernst, John Heartfield, the afore-mentioned Hannah Hoch (I AM Hannah Hoch), Terre Thaemlitz, Soulnessless, ITB NOISE, by JLIAT (a.k.a. James Whiteheat), object-oriented philosophy, process philosophy, Occupy, Idle No More, … I’m sure I’m forgetting a million things … and I’m drifting away from books … why do you think I would compare this thing to books only?
Who or what inspired you to write this book?
“Modern times, mon.” I wanted my grandchildren, who will grow up in hell, to know grandpa wasn’t a complete idiot. I want them to say: “Speedy can cut! (Well, he could, back in the day) (Well, he tried)” (Since I’m sourcing quotes, both ““Modern times, mon” and “Speedy can cut!” are from Peter Matthiessen, Far Tortuga, and are here to amuse my brother)
What else about your book might pique the reader's interest?
As Bhanu Kapil put it, and I paraphrase, “when I find my words in your poem, it’s like they ran away and joined the circus!”
WHO I INVITED (supposed to invite at least five and I did, but these are the only two confirmed participations):
Ivy Alvarez. Ivy sent me her contribution to post. Here it is. It can also be found here.
Poet Luisa Igloria, whose latest book is Juan Luna's Revolver, invited me to
participate in this self-interview blog meme called The Next Big Thing, where I get
to share a little more about my next big thing, my second
book.
Writers participating get to answer 8-10 questions (about their book/blog/their
writing), and then tag 5 other writer friends to post their own "next big
thing" the following Wednesday. Luisa's instructions were for me to post
by or before Wednesday, 12 December.
Rather daringly, I've re-arranged the order of the questions from how it
appears on Luisa's post.
*
What is the title of your book?
Disturbance
What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
Disturbance is about a man who kills his wife, son and then himself, leaving a daughter as the sole survivor.
What genre does your book fall under?
Poetry / verse novel / narrative-in-verse / what-have-you
Where did the idea come from for the book?
This kind of violent crime, of the complete annihilation of a family is, sadly, an all-too-common phenomenon. A friend once pointed out it has also only become more visible because of newspapers and the media.
For this book, I had a cast of characters affected by the crime: everybody from estate agents and the police, to relatives of the criminal and his victims. The tragedy touches everyone in its path.
I was obsessed with the idea of writing about this crime from multiple perspectives. You know that line from the film Amadeus? "With music, you can have twenty individuals all talking at the same time, and it's not noise, it's a perfect harmony!" I wanted to know if I could do the same with poetry.
How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
I first got the idea in 2004 and thought, "This is going to take me about five years to write." An underestimation. I finished writing it in early 2011. The book comes out in late 2013.
Who or what inspired you to write this book?
A lot of silence surrounds this kind of crime. Victims are silenced. Those who are traumatised are busy trying to survive it. Those who work in it are busy trying to fix it. But I desperately wanted to hear what they had to say. So I let them speak.
Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
Disturbance will be published by Seren Books in 2013.
What other works would you compare this book to within your genre?
These works were my touchstones:
- Dorothy Porter's The Monkey's Mask
- Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales
- Sylvia Plath's "The Detective"
- Ai's "The Good Shepherd"
Of course, I can only dream of my book being compared to these amazing works.
What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?
This is such a good question. Apart from the main characters, there would be quite a few other roles to fill, too. There's a mistress, a priest, a police surgeon and several police officers, friends, grandparents and neighbours, a journalist... It'd be fantastic to have an international cast.
Still, I'm not sure who would play which character. Maybe once the book is out, readers would have more of an idea.
What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
As part of my independent research for writing sections of the book, I read up on ballistics and homicide investigation procedures, and enrolled in a short taster course for Forensic Science at the local university.
Speedy can still cut, mon...
Posted by: Omo Bob | 07.02.2013 at 09:42 AM
说道：Hahaha, just a discuss~ Think and write I don't know, I just had so many words to say don't be srcaed......but certainly I should learn how to express briefly....hahaha~.....and I enjoy discussing about sth.:-P
Posted by: Salvin | 17.02.2013 at 07:59 PM