With Jason Michel
David LaBounty has written three novels. He writes the kind of novels that you wish you could write, if only you had any talent. His stories are tough and tragic. Each paragraph is tense and minimalist, like Chuck Palahniuk dancing the tango with Hubert Selby Jr in someone’s nightmare. His latest novel is titled Affulenza.
I am very happy to feature him in the first CFGKW.
JM – Hey David!
Let’s start with something simple.
What do you consider to have been the biggest influences/inspirations in your life?
Not just with your writing but your life in general?
DLB – My sons. The first cold beer as it enters the stomach and in a few moments later the brain. All the rock and roll I’ve listened to over and over again. Raymond Carver. Charles Bukowski. The parade of ordinary and desperate people I deal with at work each and every day. My past, the time in the service, in Nevada.
I think geography is important, the places where you’ve been and the people you’ve met. I would guess from your writing that the same holds true for you Jason, am I correct?
JM – Yeah, definitely.
For my sins.
They say that travel broadens the mind. I am not so sure if that is necessarily a good thing. It depends what the place decides to teach you. If you live somewhere like Bangkok for five years, it certainly does, (how shall I say?), change your outlook on life and how it is lived and that translates into something when the creative process kicks in. Asia, Africa, Europe, Blighty, it all gets fucking jumbled in the mix. A cocktail of bitterness and regret with a dash of blood and a sweet aftertaste to boot.
What has attracted you to the places that you have written about?
DLB – You know, I generally do set my work in places I know. Michigan where I’ve lived most of my life. Nevada as I spent some time there way back when working in a gold mine and later for a newspaper. I was stationed in Scotland for two years while I was in the Navy. I will never set a story in Portland Oregon because I’ve never been there. I’ve lived a lot of places, traveled to even more and I may not have been in Scotland or Nevada the longest but I was most affected by them.
I went through a life-changing process.
In Scotland I went from a pimply teenager to a twenty-something who lifted weights and read existential literature and I thought I was real bad-ass. I also fell in love there, a lot, and made a lot of friends, some of whom I still keep in touch with 20 years later. I’ve also lived in the comfortable north shore suburbs of Chicago, but they’re nice, not really worth writing about at all.
When writing, do you find yourself summoning up people and places from your past, or are you creating them as you go?
JM – With the first book, well, almost all of those characters were based on real people. Friends, enemies, idiots met and vanquished.
Some of my shorter stories have been people, some real, some imagined (which means that they come from somewhere deep inside me) put in extreme situations, often madness. Another wee obsession of mine.
Where did the idea for your novel, Affluenza, come from?
Was it just a case of seeing the system around you begin to crack and collapse?
DLB - Well, some of Affluenza came from events in my personal life and other people I know. People who let their lifestyle get away from their income. It’s a very real problem and art does indeed imitate life. The system is indeed collapsing or has already collapsed, no one is extending credit the way they used to. The main character in Affluenza, Charles Dash, is certainly someone I don’t know. Dash has absolutely no meaning in his life, the only thing that gives him pleasure is buying things, and all the events in his life are marked by what he bought (first job a car, a small house upon getting married, a bigger house upon having children).
And I know Confessions of a Black Dog is partially autobiographical, but where did the idea come from, and is writing about yourself sort of cathartic?
JM – Ahhh …
Keeps the demons from the door and me off the streets. Literally.
Seems like your personal America, (maybe everyone has their own), is at the moment both a joyful and incredibly bleak place to live.
How do you see the future of your surroundings?
DLB – I used to write speculative fiction. One could call it science fiction. Not really my bag but I thought I could short-cut my way to fame and fortune by going the genre route but I was foolish to think that. Affluenza is straight literary fiction but there are elements of dystopic fiction in it as maybe, as a society, we’ve already achieved some sort of dystopia by so many people living beyond their means and all of a sudden we find ourselves living in the Brave New World, to a point. I think things can only get better and that’s what I do find joyful about my personal America, a country I really do love.
You’ve had a bit of a vagabond existence, certainly as a writer, do you feel bound by your current or native country to portray it in a certain light? Positive or negative.
JM – Well, I certainly do not feel bound by any loyalty to any country. But we are, as the cliché goes, a product of our enviroment to a certain extent. This filters our world view and our views of other cultures.
I have learnt that you can’t meddle in other (so-called developing) cultures. You can’t and shouldn’t help. They will despise you for it in the end.
I tend to agree with you about the dystopian aspects of our global society. I have a lot of fatalistic tendencies mixed in with a large dose of misanthropy. This probably peppers my view, more than anything else.
David, one last question …
I know for a fact that you, like me, are a big Cormac McCarthy fan.
It was the subject of our first contact, I believe …
Which would be your favourite novel?
Why?
What does he do with the word that others can’t?
DLB – My favorite would be The Road.
A complex story told simply, the characters laid hauntingly bare. He is able to write a novel of nothing but prose, beautiful prose. Quite unique, in my opinion.
JM – David, it’s been an absolute honour, mate.
All the best with the new book.
David LaBounty’s work can be found @ HERE
His novels can be bought HERE
[...] This post was Twitted by beatendog [...]
This was awesome. I’ve heard this guy’s name before, but sometimes it takes something like this for the name to stand out in my mind. A little personal tough, eh? There’s just so much good small press stuff it’s hard to keep track of it all.
too much information, yet not enough to keep us happy …
Top interview. Punchy lad, eh?
Michigan? Where in Michigan?
Lake Orion.