“A Wild West culture reduced to a pantomime of real revolution”: an Interview with author, Rayo Casablanca

The following interview took place via email throughout November and December 2008. Why email? You’d opt for distance too if you were forced to interview Outsider Writers Collectives’s “Stinkiest Author of 2008.”

Caleb J. Ross: I want to begin with a concern that I believe is on everyone’s mind. You first novel, 6 Sick Hipsters, was published by Kensington Books, the very same Kensington Books that published a book called Ninja Mind Control by Ashida Kim in 1985. I think our readers deserve to know the full extent of your relationship with mind-controlling ninjas.

Rayo Casablanca: Excellent question. I hate to sound cliché but if I told you you’d have only seventeen seconds to live. This isn’t because I’d throttle you or stop your heart with an expertly placed flying jaguar kick. No, it’s because just hearing of my ninja feats will make your mind explode. Literally explode. Like in Scanners.

There are, in fact, several ninjas in my next novel, Very Mercenary.

CJR: Ninjas? Several? How dare you tease me so far in advance of the April 09 release date. We’ll definitely touch more on Very Mercenary.

Give me a bit of insight into your writing process; daily goals, rituals, anything. This question is for the voyeurs out there, so anything that could be reappropriated as fodder for fetish websites would be appreciated.

RC: Love the fetish websites.

To be honest my routine is rather haphazard. I sit down daily to write. Mostly in the evenings. I don’t have any preset goals other than writing. I’m happy if I get 500 words done an evening. I write best with distraction – primarily music – but oftentimes I’ll find myself stumbling around the internet and losing all track of time.

I write at my kitchen table on an Apple laptop. My wife is my muse.

CJR: What about workshops? What have been your experiences with them, if at all? Do you have go-to people to read your drafts?

Nope. Never. Maybe I should have. For the longest time, I kind of held a dim view of workshops. Perhaps it was that most of the people I knew who attended workshops seemed to never really get anywhere. They were stuck endlessly reworking material. Endlessly editing and re-evaluating. Endlessly doubting. Sometimes, you need to just pull inside yourself and call it finished.

Outside influence is another big thing with me. Maybe it’s superstition more than anything but I find that if I consult with a reader/writer while I’m working on a project, I take their opinion far too seriously. I change what I’m doing to suit their criticisms. Most of the time I loose steam and, more importantly, interest.

For me, reading is key. While I’m writing, I’m also reading. At least two or three books at a time. Nonfiction and fiction. Mostly I’m reading for style, for voice. Plot doesn’t really matter. Characterization doesn’t really matter. I’m reading for well-crafted lines. Sentences that have that zing of the new. There are old perennials, works that I always turn to when I’m feeling stumped, when I’m looking for sterling ways to turn a phrase. Mark Richard’s work — though limited to only three thin books — is a staple. It’s what I live on while I’m writing.

I’m never under the impression that I’m a brilliant writer. I work hard at my craft and I’m proud of some of the pages I’ve written.

CJR: You said in an interview for the Charleston City Paper, that you assumed 6 Sick Hipsters would be “something of a cult novel.” What do you consider “cult,” and has the novel lived up to (or been held back by) that tag?

RC: I guess “cult” in the sense that I don’t see it being embraced by the mainstream anytime soon. Maybe that will change after the movie, but for now — judging from the fan mail — the folks who enjoy the book most are those who flit around the literary fringes. Though a lot of young crime readers seem to dig it too. I’m more than content with that.

CJR: On a personal level (as opposed to a commercial level), do you feel that this fringe fan base is at all bad for your novel?

RC: Bad only in the sense that it doesn’t make me any money. To be honest, I’m really happy with the readership I seem to have attracted. These are (by my latest tally) very intelligent, funny, and hopelessly romantic people. My favorite type.

CJR: Also in the Charleston City interview, you say that your true interest lies in subcultures and the “genesis and decline of trends.” With 6 Sick Hipsters, this idea is very apparent, especially as the novel builds to its climax. Of particular interest is that you chose to comment upon the transient quality of trends by using your main characters as fuel; they are doomed to fade simply by nature of their hipster-dom. Do you see your characters as vehicles to promote your personal beliefs regarding the importance or unimportance of trends?

RC: I’m a pretty biased and opinionated person and that comes out in my writing. I am fascinated by trends and subcultures on a personal level, really. I was one of those teens attracted to the social edges — when I was in high school in the early ’90s the people I most admired were those who took risks. A lot of that seems silly to me now — the colored hair, the skeleton necklace, the god-awful vests — but I think the most exciting ideas are generated by those struggling with their place in the world. I always felt a bit like an anthropologist studying the behavior of my friends, trying to decipher the rituals that made them tick, looking for meaning in the most outlandish behavior.

6 Sick Hipsters is really about how everything and anything can be (will be) co-opted. And on a deeper level, I suppose much of the book’s content boils down to my belief that oftentimes those fighting the status quo are those most deeply embedded in it. There is an illusion of rebellion fostered in America. In reality, ours is a Wild West culture reduced to a pantomime of real revolution.

CJR: Very interesting. Sort of like how a band like Rage Against the Machine “fights the power” but ultimately relies on that very power (of consumerism and capitalism) to get its message out.

RC: Exactly. This is something I’ve been chewing on for many, many years. The following is a bit dry but immensely applicable. Typically there are always three groups (I learned this is a biblical history class, oddly enough) vying for control: The Old Guard (whoever is in power now and representing past power structures), the New Guard (those attempting to gain power, representing an “alternative” to the status quo) and the Modern Old Guard (the Old Guard in the guise of the New Guard). This set-up is a textbooky way of saying that those in power want to hang onto their power and will do anything to waylay or distract those attempting to usurp them. I look around at all these corporate funded warriors (these credit card toting rebels) and see nothing but Modern Old Guard. Truly changing the system, if it’s possible, means completely removing yourself from it.

CJR: Does simple apathy have a place in this power structure? Do you think there is any benefit to being the serf (the admirer of the spiked hair and vests), and not concerning oneself with the power battles? I’m thinking of Paul Achting, the character in 6 Sick Hipsters who seems to be quite content within his own world of G.I Joe’s and fake battles.

RC: Love the serfs. Where would we be without them? Who would buy all the knockoff products? Who would see the sequels and buy the videogames? Apathy is what makes the power structure stand. It’s at the foundation. If we all cared about where our “culture” came to us from I’m certain it would look very different.

I’m not really bagging on the apathetic or the ignorant though it may seem like it. There is a part of me, it waxes and wanes, that identifies with the person who just doesn’t give a shit about popular culture. Or alternative culture. They like what they like. If it’s Hollywood swill, doesn’t matter. How nice would it be to not have “guilty pleasures” and just love the junk you love? To not overanalyze everything you buy? To be happily ensconced in commercial culture?

CJR: 6 Sick Hipsters touches on consumerism as a negative, a topic that could easily bog down most novels with nihilist ramblings and anti-capitalist criticism. But the novel avoids these “soap box” agendas (even though your biases and opinions, as mentioned above, may shine through). Did you have to consciously step around the potential of writing a veiled manifesto or treatise instead of a novel?

RC: Thank you. I take that as a great compliment. Admittedly, I wanted some of the latter scenes in 6 Sick Hipsters to read somewhat pulpy. The “mad scientist” speech in the sewers is a great example. It’s over the top and clichéd but exactly what I wanted to get across.

I did have to make some very conscious decisions to avoid having the novel crumble into a diatribe or rant session. I think, in many ways, I toned done a lot of the rhetoric to make it a bit more entertaining. I’ve never been one to swing over to the bookshop and pick up a treatise and I doubt anyone would want to read one I wrote. So, this will have to do.

CJR: Based on the jacket text of your upcoming novel, Very Mercenary, you seem to further explore the power of art in a very literal sense. With 6 Sick Hipsters it was with memes, as portrayed by the hipster cast, and now with Very Mercenary’s guerrilla art collective, the Strategic Art Defense. Is exploring the impact of artistic expression on a culture your, as Caleb J. Ross once said, just now, “damning struggle”?

RC: For sure. As fascinated as I am by subcultures, I’m equally fascinated by artistic expression. Sure, there’s a lot of bullshit in the art world (and a good deal of it that I poke fun at) but I really do believe that an honest rebellion should start with artistic expression. It should be grounded in something nebulous, something more heart-felt than slogans. The idea of art guerrillas is, of course, nothing new.

CJR: Rounding back to the idea of consumerism vs. the rebellious intentions of art, how do you feel about price tags on art? Obviously, you’d like to make some money from your writing, so your answer may be colored accordingly. What about publishers like Another Sky Press who offer their books on a donation basis? Does commerce taint art?

RC: Sometimes it does. If it’s the driving force for art, then definitely. True art is born of delirious, ecstatic torture, of an almost pathological need to express something publicly, physically. For art to continue you sometimes need to put a price to that. But if the artist is painting, writing, singing, or playing solely in the hopes of getting some cash, that’s suspect. It’s dishonest and, ultimately, counterfeit.

CJR: What can you tell us about Very Mercenary?

RC: I had a blast writing it for one thing. It just seemed to flow effortlessly and I really pushed myself in terms of crafting a consistent and engaging novel.

The book revolves around the kidnapping of an heiress and her subsequent rescue by a group of guerilla artists. It’s satirical. It’s funny and scary and outrageous. And it has, to my mind, the best character I’ve written yet: A Frankenstein’s monster of a hit man struggling with his place in the universe.

One thing I think I should mention is that the book is based on two very real incidents. The first, and most obvious one, is the kidnapping of Patty Hearst. While Leigh Tiller, the novel’s kidnapped heiress, is modeled after Edie Sedgwick, her story is clearly the story of Hearst. The second is the Revolutionary Patients Cell, Leigh Tiller’s kidnappers, a group of schizophrenics lead by their therapist. This is based loosely on the East German terrorist group the Socialist Patients Collective (SPK), a group of mentally ill terrorists lead by their therapist, Dr. Wolfgang Huber. It’s a fascinating story that isn’t well known in the English-speaking world (there are only a few books on the Collective).

CJR: Pure West Films is adapting 6 Sick Hipsters. How do you feel about handing over your work to a director?

RC: Fine. You know, I worried maybe a few hours about having the book adapted but these guys aren’t your average Hollywood execs looking to make a quick buck. They really appreciate the novel and have a strong idea of how’d they’d like to see it develop on screen.

CJR: When do we get to see that?

RC: Good question. 2010?

Purchase books:
From Kensington Books (publisher)
From Amazon.com

More:
Read the Outsider Writers full review of Very Mercenary here

Rayo Casablanca is a film and music critic who lives in Denver, Colorado. He has contributed short-fiction and pop culture criticism to McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Geek Monthly, Splendid, and Juked among others. In the late ’90s Rayo self-published Sinema Brut, a critically acclaimed ‘zine devoted to European Trash Cinema. He has also written DVD liner notes for a series of European surrealist movies including the celebrated Spanish film, !Viva La Muerte! (a John Lennon favorite). Readers can visit his website at www.6sickhipsters.com