Christopher Rowe
(The Force Acting on the Displaced Body)
Is
your Trampoline story generally representative of the sort
of story you usually write? To elaborate: is this story a departure
in style or subject matter (or any other sort of departure, for that
matter) for you? If so, what was different or new for you in the writing
of this story? Do you think it is a new direction for your writing,
or simply an experiment?
"The Force Acting on the Displaced Body" isn't representative what
my work has been, but I can't way whether it represents a new
direction or not. Yes, it's a departure in style and subject matter
-- this was a much more personal story for me, and one of the first
times I've used "real places" in a story set in Kentucky. I also radically
altered my working method for this story. Most of my stories have
extensive notes and research and I do a lot of "pre-writing." I try
to write very, very clean first drafts and tend to do most of my revision
before the act of composition. This usually means that the notes for
a given story usually total four or five times the word count of the
final story. In this case, I did almost no planning and pretty much
sat down and wrote it. I'm not very comfortable with that, but some
of my peers have told me that I'd do well to loosen up my grasp a
little.
What's your favorite cocktail?
I drink beer or wine, mostly. When I drink liquor, it's usually bourbon
or single malt scotch, neat. So if a cocktail has to be a "mixed drink"
then I guess my default favorite is gin and tonic, because that's
pretty much the only one I ever drink (and that rarely).
So, come out with it, already
-- you really believe in alien abductions. Don't you? All sci-fi writers
do...right?
I do not believe in alien abductions. All sci-fi writers, however,
do.
Who's been eating my porridge?
Cock Robin.
Where have all the flowers gone?
Ocala, Florida, USA.
Who cleft the Devil's foot?
Which foot?
Does she or doesn't she?
I don't know about her, but her little sister sure does.
What's the most favorable
sort of weather for your creative process?
I usually write indoors.
When's the last time you changed your mind about something? I
think I mean a radical shift of personal values -- regarding art ("Suddenly,
I'm not crazy about Billie Holiday, in fact, I'm not even sure I'm
spelling her name right"), regarding anything ("Actually, you can
go home again").
Right, I was actually talking about this with you (Gavin) on the
phone the other day, when I was explaining why I haven't seen Daredevil.
I'm surprised and oddly disappointed that I have no desire to see
that movie -- I kind of feel like I'm betraying my teenaged self.
I had every intention of playing Dungeons & Dragons and staying up
late to watch Space:1999 marathons for my entire life (as a
lot of the people I keep in touch with from high school still do,
actually). And then there's a couple of guys I knew in college who
would talk about "pulling a Christopher," by which they meant my (to
them) annoying habit of talking up some book or movie or band and
then after they got into it I'd lose interest. I did
that with that card game, Magic. And earlier I did it to my high school
friends with Dragonlance novels. I still think my life would be easier
to manage if I played a lot of D&D and read Dragonlance novels. Not
better, but easier to manage. Oh well, I still mix in a lot of goofy
superhero comics in with the cool stuff Gwenda buys. And I follow
professional bicycle racing, which requires a certain level of obsessive
geekiness.
Maybe
none of that answers your question, does it? Okay, how about this?
I remember being at MOMA in the summer of 1998 and staring at Jackson
Pollack painting for about thirty minutes and finally getting it.
Reproductions don't do him justice and I'm embarrassed to say that
I'd previously been in the "I could do that" camp regarding his and
some other non-representational painters' work. That reaction drives
me crazy now, especially in terms of the visual arts. "I could do
that."
First
of all, you didn't. Second of all, no you couldn't, and it's only
because you're a willfully ignorant, visually illiterate barbarian
that you don't see why some curator hung it in the first place. You
want to bitch about paintings? Go to Paris (or St. Petersburg or London
or New York or Washington, DC or Vienna -- anyplace that has a lot
of museums and galleries) and spend a year or two looking at a couple
of thousand pictures. Then come talk to me.
Um. Okay, use the third and fourth sentences from the second paragraph
in this section for my answer. I'm going to go get some more coffee.
O
Next
-- Dave Shaw
O
Read another Rowe story: "Sally
Harpe"