Entrevista con Noah Cicero

Noah Cicero (1980) nace es uno de las ciudades que está entre los lugares más miserables de Estados Unidos. Su primer novela  (The Human War) es muy buena ya que la narra únicamente por medio de acciones, pocas, muy pocas descripciones y oraciones cortas (una novela minimalista), Cicero comenta en un video el estilo que utilizo para escribir The Human War (Link a video). Hasta el momento solo tiene tres libros en español, el último de ellos se llama Best Behaviour, que pretende definir a su generación.

La figura de Cicero cada vez toma más  auge en la literatura estadunidense por hablar de la hipocresía de su país, la sociedad de consumo, un sistema que te obliga a matarte trabajando por nada y la visibilización de la sociedad “marginales” que actualmente representan un gran porcentaje de ciudadanos de estados unidos. Después de la debacle económica de Estados Unidos la clase media sufrió un impacto muy grande que llevo a la miseria a muchos.

Algunos de los títulos de Noah Cicero

·         The Human War (2003, Fugue State Press; foreign publications include Snowbooks, London 2007; as well as editions in Greek and German)

·         The Condemned (2006, Six Gallery Press)

·         Burning Babies (2006, Parlor Press)

·         Treatise (2008, A-Head Publishing)

·         The Insurgent (2010, Blatt)

·         Best Behavior (2011, Civil Coping Mechanisms)

·         Go to Work and Do Your Job. Care for Your Children. Pay Your Bills. Obey the Law. Buy Products. (2013, Lazy Fascist Press)

Aquí pueden consultar los libros disponibles en Amazon 

Luego de leer su libro Collected Works of Noah Cicero Vol I (Mi comentario sobre el libro ), quería entrevistarlo por lo que le mande un tweet y amablemente respondió a mi entrevista que le mande Via Email.

Nota: Dejo la entrevista en ingles para respetar al autor. Disculpas por mi Ingles que no es uno de mis fuertes.  

La entrevista

Blackcat: I saw that in your books you try to visible how are this people that are victim of the bad economy in USA, this people that now survived; in the past the writers that talk about the misery propose the suicide, but you propose a survivor, what you think that change?, why not give a gun to your characters and kill their self?

Noah Cicero: I don’t think people should kill themselves, my brother killed himself. I know what suicide does, it hurts other people, it messes up the people who loved them. My brother’s suicide messed up my life for three years, I feel almost, like my mid-twenties were stolen by his suicide.

I think, it doesn’t matter if you are poor,  I don’t hate being poor, I hate the attitude Americans have about money and wealth, they worship wealth, so many people in America think and say, “The only thing that matters is how much you have.” But humans have lived for thousands without monetary systems. Even though I am poor, I live in Las Vegas, I live in this beautiful desert, I can mountains in the distance, on my days I can hike those mountains. Tomorrow mountain I’m going to Mount Charleston and hiking it with a friend. I am alive, my heart beats. I don’t care what the rich do to me, I will still smile and enjoy this life.

 Blackcat: Which do you think is the task of this generation, try to change the world, sit and look how the world collapse, or you think that in this moment we only have the option to survived?

Noah Cicero: I don’t care if the world collapses, I don’t care if America becomes poor, what I care about is justice. There is no justice now, African-Americans are murdered by the police, women are treated like dogs, and the rich are taking all the money and the power. I don’t care if the world collapses if it leads to a world with more justice.

Blackcat: What you think about the tv shows (that are successfully) which makes visible to people in the past was classified as a marginal society and now represents a large part of US citizens.

The only show that i can think of is It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, I like that show. I like how it portrays poor people as comedians, making jokes, and having funny weird dreams. If it was not for jokes and comedy, poor would go nuts, that is what we have, our weapon, our food is comedy.

Noah Cicero: I don’t like movies made about poor people that are all sad, with dramatic music and gun violence. Most poor people never shoot anyone, we get up and do what we can to make life worth living, we love sports, we love our pets, we listen to music and dance, we get drunk and scream at other. When something is broken, we have to fix it ourselves, we have to make life work.

Blackcat: About what topics you think that is necessary to write, example: try to build a future, or try to give answers to the people about the present?

Noah Cicero: Try to answer the questions of the future, when writing I try to figure out questions no one are asking and try to bring those questions up, not so much give answers, but makes questions. The audience doesn’t want answers, they want questions.

Blackcat: You think that Dennys is this kind of place that all that are there equal (no matter if they have $1000 or $0 in the wallet) all has the same feeling about their life?

Noah Cicero: We are all the same, apples taste the same to all of us, the rain feels the same on our skin, music sounds the same for all of us, we just project different values on it. When we are in Dennys, we are just n Dennys, Dennys doesn’t care about wealth, the food taste horrible, the servers are tired, the lighting is bad and it is never clean. It is just a place to go, for anyone.

Blackcat: The title of some of your books are strong, Condemned, Doom, and your characters fight to understand their life, the complex system in which they must survive, other part of your characters not has any question, they just live, in any of the case, they assume their role and has hope? In the past generation this people (the same construction of the characters) only complaint about this situation and not do anything.  ¿why you think that has this difference in the past generation and your generation?

Noah Cicero: Right now, the right wing party in my country the Republicans are being obviously crazy, they want to close down Planned Parenthood (Which helps women with STD testing, cancer testing, birth control and abortions) the Republicans want to shut down medicare (A program that gives people health insurance) They want to shut down the Affordable Care Act (Another program that gives health care to people.) They want to go to war with Iran, they hate the LGBTQ community, they don’t care if African-Americans are killed by the police and they call Latinos “Rapists.” They are going crazy with anger and resentment, they are driving the liberals to fight harder because they are fighting so crazy.

Blackcat: What you think about the auto publish and to use Amazon for sell your books, you think that this dynamic is positive for the literature, you think that in the future this will be the only way to find something different of the offer that give us the Majors?

Noah Cicero: I think small presses are offering a lot of good books. The big presses usually only publish books that take place in NYC or having sex in Europe, the major presses don’t care about anything else. If you want to write a book that isn’t about NYC or having sex in Europe, you will have to go with a small press. Unless it is nonfiction, nonfiction is the new trend in America, telling great stories using a famous person or a historical event, Americans don’t seem that interested in fiction anymore. I’ve begun writing nonfiction because I think it will be a better direction for me.

Blackcat: Finally, could you recommend me 3 writers of your generation?

Noah Cicero: I love Scott McClanahan, Sam Pink and Lara Glenum.

Blackcat: Finally 2, you live of your novels and are you working in a next book?

Noah Cicero: I am writing a book of philosophy that will probably go in the nonfiction section somewhere, it will probably be called Being and Buddhism, I am basically attempting to combine Heidegger, Sartre and Camus with Zen Masters Bodhidharma, Lin Chi, Dogen and the Lankavatara Sutra.

Note: thanks Noah for your time.