Hace unos días tuve la oportunidad de entrevistar
via Email, al escritor Socrates Adams (1984). Su novela Todo Va Bien es un
claro reflejo actual de la vida de un empleado de oficina. Es un libro muy
bueno con toques de humor y locura. En la entrevista hablamos sobre su libro Todo Va Bien, su estilo de escritura y un ligero vistazo a su generación.
Entrevista
Nota: Por respeto a las palabras exactas del autor la entrevista se queda en su idioma original.
Blackcat: Your style of writing is different, you write in fragments. You write the necessary to keep moving the story. I like this style because you remove all the unnecessary actions and description. Why you choose this style?
Blackcat: Your style of writing is different, you write in fragments. You write the necessary to keep moving the story. I like this style because you remove all the unnecessary actions and description. Why you choose this style?
Socrates Adams: Ok, I feel as
though maybe when I wrote Everything's Fine I'd been strongly influenced by
many internet writers who I'd gotten into through reading blogs and chapbooks
etc. That most likely was something that shaped the way the book was written.
It wasn't necessarily however a conscious decision to write in a particular
style; in a way I'd say that maybe neither I nor anyone else really has any
choice over the way in which they write. It's interesting to think of actions
and descriptions which haven't been described as unnecessary. I don't know
for sure that they weren't. I'm sure I missed out on plenty of things which
might have made the novel better.
Blackcat: Many writers
born in the blog. One of the characteristics of your generation is that live
very quick, live in a world that needs to communicate very quickly (eliminate
all the unnecessary). You think that this characteristics influence in
writers?, you think that one of the best characteristic of the writers that has
this style is the capacity to condense a powerful idea in one phrase.
Socrates Adams: I suppose that
I think that every element of existence which is experienced by everyone who is
alive influences people who write. I don't really know what the best
characteristics of writers are. I don't mean to be obtuse, I just feel as
though I am not qualified or knowledgeable enough to know what is
important to other writers. I think that it's important for writers to be able
to convey ideas with subtlety and efficiency, for sure. Although
having said that, when I examine what those words really mean to me, I struggle
to articulate cogently exactly why it is that I feel they would have any bonus
to writers, other than the idea of, maybe, trying to combat boredom in the mind
of a reader. I feel like, and maybe it's just because I seem to be writing
longer things now, it's more exciting to convey a powerful idea in a long,
richly textured, drawn out, painful, almost boring way.
Blackcat: The phrase
Every is Fine is very powerful, because in my opinion describe the desire of
the people of ignore all the problems. They need to ignore their problems
because the people know that they can´t fight with the system, this phrase help
them to survive (is a way to enter in a virtually). What you think? Why you
think that the people that work a lot is very passivity and choose to hide in
the material things (consume of things for example technology)?
Socrates Adams: Yes,
definitely when I wrote the book, Everything's Fine was a phrase which it felt
as though someone would whisper to themselves while their life fell apart
around them. I think that Ian, the main character of the book, is both fully
aware of the terrible situation he is in, and also at the same time, has no
idea how bad things really are. Maybe that doesn't make sense. What I mean is
that he is in the same kind of weird duality as all of us, which comes down to
the absolute classic 'I know my life is meaningless but I'm going to live it
pretending it's not' syndrome. I am maybe more mellow about things nowadays. I
feel as though if someone wants to become obsessed with material things and
technology etc then that is absolutely fine and that any path through life is
equally valid and brilliant as any other. I am sorry that I'm rambling and not
making much sense.
Blackcat: Mildred is a
great character, for you, what represents Mildred? Is It reflects our
attachment to material things? or is it how to replace the person something
material?
Socrates Adams: Mildred
really, for me, came out of the idea that sometimes it feels as though it's
easier and more fulfilling to look after someone/something else rather than
yourself, and in a way, it doesn't matter what the thing you're looking after
is. I don't know whether I feel as though she reflects our attachment to
material things, but I feel as though if someone else feels that she might in
some way reflect that, then she totally does.
Blackcat: The figure of
the boss is a great description of how now the work is in any moment of your
life. I think that this is a great critic of the capitalism. The capitalism
requires you to produce more and more to the point that you ignore your
personal life, at the end of this effort anybody (boss, company) how you feel
or if you are close to dead. What you think about you’re your character of the
boss.
Socrates Adams: I just feel
really sorry for the boss and I want to give him a hug and tell him
everything's OK and help him to be happier just the same as I'd like to do to
everyone alive everywhere. Everyone has strange pressures put on them by life
and capitalism is just maybe an expression of existence and I wish often that
we could inhabit each others' minds in order to better understand each other,
but with luck in the future we will be some kind of totally empathetic
hive-mind anyway.
Blackcat: How you
describe the writers of your generation?
Socrates Adams: I think that
they are the same as the writers of every generation except maybe greater in
number, but only perhaps because there are more of us as a species alive and
affluent enough (and by that I mean not in immediate threat of death) in order
to consider writing.
Blackcat: What you think
about the auto publishing, eBooks and the digital stores of books?
Socrates Adams: I think that
all of these things are fine although I personally prefer to read physical
books. I think all change is natural and to fight against it is maybe fruitless.
Blackcat: Are you
working in a new project?
Socrates Adams: I'm currently
editing a new novel called The Sea Bed. My second
novel, A Modern Family, was
published a couple of years ago in the UK by Bluemoose Books.
Blackcat: Could you
recommend me some writers of your generation?
Socrates Adams: Sam Pink,
Chris Killen, Anneliese Mackintosh (my wife), Joe Stretch, Crispin Best, Ben
Brooks, Noah Cicero. I have missed out on a lot, most likely :)
Socrates Adams: Sorry about my
weird answers. I've never had any media training, so I guess I'm something of a
maverick.
Blackcat: Thanks Socrates
for your time.
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