Let's Get Graphic

One of my good friends from college, Cesar, is currently getting his MA in something fawncy like "Writing for Stage and Broadcast Media" in none other than London! Oh, I remember the first time we really solidified our friendship - I rode him across the beach during a nighttime dorm floor bonfire! It was then when we knew we were meant to be in each other's lives. Now he is away in the Queen's Country and I miss his face terribly! Distance makes the heart grow fonder? Oh Cezie, come back to me! And write me into another one of your plays/stories...

Cesar's been on a graphic novel kick lately and has not stopped yappin' about it. Seeing as I've yet to delve into the genre we got to talking about his current obsessions over gchat and it led to a little interview. Gosh bless the future where I can suck in Cesar's thoughts from across the pond!

1. What book are you currently reading? Who is it by? What is it about?

I’m reading a graphic novel, Scott Pilgrim and the Infinite Sadness, which is the third in a proposed seven-part series by a Canadian artist named Bryan Lee O’Malley. The series as a whole is about this slacker/rock-star-in-his-own-head named Scott Pilgrim, who lives in this awesomely Gen-Y universe in Toronto (all the characters are in rock bands that are named after characters in old school Nintendo video games, etc.). He falls in love with an American named Ramona Flowers, who works as a delivery girl for Amazon.ca (see? That’s the Canadian version of Amazon), but in order to date her, he has to defeat her seven evil ex-boyfriends. The third novel, specifically, deals with Scott and his ex-girlfriend, Envy, who is now a major rock-star on the Canadian indie front and exploring their tragic and poignant love affair as college students.

2. How did you happen to come across this book? Was it a recommendation? Did you read a review? Random bookshop find?

This is silly: I’m not even sure why I was on Michael Cera’s Wikipedia page (I’m pretty sure that it has to do with the fact that he’s been cast in the film version of Youth in Revolt, which, whatever), but on there, a film version of “comic book Scott Pilgrim” was listed as a project he’s starting to film now (his casting is… whatever). I clicked onto the Wiki page for Scott Pilgrim and thought the premise and ensemble of characters sounded intriguing, so I went to the graphic novel’s home page, where the first chapter of the first novel were available to read. I read it and thought it was the funniest and coolest thing I’d read in a while. So, when my brother and I went to a comic shop in the Camden Market in London, I stumbled across them and bought the first one. I read it flat in two days (though I’ve reread it since) and bought the rest of the ones available (the fifth volume is scheduled to be released this month).

3. How do you normally choose the books you read?

I’m pretty simple like that (as in so many other ways). I tend to be a “lemme-read-the-back-cover” kinda guy. Sometimes, titles need to catch me. If it has a creative title, then I’ll give it a chance. But usually, the copywriter who writes on the inside flap or back cover has to sell the story to me. Sometimes, it’s recommendations – some of my favorites have been books that other people have read before me, and since I think I’m an open book (pun totally intended) when it comes to what kind of a story or characters turn me on, people have a pretty good knack of guessing what I’ll like.

4. What was the last book you read? Who is it by? What is it about?

The last book I read was another graphic novel (I’ve been devouring them since last July, when my brother and I went to San Diego Comic-Con), but a masterpiece – Alan Moore’s Watchmen, obviously the source of the upcoming movie. Well, Alan Moore, who’s a British writer, wrote the story, but Dave Gibbons illustrated it, and it’s brilliant. I’m not going to go too much into it since the movie’s coming out and all, and I’m sure the trailers tell you, but in a very, very brief nutshell, it’s about an alternate 1985 where the Cold War is still raging and international tensions are at an all-time high. In the US, “costumed adventurers” (people who dress up and fight crime but don’t have any powers; Batman would fall into this category) have been outlawed, but when the retired ones are getting killed (or at least someone attempts to kill them), they begrudgingly join together to solve the crime. But it’s so much better, so much more textured, and so much more brilliant than my piece-of-shit description of it. Honestly, it’s fucking amazing.

5. Can you name your favourite book? And why is this your favourite?

There are a few that I’m struggling between, but I think my de facto favorite book is The Stand by Stephen King. I’ve read it so many times, and I’ve loved it for longer than I’ve loved any other book (the first time I read it, I was ten years old, so it’s been in my life for fifteen years now). It’s great because it encompasses all these genres in it: it’s about post-apocalyptic America, so there’s that, but it’s also a character study on, like, twenty major characters; it’s a road novel – you see (or read about) so many disparate locations in the States that don’t get a lot of novel pages devoted to them. There’s spirituality without being preachy, there’s humor, there’s soap-opera twists, there’s mysteries. It just encompasses a lot; plus, it’s King’s most descriptive novel without him masturbating the words, which he can definitely do.

6. What genre of books do you prefer? Or do you have a favourite author whose works you gravitate towards?

It really depends on my mood. I remember, one summer I was in this really emo mood, so I went to the bookstore every day, scouring the shelves for books about breakups or sad bitch boys. Recently, before I came to London, I was in this film noir kick, so I started reading anything by Raymond Chandler or Dashiell Hammett, as well as James Ellroy’s “L.A. Quartet.” I’m pretty fickle about stuff like genres, I’m not really loyal to anything, which can be both a good thing and a bad thing. Though I do always check out what Stephen King is coming out with, as a rule.

7. What was your favourite book growing up? What was it about this book that you loved so much as a child?

This will sound totally morbid, but I loved Dracula as a kid. When the movie came out when I was a kid (1992’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula), there was Dracula fever everywhere, and it was a story I kinda knew, but not specifically. So I picked up my movie-tie-in copy (by Stoker, of course, but with the poster on the cover) and started reading and, boy, it was awesome in more ways than I can describe. That book sums up a good portion of my childhood, sadly.

8. What book growing up was THE book that made you fond of reading/literature?

Probably Gone With the Wind. It was the first real book that I read and, while I didn’t get a lot of the nuances that I gained on several subsequent readings, it really disciplined me to read and made me love it.

9. Was there a particular writer that inspired you to write?

Writers continue to inspire me to write and teach me new things and techniques. But the first writer who I recognized as a writer, as his own genre beyond the individual books, was probably Roald Dahl. There was magic in his books, a kind of wonder that I’d feel when reading that I’m not sure I’ve experienced again. And the way he told stories made me realize that that’s what I wanted to do with my life.

10. What books do you often recommend to friends? Why?

Whatever great book I’ve just read is what I tend to recommend to people. It’s rare that I recommend one of my favorites if I haven’t just recently re-read it, and I’m not sure why that is. I think it might be because my mind doesn’t work long-term in that sense. Reading is so immediate for me, so whatever I’m reading is at the forefront of my mind.

11. Do you carry a book around with you everywhere?

If I’m reading something currently, then I always have that in my bag. Otherwise, I am bookless.

12. In the book "Ex Libris" by Ann Fadiman that I am currently reading (on and off) she mentions having an "Odd Shelf". It's a collection of books you own that are of a particular genre...but just really random collection of books whose subject matter is totally unrelated to the rest of your collection. her Odd Shelf holds 64 books about polar exploration: naval manuals, journals, narratives, collections of photographs, etc. Do you have an "odd shelf"? And if so, what subject matter would I find? If you do not currently have an "odd shelf" per se, what would your ideal "odd shelf" contain?

Well… I don’t currently have an odd shelf. But over the years, I guess I’ve had variations of odd shelves: when I was in high school, all the books I ever had to read for class were on a shelf together, and ultimately, by the end of the four years, most of them had nothing to do with each other besides the fact that I read them in school. Since I moved to London, I obviously couldn’t bring all the books I had, so the tiny bookshelf in my room is kind of an odd shelf, since the books I now have are kinda disparate, mostly an odd collection of plays (for class and leisure), a few graphic novels, travel books on London, and a few scripts from class.

13. Is there a fictional character you would love to spend a day with and what would you do?

I always think about which characters I’d be friends with in real life, so with that in mind, I’d love to have a summer picnic with both Huck Finn and Scarlett O’Hara. It’s those Southerners! Plus, I love the fact that they are both so attached to their environments – those two characters more than any others that I could think of are so part of their worlds, and I do have a fascination with the antebellum South. Plus, come on! Huck and Scarlett! The banter and arguments would be amazing!

14. If you could only have 3 books with your on that wretched hypothetical desert island which would they be? Why?

The Stand by Stephen King for the aforementioned reasons. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, because it is so evocative of my hometown of San Francisco, capturing it better than any other SF-set work that I’ve ever read (apart from Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City), and that’s probably where’d I be longing to go if I were marooned on an island. Endless Love by Scott Spencer, because who doesn’t love a tragic stalker-love-story?

15. What works have you written? Articles? Essays? Plays?

16. If you could adapt any book into a movie which book would it be?

That’s the million dollar question, isn’t it? Not counting remaking things, because there have been some terrible adaptations of things, I’d love to make a movie out of Rats Saw God by Rob Thomas, who is also the creator of our beloved Veronica Mars. It’s one of the most realistic boy’s-journey-through-high-school stories I’ve ever experienced. And, then, there’s my lifelong goal of writing Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude as a massive miniseries.

17. When do you find time to read? How long does a reading session last?

When I need to just calm down and have my own space. That’s the time when I naturally tend to read. It’s such a solitary thing, but in a good way. Writing is solitary, too, but you (or, at least, I do) have to draw a lot from your environment, from things within your grasp that you might need to have a reprieve from, and in reading, you don’t have to worry about any of that shit. Usually, my reading sessions are short – 45 minutes usually being the longest.

18. Do you have a favourite spot to read at? Can you read in any situation (noisy, crowded, etc.)

n my bed. Honestly, it is the best feeling to be curled under your covers and just reading in silence, regardless of the time of day. However, high school trained me to be able to read in crowded, loud places, like the bus, when I’d be reading for English class on my way into school. Noises don’t bother me, but it’s always wonderful to have the comfortable silence.

19. Can you read in another language? And if not, which language would you like to read/write in?

I can read in Spanish. I read The House of the Spirits in both languages, and while the English adaptation is great, the Spanish text is hauntingly beautiful.

20. Do you have any random reading quirks? (You refuse to write in margins? You hate folder pages or bending the spines? You reflect upon a passage for hours/days?)

I like having my books on display, so I try to keep them as pristine as possible. My brother borrowed my copy of One Hundred Years of Solitude for class, and when he returned it, it was full of highlights and notes in the margins, and I just about lost it. I told him to keep it and that I’d get my own copy. I’m really silly and weird like that. Books are pretty! Don’t hurt them!