Well, back from muddy old Devon.
Considering the fact that this is the blog of a fairly active published writer, I think I actually give you, my dear readers, very little news about what I’m doing on the publishing front. Well, let me fill you in a little. Much of my recent news surrounds a short story called 'The Cypher'. It appears in the latest issue of the new magazine Midnight Street, and it has also been translated into German for an anthology by German publisher Medusenblut. The story has been translated by the talented German writer Eddie M. Angerhuber. She wrote to me recently for a writer’s biog to put in the anthology. I obliged, but there was some information missing from the biog I sent. Eddie wrote back with some extra questions for me to answer, which I did in a fairly off the cuff, but, I hope, informative fashion. It occurred to me as I did so that, since no one ever interviews me, I might as well use this brief question and answer session as an interview on my blog. The fact is, I enjoy interviews very much, and I’m sure there’s no better reason to be famous than to sit with a glass of water and have someone ask you endless questions as if you’re the most fascinating person in the world. You may be wondering, if no one ever interviews me, how I know that I enjoy interviews. Well, apart from the fact that I’m an incorrigible daydreamer, I think I have arrived at this conclusion from my experiences through the years with various professionals and volunteers whose duty it is to listen for the sake of the emotional and mental well being of their… erm… patients??
Anyway, if you want to know more about 'The Cypher' before seeking it out, I shall state briefly that it is about drugs and dictionaries. Now the interview:
Q: What are your main interests in life?
A: I am interested in Japanese literature, especially the writers Mishima Yukio, Nagai Kafu, Higuchi Ichiyo, Tanizaki Jun’ichiro and Dazai Osamu. Apart from that my interests are not very clearly defined. I like to go for walks and listen to music. I enjoy certain sci-fi programmes from my childhood, such as Doctor Who and Blakes 7. I can speak, read and write Japanese. I drink a great deal of tea, green and otherwise.
Q: Where do you currently live? (Do you still live in Japan?)
A: I live in Twickenham, which is on the south-west edge of London. I often take walks along a particularly leafy stretch of the River Thames where there are many swans, geese and moorhens.
Q: Perhaps you could tell me a bit about Japan; why did you move there?
A: I have lived in Japan twice, both times in order to study. The first time I was studying Japanese language, the second time Japanese language and literature. I have a general fascination with Japanese culture, and with Japanese literature in particular. Also, I had been unemployed for over five years, and I thought that I wanted to change my life. I thought going to university, studying Japanese and – as part of the course – living in Japan, might achieve this end. It did change my life to some extent, but not really in the way I had hoped. Now I am back from Japan I am still unemployed, and not really using my Japanese, except in a private capacity.
Q: Or had you been born there?
A: No, I was born in Devon – the English countryside.
Q: How old are you?
A: Thirty-two and counting.
Q: Tell me about your profession.
A: I really don’t have a profession. I am simply the least professional – most amateur – human being that I know. Of course, I will need to make money somehow to survive, but I just don’t know how I’m going to do this. It seems to be a very big problem for me.
Q: Why did you choose to write horror fiction?
A: I didn’t. I really didn’t choose to write horror fiction at all. I find myself in a frustrating position because I’m not really a genre writer and not really the kind of writer who is accepted by the mainstream. I just write what I write, which is fairly deranged and childish fiction about totally imaginary events. I tend to think of it as personal mythology. The first two stories I happened to get published were – by chance – very gothic horror. And John B. Ford noticed one of these stories – 'The Psychopomps' – and very kindly got in touch with me and helped to introduce me to the horror scene. So that is where I find myself. I don’t hate horror. I am very fond of the good stuff in the horror genre, and I LOVE the gothic tradition of Maturin, Lewis, Shelley, Poe, Lovecraft, Ligotti and so on. But I’m really no more than a deranged child in an adult’s body finger-painting whatever daydreams I happen to have.
Q: What else do you write? Do you have other occupations or hobbies?
A: Well, see above. I’m hoping that what I write will become clearer to readers over time, but I’m not having much luck in convincing publishers to invest in me so far, so it’s hard to reach a readership in the first place. Anyway, I’m hoping to champion new forms of fiction, mixing narrative with essay and autobiography. I am very much influenced by the ‘zuihitsu’ or ‘miscellaneous writing’ style in Japanese literature.
I’m also hoping to branch out into manga, but this remains a pipe dream at present [NB since the 'interview' took place this hope has shifted status from pipe dream to plan]. I like the idea of mixing media. I have many plans.
I don’t really have any other occupations. Writing and writing-based creativity takes up most of my spare time. But I am an omnivorous reader. I want to know everything there is to know. I haven’t got very far in this goal.
Q: Could you give the link to your personal web site?
A: So far I only really have my weblog. The link is as follows:
<http://quentinscrisp.blogspot.com/>
I hope to have a proper website in the future.
Well, at least it was Yokohama. If you really had been returning to Kobe I think the taxi bill would probably have bankrupted you.
Let me first of all congratulate you on being published (outside of a blog) – then let me say I found your interview interesting and revealing. As one who has been to Japan many times (in my youth) but who was never there long enough to learn the language I salute you. A second language is an asset(I do speak and write Spanish fluently but Spain is rather a long way from Japan and it would not help me much in Kobe I suppose). My own battered copy of ‘Everyday Japanese’ sits in my study bookshelf taunting me.
I was in East Twickenham a week or so ago, staying at a friends not far from Richmond bridge and I know something of that area, being an expatriate Londoner. I am not greatly attracted to the Horror genre myself, although I have written several long verses – some years ago – in the ‘spirit’ – no pun intended – of Edgar Alan Poe and they were well received at the time. I tip my cap to you Quentin. Very well done.
~~lokutus~~
..
I remember an ‘adventure’ in Penang (in my ‘merchant navy’ days). Again, I was out with the long suffering, cynical ‘Dot’ – he of the acerbic wit and very dry humour. It turned out to be an ‘adventure’ only because the incredibly beautiful malaysian girls we had chatted up in a bar – although why we were not esconced on our ship, lounging in our bunks, discussing Aristotle, or engaging our sharp wits in game of brag, is a profound question and one which has haunted me down the years (not) – turned out to be ladyboys. I am still astonished that, initially, I had not noticed anything unusual. But Tiger beer sometimes had that effect.
So, you were in Kobe? The second time I was in Japan, I was in Kyoto. I had a miserable time, but lately I’m beginning to feel nostalgic for the place. I spoke on the phone today to someone I know in Japan and she said she’d found a rustic little onsen at the foot of the local mountain that was just my kind of place, and that I must go there next time I visit. Unfortunately, having no money, I don’t know when that will be.
What were you doing in Kobe?
I’m afraid that I’m only really bi-lingual. I took up Mandarin, too, but I’m far from fluent in it. I don’t feel I can really call myself a linguist till I have at least one more language under my belt, but I wonder if I ever shall.
Yes, I am getting published here and there. Copies of my collection Morbid Tales have been in Waterstones – the Picaddilly branch. I don’t know if they’re still there. I have a new collection – Rule Dementia! out in February. There should be a launch party for it somewhere in London.
…and of course the “more sober return to Kobe” never happened, because we were returning to Yokohama.
Happy New Year Quentin.
I was in Kobe during my time in the merchant navy (during my late teens and into my early twenties). The ship was on a world cruise and we were sailing around Japan on one of our tours. The ship I was on also called into Yokohama and Shimazoa (not certain if I’m spelling that last place correctly). One night after a hectic few days in Yokohama me and my friend ‘Dot’ decided to go to a japanese bath house – geisha girls, etc, the whole works, or so we thought. We naturally had to tour the bars first (young guys eh? – what can you say about ’em!) and by the time I managed to pull out a box of matches from my levis and pointed to the magic words “Tokyo Turkish Baths” gesturing happily to a taxi driver and saying something like “.. u take us to this tokyo place – desu ka?” Then ‘Dot’ and I crashed into the inside of the cab and crashed out, so to speak. Much later we were shaken awake by the excited driver saying “Tokyo! Tokyo! – ok Joe?”
In a two hour drive he had taken us to the Capital city! – so much for my box of matches and my enthusiastic signing at the word “Tokyo”. We ended up NOT being at the mercy of beautiful Japanese girls in Kobe at the “Tokyo Turkish Baths” and having to hand over a large sum of yen for the drunken ride and the more sober return to Kobe. Of course there were other opportunities, but that night stays in my mind always and I have wined and dined on the story (and many others) over the years. I will be posting another true story about what happened in Yokohama when I was invited to take a number of schoolgirls around the ship and then was invited back to their very high class school to meet their school principle. I don’t want to spoil the surprise in the story so I’ll refrain from further comment.
I don’t really have many amusing anecdotes from Japan, I think. I suppose there was the time that someone I was staying with, after he had taken me to the baths, ending up describing my western wedding tackle in great depth at someone else’s dinner table. Everyone was looking at me as he talking. It was kind of embarrassing.
I have some other anecdotes that don’t really bear repeating here.
Q, The sentence that says “We ended up NOT being at the mercy of beautiful Japanese girls in Kobe at the “Tokyo Turkish Baths” should say “We ended up NOT being at the mercy of beautiful Japanese girls in Yokohama at the “Tokyo Turkish Baths”.
I think I actually wasted most of my time discussing Aristotle with my acerbic compatriot while I was in Japan. Well, not Aristotle exactly, but not far off. The amount of time I spent in the kind of place where I could ever hope to meet ladyboys was unfortunately negligible.