By Gregory Frye.
1) Stay God contains a peculiar amount of pop culture references ranging from Freddy Krueger to Kurt Vonnegut to The Godfather. Is this simply how the first-person narrator thinks or is there more to it?
I think it’s both, and there are two ways to answer that. The first is that it’s first-book syndrome, and the way Damon speaks is how I speak. So in strictly narrative terms, it’s just the way the character speaks, which, if I’ve done anything right, the reader just reads it as that and accepts it. The other answer is more of a con artist answer. I’m a gigantic fan of Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg. Their BBC series Spaced is one of my favorites, and even though Jessica Stevenson was the co-writer, they usually get more attention. Anyway, in some interview, they talked about how all of the references in Spaced weren’t just nods/rip-offs from their favorite movies, but more that Tim and Daisy live lives so entrenched with pop culture that the culture essentially becomes their lives. That idea stuck with me, especially because my friends and I all converse through film quotes. Following that line of thinking, I tried to defamiliarize some of the pop culture stuff (the Jesus-hates-it-when-you-smoke ashtray, the Ronald-Reagan-in-Kiss-makeup zippo) to comment on their relevance today. Some of them worked better than others, I think. My favorite was the empty Sex Pistols VHS case that was used to exchange money. Can’t remember if that made it into the final draft, though. Either way, I think it wavers between childish and thoughtful; hopefully I fell on the right side.
2) Damon’s world in this book – his pawnshop/drug dispensary, his friendships, the relationship with Mary – is very well-realized. It really pulls the reader into the narrative. Can you talk about the genesis of the story and the process you want went through in putting it all together?
The story sort of bloomed out of some scribblings when I was drinking in a cafe in Ljubljana, Slovenia. I think I still have that napkin, actually. Anyway, I wanted to write something that was somewhere between Pulp Fiction, High Fidelity and Garden State. And… somehow I ended up with Stay God. Two things I really wanted to push were the relationship between Damon and Christian and the character of Mary.
I love the way Simon Pegg and Nick Frost interact in films, how it’s not awkward if they fall asleep on the couch next to each other, how it’s okay to tell your male friends that you love them. They don’t feel the need to make some lame I’m-not-gay joke like a lot of mainstream Hollywood films do. My best friend and I have a similar relationship, so it was easy to mine real life for material, and just take out the boring parts.
The other thing I wanted to do was make sure that Mary was a very real person. She can be one of the dudes, she can be sexy, she can be vindictive, but she’s always being herself. I knew she’d pretty much have to be a martyr to put up with Damon, so I had to make sure that their love was believable, that what he does – be it good or what-the-fuck – he doesn’t do it with malice towards her.
Basically, I wanted to write a love story, both between Damon and Mary, and Damon and Mary, but set in this really dirty, awful world. I didn’t want any of the characters to really be good or bad, because real people aren’t like that, and absolute characters aren’t interesting to read. I find it strange, too, how many people comment on how dark the book is. I think it’s a really funny read. I’m not sure what that says about me.
3) This book is almost a disturbed love letter to Baltimore, even John Waters makes a brief appearance. Aside from living there, what is it about Baltimore that pulls at your creative strings?
Heh, the thing about Baltimore that pulls my creative strings is Baltimore. How’s that for a zen answer. It’s funny that you say love letter, because I’d been trying to get out of Baltimore for a while. I finally moved to London to do a degree and within three weeks I fell massively homesick. Before I even had the idea for Stay God, I knew I wanted to set it in Baltimore so I could see the city.
So, Baltimore. The people and landscape are indistinguishable from each other. There are collapsing brick tenements next to million-dollar rowhomes. Kids who run through the streets in Perkins will spend their lives looking up at the new penthouses three blocks away but never be able to step foot in the lobby. I find hypos among the mums in the flower beds in front of the tattoo shop where I work. The Capitals have a better chance of winning the World Series than the Orioles, but no one from out of town can say anything bad about the Os without eating knuckles. It gets lost between the lights of New York and DC, and despite that – maybe as a result – people develop this well, fuck you, I’ll do it myself attitude. The lit scene is blowing up with tons of incredibly talented writers and poets. A bunch of bands are getting national attention. Artists from New York are moving down here because it’s cheaper and less constricting. It’s a total D.I.Y. city that makes beautiful things from nothing, most of the people are really nice, and no one can touch our crab cakes.
4) What are your writing plans for the immediate future, and what kind of challenges are you facing after the first book is out?
I’m planning on plowing through the rough draft of the next novel during the semester break, when I don’t need to think about lesson plans or grading papers. The second novel has been interesting because I started it two years ago, made a lot of headway, then had to re-write half of it, then got distracted and wrote two novellas and am finally getting round to it. It might’ve been a good thing, though, because I’m approaching it with fresh eyes.
The biggest challenge is just getting the book into as many hands as possible. Being on a small press, we constantly have to hustle and whore ourselves out, but at the same time it’s exciting. Makes you feel like any success you receive, you’ve really earned. I’ve got a novella called Old Ghosts coming out in a few months on Brown Paper Publishing, so I’ll be promoting that as well. Then, finishing up the second book and moving on to another.
Of course, after the success of Stay God, I’ll have to figure out where to park my yacht, whether I want to take the Belmont or the Tin Lizzy to work, if the tiger I get from Mike Tyson is getting the proper nutrients. You know, the usual.
5) If Stay God were a car, what kind of car would it be?
It’d either be an X-wing fighter or the Challenger from Death Proof, except with less dialogue. Or maybe it’s a late 40s Ford woody wagon with a longboard hanging like a tongue out the back. Either way, there’s the Stones or The Ventures or The Clash really loud on the stereo, some trashed paperbacks on the floor and sand in the seats. There also might be someone getting pregnant in the rear bench seat. Chances are there’s a body in the trunk as well.
Stay God by Nik Korpon is published by Otherworld Publications on December 16th. Look out for a review on 3:AM soon.