SoMa Literary Review - Q & A With Kemble Scott

Q & A With Kemble Scott

Kensington Books
320 pages
ISBN 0-7582-1549-5
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- Official Web Site of Author Kemble Scott

An interview with Kemble Scott

Conducted by Kensington Books

Many events in SoMa are apparently based on actual occurrences. How did you come across such a multitude of bizarre stories?

These days, bizarre stories seem to find me.

I’m very curious – if I hear an interesting story, I ask questions. That’s the journalist in me. People love to talk about themselves, and they’ll share the most amazing details. I carry around a little notebook and the first chance I get I scribble down everything I can remember to use later.

Which doesn’t mean I believe these tales. People also love to fib and exaggerate.

So I’ll do my own research to confirm a story, sometimes going to see for myself. That’s what happened with the BARTM4M scene in SoMa. I’d heard the story a dozen times from a guy who rode the commuter train every day. He couldn’t stop talking about it! It sounded too outrageous to be true, but I wrote a version of the story based on what he described. The first draft was terrible. I’d never taken the commuter train before, so I struggled with the details. What did the station look like? How did it smell? I didn’t even know the color of the seats on the train. The next afternoon I went for a ride. Sure enough, on my very first trip I witnessed the fetish first hand, so to speak.

Now that I’ve developed a reputation for these twisted tales on my website, people routinely seek me out to tell me their strangest stories. Just the other day I heard about the most bizarre new behavior involving iPods…

Raphe is a character who has been let down by the either-or, strictly binary dot-com world. Rather than seeing everything in black and white, his new existence forces him to accept many of life’s gray areas. Yet, many of our contemporary leaders claim to live by moral and religious absolutes (and seek to impose those absolutes on others). Why did you write a novel that lives so much “in the gray,” and why do you think so many Americans are uncomfortable with ambiguity?

Alvin Toffler was mostly right with his predictions in 1970 in Future Shock. We now live in that anticipated age of “information overload.” But instead of rejecting tech and retreating to agrarian compounds, many people are shutting down in a different way. They’ve turned off their brains.

It’s easy to see why it’s happening. People are bombarded with media and messages to the point where it’s too much to process, so they accept easy answers. They embrace ridiculous notions like Red States and Blue States . The truth is, the United States isn’t really divided into Red and Blue. If you apply those color codes, everyone turns out to be a shade a purple.

When the world is dumbed down to simple black/white, yes/no choices, it makes life easier to conceive. The problem, of course, is that such simplistic, dogmatic thinking is usually wrong and inherently dangerous. The character of Lauren in SoMa represents this fundamentalist type of thinking. If a guy isn’t with her, he must be against her. You’re on her side, or you’re her enemy. Or to quote someone else, “You’re with us or with the terrorists.” As Lauren learns the hard way, dismissing the world’s shades of gray can lead to a heap of trouble.

People are complex, and so are the issues they face. Raphe struggles with the discovery that he’s an individual, not fitting into the ready-made definitions of society. SoMa tackles this gray zone through its exploration of sexuality, but it’s analogous to much of life in the new millennium.

You have an impressive ability to write both gay and straight sex scenes. I’m hard pressed to think of many other writers who can do this. Can you name a few, and discuss whether or not they had any influence on you?

The problem with writing sexy sex scenes is describing the male organ. Let’s face it, all the words we have in English sound silly. I was once asked to review an anthology of short stories that were supposed to be sexy. I ended up making a list of the stupid phrases the writers used: honker, pisser, poker, monster, putter, scepter, piston, schlong and meat tube. The editor refused to print my list. It was too dirty for the newspaper.

The master of writing about sexy sex without using dirty or silly words was Anaïs Nin back in the 1940s. Her work is beautiful and provocative, no matter if the scene is straight, gay or godknowswhat. She wrote about it all, but you won’t find a single meat tube in her prose.

On my wall I have a framed original letter from Anaïs written in 1970 to writer Maurice Rosenbaum. In it she complains about how she is “misquoted, disliked and misunderstood” in the media.

So while I treasure the artifact, and I am inspired by her work to be careful with my language, the letter is also a frequent reminder to me of what can happen to authors who write about sex.

Craigslist.org features prominently in SoMa’s plot. It’s a community site that allows strangers to easily share goods, ideas and services. Yet, many of the “dot-com bust” characters in SoMa use it simply to find anonymous sex. As a writer, do you feel technology serves to isolate people more than it connects them?

There’s a funny expression I quote in SoMa about online dating: “The odds are good, but the goods are odd.”

I use Craigslist.org as the ultimate temple of technology in SoMa, and eventually all the characters end up praying in that church. Sometimes they receive divine intervention. Sometimes they get burned. The internet is a devilish trickster.

The blessing of technology is how it allows people to find each other and bond in ways that were unfathomable not so long ago. A person struggling with cancer in Istanbul can get advice from a survivor in Anaheim . Adoptees are reunited with brothers and sisters they never knew they had. You can sell that Ikea couch you hate to someone who’s always wanted one just like it.

And yes, you can possibly find your perfect love match. If you seek a “Diesel Dyke Harley-riding Save-the-Whales Log Cabin Republican red head (no weirdoes please)” – then the internet gives you the chance to find her. In fact, you can find hundreds who fit that description.

That’s the conundrum. You can hook up in an instant with your ideal, and have an unfathomable number of liaisons, all facilitated by websites like Craigslist. Does quantity create substance in human relationships? Or does it simply make it easier to know more people at a superficial level?

It depends on your definition of what constitutes a meaningful human connection.

It’s logical to believe there’s a better chance of understanding someone if you’re with them for a long time. But then how do you explain couples who have been together twenty years, then wake up one morning, look at each other and say, “I have no idea who you are.”

You have to wonder how many people are capable of making meaningful connections with others, internet or not. At least with websites like Craigslist, you can try to screen.

In recent advertising campaigns, books, and films, American pop culture seems to increasingly embrace the “man’s man”—the strong, beer-drinking, strictly-heterosexual male who refuses to show the slightest shred of femininity. On the other hand, SoMa’s hero experiments with bisexuality and leads somewhat of a “metrosexual” lifestyle (though he hates this term). Is Raphe a relic of the 1990’s or the man of the future?

For better or worse, the term “metrosexual” has become shorthand to describe a type of guy. He dates women, plays sports, and uses hair product. He’s heard of both Prada and ESPN SportsCenter, and uses deodorant. The previous incarnation of man, known as Cro-Magnonsexual, was not able to multi-task in this way.

Okay, so metrosexuality has become a punch line. That’s why Raphe holds his nose at the expression. But make no mistake, metrosexuality is a real step in the evolution of guys, kind of like an awkward adolescent phase that will lead to New Millennium Man.

Take a look at the upcoming generation of guys. They grew up watching Will & Grace on primetime TV, so they aren’t ignorant and shocked that gay people exist. Today’s teen boys were weaned on episodes of MTV’s Cribs, so they don’t associate being knowledgeable about fashion or design as feminine behavior. The hyper-masculine role models, like sports stars, have turned out to be hugely disappointing and not worth emulating.

It’s going to be harder to implant bigotry and old stereotypes of male behavior on this next generation. It will be fascinating to watch how they turn out.

Raphe is representative of New Millennium Man in many ways. He doesn’t possess any fey mannerisms, and to those who want to possess him – Lauren, Baptiste and Julie – he’s the ideal guy’s guy. Raphe himself is surprised to discover that he’s more complicated than he ever believed. I suspect that will be the fate of many New Millennium Men.

Raphe attempts to work on his own writing during his job at the scam post office. Have you ever stolen time from a “B-job” to write?

When I started writing fiction, my work in journalism had me constantly flying around the country. One year I spent more than 200 days away from home. That’s a lot of time spent on airplanes and in airports. I began to look forward to those dreary aisle seats and the undisturbed writing time they afforded me. The first drafts of SoMa happened at 30,000 feet.

What else can you tell us about your actual writing process?

I’m constantly writing – especially when I’m away from a keyboard or pen.

I’ll see something and daydream a fantastic story around it. I rewrite in my head the conversation I just had with someone, making my fictional dialog far more wittier and meaningful than it actually was. I guess we’ve all done things like that.

However, my mind is also writing in the background, when it’s not in my conscious thoughts.

I’ll typically sit and write the first draft of an entire chapter in one sitting, without a break. That can take anywhere from three to six hours. When I’m in that zone, I lose all track of time. Then I hit a wall, so I stop. I’ll banish the whole thing from my mind, not thinking about it at all. The next day, or even a week later, I’ll sit down and start again, with whatever obstacle I faced now miraculously resolved. I hadn’t been dwelling on it, but somehow my brain fixed the problem, computing silently in the background. That’s the best way for me to explain it.

I treat writing as a career, which is why I have an office in the San Francisco ’s writers co-op called the Sanchez Grotto Annex. It’s home to several authors. We split the rent and share ideas. But even though writing has the work ethic and trappings of a job, it’s never been a chore. I know people who struggle with every word. For me, those first drafts are a joy. They seem to flow from my fingers almost effortlessly.

Which doesn’t mean they’re perfect. I then rewrite continuously. I workshop my drafts and make changes if I’m not getting the response I intended.

When you work in journalism, you quickly become very comfortable with feedback and editing. I stopped being offended by the need to rewrite after my first day in a newsroom. I’m lucky I learned that lesson early in my career.

After all, I’m writing to be read by others. Making sure I’m connecting with readers is a crucial part of my process.

You’re very active in the San Francisco literary scene. Can you tell us more about your website and email list, and talk about how working on these projects has affected your writing?

San Francisco has such a rich literary history, from Jack London to Amy Tan. Today there’s a community of writers here that’s comparable to what it must have been like for artists a hundred years ago in Paris . You can find Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Chabon offering advice to would-be novelists, or Dave Eggers mentoring inner-city kids. Heck, you can bump into Lemony Snicket out walking his dog! There are endless ways to connect with other writers, whether they are famous or still unpublished. It can be remarkably inspiring.

I dove into the scene when I launched the online e-zine SoMa Literary Review back in 1999 as an outlet for my fiction. That first issue featured stories all written by me, under a variety of pen names. Almost immediately I began receiving submissions from other writers, and a real literary journal was born. Today we receive about two million hits per year and we’ve been thrilled to discover and publish many wonderful new San Francisco voices.

We recently launched a free weekly e-mail newsletter that lists all the author and book events happening in the area. It’s astonishing how many great authors are available to meet and chat up.

I’ve met some amazing writers this way, and I’ve been able to ask them questions about their process, challenges and successes. Sure, some people are intimidating. But most are open and down-to-earth and offer insight that can be quite validating.

You absolutely need validation as a writer. Being part of a writing community can provide that. You can’t succeed if you have a constant chorus in your head, or in your life, that beats you down. Cheerleaders are just as vital as an editor’s red pen.

Were you inspired by any other particular novels or writers while working on SoMa?

You can’t write about San Francisco and not be influenced by Armistead Maupin. His wonderful Tales of the City books captured The City at a crucial moment in history. It’s amazing to read those books today and see how much of the San Francisco he described decades ago still exists today.

In their time, the Tales books and the newspaper column they were based on were also quite a sensation, even scandalous. Gay people! Transgenders! Cheating bi-sexual spouses! Based on real events! It was outrageous. Even the underlying theme that society’s outcasts could come to San Francisco and create their own notion of “family” was a radical thought. Many people were offended by the ideas portrayed in Tales, a controversy that received national attention when PBS was threatened with federal funding cuts for bringing the book to television.

San Francisco is different now, and so is the world. You need to really go over to the top to be considered outrageous these days. Yet somehow, San Francisco continues to do that. One of the central themes in SoMa is the need people have to push to extremes, just in an attempt to feel anything.

I can only hope I’ve adequately captured some of those stories in SoMa.

What do you have up your sleeve for your next book project? Is there any chance Raphe will make another appearance?

I see the characters created in SoMa populating a series of books. San Francisco provides an endless stream of material to work with, allowing for Raphe, Lauren and Mark Hazodo to get into all sorts of new trouble.

One of the issues raised in SoMa involves the notion of morality. That seems to be the inevitable debate in any book about sex. I think the concept of morality has been hijacked and applied to sex, when it actually means something entirely different.

The book I’m working on now takes an act most would consider indisputably immoral, and makes it the perhaps the finest, bravest and most selfless deed imaginable. At the same time, behavior universally accepted as morally superior turns out to be the exact opposite. Notions of good and evil are flipped on their heads.

To tell this story I’m taking a character who commits the most heinous, disturbing act depicted in SoMa. He only appears briefly in this novel, but the lasting impression he makes led me to believe his conflict is worth an entire book.

Like SoMa, the story contains plenty of social satire, outrageous moments and insight in the twisted world of sex.

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