Weekend Guide: 11.20.2020

In conversation with Troy James Weaver

It’s always easier to mine the past for something to read or watch. Opinions have been formed, judgements made, validation served. It’s comfortable for us to reach for the tried and true. We can be confident in our decisions based on our histories. What we like and what our friends like. It’s easy. It takes a bit more effort, especially now, to dedicate time to something completely new. I don’t know if it’s fatigue or having the entire creative universe at my fingertips - but I listen to the same stuff and watch the same fucking movies. Over and over.

I rely heavily on my network for recommendations. It’s pretty rare that I step fully out of my comfort zone and into uncharted waters. When I muster the courage I am seldom fulfilled.

Last summer, on a tip from the OTHRPPL Podcast, I picked up a short novel (novella?) called Temporal by Troy James Weaver, a flower salesman in Wichita. In 115 (double spaced) pages Weaver slaps you hard/fast with a story of three lost teenagers in Kansas navigating drugs, sex, and malaise in the most devastating fashion. My version would be set in suburban New Jersey, but, he wrote the book I wish I wrote, and for that, i’ll be eternally grateful!

Since then Troy and I have exchanged pleasantries on the web. I like his writing, he likes my music. I guess you could call us simpatico. Thanks to the internet I had the pleasure of asking Troy, a living/breathing writer about... writing. And, in keeping with the theme of the newsletter, what he thinks we should all be reading now.

“The HOLOCENE is the period we’re in? Or is it the Halcyon? The lazy period? The period of existence where barbarism and entertainment are all that matters? Most of the time they are one in the same, right? We spike our daily punch with ad after ad after ad and new reality after new reality until we are nothing more than clones drunk on bullshit. We fill ourselves up with something so empty we can never satisfy our need. Like eating air. It’s the only point in human history where our lives and what we consume have become so blurred we don’t really have an instrument or even a concept to gauge our realities. Philosophy has failed us. Science has failed us. Religion has failed us. We are merely hollowed holograms of previous generations. But theres got to be something in that, right? Theres got to be.”

Purchase Temporal from Disorder Press

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DS: I remember buying Temporal because of the description on the Disorder Press site. ‘Set to a shoegaze soundtrack, Troy James Weaver’s Temporal is the story of one tumultuous summer in the lives of three teenagers in Wichita, KS.’ Shoegaze + summer with a hint of NOSTALGIA. Total sweet spot for me. I'm curious what role music plays for you in the writing process. Is it purely inspirational, or are you using it to set the vibe, tone, place?

TJW: Usually, for me, music is a part of the process only if I'm working on a book-length project. In most cases I listen to instrumental music like Tim Hecker or John Fahey or Brian Eno's ambient records. For Temporal I listened to the bands I listened to in my late teens, most of which were named in the book. My Bloody Valentine, Joy Division, Chapterhouse, Big Black, Sonic Youth. I was trying to get back inside a teenage headspace. But also, I thought shoegaze was apt because it is layered and blurry. I didn't want the reader to know right away whose head they were in when the POVs switched.

DS: Thoughts on Steven King. Love/Hate/Indifferent?

TJW: Never read a Steven King book in my life. Not because I don't want to, just never have. I love all the movie and TV adaptations. I grew up on Steven King and I've never read a single word. In a way, he was kind of like my babysitter when I was a kid.

DS: What are you currently reading?

TJW: I'm currently re-reading James Purdy's In a Shallow Grave, which I believe to be one of the best and strangest American novels ever written. It is about a disfigured veteran. There is a strange love triangle. A bit of a homoerotic Southern Gothic vibe. I can't even begin to tell you how strange and beautiful it is. Just read it.

Also, I feel like there are a ton of great Indie Writers out there right now doing better and more interesting work than authors with big 5 book deals. People like Steven Arcieri, who is writing an autofiction novel about his life in real time over the next decade. You can read every month at The Nervous Breakdown. Then you got Bud Smith, Elle Nash, Steve Anwyll, Cory Bennet, Scott McClanahan. The list goes on and on. These people are the best in the world right now, if you ask me.

I hope you enjoyed this weeks detour. Let me know what you thought of the format by sending me an email. I love hearing from you. See you soon.

Here is a a ten song playlist with some great shoegaze tracks.

Peace and love,

Dan