Prime Time Replay:
Jack Womack
on Let's Put the Future Behind Us
MsgId: *omni_visions(1)
Date: Thu Oct 10 20:06:47 EDT 1996
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
Welcome to Omni Visions. Our guest tonight is Jack Womack. Womack's latest novel is LET'S PUT THE FUTURE BEHIND US. Set in post-Soviet Russia, this is not really a departure from the rest of his writing when you get down to the themes and world in which the characters dwell. Jack, tongue only somewhat in cheek, has described this novel as historical fiction. To learn why, pick up the current issue of SPIN Magazine to read some of Jack's journalism on modern Russia. Howdy, Jack!To begin, is there any easy way to describe the Dryco series?
MsgId: *omni_visions(15)
Date: Thu Oct 10 22:03:58 EDT 1996
From: Jack_Womack At: 38.8.137.2
The best way to describe the Dryco series is to say that it's today's world tomorrow, a little more intense and a whole lot worse.
MsgId: *omni_visions(16)
Date: Thu Oct 10 22:04:47 EDT 1996
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
What themes would you say emcompass the series?
MsgId: *omni_visions(17)
Date: Thu Oct 10 22:06:40 EDT 1996
From: Jack_Womack At: 38.8.137.2
The themes within the series are predominantly satiric, relating to interpretations of present-day imbecilities, and secondarily theologic.
MsgId: *omni_visions(18)
Date: Thu Oct 10 22:07:56 EDT 1996
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
Have you encountered people who've missed the fact that they're satiric, and take such premises as the Church of Elvis seriously?
MsgId: *omni_visions(19)
Date: Thu Oct 10 22:09:36 EDT 1996
From: Jack_Womack At: 38.8.137.2
No, everyone I've encountered understands them to be fiction. I think I'm lucky in that regard. Re the C of E, however, note that this is beginning to be taken seriously as a theological concept.
MsgId: *omni_visions(20)
Date: Thu Oct 10 22:11:01 EDT 1996
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
I had heard that from you before, which is partly what prompted the question. Who/where is this happening, and has it taken any coherent (or incoherent) form?
MsgId: *omni_visions(21)
Date: Thu Oct 10 22:12:44 EDT 1996
From: Jack_Womack At: 38.8.137.2
It started in the South, of course, and has taken off from there. See, in particular, the recent book Reflections On the Birth Of the Elvis Faith, by John Strausbaugh.
MsgId: *omni_visions(23)
Date: Thu Oct 10 22:14:44 EDT 1996
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
I must say you have the most amazing collection of books and curios (along with an encyclopedic knowlege of same) that I've encountered. Is this book in print?
MsgId: *omni_visions(26)
Date: Thu Oct 10 22:25:47 EDT 1996
From: Jack_Womack At: 38.8.141.5
Yes, the Strausbaugh book was in print as of last year.
MsgId: *omni_visions(28)
Date: Thu Oct 10 22:28:20 EDT 1996
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
Is there a special significance to you regarding 1939 and the World's Fair?
MsgId: *omni_visions(29)
Date: Thu Oct 10 22:30:01 EDT 1996
From: Jack_Womack At: 38.8.141.5
New York was in many ways at its best then, I think, and the fair has never been equaled as an exposition of outlandishly incorrect utopian prediction. That kind of thing appeals to me, needless to say.
MsgId: *omni_visions(30)
Date: Thu Oct 10 22:31:06 EDT 1996
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
1939 seems to appeal to a lot of sf writers like Howard Waldrop & Bill Gibson. I think of it as the last 'pure' vision of a benevolent America, fictional though it always was. While searching on your name online, I came across references to a CD you did of Random Acts, of which I was unaware. Can you tell us what it has on it?
MsgId: *omni_visions(32)
Date: Thu Oct 10 22:34:25 EDT 1996
From: Jack_Womack At: 38.8.141.5
I didn't do the Random Acts CD. It's on Henry Rollins' label, 213CD, 4 CD set, excerpted and beautifully read by Tricia Warden. I've seen it for sale at Tower downtown in NY, and it's available through Rollins' web page.
MsgId: *omni_visions(33)
Date: Thu Oct 10 22:35:26 EDT 1996
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
So it's primarily a reading of excerpts (too bad) of the novel?
MsgId: *omni_visions(34)
Date: Thu Oct 10 22:37:33 EDT 1996
From: Jack_Womack At: 38.8.141.5
It's very well excerpted, yes; the narrative holds. The entire novel would have been probably 10 CDs and no one except obsessives would have gone for such a thing.
MsgId: *omni_visions(35)
Date: Thu Oct 10 22:38:40 EDT 1996
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
Sad but true. When did you first visit Russia, and when did you begin writing LET'S PUT THE FUTURE BEHIND US?
MsgId: *omni_visions(37)
Date: Thu Oct 10 22:40:32 EDT 1996
From: Jack_Womack At: 38.8.141.5
I first visited Russia in March 1992 and returned this past June to cover the election. I started writing Let's Put in 1994 and finished it in Sept. 1995.
MsgId: *omni_visions(38)
Date: Thu Oct 10 22:41:40 EDT 1996
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
Would you connect it at all to the Dryco books?
MsgId: *omni_visions(39)
Date: Thu Oct 10 22:43:37 EDT 1996
From: Jack_Womack At: 38.8.141.5
I wouldn't directly connect it as regards action or world; the themes are similar, i.e. human stupidity and corruption in action. The difference being that Dryco is exaggeration and Let's Put is ultimately restraint.
MsgId: *omni_visions(40)
Date: Thu Oct 10 22:45:40 EDT 1996
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
Restraint only comparatively speaking...:-) How much exageration (sp?) is there in Let's Put? At this point, you've referred to it as historical fiction.
MsgId: *omni_visions(41)
Date: Thu Oct 10 22:47:02 EDT 1996
From: Jack_Womack At: 38.8.141.5
Frighteningly enough there's very little exaggeration in Let's Put. I call it historical fiction in that the situation in Moscow, certainly, has become even more surreal, and reminiscent of the parallel world.
MsgId: *omni_visions(42)
Date: Thu Oct 10 22:48:48 EDT 1996
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
That's truly a sobering thought. What about fred? (This is not a person, as Jack will explain.)
MsgId: *omni_visions(43)
Date: Thu Oct 10 22:51:29 EDT 1996
From: Jack_Womack At: 38.8.141.5
fred is the actual name of an actual drug. As near as I could tell fred was a Soviet equivalent of something like Thorazine, except rather more powerful, used exclusively on political prisoners in psych prisons. No one would tell me, exactly, what it did -- the thought of it seems to unnerve them even today. So in the book I made fred rather an ultimate drug, with a variety of effects.
MsgId: *omni_visions(44)
Date: Thu Oct 10 22:52:34 EDT 1996
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
I took great delight in your description of fred. Would you mind sharing the concept with us?
MsgId: *omni_visions(45)
Date: Thu Oct 10 22:55:39 EDT 1996
From: Jack_Womack At: 38.8.141.5
The way fred, as I recreated it, acts upon you depends upon your own particular physiological and psychological state. It can be as good as the best marijuana you've ever smoked, it can be as pleasant as habanero peppers, it can drive you insane, it can kill you on the spot. You won't know what the result will be until you take it. The second time you take it, it may be the same effect or it may be subtly different.
MsgId: *omni_visions(46)
Date: Thu Oct 10 22:58:14 EDT 1996
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
It strikes me as being (if you'll fogive me) somewhat Gibsonesque. It sounds too dangerous to take, and too enticing not to think about.
MsgId: *omni_visions(47)
Date: Thu Oct 10 23:00:15 EDT 1996
From: Jack_Womack At: 38.8.141.5
Whatever. I'm busy at the moment feeding Gibson Russian material I didn't use in either my novel or in the article for his next book, somebody ought to get some good out of it and I'm not going to be a Russian novelist hereout.
MsgId: *omni_visions(48)
Date: Thu Oct 10 23:01:21 EDT 1996
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
I take it that means you're done writing about Max?
MsgId: *omni_visions(49)
Date: Thu Oct 10 23:04:22 EDT 1996
From: Jack_Womack At: 38.8.141.5
Yeah, there's nothing more to add about Max. He'll get by. I'm just sitting here watching the news and seeing that an upper-middle class woman in New Jersey tried this afternoon to strangle a nine-year-old girl scout because she didn't like her selection of cookies. How can I possibly write anything to equal that?
MsgId: *omni_visions(51)
Date: Thu Oct 10 23:06:10 EDT 1996
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
Yes, fact will always outdo us all. So where is your next work set?
MsgId: *omni_visions(52)
Date: Thu Oct 10 23:07:45 EDT 1996
From: Jack_Womack At: 38.8.141.5
The next novel is the last in the Dryco series. Clute had it wrong, there were always intended to be six and not five. The next one, the last chronologically, takes place fifteen years after Elvissey, and starts off in the parallel world, for those familiar with the earlier works.
MsgId: *omni_visions(53)
Date: Thu Oct 10 23:09:13 EDT 1996
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
I'll be looking forward to that. Which of the Dryco books are currently in print?
MsgId: *omni_visions(54)
Date: Thu Oct 10 23:10:46 EDT 1996
From: Jack_Womack At: 38.8.141.5
Right at this moment only Random Acts of Senseless Violence. Grove is reissuing Ambient and Elvissey in January, and Heathern and Terraplane early in 1998, the same year the final book in the series comes out. At that point all will finally be available simultaneously.
MsgId: *omni_visions(55)
Date: Thu Oct 10 23:12:13 EDT 1996
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
That's great (and amazing). It's rare that any series (especially one of 6 books) is available at the same time.
MsgId: *omni_visions(56)
Date: Thu Oct 10 23:13:15 EDT 1996
From: Jack_Womack At: 38.8.141.5
Yeah, it pleases me.
MsgId: *omni_visions(57)
Date: Thu Oct 10 23:14:02 EDT 1996
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
Which of your books (if any) do you see as the most cinematic? I >saw< LET'S PUT while I was reading itc-- especially the climactic scene at the pet market.
MsgId: *omni_visions(58)
Date: Thu Oct 10 23:16:54 EDT 1996
From: Jack_Womack At: 38.8.141.5
Elvissey, I suppose, but the budget would be several hundred million dollars.
MsgId: *omni_visions(59)
Date: Thu Oct 10 23:18:18 EDT 1996
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
Have you ever considered writing treatments for screenplays or other media?
MsgId: *omni_visions(60)
Date: Thu Oct 10 23:20:23 EDT 1996
From: Jack_Womack At: 38.8.141.5
No, I have no desire to do screenplays of my own or of anybody else's fictional works. When it comes to Hollywood the smart thing to do is take the money and run.
MsgId: *omni_visions(61)
Date: Thu Oct 10 23:22:00 EDT 1996
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
AgreeMsg. Yet I seem to recall your once speaking of collaborating with another major sf writer on a screenplay...?
MsgId: *omni_visions(62)
Date: Thu Oct 10 23:25:20 EDT 1996
From: Jack_Womack At: 38.8.141.5
That was five years ago with Gibson and Rachid the Kazakh director. Nothing came of it except my first trip to Russia. Seeing how much fun Gibson had with Johnny M confirmed me in my belief that such things are best avoided.
MsgId: *omni_visions(63)
Date: Thu Oct 10 23:27:10 EDT 1996
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
I don't believe I know the story of that director, but we'll let it slide till next time... Have you ever thought of producing some shorter works of fiction?
MsgId: *omni_visions(64)
Date: Thu Oct 10 23:29:13 EDT 1996
From: Jack_Womack At: 38.8.141.5
I've written four short stories.They're as hard to write as novels and I make much more money doing nonfiction if I'm writing something other than novels.
MsgId: *omni_visions(65)
Date: Thu Oct 10 23:30:24 EDT 1996
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
Do you plan to increase your nonfiction writing?
MsgId: *omni_visions(66)
Date: Thu Oct 10 23:32:14 EDT 1996
From: Jack_Womack At: 38.8.141.5
If I keep getting assignments and projects that are interesting. I can't see myself becoming a full-time journalist, it's too hard to feign interest when I haven't any.
MsgId: *omni_visions(67)
Date: Thu Oct 10 23:33:04 EDT 1996
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
What major interests (if any) of yours have you yet to commit to paper?
MsgId: *omni_visions(68)
Date: Thu Oct 10 23:35:23 EDT 1996
From: Jack_Womack At: 38.8.141.5
I don't know off the top of my head. I have to think about it, and it's just getting too late for me to be able to do that.
MsgId: *omni_visions(69)
Date: Thu Oct 10 23:37:14 EDT 1996
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
I think that sounds like a cue for signing off. Any last statements/requests/words of wisdom for tonight?
MsgId: *omni_visions(70)
Date: Thu Oct 10 23:39:00 EDT 1996
From: Jack_Womack At: 38.8.141.5
That's about it. Thanks for having me on.
MsgId: *omni_visions(71)
Date: Thu Oct 10 23:40:14 EDT 1996
From: Jim_Freund At: 207.38.234.221
Thanks for being here, Jack. Check out http://cu-online.com/avon-bin/exact_author?Jack_Womack for a complete bibliography of Jack Womack, complete with links to reviews, and to my home page at http://interport.net/~jfreund for all kinds of further information. Thanks for being here. Good night.
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