In hindsight, I could say I spent five years doing research in Porn Valley, and five years trying to write this novel, and now that it's--ohmyfuckinggod--ten years later, and I'm finally writing the novel, I'm not sure on this random Monday after which we have celebrated the death and resurrection of Christ what the hell to say about it. I will say a few things, though. One is that this, a short film featuring Godspeed You! Black Emperor's "The Dead Flag Blues," which was brought into my life by Debauchette, was invaluable, and I played it over and over again while I wrote, so thank you, D, for that. As a side note, I asked the Harpoonist, one of only two people who have read what I've written thus far, if she thought my novel was misanthropic, and she laughed uproariously at me. As I've stated previously, the main character of the novel is John Chance, who is a pornographer. The novel is written in stream of consciousness style. The entire book takes place during a long, dark night of his soul. In addition to including pornography, bestiality, and cannibalism, as I mentioned in another post, it's got a wunderkammer, a Glock, and the line, "Vexilla regis prodeunt porn," a reference to this that I intend to mean, "The banners of the King of Porn advance," although, you know, I don't know Latin. The novel is based on a short story I wrote many years ago. The book's working title is Happy, which rates an "obscene" on the irony meter, but there are many ways in which the book is really about Happy Darling, its porn star, as much as it is about John. On a good day, I think Happy is a 21st century American Psycho. On a bad day, I think there is something wrong with me.
