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John Twelve Hawks interview
01/07/2007. Source: Random House. Colleen Lindsay
SFF author talks about his counter-culture hero Gabriel Corrigan, living off the grid and fighting for the freedom to remain outside the system. THE DARK RIVER is the second in a planned trilogy. When you were initially putting together the story of Maya, Gabriel, the Harlequin and the Brethren, did you have a trilogy in mind? Was it difficult to craft a story that would break at critical points in a way that would easily lead to the next book in the trilogy?
When the original inspiration for Maya, Gabriel, and Michael's story came to me, I saw it as one very long book. Then I started writing The Traveler and it felt as if I had stepped into a bright world that expanded limitlessly in every direction. I realized that the complexity of such a world would require the length of a trilogy - although it was the characters themselves who determined the crucial turning points in the story.
Each of their fates is written on a much folded and refolded page of notebook paper. Now that they've taken on a life of their own, perhaps they'll surprise me and demand a different ending.
When your first book, THE TRAVELER, was published in 2005, the press seemed to focus primarily on your identity, and why you chose to live a life of complete privacy. Do you believe that the media frenzy surrounding your anonymity was in and of itself a good example of why a person would choose to live a life "off the grid"?
I was naive - even foolish - about how the media would react. I recognize that we live in a culture of celebrity that tries to get a quick handle on new ideas by attaching them to a face on the television set, but I was surprised by how resentful some people were that I decided to make a different choice.
I believed that removing myself from the process would allow readers to focus on the books themselves. It bothered me that my decision seemed to make it harder for some people to enjoy the books for what they are.
There are an infinite variety of ways to put up boundaries between the personal and public, and my own strategy has changed a great deal in the last two years. But one thing hasn't changed: my passionate belief that the foundation of any democracy is the ability to have a private life that isn't controlled by others.
One of the themes that you touched on a little in THE TRAVELER, and go into more depth about in THE DARK RIVER, is the price one must pay when one lives a life of violence. Can you talk a little bit about what may have influenced these ideas?
I've lived in situations where there was a great deal of violence. The memories never leave you; even after the immediate trauma subsides and the experiences seem far in the past, that violence continues to have an effect on you and the people around you.
The tidal wave of violence in Hollywood films and video games always has the same form: a person is killed - quickly - and then we move on. The camera rarely pauses to display the consequences. The power of a novel is that it can show us a character's inner thoughts - and the price paid for an act of violence.
In both THE TRAVELER and THE DARK RIVER, you introduce wonderful strong female characters: Maya, Mother Blessing, and Victory From Sin. Have strong women role models been an influence on you in your own life?
I was raised by some strong women - in particular, my grandmother - and so I have always found powerful women compelling. But beyond that, one of the things that interests me about Maya's character is the tension she feels between all the roles she has to play.
In THE DARK RIVER, Maya is prepared to kill to protect Gabriel, but in becoming his lover she becomes vulnerable to him. Although she can see herself as Thorn's daughter, she learns, for the first time in her life, that real power is the power to be vulnerable to another person.
Mother Blessing came roaring out of my imagination several years ago, but I had to wait until this novel to put her on the page. Some of the women I've known have been angry about their choices in life, but they can't freely express this emotion. Mother Blessing is angry - and not afraid to show it. When you write a character like that, she surprises you in every chapter.
One of the things you've been working on for THE DARK RIVER is a new website for the Fourth Realm Trilogy. Can you tell us about the new website and why you're so excited about it?
When I first sent the manuscript of The Traveler to my agent, Joe Regal, there were over twenty pages of footnotes about the various characters and the groups in the trilogy. I wanted to have footnotes throughout the novel, but Joe persuaded me that this might not be the best idea when submitting the manuscript to publishers.
When electronic books first came out, I assumed that they would use the same technology used by DVDs to add different layers of complexity to the reading experience. Unfortunately, they only showed a static image of the printed page.
The website for The Fourth Realm trilogy gives an opportunity to address both of those issues. Johntwelvehawks.com is not a conventional author website - there are no glowing book reviews or pictures of me standing next to a golden retriever. The website is an extension of the fictional world and real-life ideas of the trilogy, the place where the actual information on which I base the books - whether readers are aware of it or not - can be featured.
Website visitors are able to connect to blogs and news stories about the attack on personal privacy; there is a map that provides photographs of the real-life locations in the books (even ones that seem mythological or entirely fictional); and the encyclopedia contains extensive information about the background of the characters and themes of the trilogy.
The website will have six "realms" - six different levels to explore. It will also encourage readers to send in their own contributions - music for a digital jukebox, insights about our society. Readers can ask me questions and I will post answers. There will even be a level where I'll be able to put up the videos I've taken of locations in Book Three.
With luck, the website will become even more than a resource for the ideas and information in the books. My hope is that it becomes a community, a hub for people who want to resist the Vast Machine.
In THE DARK RIVER, you spend more time giving the reader greater insight into all of the main characters, making them "more human", if you will. One of the things that struck me and many of the readers is how well you are able to convey characters with many facets; even the villains of the novel come off as complex persons with strong motivations for what they are doing. Did you have fun getting to know your own characters a little more for THE DARK RIVER?
A great deal of The Traveler was dominated by the necessity to describe the rules and reality of this particular world. It was liberating to start this new book and allow myself to be swept along by the characters.
It's been my experience with evil people in the real world that very few of them are completely irrational. They always believe they have a logical reason for what they do. That also implies that evil is a choice; in real life as in fiction, I think that everyone has the ability to change their lives and take a different path. Some of the characters may begin to question their actions and make different choices in Book Three.
In THE DARK RIVER, several of the characters begin moving through the various metaphysical realms. Were your portrayals of these realms - The Realm of the Hungry Ghosts, etc) based on any actual mythical descriptions of other worlds in some of the myriad spiritual texts you used to research the book?
The six realms of the book were inspired by the realms described in Tibetan Buddhism, but I've taken that concept and tried to include aspects from other religious traditions. THE DARK RIVER gives a vision of hell that is as inspired by Dante's Inferno as the classical Greek myths and Tibetan cosmology.
Most Tibetans view the different realms as being as real as our world, but you can also see them as metaphors for various aspects of humanity. For instance, in The Traveler, The Realm of the Hungry Ghosts is a place where people value objects over emotional relationships. When we visit The Realm of the Animals - essentially Eden - in Book Three, it will remind us that the beauty of the world is an antidote to the poison of the Vast Machine. These mythic realms help us connect with the desires and fears within our own hearts.
Probably the most fascinating - and fun! - addition to the Fourth Realm trilogy is the introduction of the Free Runners, based on real-life groups of European urban-dwelling rebels who engage in a rather unique sport that involves hazardous races through urban obstacle courses. Can you tell us a little about the Free Runners, and why you chose to use them in THE DARK RIVER? Have you ever joined the real Free Runners in an urban obstacle course race yourself?
After David Belle more or less invented the sport of parkour in France, it developed in many different directions. In general, those people who call themselves Free Runners emphasize the grace and beauty of their moves as they use the city like an enormous obstacle course. It seemed logical to me that a group like this would be a source of resistance to the lack of personal freedom advocated by the Tabula.
I've never run across a rooftop and leaped to another building myself; I'm actually terrified of high places. But many of the suspenseful scenes in the trilogy are inspired by situations that would terrify me personally. Writing these scenes is a way to deal with my own fear.
I have lived in urban communes with other people. It's interesting to live in a major city when you're not connected to the conventional world. In The Dark River, one of the characters decides that "rebellion in the industrial countries was not inspired by obsolete political philosophies." These days, it's a day-to-day choice about how much you allow yourself to be monitored and manipulated by others.
When a grandmother living in St. Paul, Minnesota decides to connect a fake phone number to her discount shopping card, she's taken a small step toward becoming a Free Runner.
Thanks to Colleen Lindsay of Random House for sending this interview across to SFcrowsnest.com
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