Yesss, more folks in the mad camp! Not enough people get excited by weird ideas. One of the things I like so much about Hubski is its idealism. I don't think Esperanto contributed to Radium Baby directly, but I like the set pieces in Radium Baby for the same reason I like Esperanto — their mad, exciting novelty. You can probably tell I love Egyptology, autogyros, radium cures, silent movies, silly music, and oversized mustaches. I didn't realize that kind of writing was possible until I read James Kennedy's sensational novel The Order of Odd-Fish, where his love of weird ideas explodes from every page. It's a really exhilarating experience. I know your own work uses a lot of surreal imagery and unusual juxtapositions. Is much of that influenced by the bizarre things in real life? Or is it the reverse, the bizarre things are in your head and you're putting them out into the world?
First, I think you're a pretty cool dude, StJohn and I liked Radium Baby. I'll save my comments about the book for the book club. Second, thanks for checking out my stuff, I truly appreciate it! In response to your question, I think life is bizarre in so many ways . . . and I love it. I really can't express how much I love it, so I try to and I try to connect to the world in that way and more especially I try to connect to the others inhabiting the world with me in that way. It seems like there's a maybe unconscious effort of humanity as a whole to catalog things, to tick them off as merely a part of the world we all share and in doing so, ends up making it "known" and therefore boring. I think that is also weird and not exactly wrong, but bewildering. I mean, everyone feels like they're weird and maybe I'm wrong, but I feel like sharing that weirdness to find commonality is a huge part of communication, particularly writing.
Hah, many thanks, and I'm glad you liked Radium Baby. But more on that later… I try and stop by your blog every couple of days to check out the latest boogers. There's always something juicy. But I really like what you said, that the weirdness in life connects you to other people. I'd never thought of it like that, but you're right, we do connect with other people over our eccentricities. It always depresses me when people stop being strange. Some people just seem to make a conscious decision to be normal, and all of a sudden the person you really liked is just gone. thenewgreen recently wrote me a note that made my day. I hope he won't mind me repeating it, but his phrase was "the fight against normality". Keep that strange fire burning!