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| From OpenArt |
The First Interview: Writing and Politics
There's a small, rather private bookseller on the South Bank with whom I have a relationship. Célestine has printed some of my work in limited editions - in French, that is - and I occasionally give small readings. So it was her idea to do this interview.
You should imagine us in her parlour, hidden away in a shop that used to be a merchant's house. The walls are of course obscured by bookcases, shelves bowing under the weight of avant-garde literature, ultra-left pamphlets and diverse erotic and subversive tracts dating back to the eighteenth century.
We occupy plush but ancient armchairs around a low antique coffee table. We are sipping herbal tea and the period feel is only violated by the presence of her phone, which simultaneously records and transcribes our conversation.
I think Célestine must be twice my age.
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Q. Welcome, Adam, always good to see you. Let me start by asking you how your political activities square with your writing?
A. Ok, straight into it then! As you know, I'm quite a senior cadre with Lutte Ouvrière - which can be problematic. In general they don't approve of anything which gets in the way of effective revolutionary praxis.
Q. I believe they frown on relationships…
A. Tell me about it! Marriage is deprecated and children are a no-no. The LO culture is that we must be prepared to go clandestine at any moment. So no encumbrances!
Q. Is Adam Carlton your real name?
A. Of course not! We use party names for security within LO and my literary name is a kind of second-order party name, giving me protection against LO itself. Others also obfuscate on my behalf.
Q. You wrote short stories and then a novel. Tell me about that.
A. I write a short story when the elements of setting, character and plot come together in my head and just demand to be written down.
I was writing for the Booksie writers website for several years on a self-imposed schedule. It's good to get feedback and you feel an obligation to feed your fans. Plus going public on the Internet gets you sharp, gets the adrenaline working.
Q. But you've stopped now?
A. COVID was good for writing, of course. Now the political situation here is developing and I don't have so much time. Also, the Booksie fans I used to have seem to have disappeared. Plus it's a small and hermetic pool there.
Q. Do you want to be published?
A. Who would ever say no? But fame and fortune come with costs. It would be harder to retain my anonymity. In any case, my writing is not aligned with the zeitgeist. And there is an absolute oversupply of authors and texts. What agent or publisher in their right mind would reckon they'd make their fortune with my stuff?
And, by the way, no-one wants short stories: they don't sell.
Q. Do you honestly think you're good enough to get published?
A. It's marginal, being honest. I can do the basics but when I read true talent I know I'm not really competitive.
Q. So why write?
A. I enjoy it. It's a little piece of immortality. I bear witness. Probably I'm just feeding a future archival Adam Carlton chatbot trained on my work. It will be the modern way of gathering dust.
Q. Tell me about sex scenes. Many of your stories might be described as ‘erotica’.
A. In my earlier work I was rather explicit. Stuff like ‘He held her hand tightly as he grasped the hem of her short dress and ran it slowly up her thigh’ …
Q. Oh Adam, that's terrible!
A. Yeah, in isolation it's like pastiche but in context…? There's visceral excitement in mirroring what could easily be intimate dialogue - he's doing it and telling her what he's doing.
Q. But now you write differently?
A. Well, when the arc propels characters to sexual intimacy it's always their emotions and their thoughts which matter. Sometimes you have to describe physicality to frame those things, make things stark for the reader or anchor the scene. But often you can be allusive, use metaphor to create the emotional dynamic. That's where the focus has to be.
Q. But that also can go wrong?
A. Tell me about it! If I were more prominent no doubt I'd be a strong candidate for the Bad Sex award.
Q. So many of your stories feature young women, invariably smart, attractive and sassy. Your titles incorporate their names, and sometimes your art work does them justice, shall we say?
A. As is recommended, I write what I know. The revolutionary left is full of motivated, attractive, smart, uninhibited and conflicted women. Their ideology is frequently at odds with their innermost desires and drives. Heaven for a writer!
Q. So you write about what you see.
A. Yes. Forgive me for being coy, but yes. But I’m wary about repetition with diminishing returns. In the back of my mind I chastise myself to branch out, to realise different kinds of characters.
Q. You participate in a blog, ‘Wading Through Treacle‘?
A. It's a useful platform and my colleague there is sympathique. Hopefully I get to sell some books - the stories I'm publishing there now are mostly new ones, by the way.
Q. Do your new stories have a theme?
A. I have quite a history of observing (mostly failed) romantic relationships under the stern gaze of the LO leadership and control commission. They're often the engine and energy of my stories. But really, it just depends on what energises me on the day.
Q. How's your French?
A. It gets better slowly. The AI systems are getting more colloquial faster than I am. Then, of course, I can always benefit from your own kind proofreading. Thank you!
Q. Well, thank you Adam for agreeing to be interviewed. I suppose another novel is out of the question?
A. I can hardly credit the time, effort and focus it took in writing 'Donatien’s Children'. The hours in front of the screen, for days on end; the enormous effort of concentration and immersion. Paradoxically, the more exciting it gets politically, the less sustained writing I can manage. So don't hold your breath! And thanks for having me!
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Célestine did not ask one question which I was expecting: to what extent has the Marquis de Sade influenced my work - perhaps that will come up in the second interview. Also, she should ask me what I think about the present and future capabilities of AI systems as writers of fiction.
You will find my collection of short stories, published on Amazon (Kindle and paperback) here:
and my SF novel, also published on Amazon (Kindle and paperback) here:
"Donatien's Children" (2022).
Feel free to purchase both!
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