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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 29, 2014)
4 street roots Aug. 29, 2014 Our long, hot sum m er Portland author B en Parzybok’s latest work, “Sherwood Nation, ” is a science fiction novel set in a fu tu re blighted by clim ate change BY SUE ZALOKAR STAFF W R IT E R - en Parzybok’s first novel, ^Couch” rose from the primordial sludge of the slush pile at Small Beer Press in 2008. Next month, Parzybok’s second novel, “Sherwood Nation” will be released. He will be reading at. 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept 16 at PoweU’s Books on Burnside. Parzybok’s creative trajectory seems to confirm Newton’s first law of motion: an object in motion tends to stay in motion. Part of that may be that he and his partner, writer and Street Books founder Laura Moulton do a remarkable job at keeping up with their artistic pursuits as well as two curious children. The other part? Parzybok set himself in creative motion years ago and aside from the distraction of fatherhood, hasn’t stopped since. He is keen on thoughtful, artistic projects, most of which have a socially just bent. He is the creator of Gumball Poetry, a now-defunct journal published through gumball machines. He was a member of the Black Magic Insurance Agency, a team- based city-wide treasure hunt, in true James Bond-esque caper, high-tech mystery style, Parzybok is?, a self-proclaimed technology geek with Luddite tendencies'. He is a developer and runs a outside society sees them as really startup called Walker dangerous, but inside? Half the work they Tracker, a narrative, are doing is social logistics: making sure map-based walking people have water and that everybody has challenge for large power because they’re all stealing power off groups, including cities, the grid. It’s really fascinating. So I wanted universities, to play with that (idea) a bit. corporations and large I also am really interested and fascinated organizations. by history. For example, the city of Rome Whereas Parzybok’s collapsed in a day. It was besieged, it fell, first novel, “Couch,” the city was ransacked. But that empire explored the seemingly went through several hundred years of this mundane task of sort of slow post-collapse period. carrying a couch across I think (the idea for) the drought came town, his latest novel, accidentally. I am very interested in “Sherwood Nation,” environmental and water issues of course. examines the function But it was also a wonderful way to portray and structure of how we might manage as a society and how governments, and in it we might reform and recombine and create ' he hypothesizes about new governments in the sort of situation what might happen if where the government is gone* We can’t governments and people rely on the United States government or don’t react to our even state or local. We have to combine to changing global climate. build our own city* The book is a Robin- Hood like, post-apocalyptic, drought story j | S.Z.: You recently participated in the % set in the Portland biosphere. American Library Associations conference in ■ Ben Parzybok will be reading at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 16 at Powell’s Books on Burnside. S u e Z alok ar: What motivated you to write your second novel, “Sherwood Nation?” Las Vegas, Nev. One o f the events involved you and other authors reading from banned books. (Banned Book Week is Sept 21-27). What book did you read from? PH O T O J O D I D A R B Y language. It’s one of those books that is crazy that it is banned because it could help so many people. It’s an incrèdible book. The incredible dichotomy he pajnts between living on the-res and trying to fit in, in the white school where he is actually having success, but it feels false to him in some way. ! It should be more read and taught in school. It’s really so close to the immigrant experience. I just read “Cajas de Carton” by Francisco Jiménez. He’s a brilliant writer. He came I illegally across the border when he was 3 with his parents. His parents were dirt poor and they’re giving birth in their shack. And yet he’s going and actually excelling in school. His father is sort of super dismissive of anything he is doing in school and is pulling him out to do farm labor. S.Z.: You have an affinity fo r computers an d technology. Tell u s about that.. B.P.: I suppose there is some irony in j that. In the world ôf “Sherwobd Nation” there is essentially no electronic technology whatsoever. Maybe it was sort of wishful thinking. I have a complicated relationship with technology. I’ve been very addicted to it off and bn. I’m a programmer for pay and I run a software startup. I feel like technology is changing me in ways that I’m not entirely comfortable with. The effects of it are the antithesis of slowing down, or being thoughtful or being a deep thinker. B e n Parzybok: There were a lot of little seeds. B.P.: I Chose Sherman Alexie’s “The - I technically started the book in Brazil. Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time We had gone there for a family wedding and Indian.” it ended up being a rather long stay. We . were there for six or eight weeks and I was S.Z.: How can that be banned? there alone for the last two weeks. I toured some favelas — very crazy, anarchic, B.P.: I know. It’s banned all over. I think enclaves, really. They are sort of their own 1 it’s partially because there are a number of - S.Z.: You also have a creative, diverse web nations inside the city. masturbation scenes in there. You know presence. B randing oneself as an artist isn ’t You go in with this impression of what how lethal that i s ... easy, but it is important. (the experience of walking through a favela) is going to be Jike and end up with a k S.Z.: I don’t know anyone who masturbates. B.P.: The changing nature of publishing completely different impression. does put a lot of pressure on a novelist to ’ There is amazing community organizing -/ (laughter) promote their book through social media going on. There are people who wield power inside that infrastructure. Yes, maybe B.P.: Exactly. The book has some foul S e e PARZYBOK, page 5
