Street roots
5
Aug. 29, 2014
PARZYBOK, from page 4
channels or to have a big web presence. I
find that really challenging. I don’t
necessarily like a lot of attention. It would
be awesome if the book just did all the
work. You know, “I worked on you a long
time. Stand up now, please.”
S.Z.: Tell me about Project Hamad.
B.P.: A gentleman named Adel Hamad
was a Sudanese man living in Pakistan.
He was rounded up by Palestinian officials
paid by the United States government to
gather possible suspects after 9/11.
He happened to be an immigrant
S.Z.: L e t’s talk about drought. I t ’s
laborer who was working as a hospital
happening, a n d not ju s t in a science fiction
assistant. He was taken to Guantanamo.
novel.
Our intent (for the project) Was to find
a Guantanamo inmate and create a real
B.P.: It’s insane right now. In fact, I
narrative ofthis life to bring attention to
was just reading about how they were
what was
going to start
happening there,
enforcing water
He was an
rationing in San
amazing ping
Francisco. Sao Paulo,
pong player. He
Brazil is in the
"T b e fir s t persea to
was
sort of a
middle of the worst
re co il nla© tlia t ptm tans were
prankster. He had
drought in 85 years.
changing the atmosphere
absolutely no ties
The city there is
w ith carbon emissions was a whatsoever to
calling for rationing.
terrorism and Was
Oregon is in a
B ritish gny 1st 1938. That
never charged. He
drought right now as was alm ost a h o a d re d years
well.
spent 11 years in
ago. I t happens on a
Guantanamo. He
lost his eyesight
S.Z.: This sum m er tim eline^ b u t we a re n 't
there. He had a
is the hottest on record reacting In a tim e ly way.w
since we started
family that he had
keeping track in
been supporting .
in Sudan.
Portland in 1940.
Maybe as fa r back as
At the same
time, there was a
1890 when records were kept in Vancouver.
legal team in town who represented him
as well. Our combined efforts blew up. We
B.P.: Nine counties are in a state of
emergency because of that drought. When were picked up in La Monde in Paris and
on Boing Boing. He was eventually
you look at (United States) Drought
released about a year later. He was never
Monitor - which is a really amazing tool
- the headings range from abnormally dry charged with anything.
to exceptional drought. All of the
S.Z.: You’re a poet, though you say on
designations are a bit grim.
your website that you haven’t written poetry
We have a natural tendency to
actively since pretty much the start o f
procrastinate as humans in bur reaction
to change.And a .change that,happens like Gumball Poetry in 1999. You have also said
drought happens on ji, geological scale*^
that we just can’t comprehend very well
until we are already deep into it
The first person to recognize that
humans were changing the atmosphere
with carbon emissions was a British guy
in 1938, That was almost a hundred years
ago. It happens on a timeline, but we
aren’t reacting in a timely way.
S.Z.: W hat is your writing process?
B.P.: Writing is so tedious. I wrote
“Couch” pre-parenthood. When I had kids,
I went through a darker , period where I
didn’t write at all. “She'rwood Nation” was
a real effort to become disciplined again
and to change my biological tendencies,
which were to stay up really late at night.
Now I get up really early before
everyone is awake and I do my writing
then. I write every day.
that poetry saved your life.
B.P.: Everybody has dark periods and I
definitely have experienced some dark
periods. I don’t know — are they biological
or chemical? Sometimes they don’t make
sense to me. Over time I’ve gotten a lot
better about managing those. There was a
time in college when I read Jim
Harrison’s, “Letters to Yessin.” It’s a
series of 30 poems that he writes to a
Russian pdet'who has hung himself. In
the course of these 30 poems, Jim
Harrison manages to talk himself out of
suicide.
S.Z.: One o fyo u r characters from
“Sherwood N ation,” Nevel, lets readers know
early on that he suffers from depression. “He
wondered i f he were depressed and whether
he ought to see a doctor about getting some
medication.” Then he turns his attention
toward digging a furrow underneath his
home. What are some o f the underlying
themes that you address with this novel? .
B.P.: I had a ton of fun writing Nevel.
His character is one that I couldn’t have
written pre-parenthood. He’s a father.
He’s saddled with a lot of responsibility
And he has a totally irrational reaction to
; the disaster that is taking place. I mean
he’s digging a tunnel, which might be
perfect for bomb shelters, but it’s not
| working out for a drought. He can’t help
himself. It’s become a sort of mania. And
he certainly depressed and stressed and
unsure and immobilized.
It’s sort of like the outside world is
requiring him to take action and he has
no idea what kind of action to take. So
when he takes action, it’s a totally
meaningless action. There is a lot to
unpack there.
Another question I am asking is
whether democracy as we have invented
it, as we are practicing it, can really
handle urgent crisis like climate change.
And my answer? It’s a great system when
it’s working.
There is a lot of money involved in
politics and it’s absolutely ridiculous.
Short term limits which make for fad
issues that may not have at all to do with
the longer vision of how we want to five?
How do we want tô be in this country
over the next 50 years? How do we want
to treat each other?
Renee (the protagonist in “Sherwood
Nation”) becomes a dictator. The Romans
invented that word.
These moments
b y K e n n e th N icke ll
These moments come nowhere to
us. It was an Indian Summer. At 171
had just bought my own car, a beaten-
down Plymouth Reliant, which did not
live up to its name. At the same time I
had just come home to my father’s
house after nearly a year of
estrangement.
Amidst the monumental, my sister
had come to visit, hearing of my
unexpected return, very excited
having driven across two states to see
me. Somehow it was just the most
ordinary of things. We had breakfast
in my den. I introduced some friends
in the area to her and we decided the
beach was the place where doing
nothing was something to. do.
She drove myself and two of my
closest friends, even-though my
rustbox was wrought with reliability. A
sign warning of road construction held
her view from her, only two seconds
away and BAM]
They call it a T-Bone; though it
tasted like blood and asphalt. I the
proud owner of a “new-to-me” car, was
seated at the point of impact; would
not walk for six months, nor would I
ever drive my first car.
A dictator was somebody who was •
e leeted -b y th esssn ate to ru ir th e empire in
times of absolute crisis. They
acknowledged that a senate, with
numerous voices and arguing voices ,
cannot handle a large scale crisis. A
dictator, who can congeal a single vision
and a single plan of action, can really
handle an emergency in a crisis much
better.
One last theme that was important to
try out was thé idea ôf heroism. What is
the arc of a hero? In this case, Renee
does a somewhat heroic act and then the
media completely overblow it and make
her way more of a hero. And she has this
inner conflict trying to figure out where
she stands within that range of media and
public reception and the act itself. In this
case, she decides to rise up as much as
she can into that role they created for her.
"BRIAN LINDSTROM'S AUEN BOY PACKS A HORRIFYING PUNCH:
INTIMATE, TERRIBLE, & TRUE."
- SHAWN LEVY, THE OREGONIAN
I GO Op
c e tV
sm all
“AUEN BOY IS A TRIUMPH - AND AN EMOTIONAL BULLDOZER."
- JOHN CHANDLER, PORTLAND MONTHLY
http://www.alienboy.org/
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