| The Steve Aylett Interview by Bill Ectric This interview first appeared on Literary Kicks, May 25, 2006 |
Postmodern novelist Steve Aylett was born in 1967 in the Bromley
Borough of London, England. His first book, The Crime Studio, was
published in 1994, and his later works include Bigot Hall, Slaughtermatic,
and his most recent tour de force, LINT. Aylett's work has been variously
described as cyberpunk, slipstream, postmodern, bizarro, or, in the
words of Grant Morrison: "The Matrix choreographed by Samuel Beckett
for MTV."
LINT is to literature what Spinal Tap is to heavy metal music: a brilliant
send-up of anecdotal, cult-of-personality biographies. The parody
swings freely between the sci-fi genre, the Beats, and classic pulp
magazines. We follow a legendary author named Jeff Lint, who lived in
the age when "dozens of new magazines appeared, with titles like
Astounding, Bewildering, Confusing, Baffling...Useless...Appalling,
Made-Up ... Thrilling Wonder Stories, and Swell Punch-Ups" and editors
would order up "an octopus, a spaceman, and a screaming woman" for
the cover of a typical issue.
I like to call Aylett's work a combination of sci-fi, satire, and psychedelia.
His sentences are not only sublimely expressive; they are beautiful in
and of themselves. It's like opening a pop-up book to see gemstones
and charms strung together on bracelet chains, rising to display the
black noir onyx, the blood-red ruby, the diamond center of the mind, the
flaming gold-leaf giraffe trinket of surrealism.
Borough of London, England. His first book, The Crime Studio, was
published in 1994, and his later works include Bigot Hall, Slaughtermatic,
and his most recent tour de force, LINT. Aylett's work has been variously
described as cyberpunk, slipstream, postmodern, bizarro, or, in the
words of Grant Morrison: "The Matrix choreographed by Samuel Beckett
for MTV."
LINT is to literature what Spinal Tap is to heavy metal music: a brilliant
send-up of anecdotal, cult-of-personality biographies. The parody
swings freely between the sci-fi genre, the Beats, and classic pulp
magazines. We follow a legendary author named Jeff Lint, who lived in
the age when "dozens of new magazines appeared, with titles like
Astounding, Bewildering, Confusing, Baffling...Useless...Appalling,
Made-Up ... Thrilling Wonder Stories, and Swell Punch-Ups" and editors
would order up "an octopus, a spaceman, and a screaming woman" for
the cover of a typical issue.
I like to call Aylett's work a combination of sci-fi, satire, and psychedelia.
His sentences are not only sublimely expressive; they are beautiful in
and of themselves. It's like opening a pop-up book to see gemstones
and charms strung together on bracelet chains, rising to display the
black noir onyx, the blood-red ruby, the diamond center of the mind, the
flaming gold-leaf giraffe trinket of surrealism.
Karloff's Circus lights up the town of Accomplice with an anarchic assortment of demons, clowns, factory workers,
zombies, politicians, and giant Steinway spiders. The action seems absurd until one realizes that the real world is no
less freakish. Even today, we have people kept alive in hospitals against all laws of nature, connected to machines
by tubes. We see self-mutilation in the form of extreme piercing and grotesquely overdone plastic surgery. Our
children are sent to war by incompetent politicians. Well, you get the idea. Once we establish that our world is crazy,
it makes no difference whether Aylett is using surrealism to parody reality, or if he is writing a straightforward story
about paranormal creatures in a parallel universe.
Aylett cites Voltaire as an influence, and the influence shows. "Organised religion added Jesus to the food groups,"
he tells us, or "Pause any country and you'll spot subliminal torture in the frame."
Jacque Derrida maintained that all words have varying shades of meaning to each reader; therefore, every reader
brings a certain amount of the story with them to a book. Maybe that is why I like Steve Aylett's prose so much -- he
gives us plenty of raw material to process.
zombies, politicians, and giant Steinway spiders. The action seems absurd until one realizes that the real world is no
less freakish. Even today, we have people kept alive in hospitals against all laws of nature, connected to machines
by tubes. We see self-mutilation in the form of extreme piercing and grotesquely overdone plastic surgery. Our
children are sent to war by incompetent politicians. Well, you get the idea. Once we establish that our world is crazy,
it makes no difference whether Aylett is using surrealism to parody reality, or if he is writing a straightforward story
about paranormal creatures in a parallel universe.
Aylett cites Voltaire as an influence, and the influence shows. "Organised religion added Jesus to the food groups,"
he tells us, or "Pause any country and you'll spot subliminal torture in the frame."
Jacque Derrida maintained that all words have varying shades of meaning to each reader; therefore, every reader
brings a certain amount of the story with them to a book. Maybe that is why I like Steve Aylett's prose so much -- he
gives us plenty of raw material to process.
Ectric: It seems like you establish patterns of phrasing that are
independent of the plot but that the reader can "pick up" on while reading.
Aylett: Yes, there are several threads of sense going through it at
different depths. I think the mind picks up which bits link in to which other
bits. Some's almost a subliminal sort of thing going on, and then at the
simplest level there's the running gags or repetitions like the "Snail,
Sarge" conversation, which is just so stupid I really like it. And if you don't
like all that there's always the story to fall back on.
Ectric: Even though Lint is a parody, I find that you throw in some
semi-profound ideas. Like, commands materializing from thin air where
someone's mouth happens to be. The opposite of cause and effect.
Aylett: The parody thing was secondary to the meanings I was putting in
there. I enjoy parody and stupid stuff, but more often than not I'll use it as
a housing for old-time satire, politics and bitter axe-grinding. That thing
about authority was about the fact that authority is actually quite arbitrary,
and doesn't manifest any inherent quality. Traced to its root it's the result
of luck, happenstance, crime and the sustaining of a set-up over many
years as people hold on to power. It has no moral weight that stands up
to a moment's scrutiny, and is enforced by the threat of violence.
Reduced to its constituent atoms authority doesn't really mean anything.
It's all just people.
independent of the plot but that the reader can "pick up" on while reading.
Aylett: Yes, there are several threads of sense going through it at
different depths. I think the mind picks up which bits link in to which other
bits. Some's almost a subliminal sort of thing going on, and then at the
simplest level there's the running gags or repetitions like the "Snail,
Sarge" conversation, which is just so stupid I really like it. And if you don't
like all that there's always the story to fall back on.
Ectric: Even though Lint is a parody, I find that you throw in some
semi-profound ideas. Like, commands materializing from thin air where
someone's mouth happens to be. The opposite of cause and effect.
Aylett: The parody thing was secondary to the meanings I was putting in
there. I enjoy parody and stupid stuff, but more often than not I'll use it as
a housing for old-time satire, politics and bitter axe-grinding. That thing
about authority was about the fact that authority is actually quite arbitrary,
and doesn't manifest any inherent quality. Traced to its root it's the result
of luck, happenstance, crime and the sustaining of a set-up over many
years as people hold on to power. It has no moral weight that stands up
to a moment's scrutiny, and is enforced by the threat of violence.
Reduced to its constituent atoms authority doesn't really mean anything.
It's all just people.
Ectric: When you call Karloff Velocet the "Fall Marshall" is this a reference to the idea of the "fall of man?"
Aylett: As far as I can recall this was mainly from The Fall's album The Marshall Suite -- and he is marshalling the
various falls and collapses in the circus. His circus is all about entropy.
Ectric: Which is better -- for countries to worry continuously about other countries' ability to build nuclear bombs, or
the "stalemate effect" of each country already having nuclear bombs?
Aylett: As long as America has the 'pre-emptive' policy of attacking non-nuclear countries without provocation, it's
probably better that other countries have nuclear weapons also, as a deterrent to the U.S. (which doesn't like an
even fight) -- but in any case there'll be a nuclear catastrophe at some point, either through psychotic panic or a
technical error. It's inevitable.
Aylett: As far as I can recall this was mainly from The Fall's album The Marshall Suite -- and he is marshalling the
various falls and collapses in the circus. His circus is all about entropy.
Ectric: Which is better -- for countries to worry continuously about other countries' ability to build nuclear bombs, or
the "stalemate effect" of each country already having nuclear bombs?
Aylett: As long as America has the 'pre-emptive' policy of attacking non-nuclear countries without provocation, it's
probably better that other countries have nuclear weapons also, as a deterrent to the U.S. (which doesn't like an
even fight) -- but in any case there'll be a nuclear catastrophe at some point, either through psychotic panic or a
technical error. It's inevitable.
Ectric: Uncanny! Speaking of insane, did you do the artwork for The
Caterer? It is so classic.
Aylett: It all started out as samples from a lot of 1970s comics -- that blonde
grinning jock appears throughout those comics. Then I flipped them,
changed colors, changed expressions and body positions etc, blended them
into different backgrounds and with different characters, muted the colors
down again, then added dialogue. Often I was doing so much re-drawing I
was virtually drawing the character from scratch, by the end.
Caterer? It is so classic.
Aylett: It all started out as samples from a lot of 1970s comics -- that blonde
grinning jock appears throughout those comics. Then I flipped them,
changed colors, changed expressions and body positions etc, blended them
into different backgrounds and with different characters, muted the colors
down again, then added dialogue. Often I was doing so much re-drawing I
was virtually drawing the character from scratch, by the end.
Ectric: Did you ever hang out with the Krays?
Aylett: No, I never met the Krays, but I knew their lawyer, and Ronnie liked
The Crime Studio.
Ectric: Now I'm sort of freaked out because I'm not sure if you are serious.
The Crime Studio was published in 1994, Ronnie was with us until 1996 ...
are you serious?
Aylett: Yeah. Actually, Ron liked it so much he wrote a story of his own,
which he got to me via a mutual acquaintance. Unfortunately, it was crap. I
think I'd got the book to him because the small publisher that did The Crime
Studio originally wanted a quote from a 'name' of some kind, and I didn't
know anyone in the literary world back then. Unfortunate things used to
happen to people when I sent them books for cover quotes. I sent the
re-print of The Crime Studio to William Burroughs and he died a week later; I
sent Bigot Hall to Stephen Fry and he went insane -- temporarily.
Aylett: No, I never met the Krays, but I knew their lawyer, and Ronnie liked
The Crime Studio.
Ectric: Now I'm sort of freaked out because I'm not sure if you are serious.
The Crime Studio was published in 1994, Ronnie was with us until 1996 ...
are you serious?
Aylett: Yeah. Actually, Ron liked it so much he wrote a story of his own,
which he got to me via a mutual acquaintance. Unfortunately, it was crap. I
think I'd got the book to him because the small publisher that did The Crime
Studio originally wanted a quote from a 'name' of some kind, and I didn't
know anyone in the literary world back then. Unfortunate things used to
happen to people when I sent them books for cover quotes. I sent the
re-print of The Crime Studio to William Burroughs and he died a week later; I
sent Bigot Hall to Stephen Fry and he went insane -- temporarily.
| Photograph of the Kray Twins (Reggie Kray and Ronnie Kray) taken in 1966 by photographer David Bailey. |
| Other victims of the Aylett curse: Burroughs and Fry |
Ectric: Near the end of Karloff's Circus we read, "On the bluff behind them an angel landed, fragile as a feather
made of bones. Under a sky deep as grief it closed its silent white wings."
Is Mike Abblatia the angel? And, at the beginning of the book, when Mike Abblatia jumps off the bridge, is everything
that happens in the rest of the book happening in the instant that Mike falls?
Aylett: I don't think the book occurs in Mike Abblatia's mind/dreams or whatever -- it happens, after he jumps.
Regarding the mystery angel at the end, I wanted to make the suggestion that it might be Barney.
Ectric: On some level, Bigot Hall made me think of Kerouac's Doctor Sax, even though they aren't all that similar. Did
you ever read Doctor Sax?
Aylett: Yes, I've read Doctor Sax. Used to be a big Kerouac fan. That one was different from his others of course,
being sort of cinematic and constructed.
Ectric: You write a lot about other dimensions; did you ever read Flatland by Edwin Abbott Abbott?
Aylett: I have read Flatland, though I still believe he cribbed it from Charles H. Hinton, author of The Fourth
Dimension (who I mention often in my books).
Ectric: If they made a Lint movie, who should portray Lint as an old man -- Patrick McGoohan or Christopher Lee?
Aylett: McGoohan is more grouchy, so I'd go for him.
Ectric: I knew it! That would be my pick as well. So, do the English really say variations of "isn't it" all the time? For
example, in reply to my last question, you might say, "Well, Lint is American, isn't he?"
Aylett: English people say isn't, aint, aren't, innit, wot, and other things.
made of bones. Under a sky deep as grief it closed its silent white wings."
Is Mike Abblatia the angel? And, at the beginning of the book, when Mike Abblatia jumps off the bridge, is everything
that happens in the rest of the book happening in the instant that Mike falls?
Aylett: I don't think the book occurs in Mike Abblatia's mind/dreams or whatever -- it happens, after he jumps.
Regarding the mystery angel at the end, I wanted to make the suggestion that it might be Barney.
Ectric: On some level, Bigot Hall made me think of Kerouac's Doctor Sax, even though they aren't all that similar. Did
you ever read Doctor Sax?
Aylett: Yes, I've read Doctor Sax. Used to be a big Kerouac fan. That one was different from his others of course,
being sort of cinematic and constructed.
Ectric: You write a lot about other dimensions; did you ever read Flatland by Edwin Abbott Abbott?
Aylett: I have read Flatland, though I still believe he cribbed it from Charles H. Hinton, author of The Fourth
Dimension (who I mention often in my books).
Ectric: If they made a Lint movie, who should portray Lint as an old man -- Patrick McGoohan or Christopher Lee?
Aylett: McGoohan is more grouchy, so I'd go for him.
Ectric: I knew it! That would be my pick as well. So, do the English really say variations of "isn't it" all the time? For
example, in reply to my last question, you might say, "Well, Lint is American, isn't he?"
Aylett: English people say isn't, aint, aren't, innit, wot, and other things.