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Grant morrison to bare all

 
  

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sobel
13:23 / 29.08.02
I’m lucky enough to be interviewing grant mozz next week – probably Tuesday – its for a style mag called Cog – you can score it in Glasgow, Edinburgh and London Town (in poncy ‘style’ shops).

But hold yer jizz a sec: mag comes out November.

Anyhoo, in my letter to the man I said I’d be asking him about cultural issues such as:
The present day urban condition (cities and what goes oninim inda west as well as da poor parts of the planet)
Future trends (pop, scientific, religious)
Joe schizofrenik as the new geeza roun town
Global Politics (I think a year on, it’d be ‘nice’ to juice the moz-brain on 911 – boring? Well suggest summat then!)
Magic as the next big thing

These kinda fings genrilly.

Comics will be discussed but in more general terms – Cog Magazine does not have much crossover with new-xmen – at least not yet.

But……If there is time I will ask lots of comics related questions cos I personally love Kromix and Grant’s one of the best and all you lovelies will probo have a few Quest –ee- ohs?

So:

I’d be mighty grateful if you could help me out with some interesting questions to fire at GM. Concentrate first on the ‘mature’ topics…..then retire to the bedroom for your comics related questions.

Thank you barbelith, ya big red dot ya!
 
 
grant
13:39 / 29.08.02
If you want "style"-type answers, ask him something about the new X-men movie, and if he expects the no-spandex mutant look to catch on as a fashion trend.
 
 
The Natural Way
14:18 / 29.08.02
Will think about this (most of the questions I'd like to ask him would be too *involved* for yr little chat, methinks), but an obvious one would have to be:

"When are you gonna start work on Ult FF, you baldoldfart?"
 
 
The Falcon
14:22 / 29.08.02
Ask about the World Summit, and um... some stuff about Africa (myths, politics, etc.) He never talks about Africa, apart from that one Animal Man story.

I was born in Africa (Botswana, actually.)
 
 
sleazenation
14:28 / 29.08.02
Maybe ask him about the novel he is writing (The IF) and if he feels that , as he has stated in the past that "the novel is a dead form" what the new forms are.
 
 
louisemichel
14:31 / 29.08.02
ask him if he really thinks so much of the technology that he thinks his websites are now sentients and that they will update themselves...
ok... don't ask him that...
 
 
sobel
14:41 / 29.08.02
I'd like this to be a 'challenging' interview, rather than fawning - I think some comeback on his philosphies may be in order:

statements such as 'we live in a self perfecting system' could be explored a bit more, doncha think?

dassyrunce crew: disclose yer deep n dirt thoughts - you never know - 'little' chats yield big answers.

so far - thank you people. This is no bullshit - the interview will happen and you 'egghead stoner mutherfuckers' will be referenced, respected and 'bigged up' too.

Difficult questions would be appreciated?

Probing

is the key word.
 
 
Justin Brief
14:43 / 29.08.02
Ask him about the Thomas the Tank Engine influence on The Filth, and whether he still takes LSD regularly.
 
 
Tamayyurt
15:15 / 29.08.02
Well, he usually spits out the same stuff in all of his interviews. Why not take a look at on and then ask him questions that'll force him to elaborate (just to see how well thought out these mad theories of his really are.)

Example: His new big thing is Superheros jumping from the cinema and into the real world. Someone here (I think it was Sebastian, but not sure) made a comment about only a few rich people in the West becoming posthuman (or their government bullies). How about asking him about that? Are these the types of people we want walking (or flying) around as Gods?
 
 
Tamayyurt
15:20 / 29.08.02
And my retard question would be: "WHEN THE FUCK IS MARVEL BOY 2 COMING OUT?"
 
 
Regrettable Juvenilia
15:42 / 29.08.02
I'd ask him if he'd agree that on one level New X-Men is his most 'political' work to date, because it shows a group of people who are basically activists/volunteers and who have a kind of ethos that he seems to be genuinely trying to promote...
 
 
mr Squiggle
16:11 / 29.08.02
Ask if he has any plans to convince anyone to publish The New Adventures Hilter, particularly in response to:

"I'm very much of the old school in that I think a writer should be good enough (i.e. adaptable enough) to find suckers to pony up the cash for his thoughts. I was very glad that I'd been forced to face my fears and conquer my adolescent shyness by knocking on doors and selling myself and my work to hard-nosed publishers. Why waste your own money on something when you can just as easily keep your money and convince a professional publisher to hire you and put out your work at his own expense? Self-publishing might be a good start for the housebound or for creative people who prefer not to face the harsh glare of editorial criticism but it's not for me. I still own most of my own creations. I make up so much stuff every day that I really don't mind giving some of it away."
(the definitive but not really challenging morrison interview)

"I mean, if publishers are so fucking wonderful, where's a trade of THE NEW ADVENTURES OF HITLER? I choose that as an example because that's exactly the kind of thing depending on a commercial publisher would keep from the marketplace, that only self-publishing would ever be possible for in all probability. I doubt, even with his clout, he could get that published by AOL Time Warner or Marvel if he suddenly got a notion to have it out there. Not that he necessarily would--I imagine he's filtered out any desire in that direction along with much else that couldn't be commercially certain--but the point is that he wouldn't have the power to."
JLRoberson said I better than I can.
 
 
Kobol Strom
16:16 / 29.08.02
If I could ask GM a question it would be:

He says he's seen the Universe from the outside,and that its 'this single, obvious thing.'What kind of shape is he talking about?,and how did this experience affect his idea about the purpose of the Universe.
Has it been possible to determine the function from the form?
 
 
Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo
17:57 / 29.08.02
"You have said that comics are having their last run at high sales, and after thsi wave they will possibly no longer exist. Is it possible to turn the New X-Men into a sigil that will reverse that and, for lack of another phrase 'save the industry'?"

"Do you see creativity as a blessing or a curse?"

"And what about the idea of 'Idea space' as put forth by Alan Moore and Warren Ellis....how best to 'jack in' to it and was Jack Kirby in it so far that some of his stroies make no sense?"
 
 
Our Lady of The Two Towers
18:25 / 29.08.02
"Are you prepared to admit now that Kula Shaker were shit?"

"Circa 1998 in an interview you claimed we'd make contact with a fictional reality in eighteen months (IIRC). Well?"

"What are your political influences?"
 
 
sobel
18:39 / 29.08.02
yeah, a lot of this stuff is very kindly received - ta

lada: I've said it before and I'll say it again:

911 for the majority of people living in a an apparently myth-free, agnostic, sterile environment, was first contact with fictional reality.
 
 
arcboi
21:41 / 29.08.02
All I'd like to know is who would win in a fight between Marvel Boy and The Incredible Hulk.
 
 
rakehell
01:20 / 30.08.02
I would argue that GWB's response to 9/11 is the fictional reality. In spite of everything that's happened, he thinks we can continue along the same path as before; bombing and killing, fighting fire with fire.
 
 
The Natural Way
07:21 / 30.08.02
Kobol Strom:

"He says he's seen the Universe from the outside,and that its 'this single, obvious thing.'What kind of shape is he talking about?,and how did this experience affect his idea about the purpose of the Universe.
Has it been possible to determine the function from the form?"

Now, this is the perfect way to get him to repeat himself. If you want answers to these questions, Kobol: read Morrison's stuff (his interviews and his comics) a bit more carefully. It's all in there.
 
 
Kobol Strom
09:52 / 30.08.02
No,a lot of stuff is inspired by his experiences but not based entirely on them,- and he describes our universe as being embedded in some kind of hyperfluid,but he doesn't ever commit to an accurate enough description,which is what i'd press him for.
My theory is he's holding some relly cool stuff back,and that the 'real' universe,and the depiction of it from the outside and its function,will be one of the themes in background of The Filth,but its only based on idle speculation.
I can't help but be fascinated by it,and its one of the questions I'd ask him.
 
 
The Natural Way
10:01 / 30.08.02
The point is Kobol: he can't give you an "accurate description" - it'd be like trying to describe an acid trip to someone who'd never tried it. The Filth'll be as good a description as any. Really, go back to the Invisibles and then try to grok the shape Grant's trying to describe: you have to get there yrself - a straightforward "explanation" would be inadequate.
 
 
Jack The Bodiless
12:35 / 30.08.02
Or, alternatively, posit vague and half-formed ideas that outwiegh your ability to translate them to your chosen medium (complete with badly-realised smartarse characters to convey them), set yourself up as a pop culture guru to the gullible, and pseud yourself into Becoming Your Own Morrison Hypersigil!
 
 
The Natural Way
13:09 / 30.08.02
Yeah! Or do that!

It was ALL LIES anyway, to LOOK COOL!

YEAH!
 
 
sobel
13:26 / 30.08.02
Bodiless - he already thinks we all hate him here.

i read an interview with A.moore tother day - the f'full' idler one - it's pretty good - all the better for the interviewer challenging Moore on some of the grander statements he makes.

I'd like to do the same with Morrison - but I'm not going to slag him off - jeez - I've been slabbering over his brain to keyboard transmissions for the last 15 years! - I'm hardly going to call him a fake.

Mind you,the whole issue of 'fakes' is an interesting one....
 
 
grant
15:07 / 30.08.02
There's something very special about being hated by your fans....
 
 
Tamayyurt
15:11 / 30.08.02
He's got no problem with faking. (Fake it til you make it, right?)

undo- Where's the Moore interview? Online or meatspace? Can we have a link?
 
 
Seth
18:28 / 30.08.02
"You've described the Invisibles as a hypersigil, a magick working intended to create new Invisibles. Do you believe that the internet community based at www.barbelith.com should be interpreted as part of the realisation of this aim? How do you view your relationship with this community in contrast with how other writers and artists have chosen to interact with their audience (particularly those who do so online)?"
 
 
Sebastian
18:29 / 30.08.02
~Impulsivelad wrote: Someone here (I think it was Sebastian, but not sure) made a comment about only a few rich people in the West becoming posthuman (or their government bullies).

That's me, yes, in a discussion about Everything will be games, as GM buoyantly predicted in the latest interview with Sequential Tart. I guess this trend evolved from his own notion that "we are now astronauts entering fiction as a dimension", as he said back in an interview in "Writers on Comic-Book Writing". Then he said he would change places with King-Mob, and now -maybe- he figures the US army will bring Captain America and that some NYC guy in front of a microwave is going to become The Hulk, uh-oh, I think its me... GGNNNRRRRAAAHHHRRR!!

Whatever, let all of us bear in mind that "the super-hero meme" has been around since pre-biblical times (anybody remembers Dalilah and her long-haired husband?), and maybe he means that encounters with "fictional reality" are about to increase for the whole race, as this seems to have occured to humanity from time to time over millenia, but that discussion really belongs to another forum.

There is an unavoidable naiviete in all those comic-book related interviews, a refreshening optimism that belongs maybe more to the decidedly human super-elite of comic-book readers and writers, a somewhat masturbatory optimism I admit for myself, but anyway we are supposed to be so, after all we are reading comic books, and also getting crazy to read his next interview.

I don't know about the scope of the magazine, but it may be interesting to ask about his affective relation with his girlfriend, or maybe thats way too lame. I am not particularly inspired, just tell him to ensure The Filth will get into TPB quickly. And I am glad comic-books will not be the core of the thing.

I do recommend to read or either re-read the Anti-Grant essay by Tom Whiteley at the Invisibilia site, be it for inspiration to approach him in an interview or to ponder all the rampaging opinions in previous interviews, but at least to get a fairly developed "I can't take this guy anymore" standpoint about a pre-New X-Men GM.
 
 
deja_vroom
19:21 / 30.08.02
"we are now astronauts entering fiction as a dimension"
My God, is this guy full of shit...

[Edited to say thanks for the link, Sebastian]
 
 
Sebastian
20:48 / 30.08.02
~De Jade wrote: My God, is this guy full of shit...

Okay, okay, that's the problem with incomplete quoting. Here is the full sentence and context:

From page 212 of Writer's on Comic Book Writing:
"Within a year we'll see man's first contact with fictional reality, seriously."
(This is why you can ask him "Don't you think this has been happening since the human specie became the human specie?", okay, that's enough)
"Fiction and reality are going to become interchangeable. It will happen very slowly, but the first thing I'm gonna try and do so is change places with King Mob.
You're going to be
in the comic?
I'll be in the comic and he'll come out the comic. It's a technology [...] I realise now you can go into any comic or any piece of fiction wearing a Fiction Suit. This is pioneering stuff, we are now astronauts entering fiction as a dimension. [...] I thought, what if you treated that reality as being its own real autonomous world?"


As I type this I realise that one deep hypnotic trance phenomena addressed and described by Milton Erickson and his fellows is that of Deep Trance Identification, where the subject literally comes to perceive the world through the mind-senses (identity) of someone else, be hir fictional or not. NLP of course borrowed this to an extent, and Grant used to be much fond of NLP. Those who wish to read about the specifics of Deep Trance Identification may do so by looking at Question 7 of An Interview with Dr Stephen Gilligan. The parallels with the notion of "entering a fictional world" are quite traceable. From here, it looks like GM is predicting that the whole humanity will go into deep trance, as if it has not already done so.
 
 
The Natural Way
09:15 / 31.08.02
There's stuff I agree with - maybe Grant's work has become too manifesto-y - but some of those criticisms are just tired: Boy, unanswered questions/Grant leaving things hanging....that stuff, and they make up a substantial part of the guy's moaning. There was stuff left hanging, sure, but not half as much as some readers think.

Jade: yr always dismissing Grant's more wacky/magickal ideas as "shit"...why do you read his books? The ideas make up almost 90% of the text.
 
 
penitentvandal
11:27 / 31.08.02
Well, we should hate him here. It is a good and important thing that he should be hated on this website. Every big self-important, arrogant, I'm-gonna-change-reality-me mage NEEDS a braying jackass Insubordinate to bring him down and call him on his shit from time to time.

I think I get the 'I'll be King Mob' idea; it's just Grant's typical techno-ponce futurist way of saying he was/will be running an invocation of the 'King Mob' idea complex, in the hope of acquiring KM's Bottomless Reservoir of Cool type powers. My question, though, is why would you WANT to be KM? He's shallow and uninteresting, obsessed with being 'cool'. Jack, in the last issue, seemed like a much more interesting character. Or even Boy. But the King? No. Not for me.

So, my questions for the Grantster would be:

1. How exactly does your style of magic differ from, say, Alan Moore's, except that he uses big Hebrew words and you use big American words?

and

2. What's so cool about murderers anyway?

Feeling self-righteous for some reason today vandal over and out.
 
 
Seth
14:07 / 31.08.02
vandal: your first question could be answered by pretty much anyone in the Magick forum, and a good many others here beside. Your second question doesn't take into account KM's character arc.
 
 
The Natural Way
08:38 / 01.09.02
Or the fact that all the "cool" murder is juxtaposed with disgusting amounts of blood and gore and puking.
 
 
penitentvandal
11:59 / 02.09.02
Yeah, fair enough. For some reason I was in an uncharacteristically mean,surly, and neanderthal mood that morning, probably due to the events narrated recently in the magick thread. Reading back over the post it does look, to be honest, like pathetic, moaning student shite. I can only assume the aforementioned events caused my ether to haemmorhage at a remarkable rate, turning me, essentially, into a moron for a morning. Fortunately, a quick visit to FP and the administration of a strong dose of Millar-icillin, in the form of the second Authority tp, have restored my etheric balance. Rejoice!

From my calmer, patched-up perspective, I'd ask Grant about his timing. The idea of making 'first contact with fictional reality' in eighteen months, seen from the p.o.v. of 1998. Does Grant stand by that prediction? What event does he consider to have been 'first contact'? The millennium? 9/11? If the latter, then that '18 months' figure is out by quite a bit. So that's what I'd ask, on balance: I'd want some definite examples. Concrete detail, rather than 'artful and vague' NLP type moon-man language.

And, for my retard question, I'd ask if he's got any new cats lately...

Actually, scratch that. Consider the previous post my retard question.
 
  

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