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TPQ: What are you currently reading?
CP: I’m currently between two books, I tend to read more than one at a time; each book to match my mood at the time of reading. I’m reading Pierre Guyotat’s A Tomb For 500,000 Soldiers and David Lynch’s biography, A Room To Dream. It’s quite a good mix, one being a brutal, psychotropic mind fuck and the other, an interesting glimpse into the world of one of my favourite filmmakers. Besides books, film is one of my biggest influences (if not thee biggest), so I often read about film and the art of filmmaking.
TPQ: Best and worst books you have ever read?
Worst books for me have to be anything by Rumi, I find his poetry mundane, I see why people enjoy it but for me, it’s just plain poetry that has nothing but rumination on self-indulgence.
TPQ: Book most cherished as a child?
CP: This is a biggie, god, where do I start? I’d say best thus far are Naked Lunch by William Burroughs, Atrocity Exhibition by JG Ballard, Shelley’s Frankenstein, Georges Bataille’s Story of The Eye (The Impossible comes close too), de Sade’s 120 Days of Sodom and Peter Sotos, any books by him I tend to absorb with a frenzied glee! I’ve always found that art has to be confrontational, literature/poetry for me is one of the finest tools to attack society with, art is about confronting the norms, socio-politics and other societal deformities, authors that I have mentioned here do that well and I find that incredibly inspirational.
Worst books for me have to be anything by Rumi, I find his poetry mundane, I see why people enjoy it but for me, it’s just plain poetry that has nothing but rumination on self-indulgence.
TPQ: Book most cherished as a child?
CP: That has to be Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak, this ignited my imagination like no other book as a child. Having already a highly active imagination, the book really startled me, it made me aware of escapism, finding one’s true self in the most expressive and animalistic ways, using such energy to let go of all the frustration of growing up - I suppose it still resonates with me to this day.
TPQ: Favourite Childhood author?
CP: Despite what I said about Maurice Sendak’s book (probably the only book I actually read as a kid), I didn’t read many books at all, I was quite ignorant to literature at that time. However, I really enjoyed comics, Batman mostly until I found out Alan Moore’s work, Watchmen became a big fave, it was definitely the point where I started to become more mature in terms of what material I was attracted to. Moore was a writer that introduced me to a bigger world, something more profound…it led me (finally) to literature. I guess I owe a lot to Moore.
TPQ: First book to really own you?
CP: For me, it has to be Sylvia Plath’s Ariel. It’s a book of poetry that had an astounding impact on me. It’s a voice so powerful, so dark and profound; it made me aware that poetry wasn’t all beatific, Plath has this remarkable way of delivering something so menacing yet so beautiful. I fell in love with it straight away, it was the book that had inspired me to start writing poetry. I started to take the form of poetry seriously from that point.
TPQ: Favourite male and female author?
CP: Male author has to be Georges Bataille. Before Bataille, I was really into Marquis de Sade, de Sade’s work in actual fact made me laugh, he’s a satirical writer that confronts the French society during his time, yet, Batialle, for me, has a powerful voice that philosophises deeply about eroticism, death and melancholy, whilst Sade philosophises too, I can’t help but think that he’s writing such material with a sarcastic grin, a provocateur that likes to disrupt but embellish his immaturity with absurd digressions. Don’t get me wrong, I love Sade for that but Bataille has a profundity that is serious and brutal; playful with surrealism of course, just like Sade but Bataille’s work is more poetic and immersive.
Anais Nin is my favourite female author for sure, Delta of Venus is one of my favourite books; a collection of short stories that delve into the more shadowy places of the erotic world. She isn’t afraid to look into the darker territories of sex and the salacious flesh. It doesn’t surprise me that she once had a relationship with American author, Henry Miller, both had incredible insights into the world of sleazy chaos.
TPQ: A Preference for fact or fiction?
CP: Fiction, although, I do read a lot of true crime, so they probably balance out quite well…
TPQ: Biography, autobiography or memoir that most impressed you?
CP: Whilst not a biography per se, more like a philosophical treatise on the idea of a biography but Ecce Homo by Nietzsche comes to mind. What I loved about this book was its structure. It isn’t your typical, formulaic biography, instead, Nietzsche ruminates about certain chapters of his life, the people that he had met, his failed romance and digressions about his own work in a more episodic fashion. Throughout the book, I grew more and more sympathetic to him, not that he wanted pity or sympathy of any kind, however, it was his inability to maintain stable relationships with people; his intense friendship with Wagner was interesting until their explosive altercation had them part ways. The book is apparently unfinished as Nietzsche’s health deteriorated even more so due to complications with syphilis and insanity.
TPQ: Any author or book you point blank refuse to read?
CP: This is easy: 50 Shades of Grey, anything what you would consider airport fiction, they’re all insipid, trivial and safe; literature shouldn’t be safe. It should be dangerous.
CP: This is easy: 50 Shades of Grey, anything what you would consider airport fiction, they’re all insipid, trivial and safe; literature shouldn’t be safe. It should be dangerous.
TPQ: A book to share with somebody so that they would more fully understand you?
CP: Fully understand me? I don’t think anybody would fully understand me to be honest! I’d probably give them Kingdom of Fear by Hunter S. Thompson because I’m really just an angry guy full of anxiety that doesn’t agree with the world, some of the notions from the book have stuck with me since I read it whilst on holiday in Croatia, not the contrast everybody would desire.
CP: To Kill a Mockingbird, it was a gift to my girlfriend who happens to adore the book, she couldn’t find her older copy so thought it was a nice gesture.
TPQ: Book you would most like to see turned into a movie?
CP: Despite there being a black and white silent film (and a beautiful one at that) based on Dante’s magnum opus, The Divine Comedy, I’d love to see a faithful adaptation of each part, Inferno, Purgatory and Paradise; I think they’d make an immersive experience. I wouldn’t even ask for a linear narrative, poetics have always had their room in cinema, just look at Andrei Tarkovsky’s work.
TPQ: A "must read" you intend getting to before you die?
CP: I’ve always been meaning to get around to reading War & Peace, I have the book but the length intimidates me but I do intend to read it!
CP: I’ve always been meaning to get around to reading War & Peace, I have the book but the length intimidates me but I do intend to read it!
⏩ Craig Podmore is a poet and filmmaker who creates literature, film and poetry of a transgressive nature.
Sean Mallory comments
ReplyDeleteI read War and Peace a long, long, long time ago.....I watched the BBC adaptation (early 1970s series starring Hannibal Lecter himself - Anthony Hopkins) long before the book and found it had stimulated my interest in that period in Russian history so when I eventually got my hands on a copy I sat down and enjoyed it immensely...quite long but it is well worth it Craig - perseverance is required at times!
'Where the Wild Things are' is childhood escapism at its finest.
ReplyDeleteI love Hunter S Thompson's stuff. Kingdom of Fear is excellent. If anybody is fed up with US Election 2020 why not travel back in time to the 1972 campaign, expertly covered in Thompson's Fear and Loathimg on the Campaign Trail. I still have 2 or 3 of his books to read. What's that they say about too many books and not enough time?
One good thing about Tolstoy is his books may be long but they are very readable.