Following on from reviewing Christopher’s novella, Dethrone God, I had an opportunity to talk to him further about it. Here is a transcript of our exchange.
BS: Your work looks at contemporary Belfast, but with an eye to the past. Have you considered writing something from conflict era Belfast?
CO: I wouldn't rule it out, but it's not something that I would consider at the moment in time as I feel that the present is always the most interesting period to explore. I think this because you have a bigger sandbox to play in (so to speak) so you are able to connect a view of the past with a vision of the future and see how the two measure up in the present. Quite often, writers do go back in time to tell a story that works as an analogy of whatever is happening at that moment in time, but you have to be a writer of immense skill to ensure that such a work doesn’t fall into cliché ridden viewpoints or perpetuate debunked folklore which, as a student of history, is something that deeply irritates me with historical fiction. That’s not to say that it isn’t possible to create some astonishing historical fiction. I am on record as saying that Eoin McNamee’s Resurrection Man not only changed my life but inspired me to become a writer. Skintown by Ciarán McMenamin is another example, dealing with being a teenager in Enniskillen in the early 90’s and Maurice Leitch’s Silver’s City manages to capture the shifting worldviews between the elder gunmen and the Young Turks. These three stand out because the various writers understood that character and location drove their narratives and so it allowed for something a little more introspective and closer to the bone than a million Shadow Dancers.
Review of A Vortex of Securocrats
BS: What inspired you to write a poetry, and then a novella?CO: Trial and error. I usually start off writing poetry and then decide that the theme might be better served as a piece of prose, a short story or a novella. Dethrone God initially began as a poem about realising that the city I grew up in had substantially changed over the years, as had I. There's a punchiness to poetry that I love, in the sense that it can conjure up an atmosphere within a few lines that leave you musing on what was described for days afterwards, whereas the demands of a novella mean that there are many such moments within the story. This makes the novella harder to write. By contrast A Vortex of Securocrats was easier as I had a general theme and was able to shape the poetry to make it fit.
BS: Any other forms of writing that you’re considering at the moment?
CO: I am currently collaborating with the artist Michael Hing to interpret some of my poetry into a comic format. This probably won't see the light of day for a while but I'm excited by the preliminary drafts. I would love to write a full graphic novel/comic book but that will take a long time. I'm also working on the memoir of a singer whose band I greatly admire. I have about six months of interviews so it's taking a while but it's a brilliant story of a working class lad from the North of England who made something of himself thanks to punk and continues to be his own man. I've learnt a lot from him in our ten years of friendship and this memoir is the least I can do to honour that friendship.
BS: What do you hope to achieve with your written work?
CO: There are a multitude of answers I can give you; all designed to flatter my ego and make me seem more important than I actually am. We all know that culture is deeply fragmented in 2024 and so the chance of a novel sparking various discussions among a wide stratum of society is zero. In such circumstances, all I can realistically hope for is that as many people as possible read my work and enjoy it. If it lingers a little longer in the memory, then I will be over the moon. All too often, people set themselves unrealistic goals. I’ve seen this among bands and writers (some of whom were very good) who entered the arena thinking that they were the ones who would overcome the odds to become the breakout artist of their generation. Naturally this didn’t happen, and they ended up feeling disillusioned and cheated. But the problem is they weren’t cheated, they had inflated expectations and crumbled whenever reality came their way. Whereas I don’t expect my work to sell millions of copies, nor do I wish to become a “professional writer” (with connotations of government grants, constraints and hobnobbing). I am quite happy as an independent writer as I can write what I want whenever I want, I can work with like minded people and I am not dictated to by finances nor commercial pressures.
Review of Dethrone God
BS: "I feel that the present is always the most interesting period to explore" This immediately jumped out at me. What makes the present the most interesting period to explore? And given the sheer historical weight of Belfast/NI, what makes contemporary study more interesting?CO: In purely literary terms, the past and the future are no longer tangible entities, but have bled into the present to create a kind of inertia where everything seems to be both moving forwards and backwards. For me, I find that fascinating as it's a unique time in human history where we're (for want of a better term) 'stuck'. We're more aware of the past than ever but have little understanding of it and so many claim to act in a way that will be beneficial for their descendants. Maybe this milieu is what the future will be for the next few decades, who knows? But it's fun to explore this from a literary perspective and try to add your own interpretations or predictions so that it doesn't just become a diary but one that challenges
BS: "Eoin McNamee’s Resurrection Man not only changed my life but inspired me to become a writer. In what ways did it change your life?" More broadly, other than those you listed, what other works changed and/or influenced your life? Specifically, what difference did they make?
CO: The period of the film's release (1998) helped to shape my twelve year old self. I remember the controversy all too well. Released just before the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, hearing stories about how this film could potentially "bring down the peace process" obviously intrigued the twelve year old me. This sounded like a dangerous film. Alongside A Clockwork Orange, Straw Dogs, The Devils etc. Not only did I become aware of the power of art to outrage and provoke commentary, but the mix of history, politics and art gave me a frame for negotiating Ireland's recent history. It made me realise things were being swept under the carpet in the name of peace and I wasn't sure if I liked that or not. As an example the film only played for a few weeks in Belfast but regularly outsold Titanic despite being relegated to one cinema. Titanic (a film I enjoyed as a kid) was the kind of image that Belfast wanted to project onto the world (a spectacular piece of engineering modernity serving as the backdrop for a doomed love story), whereas Resurrection Man represented the squalid reality. Even more squalid when you realise that the only cinema in Belfast that would show it (Yorkgate) is not far from where the Butchers operated.
Naturally, being twelve years old, there was no chance of me being able to sneak into the cinema to see it. So, after noting it was based on a book, I borrowed it from the Falls Library in April 1998. The first thing that struck me about the cover was how nightmarish it was, seemingly managing to be a blend of both the esoteric and the realistic. Sure, to 2024 eyes, it's very much a product of its time thanks to the cross and crumbling terrace housing but to a twelve year old me it was revolutionary. The writing was something else. Although (at the time) I probably only understood a third of it, it did change my life in that it made me very aware of street names and the ghosts that haunt them. As I wrote on this site a few years ago:
In McNamee's hands, the city of Belfast becomes a character in itself. This isn't just a city at war. It's a gothic, Cormac McCarthyesque metropolis that holds secrets, ghosts and a grip of paranoia over the living (the character of Coppinger is a perfect example of someone who's been eaten up and spat out by the city). It also serves as a place of endless possibilities but, crucially, one that holds a power on the psyche of the population.
People who (as McNamee put it):
...preferred it when it began to get dark. By day the city seemed ancient and ambiguous. Its power was dissipated by exposure to daylight. It looked derelict and colonial. There was a sense of curfew, produce rotting in the market-place. At night it described itself by its lights, defining streets like a code of destinations. Victor would sit with the big wheel of the Zephyr pressed against his chest and think about John Dillinger’s face seen through a windscreen at night, looking pinched by rain and the deceit of women.
That idea (of other forces beyond your understanding at work in the background influencing you whether you like it or not) has never left me.
Christopher’s weekly column at TPQ
Other works (be they books, comics/graphic novels and albums) that have influenced me are:The Butcher Boy 📚 Patrick McCabe
American Psycho 📚 Bret Easton Ellis
Crash 📚 JG Ballard
Last Exit to Brooklyn 📚 Hubert Selby Jr.
Post Office 📚 Charles Bukowski
Pop.1280 📚 Jim Thompson
Get Carter 📚 Ted Lewis
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns 📚 Frank Miller/Lynn Varney
V For Vendetta 📚 Alan Moore/Dave Lloyd
2000AD magazine
Heavy Metal magazine
What's This For...! - Killing Joke
Children of God 📚 Swans
Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing 📚 Discharge
The Voice of America 📚 Cabaret Voltaire
Twitch 📚 Ministry
While I have been influenced by them in a variety of different ways, one thing all of them have going through them is an honesty and intensity that I found in Resurrection Man.
Buy Christopher’s books
BS:The protagonist is a man with secrets, a tormenting inner voice, and is also a man confronted by other men in a time-honoured performance of masculine dominance. Was exploring forms of masculinity present during the writing of Dethrone God?CO: Not consciously. I try to avoid such themes when I'm writing as I find them very much present day concerns and I'm not interested in pandering to a particular interpretation. Of course I accept that, by putting my work out there, people will interpret it in whatever way they see fit. This is both part of the joy and despair at being a writer. Often, themes will only come through when the text has been completed but needs revising. That way, it's easy to identify what you want to say on a particular area and help craft the narrative in such a way that it accommodates this point of view. Often, in my experience, sitting down and thinking "I will write this book which will explore themes of...." often leads to a cul de sac.
BS: Broadly speaking, as a writer of fiction and a student of history, how much of the writer is in the writing? (I've tried a number of times to write something, but invariably write about myself, realised I'm doing it and then stop).
CO: It all depends on how much you allow yourself to be in the writing. Hubert Selby Jr, when teaching creative writing in California, once made the grand claim that male writers put their balls in the way of the story and that, in order to write, one has to destroy the ego (or take your balls out of the way) in order to tell a story as ego is never the truth. I'm not 100% convinced by this, but I can certainly see the point that he was making. Writing is a task that requires immense discipline but also immense imagination. You have to be prepared to piece things together that you might not have thought of before and you have to be prepared to see it through to the very end.
⏩Brandon Sullivan is a middle-aged West Belfast émigré. He juggles fatherhood & marriage with working in a policy environment and writing for TPQ about the conflict, films, books, and politics.
⏩ Christopher Owens was a reviewer for Metal Ireland and finds time to study the history and inherent contradictions of Ireland. He is currently the TPQ Friday columnist.
Big, big thanks to Brandon for conducting this interview and to Mackers for hosting it.
ReplyDeleteA very erudite conversation. Thoroughly enjoyed it.
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