Today I'd like to welcome Aaron Andrew Delcourt, author of 'The Meta-Comedy' to The Thursday Interview. Before we get started, a quick intro!
Delcourt lives in rural Maine, writing, drawing, and painting as best he can, raising up funds until he can get a decent apartment in a different town in rural Maine. Preferably one with a movie theater. Cloud Atlas was a major influence on "The Meta-Comedy" as well as my favorite book of all, "Gravity's Rainbow" by Thomas Pynchon.
OK - HERE WE GO !!
No.1 Would you break the law to save a loved one? Why?
I would. It's rare that I allow what is and isn't legal to sway my decision making process. But with a good reason like saving a loved one the choice is simple.
No.2 What is the difference between being alive and truly living?
One must be capable of squeezing the life out of his own body, so that on the death bed any spectators would say, “How did he survive so long?” I think truly living takes a vast amount of self destructive idiocy.
No.3 What motivates you to write?
Other works of fiction inspire me the most. Anything by Thomas Pynchon or Vladimir Nabokov has me reaching for a pencil in no time. I gain a ton of inspiration watching movies. Stanley Kubrick is my favorite film-maker, and my favorite movie to watch for inspiration would have to be either Evil Dead 2 or Shock Treatment.
No.4 Why do humans want children?
I don't know. I've been wracking my brain about this one for like an hour now and I can't think of a satisfying answer. Evolution is the only one which I'm happy with, but since I expect the intention of this question was a philosophical response I can't rightfully answer in so few words. And although I can't speak for everybody, I know why I'd want children. I'd want to have children some day, because when I look back on my childhood, I primarily remember how terrible it was. If I ever have children they will live in a happy, healthy, and safe household. I'll break the laws of physics if I have to, but rest assured I'll make that happen.
No.5 What was the biggest challenge in creating your book? “The Meta-Comedy”
Excluding the writing the biggest challenge has been in getting the book out there. As it turns out independent authors rely on word of mouth advertising, which can be incredibly hard on an author's self esteem due to the sheer number of family members you'll be forced to talk to in desperation. The biggest challenge in actually writing the book came from the chapter named “Leptosporangiate”. The city which the chapter takes place in is (almost) the same city from a book I never published. It had more purpose here than in the scrapped piece, so I wrote “lepto.” to take place in the same micronation.
No.6 What is the most important thing you have learned in life so far?
The most important thing I've learned in life is that you don't outgrow putting drawings up onto the fridge. If anything you upgrade. I'm not at home unless I can plaster every wall with drawings, paintings, posters and, words. It's starting to look like a crazy person lives here, which is just what I'm going for.
No.7 How did you come up with the title "The Meta-Comedy”?
I named the book “The Meta-Comedy” partly as a satirical reference to The Divine Comedy. But mainly, I named it that because of the way in which each chapter switches into another genre, to a point at which the reader begins meta-reading the text. Perhaps you find yourself disoriented, and one way readers try to find solid footing in text is through analysis. So as a way of inviting the reader to do so, I named the book after the genre of fiction which encompasses all forms of self aware storytelling, meta-fiction.
No.8 How do you handle personal criticism?
I prefer to receive my criticism in paper form. Marginal notes on a paper copy of the work are preferred (that way I can take my own notes), although the copy-editor I worked with on “Meta” worked entirely on the computer, so we mainly communicated through the internet.
No.9 Why should people read your book?
People should read my book simply because it's a fun, bizarre adventure novel, which provides an experience you couldn't get anywhere else.
No.10 Why is there something rather than nothing?
There is something rather than nothing because is there were nothing, the only way to describe it would be:
--And that's not very interesting, is it?
Thank you Aaron :)
For taking the time to answer my questions
& the best of luck with your new book!
Check out 'The Meta-Comedy' on
After a local con man makes the acquaintance of an eccentric cookbook aficionado, he finds himself running from the exposure of a freakish and bloody accident. What follows is a chain of events so absurd and vastly improbable that they couldn't possibly be fiction. Miles away, an unthinkable tragedy proves to be curtains for an average college community. With an Eldritch being, an executive plot, a string of murders, and a micro-nation planning to “take it back” using a newly bred psychotropic substance. Here approaches a rollicking riot which will test the very fabric of reality itself.
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