U.L. Harper's Blog, page 6
March 14, 2011
An End To The Days Of Compromise
I'm tired of compromising, watering down what I want, to appease, well, most people.
For instance, I want to sell millions of books. But for that to happen millions of people have to buy my books. See there, I haven't compromised, it just hasn't happened yet.
On the other hand, compromise says that I want to sell a few million and then a bunch of other people think that my million will make it so they can't sell their million, so we figure, hey, we'll all just sell hundreds and now we're all happy. Better for everybody to get a piece than only one person. Or, how I look at it, I'll take less so you can take less.
With that, the days of the compromise have to stop. It's over. No time left. So I reassessed my goals as a writer. Do I want a career in fiction or do I want to make a quick million and get out of dodge. Truth is I want a career. To do so I'm going to have to bring it with severe aggression. No holding back. Because more than sometimes aggression is simply the solution.
Here's an example. When you love someone, you love them all the way. Not a little bit, but all the way. Love them aggressively. You have to love like there's no tomorrow. It's best to love them so much that you fear for their death. When they leave you don't assume they'll be back. So you have the urge to kiss them upon every departure. Each moment could be your last with them so you look them in the eyes and speak with honesty and expect the same back. Be aggressive with your love as you should be aggressive with everything.
No matter what you do, you have to do it all the way, without compromise, even something we take for granted, like voting. Don't toe the line here. If you like to vote, vote for everything, not just the president and legalizing marijuana. Vote at the federal level, the state level, the local level and then vote for who takes out the trash at your house. When you go to the convenient store, before you purchase anything, stop the line and make sure you guys vote on who is going to ring you up. Be democratic for god's sake. Or don't vote at all and simply take actions upon impulse. Vote with a bullet. It sounds negative but, well, what can I say? If you're not going to vote, then don't vote all the way.
I just read my last paragraph and I realize I sound nonsensical and slightly maniacal. But the truth is crazier than whip cream on hot dogs, so I'm going to go ahead and be aggressive with this message.
Don't compromise.
Don't just burn a page in a book. Burn the whole book.
Don't just kick someone when they're down. Kick them hard.
Don't just toss a ball in the end zone. Spike it.
These are rules in life.
Don't just go to school. Learn everything thrown at you.
Don't just be a role model. Be a mentor.
Don't just have a kid. Make a family of three.
Don't just write a book. Author the best novel your eyes
have seen, to your best ability and taste.
You don't think these are rules? Nature is the most aggressive force ever in the history of everything. Completely uncompromising. There aren't just stars in the sky, there are universes. There's not just time, there's infinite. It's not just life, it's death too. There's not just an earthquake, there's an 8.9 that threatens the well being of those thousands of miles away, floods sweeping houses out to see with grown men on them. It's not just tidal waves, it's tsunami's. Death's aren't in the hundreds, it's in the thousands. If you want to be closer to nature you need to be more aggressive. You can't care just a little about something that might kill you. You have to completely care, without compromise.
I'm saying if you have a movie to make, make it. If you're angry, show it. If you have a song, sing it. If you have someone to love, love them. And be aggressive while doing...all of it. And by all means, if you have a book to publish, publish it. It's how nature meant it to be. Don't spill your heart out for someone to tell you your heart would sell more if you took a third of it out and replaced it with theirs.
I know that sometimes it just looks like you compromised but you didn't. I know that if something doesn't go your way, it doesn't mean you sold out. But I do know that there are those who stopped trying, stopped looking for the right way and exchanged themselves for something else, something a little further from the truth, a little less intrusive, a little less them.
For instance, I want to sell millions of books. But for that to happen millions of people have to buy my books. See there, I haven't compromised, it just hasn't happened yet.
On the other hand, compromise says that I want to sell a few million and then a bunch of other people think that my million will make it so they can't sell their million, so we figure, hey, we'll all just sell hundreds and now we're all happy. Better for everybody to get a piece than only one person. Or, how I look at it, I'll take less so you can take less.
With that, the days of the compromise have to stop. It's over. No time left. So I reassessed my goals as a writer. Do I want a career in fiction or do I want to make a quick million and get out of dodge. Truth is I want a career. To do so I'm going to have to bring it with severe aggression. No holding back. Because more than sometimes aggression is simply the solution.
Here's an example. When you love someone, you love them all the way. Not a little bit, but all the way. Love them aggressively. You have to love like there's no tomorrow. It's best to love them so much that you fear for their death. When they leave you don't assume they'll be back. So you have the urge to kiss them upon every departure. Each moment could be your last with them so you look them in the eyes and speak with honesty and expect the same back. Be aggressive with your love as you should be aggressive with everything.
No matter what you do, you have to do it all the way, without compromise, even something we take for granted, like voting. Don't toe the line here. If you like to vote, vote for everything, not just the president and legalizing marijuana. Vote at the federal level, the state level, the local level and then vote for who takes out the trash at your house. When you go to the convenient store, before you purchase anything, stop the line and make sure you guys vote on who is going to ring you up. Be democratic for god's sake. Or don't vote at all and simply take actions upon impulse. Vote with a bullet. It sounds negative but, well, what can I say? If you're not going to vote, then don't vote all the way.
I just read my last paragraph and I realize I sound nonsensical and slightly maniacal. But the truth is crazier than whip cream on hot dogs, so I'm going to go ahead and be aggressive with this message.
Don't compromise.
Don't just burn a page in a book. Burn the whole book.
Don't just kick someone when they're down. Kick them hard.
Don't just toss a ball in the end zone. Spike it.
These are rules in life.
Don't just go to school. Learn everything thrown at you.
Don't just be a role model. Be a mentor.
Don't just have a kid. Make a family of three.
Don't just write a book. Author the best novel your eyes
have seen, to your best ability and taste.
You don't think these are rules? Nature is the most aggressive force ever in the history of everything. Completely uncompromising. There aren't just stars in the sky, there are universes. There's not just time, there's infinite. It's not just life, it's death too. There's not just an earthquake, there's an 8.9 that threatens the well being of those thousands of miles away, floods sweeping houses out to see with grown men on them. It's not just tidal waves, it's tsunami's. Death's aren't in the hundreds, it's in the thousands. If you want to be closer to nature you need to be more aggressive. You can't care just a little about something that might kill you. You have to completely care, without compromise.
I'm saying if you have a movie to make, make it. If you're angry, show it. If you have a song, sing it. If you have someone to love, love them. And be aggressive while doing...all of it. And by all means, if you have a book to publish, publish it. It's how nature meant it to be. Don't spill your heart out for someone to tell you your heart would sell more if you took a third of it out and replaced it with theirs.
I know that sometimes it just looks like you compromised but you didn't. I know that if something doesn't go your way, it doesn't mean you sold out. But I do know that there are those who stopped trying, stopped looking for the right way and exchanged themselves for something else, something a little further from the truth, a little less intrusive, a little less them.
February 22, 2011
Scavenging At Borders...Almost
So Borders goes bankrupt. Cool. So there has to be a sale, right. Just to make sure, I call my local Borders store and no one answers. This shocks me because I'm thinking that perhaps they've already closed. My impression was that they had till April. So I call back.
"Borders, books and music," a despondent sounding young man says.
"You guys got a sale going on?"
"Yes...we do," and then a sigh.
"Thanks."
So I hurry down there. As expected, the place is swarming with vultures picking at the guts of this almost dead book store. There were more people in there than I had ever seen in that place. Keep in mind this is the same store where I attend my writers group, so I'm in there once a week for different amounts of time. I couldn't help but smile at all the book readers. No one had any less than three books in their hands. A line to purchase books wrapped around so many book cases that it made more sense to measure the line in minutes rather than length.
Half an hour, at least.
It didn't matter what section, upstairs or downstairs--people were buying today, bad economy and all. Not even the rain would stop them. There was even a large number of families that came down. Couldn't believe it. Borders was offering a swapmeet of new books. If they offered punch and pie, they would have achieved unsurpassable sales numbers.
But something was happening below the surface, a passive aggressiveness, maybe. You could hear it in the mumbles of patrons, see it in the faces of the soon to be laid off.
As I perused a copy of Kevin Brockmeier's The Illumination, I overheard a brief exchange between a customer and an employee. Apparently, the customer implied that the prices were still too expensive. The employee said in a lifted voice, "Well some people just want to sit in front of their computer and stare at Amazon all day."
I thought that was interesting. Was the employee actually implying that Amzon.com was the cause of all this? Was Amazon.com the cause of thousands of lost jobs?
So now I take a different look at my surroundings. Upstairs I see forty Steve Harvey books for sale. Forty. Not that loyal Harvey fans would buy his book here anyway. My opinion, it's the wrong demographic for that title. Borders just decided to have forty plus books for reasons I don't know about. There were at least the same number of some book about Keith Richards. It still sold for over $25. At first this didn't matter to me, and then I go check out some of my favorite authors, hoping to find a jewel for a price I could afford. I find four copies of Kurt Vonnegut's new short story collection. $20 a piece. This actually pisses me off. Because upstairs they have more copies of stuff published fifty years ago. I really wanted While Mortals Sleep, but not for that price. Just because Borders is bankrupt doesn't mean I have to go bankrupt.
Now that I'm angry, I see the store for what it is. A great huge portion of these books should have stayed in some slush pile somewhere. Wall to wall mediocrity, sold for way too much. I'll give an example.
To read more follow the link.
http://ulharper.com/blog/category/blo...
"Borders, books and music," a despondent sounding young man says.
"You guys got a sale going on?"
"Yes...we do," and then a sigh.
"Thanks."
So I hurry down there. As expected, the place is swarming with vultures picking at the guts of this almost dead book store. There were more people in there than I had ever seen in that place. Keep in mind this is the same store where I attend my writers group, so I'm in there once a week for different amounts of time. I couldn't help but smile at all the book readers. No one had any less than three books in their hands. A line to purchase books wrapped around so many book cases that it made more sense to measure the line in minutes rather than length.
Half an hour, at least.
It didn't matter what section, upstairs or downstairs--people were buying today, bad economy and all. Not even the rain would stop them. There was even a large number of families that came down. Couldn't believe it. Borders was offering a swapmeet of new books. If they offered punch and pie, they would have achieved unsurpassable sales numbers.
But something was happening below the surface, a passive aggressiveness, maybe. You could hear it in the mumbles of patrons, see it in the faces of the soon to be laid off.
As I perused a copy of Kevin Brockmeier's The Illumination, I overheard a brief exchange between a customer and an employee. Apparently, the customer implied that the prices were still too expensive. The employee said in a lifted voice, "Well some people just want to sit in front of their computer and stare at Amazon all day."
I thought that was interesting. Was the employee actually implying that Amzon.com was the cause of all this? Was Amazon.com the cause of thousands of lost jobs?
So now I take a different look at my surroundings. Upstairs I see forty Steve Harvey books for sale. Forty. Not that loyal Harvey fans would buy his book here anyway. My opinion, it's the wrong demographic for that title. Borders just decided to have forty plus books for reasons I don't know about. There were at least the same number of some book about Keith Richards. It still sold for over $25. At first this didn't matter to me, and then I go check out some of my favorite authors, hoping to find a jewel for a price I could afford. I find four copies of Kurt Vonnegut's new short story collection. $20 a piece. This actually pisses me off. Because upstairs they have more copies of stuff published fifty years ago. I really wanted While Mortals Sleep, but not for that price. Just because Borders is bankrupt doesn't mean I have to go bankrupt.
Now that I'm angry, I see the store for what it is. A great huge portion of these books should have stayed in some slush pile somewhere. Wall to wall mediocrity, sold for way too much. I'll give an example.
To read more follow the link.
http://ulharper.com/blog/category/blo...
December 15, 2010
The Live Video Interview: Geat Ready!
One of the great things about being an author are all the nervous experiences you get to live through on the path to stardom. I got a chance at a pretty good nervous experience recently, being featured on a live internet broadcast. You can see it at stackstv.net. The December 14th episode.
I was asked to be on the show because of the content in my novel, The Flesh Statue. The show, actually called stackstv.net, is geared towards the hip-hop audience and it just happens that my novel deals with many elements of the hip-hop culture, if not the music directly. Willing to approach an untapped audience and at the same time work on my interview chops I more than gladly accepted the invite.
I must expound on the idea of sharpening my interview chops. While researching publishers, many of them either implied in some way or said openly that they would like their authors to have an online presence. A few even suggested that as an author you should have social networking skills. Keep in mind they didn't say have a facebook page or go on goodreads, they said have skills while doing it. Sure, I have a website. Sure, I have a facebook page. I even have a twitter account, but a lot of the times I'm lost while working with this stuff. Which brings me back to my main idea. I was going to sharpen my chops by doing this live broadcast.
Now I've done plenty of online interviews but with those you can think about your answers and rewrite them. I've done blog talk radio as well. At least with blog talk radio you can hide your face, which is something I always like to do. I'm not saying I'm an ugly guy. What I'm saying is, well, put it this way, I once had a journalist instructor who said I had a radio face. You tell me what that means.
So I do this interview. IMPACC, an emcee who interviewed next to me, said I looked pretty relaxed, and so did several other people. I thought that was great because "relaxed" isn't the word I would use.
First off, as I'm answering some question, I forget what the question is while I'm answering it and so my mind is simply shooting off all kinds of ideas. I'm thinking about work the next day, I'm thinking about my website, and then I'm thinking about what my website should look like, but I don't think about the actual question I was asked because I couldn't remember what it was. Somehow I worked it out or somebody did. It didn't help that the camera man is laughing at me. The Director is smiling as well and then I realize that maybe I have a booger hanging and they know they have to wait till the end of my segment to tell me. Meanwhile I'm still being asked questions. But it's hard to answer the questions because realistically there's this incredibly huge light basically sitting on my head. They use the light for the cameras but I'm just saying they're huge and hot and I wasn't really expecting it.
I'm thinking, man, I didn't even comb my hair, while telling the host about some imaginary person I invented years and years ago.
What gets me is this: since I was trying to improve my social networking chops I tweeted my followers (whatever that means) and hit up my facebook "friends" so they would get http://stackstv.net/ some viewer traffic and other things you do while improving your social networking skills, so in the back of my mind these people are looking at me as if I have a booger in my nose from some smart phone or computer somewhere, if not that night then some time in the future. Therefore, radio face. Lisp. Gap between my teeth. Stuttering. Heat lamps. I loved it. I'd do it again. It's one of those things authors live for. You know, all those nervous experiences that put you on the path to stardom. So hit me up on facebook, twitter and myspace and befriend me here on goodreads and while you're at it give me a call because I have three different phone numbers you can contact with and if that's not good enough then email me. We can figure this out.
Drop by ulharper.com to check out interviews and videos and cool stuff like that. http://ulharper.com/
The Flesh Statue
I was asked to be on the show because of the content in my novel, The Flesh Statue. The show, actually called stackstv.net, is geared towards the hip-hop audience and it just happens that my novel deals with many elements of the hip-hop culture, if not the music directly. Willing to approach an untapped audience and at the same time work on my interview chops I more than gladly accepted the invite.
I must expound on the idea of sharpening my interview chops. While researching publishers, many of them either implied in some way or said openly that they would like their authors to have an online presence. A few even suggested that as an author you should have social networking skills. Keep in mind they didn't say have a facebook page or go on goodreads, they said have skills while doing it. Sure, I have a website. Sure, I have a facebook page. I even have a twitter account, but a lot of the times I'm lost while working with this stuff. Which brings me back to my main idea. I was going to sharpen my chops by doing this live broadcast.
Now I've done plenty of online interviews but with those you can think about your answers and rewrite them. I've done blog talk radio as well. At least with blog talk radio you can hide your face, which is something I always like to do. I'm not saying I'm an ugly guy. What I'm saying is, well, put it this way, I once had a journalist instructor who said I had a radio face. You tell me what that means.
So I do this interview. IMPACC, an emcee who interviewed next to me, said I looked pretty relaxed, and so did several other people. I thought that was great because "relaxed" isn't the word I would use.
First off, as I'm answering some question, I forget what the question is while I'm answering it and so my mind is simply shooting off all kinds of ideas. I'm thinking about work the next day, I'm thinking about my website, and then I'm thinking about what my website should look like, but I don't think about the actual question I was asked because I couldn't remember what it was. Somehow I worked it out or somebody did. It didn't help that the camera man is laughing at me. The Director is smiling as well and then I realize that maybe I have a booger hanging and they know they have to wait till the end of my segment to tell me. Meanwhile I'm still being asked questions. But it's hard to answer the questions because realistically there's this incredibly huge light basically sitting on my head. They use the light for the cameras but I'm just saying they're huge and hot and I wasn't really expecting it.
I'm thinking, man, I didn't even comb my hair, while telling the host about some imaginary person I invented years and years ago.
What gets me is this: since I was trying to improve my social networking chops I tweeted my followers (whatever that means) and hit up my facebook "friends" so they would get http://stackstv.net/ some viewer traffic and other things you do while improving your social networking skills, so in the back of my mind these people are looking at me as if I have a booger in my nose from some smart phone or computer somewhere, if not that night then some time in the future. Therefore, radio face. Lisp. Gap between my teeth. Stuttering. Heat lamps. I loved it. I'd do it again. It's one of those things authors live for. You know, all those nervous experiences that put you on the path to stardom. So hit me up on facebook, twitter and myspace and befriend me here on goodreads and while you're at it give me a call because I have three different phone numbers you can contact with and if that's not good enough then email me. We can figure this out.
Drop by ulharper.com to check out interviews and videos and cool stuff like that. http://ulharper.com/
The Flesh Statue
January 29, 2010
Interview with Laurel-rain snow
I had an opportunity to have a chat with Laurel-Rain Snow. The chat went as follows:
1. In perusing your website and other interviews you’ve conducted, I see that you began writing at a very early age. Also, that you were “controversial” back then. Would you like to share some of those experiences?
Years ago I did a lot of experimenting with tone. In turn, I touched on many subjects that weren’t close to me but close to other people. The result was what could be looked at as insensitive writing. It happened here and there with my poetry. I would never purposely insult anyone or where they came from. Though just because you don’t try to do something, it doesn’t mean you didn’t actually do it, come to find out. Lesson learned. The time that sticks out is when a friend’s father found a poetry chapbook that my friend and I had published, The Body Politic. In it I had a poem that talked about how people had become overly politically correct and too sensitive to words. So at risk of offending people and losing potential readers, here are some of the lines that offended my friend’s dad: “Someone needs to put the mother back in f…r.” and “Someone needs to put the God back in damn.” And so on and so on. As a Christian it was his duty to be upset. Shortly after that he gave me a bible. He’s an amazing man and father. This is the same person who took me in when I was homeless. The entire family is amazing.
2. You studied journalism in college…very brave, since your early educational experiences were less than encouraging. Did you feel that reporting was a way into the world of writing, and if so, what about those experiences led to your current projects?
I thought I wanted to be a journalist in high school but the class had nothing to do with writing. I don’t know what we did. It was horrible. They wouldn’t let me take creative writing. Basically anything I was interested in during high school I wasn’t allowed or encouraged to do. It struck me as odd even while it happened. All they did was try to push me towards not following my dream and at the time I accepted it. However, in college when I heard they had a reporting class and there was a newspaper, oh, I was on that. By then I was big into questioning government and my creative writing was happening effortlessly. I did get a job on a newspaper and this is when I first started doing real research for my creative writing. On some levels I began approaching my fiction like news and it made all the difference. Now I did research. Now I paid close attention to dialogue. It wasn’t until then that I knew what it meant to be read.
3. I like the snippet about how your short story led to your book “The Flesh Statue.” What can you share about how that came about?
A friend of mine held a weekly discussion group that I attended. We discussed art and politics and religion and whatever came up. It didn’t matter. There were never more than about six or seven of us. There was a teacher in there with a publisher and a newspaper person (me) and a high school student etc. But what if we met to solve problems in society, I thought. What if we were an underground movement, I thought. What if this group were politically empowering. What if it had influence? What if we changed people’s lives? Then I made a plan for how we might do that and presto a short story. Years later the themes of this story matched many of the themes in The Flesh Statue so I slowly let the characters from the two stories meet. After that I let them do whatever they were going to do.
4. I like the part about using your downtime in your job at the movie theater to fuel your inspiration for “The Flesh Statue.” What other inspirations led to that particular book?
To this day I think this: The less trash the theater makes, the less work is to be had. You could gauge how well business was that day by how much trash was produced. That right there was the basis for a character. Bert stimulates his job in fixing cars by denting them himself in his off time. His thought process is that there is an industry based on just cleaning, fixing or rebuilding stuff in society. Bert at one point also had a short story based on him. I wrote it.
5. Your own life experiences with your grandfather were obviously instrumental in creating this book. Were there other personal moments that contributed, and if so, what were they?
There are too many real life moments I put in this story. Here goes one. In the first chapter when the police officer hits the guy who is arguing with his girlfriend—that really happened, except it was a man and his male lover who were quarreling, really. But yeah there was blood everywhere. About fifteen cop cars arrived at the scene, already wearing latex gloves and everyone thought, what are they trying to hide. It was horrible. Later you’d hear all sorts of stories about local police killing people unjustifiably.
To read more from this interview follow this link
http://embracethewhirlwind.wordpress....
1. In perusing your website and other interviews you’ve conducted, I see that you began writing at a very early age. Also, that you were “controversial” back then. Would you like to share some of those experiences?
Years ago I did a lot of experimenting with tone. In turn, I touched on many subjects that weren’t close to me but close to other people. The result was what could be looked at as insensitive writing. It happened here and there with my poetry. I would never purposely insult anyone or where they came from. Though just because you don’t try to do something, it doesn’t mean you didn’t actually do it, come to find out. Lesson learned. The time that sticks out is when a friend’s father found a poetry chapbook that my friend and I had published, The Body Politic. In it I had a poem that talked about how people had become overly politically correct and too sensitive to words. So at risk of offending people and losing potential readers, here are some of the lines that offended my friend’s dad: “Someone needs to put the mother back in f…r.” and “Someone needs to put the God back in damn.” And so on and so on. As a Christian it was his duty to be upset. Shortly after that he gave me a bible. He’s an amazing man and father. This is the same person who took me in when I was homeless. The entire family is amazing.
2. You studied journalism in college…very brave, since your early educational experiences were less than encouraging. Did you feel that reporting was a way into the world of writing, and if so, what about those experiences led to your current projects?
I thought I wanted to be a journalist in high school but the class had nothing to do with writing. I don’t know what we did. It was horrible. They wouldn’t let me take creative writing. Basically anything I was interested in during high school I wasn’t allowed or encouraged to do. It struck me as odd even while it happened. All they did was try to push me towards not following my dream and at the time I accepted it. However, in college when I heard they had a reporting class and there was a newspaper, oh, I was on that. By then I was big into questioning government and my creative writing was happening effortlessly. I did get a job on a newspaper and this is when I first started doing real research for my creative writing. On some levels I began approaching my fiction like news and it made all the difference. Now I did research. Now I paid close attention to dialogue. It wasn’t until then that I knew what it meant to be read.
3. I like the snippet about how your short story led to your book “The Flesh Statue.” What can you share about how that came about?
A friend of mine held a weekly discussion group that I attended. We discussed art and politics and religion and whatever came up. It didn’t matter. There were never more than about six or seven of us. There was a teacher in there with a publisher and a newspaper person (me) and a high school student etc. But what if we met to solve problems in society, I thought. What if we were an underground movement, I thought. What if this group were politically empowering. What if it had influence? What if we changed people’s lives? Then I made a plan for how we might do that and presto a short story. Years later the themes of this story matched many of the themes in The Flesh Statue so I slowly let the characters from the two stories meet. After that I let them do whatever they were going to do.
4. I like the part about using your downtime in your job at the movie theater to fuel your inspiration for “The Flesh Statue.” What other inspirations led to that particular book?
To this day I think this: The less trash the theater makes, the less work is to be had. You could gauge how well business was that day by how much trash was produced. That right there was the basis for a character. Bert stimulates his job in fixing cars by denting them himself in his off time. His thought process is that there is an industry based on just cleaning, fixing or rebuilding stuff in society. Bert at one point also had a short story based on him. I wrote it.
5. Your own life experiences with your grandfather were obviously instrumental in creating this book. Were there other personal moments that contributed, and if so, what were they?
There are too many real life moments I put in this story. Here goes one. In the first chapter when the police officer hits the guy who is arguing with his girlfriend—that really happened, except it was a man and his male lover who were quarreling, really. But yeah there was blood everywhere. About fifteen cop cars arrived at the scene, already wearing latex gloves and everyone thought, what are they trying to hide. It was horrible. Later you’d hear all sorts of stories about local police killing people unjustifiably.
To read more from this interview follow this link
http://embracethewhirlwind.wordpress....
January 28, 2010
interview with Mandy the bookworm
I had a chance to speak with Mandy of the mandy the book worm blog. Look for her review coming up soon but until then take a look at this interview.
U.L. Harper is the author of The Flesh Statue, a debut novel that will leave you with many discussion points bound to come up in conversation around the dinner table or what have you. Thanks must go out to U.L. for participating in this interview and providing answers that expand on some issues in The Flesh Statue, coupled with some personal questions to give us an insight into U.L. the author and U.L. the person.
I give you, ladies and gentlemen, U.L. Harper:
THE FLESH STATUE QUESTIONS
The title The Flesh Statue intrigues me. I understand it represents Langley’s grandfather and also to me flesh means alive, statue is a non-moving object, thus I think it also represents people standing still, not doing anything about their lives and/or not making a stand against authority/society. How I am going, on track? Can you explain the title a bit more for us?
Well, the flesh statue is simply what Langley thinks his grandfather looks like when he finds him dead. His grandfather is sitting there like a statue made of flesh. The flesh statue.
Which side of Langley do you like best, the aspiring poet, the 19/20-year-old trying to find his niche in the world, the grandson, the want-to-be-upriser or a side I haven’t mentioned?
When I think of Langley Jackson I think of the aspiring poet. It’s through his poetry that he grows as a person. He says one poem in the entire story and it’s really him reflecting on what he’s been through in his short time in Long Beach. At the same time, in that same poem, he talks about his dying grandfather and his grandmother. He talks about his empathy with the smaller people in the world. Langley as the aspiring poet relates to the world around him more than any other side of him.
Grandma defines freedom as “Having nothing to grasp on to, having no basis for anything, having no point and no reason”. Do you agree with Grandma’s opinion on freedom?
That’s an interesting question. Freedom to many people is simply the opposite of what binds you. Then when you aren’t bound to those things you say you have your freedom. Other people gauge freedom by the number of options they have. The more options the more freedom. With that being said, Grandma is in a situation where everything in her life has ended and she needs to start again to make living make sense. In this transition I’d say, yes, I agree with the quote, for better or for worse. One day we all may be staring at the bathroom mirror, looking freedom in the face, wondering what to do next.
Grandpa has Alzheimer’s and Grandma is left to take care of him, not wanting to ship him off to a home and in a sense ending a part of her life. Would you treat Grandpa the same way as Grandma did in the book, and if not what would you do different?
My great grandmother lived with my family when I was very young. She suffered through Alzheimer’s, as my mother and father watched helplessly. A very frustrating time. I can tell you that a number of instances that took place in the story actually happened, in regards to grandpa and his Alzheimer’s. In fact, after researching Alzheimer’s for this I realized that many things my family did to care for my great grandmother was just wrong. Simple as that. No, I would not treat grandpa as grandma did. He should just be in a home, as respect for his humanity. It’s one of the reasons Langley left his home to begin with–he couldn’t take watching his grandmother let his grandfather break down and slowly wither to death.
There are quite a few issues in The Flesh Statue; abortion, abuse, death, graffiti, neighbourhood watch groups, police, uprising of the people, just to name a few. These issues that you wrote about, did you have to do much research for or have you experienced or seen these issues in your own life? Big loaded question I know, answer as you please.
That is definitely a loaded question. So let me get this load off my back. In my social circles these issues are common place. I have a friend that makes graffiti documentaries and my old roommate and many of his friends were all about graffiti so I had that all in my head. Because of their political beliefs a lot of times they had political angle to what they did, even if indirectly. I’ve had my moments with police. I’ve been shot with rubber bullets, I’ve been herded by police horses as they swung billy-clubs at me. So, yeah, experience. And we’ve all dealt with death or have known someone who has. I did do research to help Bert know how to fix cars.
Get the full interview with the link below.
http://mandythebookworm.wordpress.com...
U.L. Harper is the author of The Flesh Statue, a debut novel that will leave you with many discussion points bound to come up in conversation around the dinner table or what have you. Thanks must go out to U.L. for participating in this interview and providing answers that expand on some issues in The Flesh Statue, coupled with some personal questions to give us an insight into U.L. the author and U.L. the person.
I give you, ladies and gentlemen, U.L. Harper:
THE FLESH STATUE QUESTIONS
The title The Flesh Statue intrigues me. I understand it represents Langley’s grandfather and also to me flesh means alive, statue is a non-moving object, thus I think it also represents people standing still, not doing anything about their lives and/or not making a stand against authority/society. How I am going, on track? Can you explain the title a bit more for us?
Well, the flesh statue is simply what Langley thinks his grandfather looks like when he finds him dead. His grandfather is sitting there like a statue made of flesh. The flesh statue.
Which side of Langley do you like best, the aspiring poet, the 19/20-year-old trying to find his niche in the world, the grandson, the want-to-be-upriser or a side I haven’t mentioned?
When I think of Langley Jackson I think of the aspiring poet. It’s through his poetry that he grows as a person. He says one poem in the entire story and it’s really him reflecting on what he’s been through in his short time in Long Beach. At the same time, in that same poem, he talks about his dying grandfather and his grandmother. He talks about his empathy with the smaller people in the world. Langley as the aspiring poet relates to the world around him more than any other side of him.
Grandma defines freedom as “Having nothing to grasp on to, having no basis for anything, having no point and no reason”. Do you agree with Grandma’s opinion on freedom?
That’s an interesting question. Freedom to many people is simply the opposite of what binds you. Then when you aren’t bound to those things you say you have your freedom. Other people gauge freedom by the number of options they have. The more options the more freedom. With that being said, Grandma is in a situation where everything in her life has ended and she needs to start again to make living make sense. In this transition I’d say, yes, I agree with the quote, for better or for worse. One day we all may be staring at the bathroom mirror, looking freedom in the face, wondering what to do next.
Grandpa has Alzheimer’s and Grandma is left to take care of him, not wanting to ship him off to a home and in a sense ending a part of her life. Would you treat Grandpa the same way as Grandma did in the book, and if not what would you do different?
My great grandmother lived with my family when I was very young. She suffered through Alzheimer’s, as my mother and father watched helplessly. A very frustrating time. I can tell you that a number of instances that took place in the story actually happened, in regards to grandpa and his Alzheimer’s. In fact, after researching Alzheimer’s for this I realized that many things my family did to care for my great grandmother was just wrong. Simple as that. No, I would not treat grandpa as grandma did. He should just be in a home, as respect for his humanity. It’s one of the reasons Langley left his home to begin with–he couldn’t take watching his grandmother let his grandfather break down and slowly wither to death.
There are quite a few issues in The Flesh Statue; abortion, abuse, death, graffiti, neighbourhood watch groups, police, uprising of the people, just to name a few. These issues that you wrote about, did you have to do much research for or have you experienced or seen these issues in your own life? Big loaded question I know, answer as you please.
That is definitely a loaded question. So let me get this load off my back. In my social circles these issues are common place. I have a friend that makes graffiti documentaries and my old roommate and many of his friends were all about graffiti so I had that all in my head. Because of their political beliefs a lot of times they had political angle to what they did, even if indirectly. I’ve had my moments with police. I’ve been shot with rubber bullets, I’ve been herded by police horses as they swung billy-clubs at me. So, yeah, experience. And we’ve all dealt with death or have known someone who has. I did do research to help Bert know how to fix cars.
Get the full interview with the link below.
http://mandythebookworm.wordpress.com...
January 23, 2010
nicole trist interview with U.L. Harper
Not too long ago I had a chance to answer a few questions with Nicole Trist. Here's how it went.
Why this book? Why this story?
I told myself I was going to go all out for this one. This is the story I was willing to go all out for. It has so much of me in it that all the risk involved would definitely be worth it.
How long did it take you to write The Flesh Statue?
I outlined characters for a few weeks on napkins and on random sheets of paper while working at a movie theater. It took another few weeks to make the story arc make any kind of sense and then there was nine months for the first three drafts. Believe it or not, after those first few drafts, it took two years to finish. Four years later the current edition was released. Still, nothing is perfect. Still, I love these characters.
Who is your favourite character and why?
My favorite character changes from year to year. But for a while now it’s been Marie. She tries so hard to succeed at the simple things in life and the man of her dreams is not prince charming. She is so patient with him, even if she’s loud about it sometimes. All of her energy is into her future with Bert and she kind of tries to drag him along as he’s doing his own thing. I don’t know, I find it beautiful. Excuse me if I’m a little verbose about her. People have read this story and thought, man, U.L., you write her like she’s some horrible person. And I’m like, no, she sings and has a history of inspiring and has simply become someone to reckon with. Bert is lucky to have her and he knows it. The thing is that I don’t tell a lot of the story from her perspective. But if “Flesh” were through her eyes she’d understand everything about it whereas any of the other characters would be trapped in their little bubble.
Which character is most like you?
Langley goes through most of what I went through or am going through. His grandfather died after a stroke and my grandfather died after a stroke. My great grandmother had Alzheimer’s and his grandfather had Alzheimer’s. He had an old friend named Latrail and my first kiss was by a girl named Latrail. He performed poetry live as did I. He originally dropped out of school as did I, and on and on. We have a lot in common. The one thing that’s not too much like mine is his personality. He’s got way more ambition than I ever had.
Are any of the characters based on living people?
Oh yeah. The physical person of Bert is based on a good friend of mine, Charles Minnis. We were in a band together for about four years. In the first few drafts, actually, Langley was in a band. But Bert looks and talks plenty like Charles, and the anecdote of why Bert isn’t allowed to drink, from what I know, it’s a true story. I might have changed it…a little.
There are some very confronting issues in The Flesh Statue, are these things that you have had to deal with yourself?
Dealing with confronting issues is personal growth so I’m always dealing with some confronting issue, it seems. Though the issue in The Flesh Statue that kind of sticks out to me is the one about Langley’s grandmother actively letting his grandfather die. She really stopped feeding him. She locked him in the room. That is very emotional for me even now writing about it. It’s hard, really hard. Because you have to think this person you love, their blood is still pumping but they’re dead. Dead meaning that in your heart you’re sure they’re better off not alive. I can only imagine what my mother and father had to go through emotionally for my great grandmother. To tell you, honestly, I still don’t know what to think. The fact is the story was really about the immense process of Langley coming to terms with his grandfather’s dying and finally his grandfather’s death. Sorry. Verbose again.
Do you agree with the actions and attitudes of your characters?
You can’t agree with all the actions of these characters. I like to think most of it is pure satire mixed in with authentic literature. A lot of times when you’re writing you’re thinking, well, what if this and this and this were to happen, then what. However, no, I would never condone walking the streets to protect your neighborhood. If you want to be safe, stay inside, lock your doors at night, know your neighbors and invest in your community. And no, whatever you do don’t damage people’s property for your own monetary gain. Not to sound facetious but it’s just rude, if nothing else. On the other hand, yes, I do think people should get together weekly and discuss their local government affairs. Yes, I do think police play the wrong role in the community, for the most part. And, yes, something needs to be done about it. Taking over a city probably doesn’t need to happen, at the same time it sure was fun to write about.
This is your first book, did you find the writing and publishing process at all daunting or intimidating?
Intimidating is a great word to use when thinking about publishing. As a person you deal with all of your insecurities right from the start. To add to it you know deep down that it doesn’t matter how good your book is if you don’t get it the exposure it needs and that’s the case, most likely, even if you get it published traditionally. Intimidating. Then even with good exposure you had better get it exposed to the right audience…a lot. This thought process doesn’t happen until you deal with the numerous companies trying to get money from you for some expert service you need because they know there are things you need done on your manuscript before you can submit it to a publisher or agent. Intimidating. There are writing groups out there that can be detrimental to your process if you let them. Then if you get passed all that then the question is what about my cover? What about my font? Then, the big question, where do I find time to promote? I barely found time to write it. It took years. Intimidating. Daunting. Laborious. Lonely. Time consuming. Emotional. Verbose.The writing part was fun, though. Editing was interesting. Chapter one was originally chapter four. To cut pages—and I cut at least a 150 pages—I cut elements of characters and stripped down dialogue and shrank the font size and as a matter of fact, at one point I deleted several entire chapters outright. Then I got to rewriting, and so on and so on.
A Bit About The Author;
When you're not writing where would we find you?
I’m a supervisor at an after-school program. That’s my 35-40 hour a week job. You can find me getting a pick up game on a basketball court somewhere, watching a film at the theater.
Who do you take your inspiration from? Do you have a role model?
I don’t know if I have a role model but Roger Waters of Pink Floyd said that one day he realized he had spent a lot of time preparing for life and hadn’t taken into consideration that life was actually happening. I do keep that thought in my head. You have to get started doing what you want to do, whatever that may be. The longer you wait the more obstacles are going to get in your way.
Who is your favourite author?
I don’t think I have a favorite author but there are some I’d like to pull from. I’m just not experienced enough to get away with certain things. For instance, I wish I could get away with no quotation marks like Cormac Mccarthy. I admire the delicate yet visceral styles of Joyce Carol Oates. I’d love to be humorous like Vonnegut. I definitely respect the likes of Clive Barker and Stephen King for the epics. But I’m none of that. Nobody’s perfect. Some of us are farther from it than others.
What are you currently reading?
The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and I just finished Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut.
If you could be any character from any story, who would you be and why?
I’ll tell you what, Gentil from Imajica finds out he’s the son of God and makes a map to Heaven so everyone can get there without dying first. I think that might be kind of cool. Is it too late for a spoiler alert.
Will we be seeing more from the pen of U.L. Harper?
I’m the furthest thing from done as far as authoring goes. My new work, which I won’t talk about right now too much, might be my best work. I love to experiment and this is both grounded and by far the most experimental piece to date. I try to stay inside genres but this is going to take some figuring out. It’ll be done soon or in not too long but we’ll see about getting it published. Everybody cross your fingers toes and eyes. It’s a normal literature story, as far as characters and tone…except for several twelve-foot tall men.
Anything you would like to add?
Feel free to keep in touch with me. I’d love to get some emails to respond to. If nothing else I consider anyone contacting me as part of the neighborhood that I might want to invest in. Just give me the chance to make the effort.
I would just like to thank Mr Harper for taking the time to do this interview, it is greatly appreciated and has made for some excellent reading.
http://www.ulharper.com/
Why this book? Why this story?
I told myself I was going to go all out for this one. This is the story I was willing to go all out for. It has so much of me in it that all the risk involved would definitely be worth it.
How long did it take you to write The Flesh Statue?
I outlined characters for a few weeks on napkins and on random sheets of paper while working at a movie theater. It took another few weeks to make the story arc make any kind of sense and then there was nine months for the first three drafts. Believe it or not, after those first few drafts, it took two years to finish. Four years later the current edition was released. Still, nothing is perfect. Still, I love these characters.
Who is your favourite character and why?
My favorite character changes from year to year. But for a while now it’s been Marie. She tries so hard to succeed at the simple things in life and the man of her dreams is not prince charming. She is so patient with him, even if she’s loud about it sometimes. All of her energy is into her future with Bert and she kind of tries to drag him along as he’s doing his own thing. I don’t know, I find it beautiful. Excuse me if I’m a little verbose about her. People have read this story and thought, man, U.L., you write her like she’s some horrible person. And I’m like, no, she sings and has a history of inspiring and has simply become someone to reckon with. Bert is lucky to have her and he knows it. The thing is that I don’t tell a lot of the story from her perspective. But if “Flesh” were through her eyes she’d understand everything about it whereas any of the other characters would be trapped in their little bubble.
Which character is most like you?
Langley goes through most of what I went through or am going through. His grandfather died after a stroke and my grandfather died after a stroke. My great grandmother had Alzheimer’s and his grandfather had Alzheimer’s. He had an old friend named Latrail and my first kiss was by a girl named Latrail. He performed poetry live as did I. He originally dropped out of school as did I, and on and on. We have a lot in common. The one thing that’s not too much like mine is his personality. He’s got way more ambition than I ever had.
Are any of the characters based on living people?
Oh yeah. The physical person of Bert is based on a good friend of mine, Charles Minnis. We were in a band together for about four years. In the first few drafts, actually, Langley was in a band. But Bert looks and talks plenty like Charles, and the anecdote of why Bert isn’t allowed to drink, from what I know, it’s a true story. I might have changed it…a little.
There are some very confronting issues in The Flesh Statue, are these things that you have had to deal with yourself?
Dealing with confronting issues is personal growth so I’m always dealing with some confronting issue, it seems. Though the issue in The Flesh Statue that kind of sticks out to me is the one about Langley’s grandmother actively letting his grandfather die. She really stopped feeding him. She locked him in the room. That is very emotional for me even now writing about it. It’s hard, really hard. Because you have to think this person you love, their blood is still pumping but they’re dead. Dead meaning that in your heart you’re sure they’re better off not alive. I can only imagine what my mother and father had to go through emotionally for my great grandmother. To tell you, honestly, I still don’t know what to think. The fact is the story was really about the immense process of Langley coming to terms with his grandfather’s dying and finally his grandfather’s death. Sorry. Verbose again.
Do you agree with the actions and attitudes of your characters?
You can’t agree with all the actions of these characters. I like to think most of it is pure satire mixed in with authentic literature. A lot of times when you’re writing you’re thinking, well, what if this and this and this were to happen, then what. However, no, I would never condone walking the streets to protect your neighborhood. If you want to be safe, stay inside, lock your doors at night, know your neighbors and invest in your community. And no, whatever you do don’t damage people’s property for your own monetary gain. Not to sound facetious but it’s just rude, if nothing else. On the other hand, yes, I do think people should get together weekly and discuss their local government affairs. Yes, I do think police play the wrong role in the community, for the most part. And, yes, something needs to be done about it. Taking over a city probably doesn’t need to happen, at the same time it sure was fun to write about.
This is your first book, did you find the writing and publishing process at all daunting or intimidating?
Intimidating is a great word to use when thinking about publishing. As a person you deal with all of your insecurities right from the start. To add to it you know deep down that it doesn’t matter how good your book is if you don’t get it the exposure it needs and that’s the case, most likely, even if you get it published traditionally. Intimidating. Then even with good exposure you had better get it exposed to the right audience…a lot. This thought process doesn’t happen until you deal with the numerous companies trying to get money from you for some expert service you need because they know there are things you need done on your manuscript before you can submit it to a publisher or agent. Intimidating. There are writing groups out there that can be detrimental to your process if you let them. Then if you get passed all that then the question is what about my cover? What about my font? Then, the big question, where do I find time to promote? I barely found time to write it. It took years. Intimidating. Daunting. Laborious. Lonely. Time consuming. Emotional. Verbose.The writing part was fun, though. Editing was interesting. Chapter one was originally chapter four. To cut pages—and I cut at least a 150 pages—I cut elements of characters and stripped down dialogue and shrank the font size and as a matter of fact, at one point I deleted several entire chapters outright. Then I got to rewriting, and so on and so on.
A Bit About The Author;
When you're not writing where would we find you?
I’m a supervisor at an after-school program. That’s my 35-40 hour a week job. You can find me getting a pick up game on a basketball court somewhere, watching a film at the theater.
Who do you take your inspiration from? Do you have a role model?
I don’t know if I have a role model but Roger Waters of Pink Floyd said that one day he realized he had spent a lot of time preparing for life and hadn’t taken into consideration that life was actually happening. I do keep that thought in my head. You have to get started doing what you want to do, whatever that may be. The longer you wait the more obstacles are going to get in your way.
Who is your favourite author?
I don’t think I have a favorite author but there are some I’d like to pull from. I’m just not experienced enough to get away with certain things. For instance, I wish I could get away with no quotation marks like Cormac Mccarthy. I admire the delicate yet visceral styles of Joyce Carol Oates. I’d love to be humorous like Vonnegut. I definitely respect the likes of Clive Barker and Stephen King for the epics. But I’m none of that. Nobody’s perfect. Some of us are farther from it than others.
What are you currently reading?
The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and I just finished Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut.
If you could be any character from any story, who would you be and why?
I’ll tell you what, Gentil from Imajica finds out he’s the son of God and makes a map to Heaven so everyone can get there without dying first. I think that might be kind of cool. Is it too late for a spoiler alert.
Will we be seeing more from the pen of U.L. Harper?
I’m the furthest thing from done as far as authoring goes. My new work, which I won’t talk about right now too much, might be my best work. I love to experiment and this is both grounded and by far the most experimental piece to date. I try to stay inside genres but this is going to take some figuring out. It’ll be done soon or in not too long but we’ll see about getting it published. Everybody cross your fingers toes and eyes. It’s a normal literature story, as far as characters and tone…except for several twelve-foot tall men.
Anything you would like to add?
Feel free to keep in touch with me. I’d love to get some emails to respond to. If nothing else I consider anyone contacting me as part of the neighborhood that I might want to invest in. Just give me the chance to make the effort.
I would just like to thank Mr Harper for taking the time to do this interview, it is greatly appreciated and has made for some excellent reading.
http://www.ulharper.com/
January 21, 2010
Books, Books Everywhere reviews The Flesh Statue
In case you missed it, here goes a review for The Flesh Statue.
Genre; Fiction/Contemporary
Pages; 354
Plot; Langley, sick of his suburban life and sick of watching the man who raised him wither from the relentlessly ugly clutches of Alzheimer's, moves to Long Beach with the hopes of finding more. What he finds is a group of poets with a message, a message they want to get out.
When Langley moves to Long Beach he instantly finds himself in a new world of poetry and graffiti. A world that is in the throws of destruction and in the need of revolution. Langley is forced to make the decision; does he stay in this new world with its collapsible revolution, or does he attempt to endure a life marred in the memory of his death mother and in the current state of his Grandfather.
The Flesh Statue follows Langley on this search for answers and along the way introduces us to an array of characters from the erractic Cinci who is trying to escape a troubled past, to Bert, a man who is willing to fight and burn for his ideals, to Latrail, a young woman taking on the role which Langley should himself be filling.
My Thoughts; The Flesh Statue is an uncomfortable read, and I do not mean this in a negative way. This is not the type of book which will leave you with warm and cuddly feelings it is the type of book which takes you out of your comfort zone and poses questions, forcing the reader to think. This is the type of book that you want all of your friends to read because you know it will lead to hours of heated discussion and debate.
U.L. Harper has presented us with a book which puts forward many of those questions and issues which we all have to either confront or we have strong opinions of. Such questions and issues as politics, religion, abortion and the most important question posed by this book; what would you do if the person you loved was but a shell of their former selves.
For me the title, The Flesh Statue, holds two meanings. Firstly it represents Langley's Grandfather, a shell of the man he once was, but to me a statue also stands for something just as these characters stand for their beliefs.
Harper is not afraid to show the uglier side of life. This is evident by his descriptions of the plight of Langley's Grandpa, a point in the book where I couldn't stop the flow of tears. Although through the tears I also had a feeling of total disbelief at the actions and reactions of Langley, particularly when referring to his Grandfather as a "thing". At first it is as though Langley has a total disregard for this man but as I read on I came to understand how the pain of such an ordeal can at times be too hard to face and is easier to turn your back on or walk away from.
One of the underlying themes I took alot of entertainment from was the apparent battle of the sexes. The men of this book seemed so immersed in trying to revolutionise their city, their state, their country that they don't realise the small revolution that the women are trying to have in their own homes. Lets take for example Marie and Bert. Bert is really the first character to introduce the idea of revolution to the story with his poetry, "It's going to take some kind of cultural destruction to make things better" (pg38). He is so strongly focused on trying to change Long Beach that he is almost willing to sacrifice his relationship. This is in contrast to Marie whose whole world is that of hers and Bert's. She focuses on their life together and their future and how she can revolutionise their relationship.
One thing that Harper has done really well is to show both sides of the argument. It would be easy, and typical, to just present the ideals of the main characters (Langley, Bert, Cinci) but the reader is introduced to John Doe, a man who is opposite in his opinions on every issue presented by this book, he is religious, he doesn't believe in abortion and he is strongly against the attempts at revolution. This all makes for good balance.
I must also take a moment to comment on the powerful and emotional poetry in The Flesh Statue. This book and these characters are so much about action that the poetry is a great way to focus on the emotion behind those actions.
I think that this book is a great read for anyone, on any side of the fence. It makes you laugh, it makes you cry and, most importantly, it makes you think.
Genre; Fiction/Contemporary
Pages; 354
Plot; Langley, sick of his suburban life and sick of watching the man who raised him wither from the relentlessly ugly clutches of Alzheimer's, moves to Long Beach with the hopes of finding more. What he finds is a group of poets with a message, a message they want to get out.
When Langley moves to Long Beach he instantly finds himself in a new world of poetry and graffiti. A world that is in the throws of destruction and in the need of revolution. Langley is forced to make the decision; does he stay in this new world with its collapsible revolution, or does he attempt to endure a life marred in the memory of his death mother and in the current state of his Grandfather.
The Flesh Statue follows Langley on this search for answers and along the way introduces us to an array of characters from the erractic Cinci who is trying to escape a troubled past, to Bert, a man who is willing to fight and burn for his ideals, to Latrail, a young woman taking on the role which Langley should himself be filling.
My Thoughts; The Flesh Statue is an uncomfortable read, and I do not mean this in a negative way. This is not the type of book which will leave you with warm and cuddly feelings it is the type of book which takes you out of your comfort zone and poses questions, forcing the reader to think. This is the type of book that you want all of your friends to read because you know it will lead to hours of heated discussion and debate.
U.L. Harper has presented us with a book which puts forward many of those questions and issues which we all have to either confront or we have strong opinions of. Such questions and issues as politics, religion, abortion and the most important question posed by this book; what would you do if the person you loved was but a shell of their former selves.
For me the title, The Flesh Statue, holds two meanings. Firstly it represents Langley's Grandfather, a shell of the man he once was, but to me a statue also stands for something just as these characters stand for their beliefs.
Harper is not afraid to show the uglier side of life. This is evident by his descriptions of the plight of Langley's Grandpa, a point in the book where I couldn't stop the flow of tears. Although through the tears I also had a feeling of total disbelief at the actions and reactions of Langley, particularly when referring to his Grandfather as a "thing". At first it is as though Langley has a total disregard for this man but as I read on I came to understand how the pain of such an ordeal can at times be too hard to face and is easier to turn your back on or walk away from.
One of the underlying themes I took alot of entertainment from was the apparent battle of the sexes. The men of this book seemed so immersed in trying to revolutionise their city, their state, their country that they don't realise the small revolution that the women are trying to have in their own homes. Lets take for example Marie and Bert. Bert is really the first character to introduce the idea of revolution to the story with his poetry, "It's going to take some kind of cultural destruction to make things better" (pg38). He is so strongly focused on trying to change Long Beach that he is almost willing to sacrifice his relationship. This is in contrast to Marie whose whole world is that of hers and Bert's. She focuses on their life together and their future and how she can revolutionise their relationship.
One thing that Harper has done really well is to show both sides of the argument. It would be easy, and typical, to just present the ideals of the main characters (Langley, Bert, Cinci) but the reader is introduced to John Doe, a man who is opposite in his opinions on every issue presented by this book, he is religious, he doesn't believe in abortion and he is strongly against the attempts at revolution. This all makes for good balance.
I must also take a moment to comment on the powerful and emotional poetry in The Flesh Statue. This book and these characters are so much about action that the poetry is a great way to focus on the emotion behind those actions.
I think that this book is a great read for anyone, on any side of the fence. It makes you laugh, it makes you cry and, most importantly, it makes you think.
January 10, 2010
Interview with main character from novel The Flesh Statue
Welcome to my blog. In my previous blog I spoke a lot about my novel The Flesh Statue. But someone felt neglected by how I wrote that blog. Bert. Bert is not just a main character in The Flesh Statue but he’s also a good friend of mine. So with that being said I agreed to have a little question and answer with Bert. But first a little background.
Bert does auto bodywork. It’s how he makes a living, but not too long ago business wasn’t doing so well. He had to damage cars himself just to get them into his shop.
So I got a chance to sit down with Bert and this is how that conversation went.
Me: So how are you?
Bert: Depends.
Me: Good to hear. How’s Marie?
Bert: My girlfriend? About to be my wife.
Me: Wow. Nobody’s perfect.
Bert: What?
Me: So let’s talk about how you helped your business.
Bert: Of course. That’s what I’m here for. Free advertisement, right?
Me: Right.
Bert: It’s pretty simple. Society is really built on supply and demand, at least around here. What I did was, I created the demand. If I want to fix cars then I needed to make more cars to fix.
Me: So exactly what did you do?
Bert: Well, this is what I did. I found a nice neighborhood and then waited till they were asleep and I spray-painted on their cars or dinged their car doors, kicked out a light or something. Something they could get fixed real quick. I didn’t want to stop them from going to work. If they stopped going to work then I couldn’t get paid.
Me: How did that work out for you?
Bert: Business got pretty good. I hired some help.
Me: You do a lot of poetry.
Bert: Not so much anymore.
Me: What was your inspiration when you were doing it?
Bert: People. Things that were going on in my life. I wanted to be the voice of my community, on some level.
Me: And what was that voice saying?
Bert: The city is ours.
Me: Like it’s mine and yours or…
Bert: Don’t even start. You sound like Marie.
Me: You going to do a little poem for us?
Bert: No. (Here is a link to some of Bert's poetry http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/5...)
Me: I thought you were.
Bert: Moving on.
Me: You’re going to be shy during an interview?
Bert: Moving on.
Me: Do I dare bring up the other subject.
Bert: What’s the other one?
Me: How are you doing with the alcohol?
Bert: (A deep breath here) I’m doing good, I think. I wouldn’t call myself an addict but I can’t drink.
Me: And why is that?
Bert: Because I love Marie. In a nutshell that’s it. I know you want to put me on the spot but that’s it. I love my girl. Period.
Me: Well said, good friend.
Bert: Thank you.
Me: At some point you met Langley Jackson. He grew up a lot since you first met him. Could you tell us a little about him?
Bert: I inspired him I think. He changed so much from the time we first met him. He’s a good kid. I wish him all the luck.
Me: Well with friends like you who needs…
Bert: Whoa whoa whoa.
Me: You have to remember that time at the poetry reading. What you did to him.
Bert: Yeah, that was special.
Me: Want to tell the audience?
Bert: No, but I will anyway. Myself, Cinci and Langley used to go to this poetry reading every here and there. When you were popular enough the audience had sort of a chant they did when you came to the stage. For instance, mine was Beeee Beeee Beeee. They said it like that until I got started. Fun stuff. So I told Langley to call himself Boo because nobody knew who he was yet. He was like a ghost, I told him. So for the longest time he got booed off the stage. It went right to his mental, I think. Messed him all up. Good times.
Me: Would he think so?
Bert: No, but that’s just a matter of opinion.
Me: Good to rap with you Bert.
Bert: That’s it?
Me: That’s it. Any last words?
Bert: As a matter of fact… Always be having a revolution.
Me: That’s new.
Bert: Have a revolution. Whatever you’re doing, do it so well that they have to change the rules. Be the example and then turn it on its head, whatever it is. Always be in the process of revolutionizing.
Me: I’ll see what I can do. Thanks for your time.
Bert: Thanks for having me.
If you want to learn more about Bert feel free to connect as friends with me. Or dare I say it, you can order the book.
http://ulharper.com/
Bert does auto bodywork. It’s how he makes a living, but not too long ago business wasn’t doing so well. He had to damage cars himself just to get them into his shop.
So I got a chance to sit down with Bert and this is how that conversation went.
Me: So how are you?
Bert: Depends.
Me: Good to hear. How’s Marie?
Bert: My girlfriend? About to be my wife.
Me: Wow. Nobody’s perfect.
Bert: What?
Me: So let’s talk about how you helped your business.
Bert: Of course. That’s what I’m here for. Free advertisement, right?
Me: Right.
Bert: It’s pretty simple. Society is really built on supply and demand, at least around here. What I did was, I created the demand. If I want to fix cars then I needed to make more cars to fix.
Me: So exactly what did you do?
Bert: Well, this is what I did. I found a nice neighborhood and then waited till they were asleep and I spray-painted on their cars or dinged their car doors, kicked out a light or something. Something they could get fixed real quick. I didn’t want to stop them from going to work. If they stopped going to work then I couldn’t get paid.
Me: How did that work out for you?
Bert: Business got pretty good. I hired some help.
Me: You do a lot of poetry.
Bert: Not so much anymore.
Me: What was your inspiration when you were doing it?
Bert: People. Things that were going on in my life. I wanted to be the voice of my community, on some level.
Me: And what was that voice saying?
Bert: The city is ours.
Me: Like it’s mine and yours or…
Bert: Don’t even start. You sound like Marie.
Me: You going to do a little poem for us?
Bert: No. (Here is a link to some of Bert's poetry http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/5...)
Me: I thought you were.
Bert: Moving on.
Me: You’re going to be shy during an interview?
Bert: Moving on.
Me: Do I dare bring up the other subject.
Bert: What’s the other one?
Me: How are you doing with the alcohol?
Bert: (A deep breath here) I’m doing good, I think. I wouldn’t call myself an addict but I can’t drink.
Me: And why is that?
Bert: Because I love Marie. In a nutshell that’s it. I know you want to put me on the spot but that’s it. I love my girl. Period.
Me: Well said, good friend.
Bert: Thank you.
Me: At some point you met Langley Jackson. He grew up a lot since you first met him. Could you tell us a little about him?
Bert: I inspired him I think. He changed so much from the time we first met him. He’s a good kid. I wish him all the luck.
Me: Well with friends like you who needs…
Bert: Whoa whoa whoa.
Me: You have to remember that time at the poetry reading. What you did to him.
Bert: Yeah, that was special.
Me: Want to tell the audience?
Bert: No, but I will anyway. Myself, Cinci and Langley used to go to this poetry reading every here and there. When you were popular enough the audience had sort of a chant they did when you came to the stage. For instance, mine was Beeee Beeee Beeee. They said it like that until I got started. Fun stuff. So I told Langley to call himself Boo because nobody knew who he was yet. He was like a ghost, I told him. So for the longest time he got booed off the stage. It went right to his mental, I think. Messed him all up. Good times.
Me: Would he think so?
Bert: No, but that’s just a matter of opinion.
Me: Good to rap with you Bert.
Bert: That’s it?
Me: That’s it. Any last words?
Bert: As a matter of fact… Always be having a revolution.
Me: That’s new.
Bert: Have a revolution. Whatever you’re doing, do it so well that they have to change the rules. Be the example and then turn it on its head, whatever it is. Always be in the process of revolutionizing.
Me: I’ll see what I can do. Thanks for your time.
Bert: Thanks for having me.
If you want to learn more about Bert feel free to connect as friends with me. Or dare I say it, you can order the book.
http://ulharper.com/
December 27, 2009
About The Flesh Statue
They say that someone’s first novel is the most autobiographical. Who they are remains a mystery to me but it doesn’t mean they’re not right. The Flesh Statue is clearly the most autobiographical piece of fiction I’ve written. I took a piece of every part of my life and found a spot for it in this story.
People have asked me if I was my main character Langley Jackson, and all the while I’m thinking that I’m all of my characters, and if I’m not them then they represent something or someone in my life. So Langley is not exactly me, but Grandpa, okay, now we’re really close to real people…sort of.
At some point I lived with my family in Los Angeles somewhere. I was like 10 years old or something. Maybe eleven. I was in elementary school. Madison Elementary in Long Beach. I think we got a break on the rent if we took care of aging Great Grandma Allen. Grandma Allen, the same woman who once gloated that her late husband never used a curse word, years later, she also threw feces at her bedroom walls, crapped in the closet and thought she was a child back in Kansas. I found out about most of her condition long after she left us. I really can’t think if she died while we lived there or not. I often wish I were a different person then. A little older. I would have asked a lot more questions. A simple regret of mine, not being a different person at choice times in my life.
Not that it was my fault but another regret is the death of my Grandpa Leon, which the L in U.L. Harper is associated. The U is for Uriah and L is for Lejan. The Le part being from Leon and the jan part being from his second wife Jan. Hence Lejan. Aronald Uriah Lejan Harper. The first. The one and only.
When I heard Grandpa Leon had a stroke and couldn’t walk anymore I simply never talked to him again, and this was by far a man that shaped me in ways I’m still learning about. At the time, I couldn’t build the courage to speak with someone who I perceived to be so weak who was once so strong. It’s not that he was weak, keep in mind. It’s that he had become weak. It’s like your favorite hitter striking out fifty straight times. You just don’t want to look anymore. I kept telling myself that I’d call him the next day. Now he’s dead so tomorrow will never come. So when someone says there’s always tomorrow you go ahead and tell them that there’s always today and regret is a real thing with formidable and accurate possibilities. So one day my mom calls me right before work and says he died. Somewhere in the next few hours I figured out that I lost part of myself. At the same I time discovered that one day my world would be sad beyond my readiness. So there’s that.
In The Flesh Statue I simply mixed my great grandmother and grandpa Leon together to make one really screwed up person that our hero—Langley Jackson—has to deal with. To make this work I had to use as much of the emotion from then as possible, from both situations, which happened about 16 years apart. See, I never liked Grandma Allen, even when she was healthy. She always seemed distant from me for no reason. Mean. A bitch of sorts. To this day I don’t have a fond memory of her. Whatever. Facts are facts and you have to accept the facts or you become…tired, brittle-boned and small-minded. And the fact is I never really liked her. On the other hand, Grandpa Allen was my childhood. He gave me the nickname Little Bear. My older sister’s name was Nanook. He even nicknamed the pinto, Puddle Jumper, and the other pinto was Bumperding. That was the meat of the story arc, letting Langley discover his grandfather so that he didn’t dislike him.
Although Langley originally lives in Rossmoor, California—and if you don’t know where that is, it doesn’t matter where it is, because although there are good people there the place just sucks at its core—the house he lives in is my old house in Los Angeles. The real reason I did this, whether I knew it or not, was so that whenever I had to think back to Grandpa I would be sincere and not clumsy.
With all that said, from my perspective this story is about grandpa. It’s about small moments of regret. It’s about the starved bull. Well, amongst other things.
--I said that
People have asked me if I was my main character Langley Jackson, and all the while I’m thinking that I’m all of my characters, and if I’m not them then they represent something or someone in my life. So Langley is not exactly me, but Grandpa, okay, now we’re really close to real people…sort of.
At some point I lived with my family in Los Angeles somewhere. I was like 10 years old or something. Maybe eleven. I was in elementary school. Madison Elementary in Long Beach. I think we got a break on the rent if we took care of aging Great Grandma Allen. Grandma Allen, the same woman who once gloated that her late husband never used a curse word, years later, she also threw feces at her bedroom walls, crapped in the closet and thought she was a child back in Kansas. I found out about most of her condition long after she left us. I really can’t think if she died while we lived there or not. I often wish I were a different person then. A little older. I would have asked a lot more questions. A simple regret of mine, not being a different person at choice times in my life.
Not that it was my fault but another regret is the death of my Grandpa Leon, which the L in U.L. Harper is associated. The U is for Uriah and L is for Lejan. The Le part being from Leon and the jan part being from his second wife Jan. Hence Lejan. Aronald Uriah Lejan Harper. The first. The one and only.
When I heard Grandpa Leon had a stroke and couldn’t walk anymore I simply never talked to him again, and this was by far a man that shaped me in ways I’m still learning about. At the time, I couldn’t build the courage to speak with someone who I perceived to be so weak who was once so strong. It’s not that he was weak, keep in mind. It’s that he had become weak. It’s like your favorite hitter striking out fifty straight times. You just don’t want to look anymore. I kept telling myself that I’d call him the next day. Now he’s dead so tomorrow will never come. So when someone says there’s always tomorrow you go ahead and tell them that there’s always today and regret is a real thing with formidable and accurate possibilities. So one day my mom calls me right before work and says he died. Somewhere in the next few hours I figured out that I lost part of myself. At the same I time discovered that one day my world would be sad beyond my readiness. So there’s that.
In The Flesh Statue I simply mixed my great grandmother and grandpa Leon together to make one really screwed up person that our hero—Langley Jackson—has to deal with. To make this work I had to use as much of the emotion from then as possible, from both situations, which happened about 16 years apart. See, I never liked Grandma Allen, even when she was healthy. She always seemed distant from me for no reason. Mean. A bitch of sorts. To this day I don’t have a fond memory of her. Whatever. Facts are facts and you have to accept the facts or you become…tired, brittle-boned and small-minded. And the fact is I never really liked her. On the other hand, Grandpa Allen was my childhood. He gave me the nickname Little Bear. My older sister’s name was Nanook. He even nicknamed the pinto, Puddle Jumper, and the other pinto was Bumperding. That was the meat of the story arc, letting Langley discover his grandfather so that he didn’t dislike him.
Although Langley originally lives in Rossmoor, California—and if you don’t know where that is, it doesn’t matter where it is, because although there are good people there the place just sucks at its core—the house he lives in is my old house in Los Angeles. The real reason I did this, whether I knew it or not, was so that whenever I had to think back to Grandpa I would be sincere and not clumsy.
With all that said, from my perspective this story is about grandpa. It’s about small moments of regret. It’s about the starved bull. Well, amongst other things.
--I said that
