Interview With a Mad God

A Blog Post About Nothing In Particular Political Reflections

Interview With a Mad God

Ladies and gentlemen, wingnuts and warriors, I was given the honor of an interview with Athanasios Galanis recently. It probably had something to do with the idea that I issued a challenge of sorts to him and he stepped up like a champ. That pretty much means that Mr. Galanis answered my questions and didn't let me intimidate a bumbling reply out of him and what's more, he's proven himself fairly insightful. Okay, now I'll shut up and let Mr. Galanis take center stage. Welcome, Athanasios Galanis!

RJ Palmer:

Define Predatory Ethics for me. What does it mean to you?

Athanasios:

I've always been into art and storytelling. That came about in no small way from looking at art and finding out what touched me and delving further into that artist or storyteller's work. One that looms large is Norman Rockwell. Not the Saturday Evening Post Frank Kapra regurgitating illustrations but something more real and honest. He did a painting titled the Golden Rule and it showed a beautiful painting crammed with every conceivable race, age group and diversity of humanity imaginable. Beneath it in a nice serif font is listed "Do Onto Others As You Would Have Them Do Onto You." I have a much prized smaller print of it hanging up on my hallway wall. I decided long ago that that is the only rule I'll live by and the definition of good to me. Since I've gravitated to both evil and good interchangeably I wanted to define it as well as Norm did for me. So I came up with Predatory Ethics, "Do Onto Others Because You Can". A wide theme of Predatory Ethics is showing and defining our baser, cruder and more evil natures.

RJ Palmer:

You seem to have a fascination with mythology and its influence on the modern day. Tell me, what cultural mythology do you think has had the most powerful influence on modern pop culture?

Athanasios:

All of them. Judeo Christian mythology found in the Old Testament rules our lives. Everything else, from the pantheons of the Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Celts and Norse have become twisted and bastardized beyond recognition or understanding. Many or the symbols used in the pagan worlds however, are still prevalent in our art and all over our advertising and commercial culture.

RJ Palmer:

Why did you choose the pen name Athanasios Galanis? Does it have special meaning to you or was it a pseudonym that just came off the top of your head and had a certain ring to it?

Athanasios:

LOL, that's not a pen name, that's my real name. I just use my first name Athanasios as my pen name. Tom is easier on everybody who isn't Greek to pronounce & to write.

RJ Palmer:

There's a dark and brooding aspect to your cover art and I'm going to assume that since you work in graphic arts, you designed the cover art for your writing yourself. Is it a reflection of your personality? Why or why not?

Athanasios:

To be fair my books are about the AntiXos defying his destiny, so I've got to keep it thematically correct. By definition they should be dark and brooding. Unfortunately the same is true of me, the writer of said dark and brooding story. I'd like to explain, however, I'm not always so, or I'd be walking around in goth wear: not me. I'm not adverse to exploring my dark depths so I'll let my darkest impulses out through my work both art and writing. Why? I can't answer that question with too much certainty because I'm not that self-analytical. I can only guess it's my upbringing, not my parents but their lack of parenting. They left my sister and myself alone to fend for ourselves while they worked to put food on the table. Luckily I went into my imagination which was fuelled by the ancient myths and the bible, or as we knew it the Orthodox Gospels.

RJ Palmer:

Someone told me at one point that I have to believe in myself. Do you recognize the sentiment? Why do you believe in your writing and in your characters but not seem to believe so much in the person as a whole that created them? You can feel free to deflect this question a little bit because it is somewhat unfair but you have to give me some kind of answer even if it is just a casual reference to other things. Pick your poison.

Athanasios:

I believe in my work because I have to. Which isn't to say I doubt myself and the veracity of my work sometimes when I haven't reached many people or sold many or ANY copies of said work. I doubt myself a lot. I think on the poor deluded folks on the early parts of American Idol and ask myself am I fooling myself into believing anything I've got to say is good? This then becomes a very dark time for me, but I reason myself out of it by reading my work and getting engrossed in it despite the fact that I wrote it. I would buy my stuff. I would enjoy and do enjoy my own work. I'll believe in myself when I'm earning a living as a writer. Until then it's not a proven entity yet. I can believe in the quality of my own work in art and dvd because I've proven it, but thus far I haven't proven it in my writing yet. Talk is cheap, I've got to see it happen.

RJ Palmer:

Apparently, faith and mythology are something of an addiction for you. Do you ascribe to a particular faith (without having to tell me what it is) or is it a fascination as a general rule? My guess is with the quaint combining of different languages (some of it sounds Yiddish) you would also combine different aspects of different beliefs into one cohesive central idea. How far off am I?

Athanasios:

It's not Yiddish, it's Greek. I grew up Greek Orthodox but I'm interested in every religion's explanation of their own superiority. You're correct in my belief in the central religious idea and I intend to use Predatory Ethics to explain what I think. I use the term think instead of belief it because belief in itself would be too close to a religion.

RJ Palmer:

You've validated others, including myself and yet you shrink away from being validated. Tell me why is that? Of course you can give me some BS about your parents and family not being supportive of you when you were a kid which probably has something to do with it, but that's too easy. Tell me something real, like why you have such a hard time accepting a compliment?

Athanasios:

As I said earlier I'm not that self-analytical so the best I can do is guess as to why. My best guess here would be that I'm not used to it. Fighting against misconception is more familiar so that would mean that once I start to get more praise and validation it'll feel more real. I do believe in my work and by extension myself but I have enough humility to know that it's an affinity for something that entertains people and hopefully enlightens them. I feel the most validation when I've actually helped somebody like showing kindness or coming to somebody's aid.

RJ Palmer:

I've read the reviews for Mad Gods and it seems to me that there are people who would consider your work more difficult to follow which simply means that they're not such fans of a split narrative. Have you discovered your following? Who do you believe would like your work?

Athanasios:

Predatory Ethics would appeal to intellectuals who are interested in history, reinterpreted and reevaluated to show our own reality. A throng, a multitude of me. Many, many Tommies, Athanasi if you will. To go further into my perceived audience would be to describe myself really and we've already established I'm uncomfortable in doing that. People who know history, religion and popular culture and are interested in social commentary about all of the above.

RJ Palmer:

Okay, I have to ask this question just because. If you could have ONLY one wish and you have to be completely selfish for just a moment, what would it be? No fair saying something like "money" or "immortality" or any of that easy stuff.

Athanasios:

Fair or no those two are pretty damn great. Money enough so I can write and illustrate Predatory Ethics while being comfortable in my life and immortality so I can continue to learn about religions, history and what this reality truly is. Sorry I don't listen to fair.

RJ Palmer:

What's the most inflammatory statement you've ever made and did it come anywhere close to what you were actually thinking or was it a discreet and diplomatic echo of your real thoughts?

Athanasios:

The most inflammatory statement I've ever made was on the Kindleboards months ago. I went on and stated that sometimes I felt like all my writing was a pixel holocaust, in that I was committing pointless mass murder to the pixels that comprised my thoughts. Suffice to say it was taken way out of context and I profusely apologized but I've taken note of every one of the people who didn't understand what I was trying to say and remember them for their dim and narrow view of my thoughts.

RJ Palmer:

What's your favorite quote by any person? This question has become one of my obsessions so you'll forgive me if I must ask.

Athanasios:

Duly forgiven. Early in my adolescence and most of my teens I studied martial arts ending up studying Jeet Kune Do, a style pioneered by Bruce Lee. His moto was an awakening for a young man looking for direction. It was: "Using no way as a way, Having No Limitation As Limitation." This still echoes in my mind everyday, and has given me clarity in a lot of trying situations.

RJ Palmer:

Autobots or Deceptacons? Sorry, Transformers fan right here. I know, it ranks right up there with "cat or dog person" but I might as well ask something lighter.

Athanasios:

I loathe the Transformers from way back. I hated them when they originally came out in comic book form in the early 1980s and I worked in a comic book store. I hated them when they came to television animation. I loathed them further when they came to the movie theatres yet I found a perverse satisfaction that they were being directed by my most hated director Michael Bay.

RJ Palmer:

If you could have one "do over" in life, would you take it and what would it be?

Athanasios:

If I could do over the first few years out of illustration school I would. I barely finished due to my mother and sister coming to live with me and emotionally clinging to me to such an extent that I just wanted to get away. I should've pursued what I studied instead of going through a few years in menial jobs just to pay my rent. I could've been in a better situation career wise.

RJ Palmer:

If you could have a drink with one person from the past, present or future, real or fictional who would it be and what do you imagine would be their drink of choice?

Athanasios:

So many choices. My first would be the Buddha but I don't think he drank, so that rules him out. Next would be Jesus, but I think he only drank wine and I hate wine so that's out too. So in this scenario I would have to choose a drinker, especially of whiskey, because that's what I like so there's a few candidates.

WC Fields comes to mind, also Errol Flynn but my final answer would be Joseph Campbell. I'm not sure if he was a whiskey drinker but I would have to insist.

RJ Palmer:

Which of your characters do you most closely relate to and why?

Athanasios:

I most closely relate to Kostadino & Adam. There's no single character who can do that. The reasons being that they are me. Take both and you'll have me in a nutshell. Kostadino's reverence for history and Adam's refusal to bend the knee despite reason are hallmarks of my own character.

RJ Palmer:

Put all dramatic talent or lack thereof to the side for a moment here. If you could star in any movie, what would it be?

Athanasios:

Lord of the Rings Trilogy. I love the feel of the world and would love to be part of that collective creativity.

RJ Palmer:

If you could wake up one morning and know how to speak, read and write any one extinct language fluently, what would it be and why?

Athanasios:

Ancient Greek. I would love to be able to understand my ancestors and how they arrived at democracy and the age of reason when all about them fellow men were allowing themselves to be ruled by absolute monarchs and blindly followed absentee deities.