Raw & Real with Maxmundan - the Esteemed David Rutter

breakingdownthetwcwall:

NATE: G’day David, we’re so pleased to have you join the ranks of
tumblr writers on #breakingdownthetwcwall

I honestly don’t know
how we missed you until now!

DAVID: Thanks, Nathen. I am
honored to be here.

NATE: Let’s get straight into it sir!
Now, you’d be hard
pressed to find a TWC follower who has not come across your poetry. The
unrestrained, gut-punch power play of truth, art and grit.

We’ll dig into that
shortly but let’s start at the beginning…

Some people find themselves drawn to poetry as a means of
self expression, others as a way of interpreting the world around them. What
drew you to poetry originally and how did you find yourself creating with the
written word?

DAVID: I guess I felt that
there were so many things that we, as a society, never talked about. Or, at
least, never told the truth about. I had been through an extremely difficult
time in my life and felt that I needed to make some sense of it by writing it
out. I wanted to talk about sex and addiction in a very gut level way, without
a lot of the bullshit and obfuscation that usually accompanies it. To put it
very simply, I wanted to tell the truth. About both myself and the world as I
saw it.

N: It has certainly proven to be a very standout platform when
measured against the more common themes of heartbreak and teen angst. 

Were there any specific influences for your form and style,
or for that matter, just in general?

D: Yes, quite a few,
although not a lot of poets, surprisingly. I didn’t actually begin to read much
poetry until after I had started writing it, which might explain the
amateurishness of my early efforts. The guy I always get compared to is
Bukowski but, subject matter aside, i don’t see a great deal of similarity
there myself. My primary influences have been prose writers like William S.
Burroughs, Anthony Burgess, Aldous Huxley and Philip K. Dick and songwriters
such as Lou Reed, Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits and Nick Cave. The connecting line
of all these artists for me is their desire and ability to talk about secret
truth with a high level of honesty, if not always humility.

I would urge anyone
who hasn’t read William S. Burroughs to do so immediately. Particularly
“Naked Lunch”. My style is nothing like his but Burroughs taught me
that you could write about taboo subjects with such honesty and rawness that it
could be like a punch to the face. I have always aspired to that.

N: As a huge fan of ole’ gravel guts (Tom Waits) and Lou Reed I
can definitely see the similarities, the cathartic confessional, dirt instead
of honey. Sweat instead of sunshine. Tom’s “Christmas Card From A Hooker In
Minneapolis” gets my arm hairs on end every time. I must confess, I am
unfamiliar with any of the others, bar Bukowski and Huxley (but I’ll be
searching their works out after this you can rest assured..) 

Do you feel these writers influenced how you transpose
emotion to text? IS that conversion of feeling to writing {even} a pillar for
your art? (knowing your writing as most of us do, we already know the answer
but if you could elaborate for the newer TWC faithful..)

D: Definitely. It is
paramount for me to write with as much naked emotion as humanly possible. One
test I always give myself, when I am rewriting a piece is, “Is it
clever?” and, if it is, i need to start again from the beginning. I want
to write from a place of truth and honesty and not one of cleverness. From the
heart, instead of the head.

N: That’s an interesting approach David, the majority of
writers tend to do quite the opposite, searching for a ‘hook’ or some clever
device that will leave the reader thinking “Ohhh! That’s cool, what they did
right there!”

Perhaps some of our devoted readers could try this angle as
an experiment to broaden their writing repertoire eh?

You mentioned Bukowski and Huxley as influences on your
writing, has there been any standouts here on tumblr that further shaped the
way your writing evolved? Feel free to shout out to those who are must-reads
even if their writing doesn’t influence yours

D: Absolutely, I am always a bit hesitant to
answer this question as I don’t want to leave anyone out and I’ve made many
wonderful friends here who have left Tumblr. Many stick around, however and
some even come back. There is your work, Nathen, as lyricfountain, lzlabs,
wordrummager, myvoicemyright, dreamtiresias, dhritspoetry, thephilosophersotherstone,
lydiateasdale, poetryaboutmilkduds, tashtoo, theboredpoet, aniketadeptatmacbre,
luciblackanima, shamanfox, archonofdarkness, maza-dohta, desayunogratis,
purplemonkeysexgod69 and about two or tree-hundred more whose work I read on a
regular basis. There are three that stick out to me, however, as having such
distinctive voices that I can always recognize their work. They are
the-conquistador, viperslang and lizbian-lit, who recently returned and will be
remembered by many as the-apology-peach.

N: That’s a fine selection right there, I am honoured to be
listed amongst such adept wordsmiths. The community of writers here is a
pleasant surprise for new arrivals, I think. Walk us through the journey that
brought YOU to tumblr.

How did you find yourself connecting with the fine TWC faithful?

D: Well, my wife
actually started my tumblr blog for me. She felt that I needed to get my work
out there in front of other eyes and so pushed me to have courage and take the
leap. This has been a recurring theme in my writing career. I wouldn’t be
anywhere at all if it wasn’t for my wife, Thyra. Once on tumblr, I not only
discovered a whole slew of other writers that I thought were amazing but this
wonderfully supportive community. Writers can be particularly vicious to each
other out of our desperate self loathing but I was very happy to see that this
was not the case here. The tumblr writing community actually supported one
another and tried to help each other get better.

N: I think I speak for the TWC as a whole when I say THANK YOU
THYRA!!!!!

You’ve definitely made an impression here and we are all
very thankful that you provide an important meal in our poetic banquet

I can’t help but feel that Thyra is the Yin to your poetry’s
Yang. A balance of life’s equation, if you will…  

 

Ok, so now to the core of it!

 

Anyone who has been following you for any longer than a year
will be familiar with your “Rehab Stories” poetry/prose series.
These raw and unrestrained writes stand out from the crowd by way of their
powerful phrasing and gritty, uncompromising truth. I dove into your archive
and found this stanza from a piece entitled “The Last of Lynette” which I
feel sums up this poetic cat’o’nine perfectly:

(Warning: contains coarse
language)

 .

It made me uncomfortable

Seeing her naked body

Trying to keep my eyes on hers

Not on her pussy

Not on her tits

God no, God no, certainly not

As I slid in the catheter

Held her while she pissed

It was impossible to miss

The savage fear in her eyes

I tried to hide

The pity in mine

.

 

I’d prefer to allow you to comment freely at this point,
about what this poetry means to you, it’s origins, it’s affect on you, how you
craft it. Whatever you would like to share with us.

D: This is a true story
about a roommate I had. I didn’t know her well but I had met her in rehab, so
when she needed a place to live, I allowed her to move in with me. Shortly
after she did, it became clear that she had ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) and was
going to die from it. With ALS, your muscles completely degenerate and you
basically become entombed in your own body. It is a horrible way to go and
Lynette became very angry and abusive. So much so that any friend who would
come to help take care of her would end up running away. That left me, as her
roommate, to take care of her. I didn’t want to either but here was nobody else
to do it. My goal in telling this story was to be truthful and not pull any
punches. To be real about the nasty shit I really did feel as opposed to what
people are supposed to feel in these situations. There is another line, later
in the same poem, that goes, “I hated that bitch, more than I liked
her.” That was important for me to say. It was the truth.

N: “To be real about the
nasty shit I really did feel as opposed to what people are supposed to feel in
these situations” – A testament to your desire to tell it how it is, Sir.
This is surely one of the main reasons people identify and appreciate your
candid poetry, I don’t think there is a single person out there who hasn’t, at
one time or another, projected what they thought was ‘right’ as opposed to what
they actually felt.

The key words in your quote are “supposed to”. It’s an unfortunate side effect
of civilised conduct, people find themselves falling into an unconscious guilt
that they shouldn’t feel nasty about certain behaviours or people… when in
fact, there are times when feeling like that is actually warranted and
therefore, not a bad thing - regardless of what social standards may ‘expect’
of us.

It’s a hard behavioural pattern to realise in ourselves and I applaud you for
being true to your assessment of the world around you 

Wow. Almost got onto a rant there haha..

As a matter of interest, was there a defining moment where
you decided to dispense with the facades and pretence in favour of
straight-shooting? Have you always been like this? Or is it something you
reserve primarily for your writing? 

D: It was Santa Claus, Nathen. I’m not joking.
I’m being totally serious here. I remember vividly being tortured about Santa
Claus as a small child. How they hell did he manage to get to every single
house on earth in one night? And why did he give wealthy people much better
gifts than the poor ones? I quickly figured out that Santa Claus was total
happy horseshit and I was crushed. Completely betrayed. Why had my parents told
me such a wild lie? Why did everyone’s parents lie like this? What purpose did
it serve? Why build up this fantasy that could have no other possible outcome
but to crush the child believing it when they inevitably discovered the truth?
And what other things are we being lied to about? That is the place I went in
my thinking. All that stuff you’ve told me about Jesus and God are lies too,
right? I decided then that my life would be dedicated to discovering the truth
and having the guts to look at it, no matter how unpleasant that truth might
be.

N: I feel the same about that damned tooth fairy giving other
kids more for their teeth than he did to me!!! I think that realisation
(whether Santa, Tooth Fairy or Easter Bunny and, invariably, the questioning of
higher Faith as a by-product) is definitely a key event in every child/teen’s
life. You were obviously a deep thinker and very aware of your surrounds as a
kid.

Getting back to poetry, publishing and tumblr, originally
this blog was created to try and assess/dispel the idea that there is a divide
between newer writers and the TWC veterans, I think over time we have
accomplished that the wall, in fact, 
does not exist so instead I’ll move on to the shameless self promotion
section haha..

As many would be aware, you are already well established as
a published author. Can you give our readers a run down on what you have
available online and what theme they can expect to find in each one?

D: I do have my own
website, maxmundan.com, in which a fairly extensive collection of my poems can
be found. My first collection of poetry,
“Junkies Die Alone”, is available digitally on both Amazon and
iTunes. This is basically my rehab stories series in book form. Expect a lot of
hard hitting pieces on drug addiction and its repercussions. What I am really
excited to announce is the follow up, however. “Everyone is Broken” will be released by Hollow
Publishing on August 1, 2015. This one will be available as a paperback as well
as digital version, so those who prefer to hold it in their hands can have a
copy this time.

N: As you well know, I have been HANGING for a paperback
release from you! I’ll be on to Everyone is Broken as soon as it is
released! I really should get me an e-reader :/  

What advice or pointers do you have for any poets/prosers
here who are thinking about getting some of their work out there in the wider
public domain? Was it difficult to get your books known beyond the tumblverse?

D: Be brave, believe in
yourself and be persistent. Also, get ready for rejection because it will come.
I wish I could show you the scores of rejection letter I have from literary
magazines. I have close to 100 for my first book alone. I thought it was
important and worth publishing, though, so I kept at it till I got it
published.

N: Jen, Scherezade and a multitude of other published
tumblrites will say exactly the same thing. It’s a cutthroat industry (despite
the decline in physically printed lit. which i would have thought would
actually broaden the scope of what editors/publishers would accept, on account
of huge savings on the manufacture process…) BUT YOU HAVE TO KEEP AT IT!!!

Switching things up a little, I understand there’s been some
pretty hairy weather in your neck of the woods, what’s it like living and
writing in Texas? Do you find that your surroundings help, impede or have no
bearing on your mindset/subject matter?

D: I love being here in
Texas. Austin is the shit. Coming from Southern California, where you never
have any weather, I found the thunder lightning, hail and tornado warnings very
exciting. Different surroundings will always alter and influence my work in
weird and surprising ways. I have many pieces that I wrote while I was in
Africa and they are like nothing else I’ve written. This is true, also, of the
things I wrote in Japan or South America. I am headed to Ireland and Morocco
later this year, so I’ll be interested to see how they change and affect my
work.

N: I am feeling giddy just imagining the varied subject matter
that would come from so many amazing and interesting places, I am especially
excited to see what Morocco fuels in your future writing

 

David’s Words:

N: Let’s finish up with some Pearls of Wisdom for the
lost or perhaps an Anarchist Rant to stir the masses? Nonsensical jibberjabber for no reason
at all? Quote to live by?

D: Know that, whatever
you might be going through, that you are not alone. There are people who know
and understand. Live your truth, whatever that is because that is the source of
your beauty. Demand truth and accountability from those that would wish to lead
us. And when you see injustice, stand your ground and insist on change.

N: Thank you for your insight and your stirring words David,
it’s been an honour and a privilege.

Ladies and gentlemen, if you haven’t already been swept away
by Maxmundan I suggest you head over to his blog post haste.

D: Thank you, Nathen. It’s been a pleasure

 

Any readers out there
with requests for interviews/to be interviewed please Fanmail or Ask us at
http://breakingdownthetwcwall.tumblr