10 Questions with Jason Rizos
1. What has been the reaction from your students to your writing and how has it helped you in your teaching?
First off, thanks for inviting me to participate in this interview on your blog! Interestingly enough, I don’t teach creative writing at Portland Community College, mostly because there are instructors for that already that are doing a wonderful job. I teach basic college composition, which translates to “writing for people who hate writing” in 90% of the students I see, but that’s great! Because it’s a fun challenge to be dorky and geek out on writing and win people over with that kind of attitude. I don’t get much of a reaction from students when they hear about my publishing, and I think it is because they are concerned about what it means for their own accountability--“Oh shit! This guy is serious about writing! Now I have to try!” I remind my students that writing is a process, and a long one, and if they are unhappy with first drafts, so am I! If they think I’m really good at it and they aren’t I tell them it’s only because I’ve spent so much damn time practicing, and that’s it. That’s it. That’s all it is. I tell them, don’t expect everything to be perfect the first time through, always strive to become better, and above all else, have fun!
2. Who has been your biggest influence as a writer?
As much as I’d love to pick a writer, there has always been something about the works of David Foster Wallace that has affected me each and every time I read him. Of course, it was his writing that first made me think that my off-beat, meta-fictional hijinks could find a market in the first place, and I was reading him voraciously since about age 20, my Junior year at UM-Columbia. It’s not just his verbal pyrotechnics, either, it’s also his humility and bravery in being honest with himself, and this shines through in his prose.
3. What sort of statement regarding commercialism and specifically big superstores were you trying to make in Supercenter?
I basically see my function as a writer as somebody who can hold a mirror up to society and say, “If X is the present course we are on, expect Y as the future,” and then I enjoy projecting a kind of warped and distended vision of that future. I don’t really think we’ll see these futures, but it all about the emphasis of our values in the present. Take Donald Trump, for instance. It’s not a national embarrassment that he could become President of the United States, its plenty a national embarrassment that he can run for President of the United States. We have this entire Mass Media system in America that functions by telling the public what it wants them to want, that right there is your Big Superstore world, one in which there is no more accountability to the public, or the consumer, as it were, we are stuck with these unfortunate and unpleasant corporations that make all of us miserable, and yet we are convinced there is no better way of going about the world. That’s Supercenter, a bunch of people committed to a system they know is inherently broken, but they are just so vested in it, they can’t go back now.
4. Who is your favorite writer?
No doubt, Brian O’Nolan, aka Flan O’Brien, he’s got the Irish lyricism of a Joyce, but the wit and humor of a Vonnegut. I also love the early magical realists, and you can definitely see shades of Borges and Marquez in Supercenter, but I wouldn’t call myself a Magical Realist, I just can’t do that even when I sit down to do that, I’m not sure why.
5. If Hollywood was casting a movie adaptation of Supercenter and the director asked you to cast the role of GE, who would you choose?
When I was writing it in 2010, I kept imagining a young Giovanni Ribisi, so I guess I would have to update this for a young actor today. I’ll go with Evan Peters. A smartass with a lot of heart.
6. What type of scenes do you most enjoy writing?
Action in slow motion, something that provides plenty of room for narrative intrusion, but the action is so strong, the narration carries right through. Sort of like when Edward Benson goes for a stroll in Supercenter and winds up drinking the Tile Melt, it’s all about one single, simple act, but so much surrounds it, so much emotion and meaning.
7. What made you start writing?
Self-entertainment. I could see these silly stories taking life in my head, but found out that when built into a story, they were just so much richer and more vivid. Coming to terms with the fact that my writing is not commercial, it’s not mainstream, or what editors-and-agents believe audiences want, well, that doesn’t bother me. I’m writing for an audience of me, and that’s just the way it goes, it’s not a decision, it’s just what I do. Of course, that doesn’t mean I’m not always getting bent out of shape about adapting to shore up my weaknesses. I mean, I’m not a jerk about it, I don’t tell people I’m some sort of misunderstood genius, I guess it’s just that I hate 95% of “novels” out there and I’m not really doing what most writers are doing.
8. What is your best quality as a writer?
Visual writing. I’ve learned that sometimes you have to work on doing what you do poorly, better. But other times you have to work doing what you do well, better. I think too many writers get obsessed with conforming to some kind of Bogeyman Reader in their heads, I prefer to just kick back and have fun, and I keep the pace brisk. I like to build complex, visualisable worlds, rich with color and sound. That audience-of-one I mentioned earlier also happens to suffer from ADHD, so you can think of me as the Anti-Dostoevsky, plot-wise.
9. What is the best piece of writing advice anyone has ever given you?
“They don’t want you to write.” In this case, they is the world. Catherine Rankovic told me this, and she is awesome and her writing is awesome. And she’s right. It’s true, the world just wants you to quit, and you’ve got every goddamn reason in the world to quit, but you’re not going to give THEM what THEY want, now are you? No, fuck them. Am I saying I write as some kind of warped, paranoid antagonism against an invisible opponent? Kind of.
10. If you could invite five people to a dinner party (alive or dead, real or fictional) who would you invite?
Patrick Bateman, for the etiquette lessons, Joe Rogan, so I can get back to remembering what it means to be a real Bro, a Bro kind of Bro, David Backes, St. Louis Blues hockey player, so I can learn about dedication and discipline, Sarah Silverman, because I love funny girls, Cat Power, because I love musical girls. Imagine trying to see all these people get along with one another? Man.
First off, thanks for inviting me to participate in this interview on your blog! Interestingly enough, I don’t teach creative writing at Portland Community College, mostly because there are instructors for that already that are doing a wonderful job. I teach basic college composition, which translates to “writing for people who hate writing” in 90% of the students I see, but that’s great! Because it’s a fun challenge to be dorky and geek out on writing and win people over with that kind of attitude. I don’t get much of a reaction from students when they hear about my publishing, and I think it is because they are concerned about what it means for their own accountability--“Oh shit! This guy is serious about writing! Now I have to try!” I remind my students that writing is a process, and a long one, and if they are unhappy with first drafts, so am I! If they think I’m really good at it and they aren’t I tell them it’s only because I’ve spent so much damn time practicing, and that’s it. That’s it. That’s all it is. I tell them, don’t expect everything to be perfect the first time through, always strive to become better, and above all else, have fun!
2. Who has been your biggest influence as a writer?
As much as I’d love to pick a writer, there has always been something about the works of David Foster Wallace that has affected me each and every time I read him. Of course, it was his writing that first made me think that my off-beat, meta-fictional hijinks could find a market in the first place, and I was reading him voraciously since about age 20, my Junior year at UM-Columbia. It’s not just his verbal pyrotechnics, either, it’s also his humility and bravery in being honest with himself, and this shines through in his prose.
3. What sort of statement regarding commercialism and specifically big superstores were you trying to make in Supercenter?
I basically see my function as a writer as somebody who can hold a mirror up to society and say, “If X is the present course we are on, expect Y as the future,” and then I enjoy projecting a kind of warped and distended vision of that future. I don’t really think we’ll see these futures, but it all about the emphasis of our values in the present. Take Donald Trump, for instance. It’s not a national embarrassment that he could become President of the United States, its plenty a national embarrassment that he can run for President of the United States. We have this entire Mass Media system in America that functions by telling the public what it wants them to want, that right there is your Big Superstore world, one in which there is no more accountability to the public, or the consumer, as it were, we are stuck with these unfortunate and unpleasant corporations that make all of us miserable, and yet we are convinced there is no better way of going about the world. That’s Supercenter, a bunch of people committed to a system they know is inherently broken, but they are just so vested in it, they can’t go back now.
4. Who is your favorite writer?
No doubt, Brian O’Nolan, aka Flan O’Brien, he’s got the Irish lyricism of a Joyce, but the wit and humor of a Vonnegut. I also love the early magical realists, and you can definitely see shades of Borges and Marquez in Supercenter, but I wouldn’t call myself a Magical Realist, I just can’t do that even when I sit down to do that, I’m not sure why.
5. If Hollywood was casting a movie adaptation of Supercenter and the director asked you to cast the role of GE, who would you choose?
When I was writing it in 2010, I kept imagining a young Giovanni Ribisi, so I guess I would have to update this for a young actor today. I’ll go with Evan Peters. A smartass with a lot of heart.
6. What type of scenes do you most enjoy writing?
Action in slow motion, something that provides plenty of room for narrative intrusion, but the action is so strong, the narration carries right through. Sort of like when Edward Benson goes for a stroll in Supercenter and winds up drinking the Tile Melt, it’s all about one single, simple act, but so much surrounds it, so much emotion and meaning.
7. What made you start writing?
Self-entertainment. I could see these silly stories taking life in my head, but found out that when built into a story, they were just so much richer and more vivid. Coming to terms with the fact that my writing is not commercial, it’s not mainstream, or what editors-and-agents believe audiences want, well, that doesn’t bother me. I’m writing for an audience of me, and that’s just the way it goes, it’s not a decision, it’s just what I do. Of course, that doesn’t mean I’m not always getting bent out of shape about adapting to shore up my weaknesses. I mean, I’m not a jerk about it, I don’t tell people I’m some sort of misunderstood genius, I guess it’s just that I hate 95% of “novels” out there and I’m not really doing what most writers are doing.
8. What is your best quality as a writer?
Visual writing. I’ve learned that sometimes you have to work on doing what you do poorly, better. But other times you have to work doing what you do well, better. I think too many writers get obsessed with conforming to some kind of Bogeyman Reader in their heads, I prefer to just kick back and have fun, and I keep the pace brisk. I like to build complex, visualisable worlds, rich with color and sound. That audience-of-one I mentioned earlier also happens to suffer from ADHD, so you can think of me as the Anti-Dostoevsky, plot-wise.
9. What is the best piece of writing advice anyone has ever given you?
“They don’t want you to write.” In this case, they is the world. Catherine Rankovic told me this, and she is awesome and her writing is awesome. And she’s right. It’s true, the world just wants you to quit, and you’ve got every goddamn reason in the world to quit, but you’re not going to give THEM what THEY want, now are you? No, fuck them. Am I saying I write as some kind of warped, paranoid antagonism against an invisible opponent? Kind of.
10. If you could invite five people to a dinner party (alive or dead, real or fictional) who would you invite?
Patrick Bateman, for the etiquette lessons, Joe Rogan, so I can get back to remembering what it means to be a real Bro, a Bro kind of Bro, David Backes, St. Louis Blues hockey player, so I can learn about dedication and discipline, Sarah Silverman, because I love funny girls, Cat Power, because I love musical girls. Imagine trying to see all these people get along with one another? Man.
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