Hidden but Ever-Present

Firstly, About the Novel:

Ramsey Blake’s first job as a teacher takes him back to the secluded village where he grew up. There he begins to remember the strange world of childhood and comes to realise that the adult world is equally as strange. At the centre of everyday life he discovers a nightmarish game of power and manipulation and is forced to choose sides. But whatever his decision, he is about to receive the ultimate object lesson in human cruelty.

Prepare yourself for an experience darker than The Wasp Factory and more grotesque than The League of Gentlemen. A novel others would not dare to publish is now available for the first time.



Secondly, What People Say:

“Unpublished for far too long, “Remember You’re A One Ball!” is a work of profound insight into childhood and the long shadow it casts over adulthood. Its fearless, brutal honesty and the superlative quality of the prose are virtually without peer. This novel confirms me in my belief that Crisp is the most important writer of his generation.”
Mark Samuels, author of Glyphotech and Other Macabre Processes

“Quentin Crisp’s work belongs to a tradition of horror literature that both defines the genre and justifies it as a worthy form of artistic expression. Literate, inventive, deeply thoughtful, and concerned with the darkest aspects of human fate, Crisp exemplifies what it means to be a horror writer.”
Thomas Ligotti, author of The Conspiracy Against the Human Race

“Remember You’re a One-Ball!” is – in its recognition of the suffering of outcasts, of the ugly and the forgotten – a work of great compassion.
Justin Isis, para para dancer and science fiction writer

“Quentin S. Crisp should be famous by now as the great England person reconfiguring the I-novel with nihil horror and England wet playground melancholy and following through on the implications of all that (probably only he knows fully what they are right now)”
Matthew Pendleton, mysterious blogger


Now, What We Said About the Novel To Each Other:


John Renard: 10:38:43
Considering the lack of fantastic elements in this novel, are we to expect more 'realism' from you in the future?

Quentin Crisp: 10:39:02
Not especially. I do have a general plan for the future, in as much as I have notebooks filled with ideas for stories, so I can see the possible trajectory of my work. However, in terms of what I start writing next after I've finished one piece of writing, it's always a question of what most inspires me at the time, or, if I'm not feeling inspired, what seems most appropriate, and easiest to get on with.

So… What I'm actually planning is to write in a more science-fictiony style. And I'll really like to write some pure fantasy. I don't mean sword and sorcery, but, well, maybe [Hayao, animated film director, ed.] Miyazaki would come reasonably close to what I mean.

Is that a reasonable answer?

Basically, I can't tell for sure, but we'll have to wait and see. I probably will write 'realistic' pieces, but, well, it's not like I have a plan to become more and more 'realistic'. Certainly not.

John Renard: 10:45:06
Do you care to give us some idea about this often hinted at (for you) coming semi-utopian, science fictiony area that you might be exploring?

Quentin Crisp: 10:46:17
I have a working title for a collection, that title being 'Nutopia', but I'll probably change it, as people could mistake the pronunciation of the word for 'nut-opia'.

So far I have written two stories that I've earmarked for this collection. They are 'The Magical Universe' and 'Sea Angels'. Titles I have in mind are 'The Magibonion', 'The Golden Bacillus', 'Aye-Aye', 'Serenity Falls', 'Demi-Monde' and a load of other stuff.

Basically, the idea is that being pessimistic is pretty much redundant in the world as it currently exists, so I'm interested in experimenting with what seems unfeasible, which is optimism, of a kind.

But I don't know how optimistic the general reader will find it. On the whole, I find it irresistible to put nasty things in what I write.

John Renard: 10:52:35
As an aside; I know that you are a fan of Magibon on Youtube, but is the title "The Magibonion" a reference to the Welsh Mabinogion? Or are you calling her an onion? A leek maybe?



Quentin Crisp: 10:53:09
It is a reference to the Welsh cycle of tales, yes. It's just a silly play on words, really.

I thought it sounded good. But the story will feature Magibon as a 'character'. Or rather, as a goddess.

John Renard: 10:55:36
This brings up a recurring theme that you seem to have in your work of the objectification of women. As in putting them on a pedestal anyhow, such as Bettie Page in 'The Tao of Petite Beige'. Are you comfortable with trying to depict the female psyche?



Quentin Crisp: 10:55:56
I was talking to someone about this last night.

John Renard: 10:56:05
How apropos!

Quentin Crisp: 10:56:10
Quite.

Anyway, I think you just have to do things by instinct. I am not a woman, I don't think, and I've never had much confidence that I understand people anyway, so, I even feel it would be presumptuous of me to try and write from a female point of view.

I sometimes cringe when I read male authors who really try to do this very self-consciously.

John Renard: 10:58:00
Tom Robbins?

Quentin Crisp: 10:58:06
No. Never read him.

John Renard: 10:58:15
Tim Robbins?

Quentin Crisp: 10:58:21
Nor him. It's not just male authors, though. When I first read Wuthering Heights, I thought the narrator was female. I realised after a while that he was meant to be male, but he seemed to have a very female voice to me.

Anyway, I think there are times when you can make the leap and do it successfully, but it seems to me mysterious how this happens. If you think of it as too much of a science, I think you can really cramp yourself.

But, yeah, objectification. I won't deny it… I suppose I like to see it more as a Muse thing.

John Renard: 11:02:35
Well, back to the novel at hand. How do feel about One-Ball!'s many similarities to the film 'The Wicker Man'?

Quentin Crisp: 11:02:53
Have you mentioned this before?

John Renard: 11:03:00
No.

Quentin Crisp: 11:03:03
Okay. Hmmm.

John Renard: 11:03:11
Sonja [My wife, ed.] might have.

Quentin Crisp: 11:03:17
I hadn't thought of that. Yeah, maybe Sonja did. In which case I must have thought of it. When she told me.

Anyway… I think that The Wicker Man has a much more celebratory side to it. Despite the dark ending, it's a kind of celebration of paganism. I think the pagan aspects in One-Ball are more hidden and less.… I'm not really trying to comment on paganism.
I suppose there are useful archetypes that have resonance to people, and sacrifice is one of them. But I think I'm emphasising quite a modern form of sacrifice. It is the sacrifice of 'civlisation'.



John Renard: 11:07:35
Yes, the 'sin eater' and the original sense of the term 'scapegoat'.

Quentin Crisp: 11:08:52
There are 'mystical' implications to the whole thing, but, well, the reader can take that how s/he wants to.

John Renard: 11:10:01
What is it that you want readers to read this book for? What is it that it offers to us?

Quentin Crisp: 11:10:29
I'm basically just a tap-dancer, you know. I just write what I have to write, and people can take what they want from it.

I'm not insensible to the kind of 'dark buddhism' that's in the air in some of the places where I hang out. [Thomas] Ligotti has said that 'literature is entertainment or it is nothing' and, if we accept that there is no ultimate point in existence, then this is almost an inevitable truth.

Having said that, there must be at least some residual belief in the possibility of progress in me.

John Renard: 11:12:54
Now you are just using misdirection. [In response to the paragraph about 'dark buddhism', ed.]

Quentin Crisp: 11:13:01
Am I?

John Renard: 11:13:55
You obviously wouldn't write so many 'difficult' stories or from such a variety of viewpoints if you were merely trying to entertain.

Quentin Crisp: 11:14:17
Well, I have to say, I personally find that more 'entertaining'. I've noticed that I do find different things entertaining to many people.

John Renard: 11:15:30
Which brings us to the next question: Why did you choose such a difficult book to be the flagship for your newly launched Chomu Press?

Quentin Crisp: 11:15:55
I feel I haven't quite answered the last question, but anyway, I'll answer this now.

This is an interesting question, because, well, I think that One-Ball is both difficult and mainstream. Some people have found it.... a hard read, and others have found it very accessible and pacey. I think it's quite possible that some people will be upset by it.

Basically, the book was pretty much ready and waiting to be published. But apart from that, there's the adage about starting as you mean to go on. If the first book is already 'offensive' to a number of people, it gets that out of the way, and we can stop being merely polite and not waste time.

Just to get back to the last question, as I say, there must be some residual belief in the idea of progress in me, even though that's a really problematical concept when the sun is going to implode and everything.

So, my contribution to society with One-Ball is basically… It's against witch-hunts, I suppose. To put things in simple terms.

But, you know, basically people should read it and draw their own conclusions.

John Renard: 11:24:13
Well, that raises a question that Sonja had: Why then does Ramsey go along with the persecution instead of rebelling against it?

Quentin Crisp: 11:24:41
I'm not sure how to answer this without giving away some of the plot.

I suppose it's given away a bit in some of the reviews, anyway, so I'll attempt an answer.

Ramsey has the will to rebel. But this is thwarted by the prevalence of a particular worldview. I simply wasn't going to write a story of good triumphing over evil. That wasn't the story that was in me to write. I wanted to look at what it means for society as it exists to be 'right'.

John Renard: 11:28:31
So, essentially, since he is drowning, he is compelled to tread water to save himself?

Quentin Crisp: 11:28:51
That's one way of looking at it.

John Renard: 11:29:37
Well, to me at least, authorial intent is more important to the work than reader interpretation.

Quentin Crisp: 11:29:45
Ah… I'm not sure I agree.

John Renard: 11:30:00
Unless [the author or the reader, or both] is an utter moron.

Quentin Crisp: 11:30:19
The thing is, the book will be different for each person.

Of course, I do have my intent, and there are some things that I can clear up, like the sense in which a particular word is meant, etc., but I wouldn't like to rob people of their own experience of the book.

John Renard: 11:31:58
I think of it like this: The authors' intent is like a cake, with the reader's interpretation being the icing. The reader puts whatever flavor that they like into it, but it still has a base that remains flour, egg, & sugar.

Or whatever sick thing you make your cakes with.



Quentin Crisp: 11:32:40
I think that the unconscious plays a huge part in the creation of any work of art. Therefore, it is quite possible for readers to find something in a novel that the author did not 'know' they intended.

John Renard: 11:33:39
True, like a cake ring for Carnival.

Quentin Crisp: 11:33:54
I don't even know what that is.

Oh, hang on. Like a sixpence in a Christmas pudding?

John Renard: 11:34:17
You have similar traditions over there... yes exactly.

Quentin Crisp: 11:34:22
Okay.

This is a very involved question, actually. I feel like any symbol should be like a bottomless well, really. And a good novel, too.

John Renard: 11:36:49
But we are digressing. Now to the most important question about 'Remember You're a One-Ball!': Why do you name the characters what you do? Is Ramsey Blake a nod to Ramsey Campbell and William Blake? Is Annette, 'Our' Annette? The readers want to know…

Quentin Crisp: 11:37:20
Annette is definitely not Our Annette [Funicello], although perhaps I shouldn't make that clear.

No allusion to Ramsey Campbell - Ramsey is simply a name that I was peculiarly fascinated by as a child, for some reason. Blake, yeah, William Blake, or possibly Roj Blake.

John Renard: 11:40:28
And unless you can think of any other questions that you would like to ask yourself, here is my final question:

Quentin Crisp: 11:40:39
Okay.

John Renard: 11:41:33
Why is this novel not a fictional account of Adolf Hitler and his singular testicle's influence over his rise to power and infamy?



Quentin Crisp: 11:41:54
In a strange way, I think it is.

John Renard: 11:42:35
I had similar thoughts as well. It's just that the names have been changed to protect the dirty Nazis.

Quentin Crisp: 11:42:54
There are legal reasons why I can't go into that.

John Renard: 11:43:51
But wouldn't Hitler have been kept from becoming the Furher in One-Ball!'s world, because of his condition?

Quentin Crisp: 11:44:13
You'll have to ponder that particular question for yourself.

John Renard: 11:44:23
I am!

Any final statements to your adoring readers and the public at large?

Quentin Crisp: 11:44:56
I think Arnold thingy, the Governator, only has one testicle, too.



Oh, that's not my final statement.

John Renard: 11:45:06
He does?

Quentin Crisp: 11:45:13
So someone told me. I hope I'm not spreading rumours.

John Renard: 11:45:33
It seems that you have written about Bizzaro world.

Quentin Crisp: 11:45:44
Maybe… The mirror image is always reversed? I don't know.

John Renard: 11:46:34
Lateral inversion we used to call that in the photography biz.

Quentin Crisp: 11:46:42
Ah.… But, the image that we receive is already upside down. And the brain turns it the right way up again, apparently.

John Renard: 11:47:27
Yes, the brain is the copyeditor of the soul.

Quentin Crisp: 11:47:44
There's no answer to that.

John Renard: 11:48:52
No, but it's a good title. As is "The mirror image is always reversed?" Plus then you could start working your way into other terminal punctuation in your titles.

Quentin Crisp: 11:49:23
No, it's exclamation marks all the way for me!

John Renard: 11:49:36
I know, you are just too excitable.

Quentin Crisp: 11:49:48
I'm afraid so.

John Renard: 11:50:00
Have you heard that Warren Zevon song? You'd love it.

Quentin Crisp: 11:50:09
Er.... no.

John Renard: 11:50:26
All right. Interview over... To Youtube!

Quentin Crisp: 11:50:36
Don't you want my last words?

John Renard: 11:51:02
I thought that was your last words! Carry on then, wayward son.

Quentin Crisp: 11:51:21
Actually, I think it's too late now. The moment's gone.

Those are my last words.

Thanks for interviewing me, etc.