Edward Lee – interview

Feltöltve: 2017/02/04
Kategóriák: Friss
Becsült olvasási idő (185 szó/perc): | Szavak száma:

-What was the first thing in your life that inspired you to grab a pen or a keyboard and start writing fiction?

EL: Actually it was a manual Smith-Corona typewriter with a cloth ribbon!  When I was in the Army (in Germany in the late ‘70s; I was in the 1st Armored Division) I began reading horror fiction, everything from Lovecraft to Stephen King, and every 2 weeks I’d have guard duty, which meant I had to spent 4-hour shifts guarding a tank park.  It was during these times, mainly out of boredom, my mind would engage creatively and I would craft my own stories mentally.  I have a vivid imagination, so soon I was imagining mixtures of contemporary horror (which was pretty new back then) with Lovecraftian trimmings.  It occurred to me then that it might be a lot of fun to be a writer.  Therefore, when I got out of the Army, I started writing.

-How would you describe your literary style to a person who has never read your works before?

EL: Every writer’s style begins as a hybrid of stylistic elements from other writers but mine is a little less conventional these days.  When I started writing 30 years ago, my style was a reflection of King, Ramsey Campbell, and then writers like Elmore Leonard and Ross McDonald.  Back then you really couldn’t write modern horror with a Lovecraftian “sound” because it simply didn’t work.  No editor would publish it.  But today everything is different because of the so called Digital Age.  Nowadays, my style has very much because crossbred with my own style from my mass market horror novels like City Infernal and Flesh Gothic, with an infection from Lovecraft and M.R. James.  Because of this, writing has never been more fun, even after 3 decades!

-In some reviews, your works are usually labelled as bizarro fiction. Do you agree with this genre or do you consider yourself more of an extreme horror fiction writer?

EL: Bizarro is a wonderful sub-genre out the outre, but I was never really a practitioner of it (its was a delving of younger writers); now, however, I’m often seen in the midst of that crowd because so many of my reprints are now published by Deadite and Eraserhead Press, the first of the Bizarro publishers.

-How did the works of H.P. Lovecraft affect your work as a writer? And besides him, who would you mention as the main influences you had before you began writing stories?

EL: the older I got, the more and more I began to miss Lovecraft’s work, and it occurred to me that he was my favorite writer of all time.  I began re-reading his stories over and over again and found I liked them more than anything, not just because of style but their creative diversity.  The same goes for M.R. James who wrote in the same era.  I read James EVERY NIGHT.  It’s become an addiction.  The bad part is I’m much less inclined to read anything else!  I never get tired of Lovecraft or James.  I dicover something new in this work, no matter how many times I’ve read it.

-Do you have a favorite story from H.P. Lovecraft? And do you have any favorite stories inspired by the works of Lovecraft?

EL: The most paramount novels to me that are influenced by Lovecraft are by the late Brian McNaughton, especially Satan’s Lovechild.  This was published in the mid-‘70s!  It’s a contemporary domestic drama that incorporates Lovecraft’s Mythos, sort of a new version of The Dunwich Horror.  It’s a marvelous novel.  There’s also much great work by Ramsey Campbell that’s inspired directed by Lovecraft.  Read his outstanding novel Hungry Moon, and particularly his stories “Cold Print” and “Faces at Pine Dunes.”  No one does Lovecraft his own way better than Campbell.

-Where did the idea of mixing Lovecraftian cosmic horror with extreme violence and pornography came from?

EL: Many’s the time while reading Lovecraft or James when it would strike me, “Wow, the only way stories like this could be better would be if they were hardcore,” so I took it from there.  The best example in my own work is the novel Haunter of the Threshold, which continues the saga of Lovecraft’s Shining Trapezohedron from “Haunter of the Dark” in modern New England.  The main character is a young woman who is very much a nymphomaniac and hardcore fetishist.  It’s the grossest and most sexually pornographic book I’ve every written, yet it all works, and it sells well to this day.  Interestingly, however, Lovecraft and James themselves absolutely deplored on stage sex and violence in their work, and they NEVER addressed sexuality directly.  If I ever meet them in the afterlife, I’m sure they’ll both kick my ass!

-As far as I know you have started wrinting back in 1982 and published more than 40 books in the United States since then. But you have started writing novels with the pseudonym Philip Straker. After that, why did you decide to leave this pen name and keep on writing with your real name?

EL: I used pen names simply because I didn’t want my family to know I wrote horror!  Edward Lee isn’t my real name either, it’s my middle name and first name.  I’m almost 60 years old now but I still fear my remaining relatives will find out what I write!

-You have some pretty nice, limited edition hardcover versions of some of your books, specilly made for the collectors market. Are you a book collector yourself, or you just want to please your readers who are fond of collecting rare publications?

EL: Oddly enough, I am not a collector myself; in fact all of my books by me and other writers are in storage because I don’t have room for them!  My rarest books are a signed first edition of Ramsey Campbell’s Scared Stiff and New Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, a signed reprint of Our Lady of Darkness by Fritz Leiber, a signed first edition of Clive Barker’s Books of Blood, and 2 volumes of Essays by David Hume, published in 1796.  That’s about it!

-How do you think, movies or books are the ones that can inspire you more? Do you have a favorite Lovecraftian movie adaptation?

EL: Well, of course books are much better than movies, and more inspirational.  They’re also more mentally engaging, by far.  Movies are simply easier, all you need to do is point your face at the scene.  It’s fast entertainment, nothing more.  I’ll always prefer books.  However, there are some outstanding movies based on Lovecraft, and my favorites are The Dunwich Horror with Dean Stockwell, The Shunned House by Ivan Zuccon,  The Crimson Cult (1968) based on “Dreams in the Witch House,” plus the Stuart Gordon’s “Dreams in the Witch House” on Master’s of Horror, Die, Monster, Die (1965) with Nick Adams and Boris Karloff, based on “Color Out of Space,” and The Haunted Palace, with Vincent Price, based on Charles Dexter Ward.  The problem with Lovecraft film adaptions is that the stories are too mental and abundant with concepts to effectively translate into film.  The one exception, however, is the HPL Historical Society’s film of Call of Cthulhu.  This is the ONLY genuinely faithful Lovecraft adaptation, and clearly the best.

-How do you think: Could bizarro as a genre exist without the Lovecraftian funds? If so, would it be different? Or if not, why not?

EL: That’s an interesting question.  Bizarro writers tend to be a younger set, and many times I’ve heard them say that they aren’t influenced by Lovecraft in any way, that they don’t like Lovecraft, and even that they’ve never read Lovecraft.  What they don’t realize is that all the writers they DO like were themselves influenced by Lovecraft in one way or another.  I dare say it’s impossible for any horror writer working today NOT to be influenced by Lovecraft consciously or subconsciously.  No single horror writer in history has had more impact on shaping the modern horror genre that Lovecraft.  His importance is unsurpassed and always will be.  Whether you like it or not, at the end of the day, all road lead back to Lovecraft.

-Are you planning to release anything in the future that carries on the legacy of Lovecraft in a direct way like Trolley No. 1852? And can you tell us anything about your latest project, or projects that you are working on at the moment?

EL: I don’t plan on any more outright HPL pieces written in an imitation of his style (they’re too hard!) but I suppose my best ones are Trolley 1852, Innswich Horror, and The Dunwich Romance.  I suspect there will always be a pinch of Lovecraft in everything I write in the future, but it will be contempotrary.  In fact, the book I’m finishing up now, White Trash Gothic, involves the main character discovering the unknown illegitimate son of H.P. Lovecraft! It’s pretty cool!

-Do you have any advice for young writers, who feel an urge to carry on the heritage of H.P. Lovecraft in a bizarre, unordinary way, like you do? 

EL: First my advice is more general: 1) Write a page a day; in a year you’ve got a book, and 2) Only write what you love to read yourself.  Therefore, if you love Lovecraft, write Lovecraft, no matter what anyone tells you.

-Do you have a message fot the hungarian Lovecraftian community, and for the ones who seem to be interested in your writings and/or bizarro fiction?

EL: Yes.  I very much hope to have the privilege of being published one day in your great allied country, and to those of you who have read my work in other languages, you have my utmost thanks.  And on a closing note, I have this to say: Long Live Lovecraft!

Ne hagyd ki ezeket se!

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