the many dimensions of david wong
In this dimension, David Wong fulfills many roles. He's a blogger, editor of internet comedy heavyweight Cracked.com, and author of the contemporary cult classic John Dies at the End, which movie director Don Coscarelli (Phantasm, Bubba Ho-tep) is currently crafting into his next masterpiece (note the photograph above). _If you haven't read the book, John Dies at the End has accurately been described as a "mash-up" of Douglas Adams and Stephen King, and involves battles with meat monsters, reality-altering drugs with innocuous names, and inter-dimensional basketball. After purchasing the film rights in 2007 and falling into a mysterious silence regarding the project, it was revealed last year that Coscarelli has not only been secretly filming all this time, but that he's recruited such talent as Paul Giamatti, Clancy Brown, and a horde of talented (and beautiful) emerging actors to ensure that the film will be sexy, wild, and, above all else, full of pants-crappingly disturbing fun. David Wong's story was a blast, and Coscarelli's interpretation of it will likely make a big splash (slash?) in the horror scene.
In another other dimension, though, David Wong is known as Jason Pargin, a humble and intelligent writer who would make Atticus Finch proud with his ability to "walk around in someone else's skin for a while" (and not in the disturbing way that David will do it in Coscarelli's movie).
As die hard fans of Cracked and enthusiastic latecomers to the John Dies at the End bandwagon, we decided to invite David and Jason to the table to talk with whomever showed up. The interview below is what resulted.
In another other dimension, though, David Wong is known as Jason Pargin, a humble and intelligent writer who would make Atticus Finch proud with his ability to "walk around in someone else's skin for a while" (and not in the disturbing way that David will do it in Coscarelli's movie).
As die hard fans of Cracked and enthusiastic latecomers to the John Dies at the End bandwagon, we decided to invite David and Jason to the table to talk with whomever showed up. The interview below is what resulted.
an interview with david wong
First of all, we’re very excited to hear that the movie version of John Dies at the End is moving forward. There are dozens of questions we'd like to ask about it (which we also understand you can't answer), so we'll restrain ourselves to this: What do you think (or hope) Coscarelli will bring to the story?
I want him to make a Don Coscarelli movie; the world doesn't need a scene-by-scene transcription of the novel. We already have that, it's the movie that plays in your head when you read the book. I want him to take it and make it his own. I want a theater full of people who, five minutes in, have no goddamned idea what's about to happen next. And I want to be one of them. Will you discuss the pros and cons of being famous under a pseudonym? Does Jason Pargin mind sharing the spotlight with David Wong? Bonus points for alluding to Peter Parker in your answer. I'm not great at talking to people in real life, so the assumption was that writing as myself would cause more people in the real world to come up and talk to me. That seemed like a problem, so I started writing on the web under a pseudonym because I wanted to keep that world separate. Also, I didn't want to create a situation where co-workers at my day job were always coming up to me and asking if the last story or article was a coded reference to them. For instance in the novel, David hates his boss. So you can imagine my real-life boss wondering if this was all a way for me to get my secret loathing off my chest (it wasn't). Everybody knows now, of course, and that's fine. It's not like I'm under the Witness Protection program or anything. I was just trying to keep things simple in my personal life. Same as Spider-Man. Does Mack Leighty still exist (in this dimension)? And if so, is he the one posting as John Cheese on Cracked.com? Sure, and he does the updates at the official JDATE site. Mack's influence shows up in everything I write, in addition to the fact that he created the character of John years ago and graciously let me use him in my book without suing me. Vocals courtesy of Mack Leighty. Chorus courtesy of the 1980s.
There are so many talented contributors to Cracked.com, but one conversation that seems to emerge again and again is the idea that the material isn't just hilarious, but the topics are often quite novel and surprisingly well-researched. And David Wong's articles are among some of the best examples of this: funny, but really smart, too. When you write, what's foremost in your creation process: being informative, or being funny? Well I get the same question about writing a horror novel that was supposed to be simultaneously scary and full of boner jokes. I think that comes from people assuming that writing comedy is something a person like me has to kind of sit down and plan out, when the reality is it's the only way I know how to write things. If you made me write you instructions on how to assemble furniture, I'd still have some jokes in there because it's the only way I know how to communicate with other human beings, too keep myself entertained. It's kind of like how some guys can't talk or tell a story without using hand gestures to make their point. Jokes are my hand gestures. Do staff members at Cracked.com feel any kinship or connection to the old Cracked magazine? Did you ever read it as a kid? No, unfortunately that connection kind of got severed by multiple degrees of separation. The old magazine folded, and then was bought by a company to try to resurrect it as something new. Just a few issues in, it also went under, and then the brand was sold AGAIN to the company who runs the website now, and moved across America from New York to Los Angeles. So by the time the staff and management was turned over multiple times and the offices moved a few thousand miles, there wasn't much left of the Cracked a lot of us grew up with. I was a MAD fan myself. As enthusiastic fans both of you and of Cracked.com, our copy of You Might be a Zombie and Other Bad News: Shocking but Utterly True Facts is already in the mail. For any of our readers that are unfamiliar, though, would you mind explaining why they should immediately order a copy for themselves? It contains about 20 articles that you'll never read on the site, by some of our top writers. Plus it's illustrated by webcomic luminaries like Nedroid and Winston Rowntree. We really wanted to go above and beyond and not just do a print compilation of stuff on the site (though there are some site favorites in there) to really give people a reason to read. We're extremely proud of it, and you'll see it on the New York Times Bestseller list for January 23rd. We're pretty much beside ourselves over that. No one involved has gotten on that list before, including me. Let's talk a little about John Dies at the End. There's an old stereotype about first novels, that they are largely autobiographical. While this can't exactly be true of you (it can't...right?), are there any characters and elements of the story that you draw from your own life? You can't write fiction that's not at least a little bit biographical, since you're writing it from inside your own head and filtering everything through your own experiences. Even if you aren't directly recreating scenes from your own childhood or whatever, you're still writing about your own anxieties and hopes and it's all filtered through your own view of the world. So while I've never been attacked by monsters, I have lived in an economically depressed small town and felt like I didn't fit in. I have spent years thinking the way David thinks, and having those same insecurities and fears. Also, the common threat among all of the dangers David faces is that he doesn't understand them -- we never get solid answers about exactly where these creatures are from or what they want. Nothing David does in response has its intended effect. I'm sure we've all felt that way about the world, especially in our 20s. How goes the sequel? Is it really full of spiders? It should be done some time this year. It's impossible to put a firm schedule on it because I'd be trying to anticipate the rate at which ideas will suddenly occur to me, and how quickly I'll be able to get them worked out. I know what happens in the book, I know how it ends, but I don't know exactly what conversation David is going to have with the talking squid at the bus stop. On the blog Jodi Lee: Into the Mirror, you mention both the influence of Douglas Adams and the fact that you'd never want to turn Dave and John's adventures into a series where you were bound by contract to crank them out. In the time since that interview, however, I think both the fan and the critical response to the book make it clear that demand for more adventures of David and John is high. Do you foresee a trilogy at least? I want to end This Book is Full of Spiders in such a way that if I never write another one, the reader will be perfectly satisfied with that as an ending. I like to think JDATE left off the same way. But I'm not a professional enough writer to just throw a switch and crank out a third or fourth book because readers clamor for it or a publisher waves a large check at me. Either an idea for a third book will occur to me, or else it won't. It will happen on its own. But my brain doesn't seem to be set up to crank out a series, where each spring I sit down and say, OK, have John and Dave been to Japan yet? No? OK well let's send them to Japan. We'll have them fight Godzilla. I have nothing against people who are able to do that - I've read almost all of John Sandford's Prey novels, and wish he had written more. I just don't have that ability. Do you have any plans/dreams/ambitions to venture outside of the David and John universe and into other stories? Of course, I mean as a writer you don't want to get stuck doing the same thing because it becomes a crutch. I'd like a book where I don't have the option of just making a monster show up every time I'm stuck for what to have happen next. Just for fun (and assuming you’ve seen both Phantasm and Bubba Ho-tep), which dynamic duo do you think would benefit most from taking soy sauce? Mike and Reggie Foster? Or Elvis Presley and John. F. Kennedy? I was going to say Elvis and JFK but I think Bruce Campbell on soy sauce would continue to just be Bruce Campbell. Finally, as much of our readership consists of emerging writers, do you have any advice for the guys who are stills struggling to get their first novel together? Yes. Post it on the internet. Writing can be a lonely business, and it was the immediate feedback (both fan mail and harsh criticism) I got from posting my novel online that sparked me to keep going. I know it's not for everybody, but many a novel has died because the writer spent two years alone with it and saw their motivation just peter out in that lonely silence. Enjoy our interview with David Wong? Check out what Mike Doughty had to say about his music, his mentor, and the consequences of bad footwear. |
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