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An interview with Mark Podvin, author. LiberArte: Mark, your novel is extraordinarily filled with literary references, some overt, like your paraphrase of Jack London´s “To build a fire” at the beginning of the book, others rather implicit as in the dynamic of the relationship between the two main characters, Dylan and Sam. In addition, your book begins with a very harsh depiction of a solitary life at the limits of sanity and civilization, it´s as if, burdened with the information overflow of modern life and technology you choose to strip representation down to its bare bones, a move, I might add, which is very much part of contemporary literature and culture. What do you think about these comments?
Mark Podvin: Well, I think that life is about survival and that is what I wanted to convey: a sense of struggle; on the other hand, I see the novel as an exercise in autobiography, I think both Dylan and Sam are two parts of myself which are inseparable.
LA: Rather like Moore the character and Hythloday in Utopia , a working out of an inner problematic which takes an imaginary form?
MP: Yes, although I wished to exert no control, or no conscious control on the writing process, the book is basically an existential reflection on life, and it is ostensibly about the search for meaning, and I did not desire to limit its scope. It is about persistence, survival, insistence on staying alive, which I believe coincides with reality.
LA: One of the interesting themes of the book is cannibalism. Taking up once again on literary references one might risk saying that the cannibalism is literary as well as fictional. One can hear the faint persistence of other paired heroes in western literature, Huck and Tom, Don Quixote and Sancho but the eating of human flesh is a particularly forceful figure. I think it also links up with Dylans´passage from a repetitive and grim diet of frozen human remains to the discovery or the re discovery of flavor, taste and variety in food consumption,
MP: Yes, cannibalism is there again because it is an issue of survival, we must do what we can to live, and yet what we consider to be civilization is oftentimes its very opposite, this is what I had in mind, but the issue of savoring anew is also linked to writing, to the discovery of new forms of expression, survival doesn´t have to be dull and taste is a discovery that should not be impossible. You can also think about the book as a search of meaning, as I´ve stated already, and in that sense, belief as a completion of the search as something fulfilling.
LA: Your novel seems polemical in at least two obvious ways. The first is the use of the word “nigger”, which is taboo in many publishing circuits, the other is your continuous recourse to a hallucinogenic haze in which your protagonists seem permanently involved.
MP: As to the first topic, I am aware of the problems involved in the use of the word but I had the desire to express the raw reality of what historically was very true. Mark Twain was questioned for the use of the word in his time but the ravages of slavery and its aftermath are realities I did not wish to evade. In any case my use of the word is not derogatory, in any sense.
With regard to the issue of drugs. I believe drugs are reflective of an overdeveloped world. I myself do not advocate the use of drugs but I believe there are many types of stimulants, entertainment, dominant ideas, definitions of morality and in one way or another, everyone is drugged, without necessarily being under the influence.
LA: Is there some Dylan Thomas in your protagonist, or for that matter, some Bob Dylan?
MP: Yes, I would say some Bob Dylan, who introduced a style which defies tradition and who wrote “Blowing in the wind” which is I think partly what happens in my novel.
LA: The idea of “tripping” is also significant in all this, your writing is notable in that it seems to attempt to give shape to a contradiction: on the one hand your prose seems to do everything possible to stay in place, to not move forward, and despite that, it does. Something similar happens in fantasy, there is movement precisely in the absence of movement. Another way to say it is to mention your fondness for wandering.
MP: Well, Life is a trip. A principal message for the book is advocacy, that is that all men take a long hard look at the significance and acceptance Christ Jesus can make in their lives, despite the absence of a straightforward mention of that possibility. To arrive anywhere you first have to wander, my desire was to show two opposite personalities traveling together in harmony, that, despite our radical differences, we can indeed walk together.
LA: Was there any basis of fact in your narrative?
MP: Yes, my father was an oil man. I´m from Wisconsin , I used to drive an oil truck for my father in my youth and I can tell you. Everyday was a trip. Another thing, besides the attempt to not provide a conscious structure for my writing, is that I wrote this book with the intention that it eventually be turned into a movie. This is similar to the work of Shakespeare, my literary hero, who wrote not to be read but to be watched.
LA: Regarding Shakespeare, whom you teach, was The Tempest a part of your thought process for the book?
MP: Yes it was, under a different setting, you know, I once saw a Yale Department production of The Tempest in which the planetary system was used, instead of the conventional island. . .
LA: So Dylan and Sam are akin to Ariel and Caliban?
MP: Dylan is an ordinary man, Sam is the same, they reflect what we are all looking for in life: purpose.
LA: The title of your book is very pertinent to its own subject matter, as well as wonderfully ambiguous, the book is literally about time as a concept and also about the timeliness of decision making.
MP: Yes, the book has a literal meaning, and toward the end of the novel, upon Dylans´ (literal and spiritual) salvation, in the climax, there is the most important decision in life, an acceptance of faith.
LA. Time is also about history, why these historical moments (slavery, the Conquest of the Americas ) and not others?
MP: They are representative of periods when racism haunted civilization as a source of evil both in the Spanish Conquest as well as in Aztec society. If the central theme of the book is the search for civilization (which Dylan seeks and Sam flees) , we should look at how certain civilizations have attempted to “civilize” others, by means of violence and exploitation.
LA: Alvar Nuñez makes an appearance in your novel as well as a certain fleet of burned ships on the Sea Coast of Mesoamerica, is this an allusion to “la noche triste” in which Cortez famously burned his ships so there would be no going back?
MP (laughing): Yes, as a matter of fact it is, there is no going back..
LA: It is surprising Mark to hear you talk of the joy that writing brings you, I must say it is a change of pace from most authors´usual grumbling about the pangs of writing and the difficulties that creativity entails at a personal level. Was the book satisfying to you?
MP: I am satisfied with this book, it only took me 52 years to write. For me, writing needs to be an expression of the freedom of life, its an enjoyable process that has no price, its my love for life and my love for Christ.
LA: Moving on to another topic you have been a Composition and English teacher for several decades, how did writing the novel affect your day to day experience?
MP: I believe I have learned more from my students throughout the years than they from me; nonetheless, we walk together on the same road of learning. I basically hope students can take away from this book the possibility of “thinking outside the box”. I have two missions with my students: 1) to teach them practical skills that will serve them in and out of the classroom and 2) to help them find a level of creativity in their own lives.
LA: Could one then say that Its about time is about teaching and creativity so that students can learn to use their newfound skills for example, in fixing an old locomotive?
MP (laughing): Why yes, the locomotive would then be language, a vehicle for moving away from isolation and towards a better future and community.
LA: I notice that the only obstacle in the way of the locomotive which Dylan drives South toward civilization (a figure for progress?), is a bison which is run over by the engine. Is this an indication of something?
MP: Progress if used in a humane fashion, frees man from slavery yet when used abusively, progress kills us all. Nature is at risk from progress.
LA: What about your condition as a United States Citizen living in Ecuador for several decades, did this come into play? Both Dylan and Sam are outcasts, both seeking “home”, however it may be defined. . .
MP: I consider myself a very fortunate “expatriate”. First that I was born where I was into a loving family and I consider myself very fortunate also to have arrived in this beautiful country, I love this country with all my heart and I am hopefully making some difference.
LA: Tell us about your experience publishing in the Web, what was your experience like?
MP: I didn't want to deal with publishers, I basically followed the lead of Bruce Honesein who previously published in Lulu.com a service for on demand publishing. Currently I´m in contact with agents to sell the book on a greater scale.My experience in publishing in this way is there is no financial cost whatsoever, only emotional cost.
LA: I was surprised the book had no dedication, was this deliberate?
MP: The absence of a dedication was a flaw in the design, in the hurry to send the finished project, the dedication was omitted. I dedicate the book to my mother. And since we are on the subject of debts I wish to thank two people who helped me get my book published: Will Waters and Eduardo Villacís. Will was brave enough to read the book before I got it published, and Eduardo was extraordinarily talented in doing the art work. Both guys believed in me, and I am very grateful to both of them. Now I can say, "Amen!"
LA: So if anyone wants to purchase the book, what steps should they take?
MP: They would need a credit card number and a home address. They could also go through me, I can be contacted through mark@usfq.edu.ec .
LA: Well Mark, It´s about time. Incidentally, what is the date mentioned on the book cover 12.23.12?
MP: It´s the year the Mayans predicted the world would be destroyed. The book suggests that it is about time that we accept Christ into our lives, before its too late. It will be a Sunday.
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