John Reed

Mar 17, 2005

John Reed first garnered attention for the book, Snowball’s Chance. But for The Whole he is getting what he never knew he wanted, hate from right wing groups.

In the middle of America's heartland, a young boy digs a small hole in the ground...which grows into a big hole in the ground...which then proceeds to drag the boy, his parents, his dog, and most of their house into a deep void.

The main character, Thing, and her production crew travel around America, encountering Satanists, an Extraterrestrial/Christian cult group, and a surprisingly helpful phone psychic. Their search for answers could very well decide the fate of the world as they know it.

Check out the official site for The Whole

Daniel Robert Epstein: How would you describe The Whole?

John Reed: It’s about a giant hole in the middle of the country that gets bigger. It’s basically a Rorschach blot for the person looking at it.

DRE:

I read that you wrote your last book within two weeks of 9/11.

JR:

Yes that was my second book, Snowball’s Chance.

DRE:

Was there something specific like that which inspired The Whole?

JR:

About eight or nine years ago I was talking about this book with my editor. He had moved publishing houses so he was at this other house and told me to write it. At the time I was writing a difficult historical book so I told him if he would publish The Whole I would write it.

DRE:

Was it a Rorschach blot for you as well?

JR:

Weirdly enough it is. It teases all these media stuff while I got MTV to publish it. Also weirdly enough as a result of this work people think I know how to write media stuff so I’m getting all this work such as some TV stuff and much more movie stuff than I ever had. I may end up with a TV show out of a book making fun of TV shows.

DRE:

What kind of show?

JR:

Like a stupid show.

DRE:

A sitcom?

JR:

Even stupider!

DRE:

A reality show?

JR:

Yeah, it would sort of be a satirical reality show that is kind of like the stuff in The Whole. When I started writing The Whole I didn’t think those kind of shows would be possible but now it’s so mundane.

DRE:

So you go see weird things around the country?

JR:

Basically my brother, who was in The Whole, and I have been working on reality shows but much more obnoxious.

DRE:

What were you going after satirically with The Whole?

JR:

I feel like I was making fun of our country and celebrating it as well. This idea of ultimate divinity is driving our nation. The idea, for everyone, is to dominate the world including our president.

DRE:

Well he’s just a big kid then.

How much can we learn about your politics from The Whole?

JR:

With Snowball’s Chance the right wing called me a Bin Ladenist which was great but then the Marxists hated me too because they thought I was critiquing the Marxist ethos put forward by George Orwell.

In the books I am working on now I want to be hated by the people I hate. I wish my politics could make everyone hate me and not just the conservatives.

DRE:

What do you get out of people hating you?

JR:

You get energy from it. Also the idea that one side of the political spectrum is more right than the other is ridiculous. Pretty much every issue in this country could be settled with a reasonable compromise then we could move on to the next thing. We could move on to the real question which is world domination. I don’t even know if I am kidding because maybe we do have to take over or at least adopt a few more states or something.

DRE:

I had a military strategies teacher in high school about 12 years ago and he said that within five years the US would have Canada and Mexico. I thought that would be great because I love Canada.

JR:

We should take Canada because they’re pretty wealthy but we should wait on Mexico until they have more dough.

DRE:

How much research did you put into The Whole?

JR:

Pretty much none. I just sat there and did it. I did a little bit of research to make sure I wasn’t get facts wrong.

DRE:

Does satire come easy to you?

JR:

Yeah I think that’s part of the pace of the book. I like to get it right the first time I write it. If you can sit there with the right kind of energy and intelligence the first draft will be a much better read.

DRE:

Was the first draft much bigger?

JR:

I did end up cutting some stuff out. I was working on other books at the same time which I didn’t publish.

DRE:

Isn’t that unusual?

JR:

I think so but if you measure the amount of pages that I published versus the amount I think it would end up the same. I throw a lot of stuff out.

DRE:

The book goes off into surreal notions. What were you trying to do with that?

JR:

As she gets closer and closer to her own psychology it begins to overwhelm her. By the end it’s so bizarre that it doesn’t even feel like a novel but it’s such a key thriller moment when one finds out that the black rabbit is really the red lobster alien.

You see these workshops, movies and books and many are solid and I was trained in all that junk so I can pretty much do it. But it all bores me. The reason we have so much reality TV is because the narratives suck. By the end of the second scene you know what’s going to happen.

DRE:

So you find yourself getting weird and weirder?

JR:

I think I might be getting more normal. I got a baby, a wife and a one bedroom apartment. As my books get more and more bizarre I find myself becoming more normal.

DRE:

Are you worried about becoming normal?

JR:

I wish myself luck.

DRE:

Is the book autobiographical?

JR:

The stuff in there about me is sort of true but the book wasn’t really written by a girlfriend of mine.

by Daniel Robert Epstein

SG Username: AndersWolleck

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