I attended my first Los Angeles Festival of Books yesterday. One of the biggest draws for me was the "Bump in the Night" supernatural fiction panel at 11:30 featuring Seth Grahame-Smith, Richard Kadrey, Deborah Harkness, and Melissa de la Cruz. I even reserved my ticket in advance online, expecting the panel to sell out. The audience was large, but by no means was the panel standing room only. Paul Tremblay, who was brought out from Boston specifically to moderate the panel, mostly addressed the authors individually with specific questions about their work rather than inviting them to discuss the genre or the writing process in general. Personally, I found that approach less accessible, since I'd never read any of the panelists' books and couldn't fully follow the details of the discussion. However, I'm sure the authors appreciated the opportunity to discuss--and pitch--their particular works.
SGS got the most panel time. The moderator introduced him as the author of
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies,
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter,
Unholy Night, "and the script for Tim Burton's new movie,
Dark Shadows." At this point, there was a brief hush, followed by whistling and a smattering of applause from the audience (I don't know if this was on behalf of DS or Tim Burton). Behind me, a young woman said, "I want to see
that!" So there is some positive anticipation for the film.
Tremblay then began describing the plot of SGS's new book,
Unholy Night. "You decided it wasn't enough to piss of Jane Austen fans. Now you've made the Bible gritty...Will you have to go into hiding like Salman Rushdie?" Grahame-Smith laughed and spoke of his surprise at how accepting the reading public is of his work. "Jane Austen fans have a sense of humor. I even got a call from Doris Kearns Goodwin telling me she loved
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter." He explained the rules he established for himself with
Unholy Night: 1) The name "Jesus" is never mentioned. 2) The Jesus character is only two weeks old in the novel and never says anything, obviating the problem of putting words in Christ's mouth, and 3) whenever Mary and Joseph appear, they are paragons of virtue. The story is primarily about Balthazar's journey from doubt to faith, and not an attempt to mock the Bible.
Fellow panelist, Richard Kadrey, joked, "I think Seth is going to make the most money of any of us; they can't return your books to the store once they've burned them!" "But will I be alive to get the royalties?" Seth wondered.
Grahame-Smith acknowledged that his works have a "somewhat absurd premise, but the more absurd your premise, the more grounded your execution has to be. What really pulls you through the narrative is character. You have to give them an emotional landscape that feels real. You don't give Lincoln the Mel Brooks treatment." He explained his inspiration for
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter: "I was doing a tour in the summer of 2009, the Centennial of Lincoln's birthday, and in every bookstore I went to, the biggest displays up front were biographies of Lincoln and vampire novels. I thought, 'If you could find some way to combine the two, you'd have a license to print money!'"
When asked about the experience of screenwriting, particularly adapting his own novel for the screen , SGS made some comments that I thought were very revealing. "When you're an author, you're God. You get to do whatever you want and you don't have to explain yourself to anybody--except maybe arguing with your editor a little. But
when you're a screenwriter, you really have to service the vision of the director, even on your own book." (my emphasis) Even though he was speaking of his experience with ALVH, I suspect the same was true of DS.
When the moderator opened the floor for the audience's Q&As, one of the first questions asked was why horror continues to be so appealing to people. SGS shared his theory about why we love scary things. "Thousands of years ago, our ancestors faced constant danger. They had to go out and kill their food. Today, in our modern world of creature comforts, we lack scares but we still have a physical need for them. Horror fills that need. It's an affirmation of life." He added that supernatural creatures also appeal to our specific psychological needs. "Vampires have an aspirational quality. They don't have to die. What would you do with all of that time? We wonder about having the powers of angels and witches. What would we do with them?" All of the panelists agreed that human beings are often the scariest creatures in their works. "The monsters may want to kill you, but they aren't
responsible for wanting to kill you," SGS explained. "Look at one of the earliest horror stories: Mary Shelley's
Frankenstein. The monster was happily resting in his coffin--a brain over here, a skull over there. He didn't ask to be created; it was the scientist's fault. Man creates the monsters. We did this to ourselves."
A young girl who is a student in the creative writing program and enjoys reading and writing genre stories complained about how the more serious writers look down on her. "It's like if you can't quote Kafka and Proust, you're not worth anything. Do you have that problem with your work?" The authors counseled her not to let people put her in a box. "People are always trying to label me. I'm 'the mash-up guy,'" SGS observed. "In academia, you get looked down on, but not by the general public. Look at all the popular movies that have magic, the supernatural, or superheroes in them."
The panelists were also asked how long it takes them to research their works. SGS explained that he does a lot of research prior to writing. "I try to really know my history before I destroy it."
From the lengthy interview with SGS that was reposted here a couple of weeks ago, I had anticipated a big personality, someone loud and outspoken. On the contrary, this Sunday morning, Mr. Grahame-Smith seemed the most reserved of anyone on the panel. He was always the first to respond to questions addressed to the panel, but when he wasn't speaking, he leaned back in his chair, arms crossed and a neutral expression on his face instead of smiling expectantly into the microphone like Deborah Harkness and Maria de la Cruz. Maybe he was tired, or he's not much of a morning person? I thought he was a good speaker, both witty and self-deprecating. He knows his success is unlikely and appreciates it for that very reason.
When the panel concluded, the authors headed outside to covered tents to sign their books. A dealer's table was set up in the lobby of the building where the panel had been held, and audience members quickly lined up to start buying books. I was reluctant to buy anything myself, but I did want to meet SGS, so after hemming and hawing and seeing that only one copy of
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter was left (the other titles had all sold out), I took it as a sign and bought the book. (If it was good for Doris Kearns Goodwin, it's good enough for me). SGS had the longest line of all--in fact, the other four authors had long since departed by the time I got into line--and he continued signing for a full hour after the panel ended. He was an excellent sport; although we were supposed to limit ourselves to three items, several people had entire stacks of books with them (one woman had multiple editions of
P&P & Zombies in addition to hard- and paperback versions of
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) and he signed them all. He also posed for pictures and chatted leisurely with the fans.
When I finally reached the front of the line, SGS greeted me warmly and thanked me for standing so long in line. He seemed much more animated than when he'd spoken on the panel (maybe SGS is more comfortable in one-on-one interactions than in speaking to a huge audience?) I told him I was pleasantly surprised to see him at the FOB, considering how busy he is these days. "You've got to do the Festival of Books. You can't miss it!" he enthused. "You get to meet so many people. It's a real ego booster." I asked him how much of DS he had seen for research purposes before working on the script. "I had a couple of the boxed sets, the compilation discs, and the compendiums. (Kathy Resch's Concordances?) It wasn't possible to watch the entire series." I remarked that I had seen one of the movie preview screenings and could tell that he'd done his homework from the number of more obscure series references in the film. "We're just finishing the final cut of the film now," he confirmed. The ending has been finalized and "it is very dark."
"I'm so excited for you that you'll get to see the final product in just a couple more weeks!" He was so genial, I didn't have the heart to admit that I wasn't crazy about his movie. We shook hands and I wished him luck with all of his projects before heading to my next panel on the other side of campus.
I came away with a positive impression of the author. I think Grahame-Smith is very sincere about his work (even if he often uses a goofy premise as a jumping off point) and tries to put his subjects in a positive light. I believe he tried to do right by the DS fans and, while I'm not happy about the tone and direction of the movie, I don't think he was deliberately irreverent with the material.
I'd love to hear privately from people who do see the movie how the ending turned out in the final cut. I'm curious to see if my interpretation was correct.
ProfStokes
Topic: Depp/Burton DARK SHADOWS Is In Production!! (Read 721595 times)