Read the extended interview with
D. Harlan Wilson in Withersin ‘Death’ Volume 1/Issue 3
Withersin’s Damned Interview With:
D. Harlan
Wilson
I’m
an Assistant Professor of English at Wright State University-Lake Campus, where
I’ve been teaching composition and literature since 2006. I completed my Ph.D. in the critical study of
English at
List published works:
I’ve
published lots of stories and some essays, reviews, and creative
nonfiction. My books include three
collections of short fiction (The Kafka Effekt, Stranger
on the Loose, and Pseudo-City)
and Dr.
Identity, my first novel.
List website: www.dharlanwilson.com
How can we contact you? dharlanwilson@yahoo.com
In
your own words, define Withersin.
Hmm … The spontaneous attenuation of bad energy one
accumulates through the process of committing too many evil deeds.
If
you were a sideshow act, what would you be?
A mime.
Or a juggler of torches. Even better, a mime who air juggles torches.
What
is your greatest non-literary influence?
Movies, although movies might be
categorized as “literary” to some degree. Let’s say
capitalism, then. Capitalism makes
people do all kinds of funny, interesting things.
Describe
your most irrational fear.
I’m not sure I have an irrational fear, unless fear of
flying is irrational. And yet I kind of
like flying—especially when I take Ativan beforehand!
How
about your most guilty pleasure?
Pizza.
I would eat it for every meal, if I could.
Name
the most disturbing nursery rhyme/fairy tale you can recall.
“Johnny Verbeck.” It’s a nursery rhyme my mom used to sing me
about a guy who invents a sausage grinder and uses it to make sausages out of
the neighbors’ pets. In the end his wife
accidentally pushes him into the grinder and kills him. The last line of the nursery rhyme is: “His wife she had a nightmare, went walking
in her sleep. She gave the crank and
awful yank and Johnny Verbeck
was meat!” Geez.
Do
you eat meat?
All kinds, alas.
I’m a hack bodybuilder and need my protein. At least I eat organic!
What
were the skies like when you were young?
Partly cloudy, preferably
stormy. I loved storms as a kid. Still do.
Name
your favorite garden tool.
A rototiller.
As long as I don’t have to work in a garden. I have bad allergies and just about
everything green makes me sneeze.
Name
your least favorite color, first job and worst job.
Dark purple, “lawn boy,” and “lawn boy” for a woman named
Mrs. Lausch whose husband worked for Universal Forest
Products in
Favorite:
Author, Movie, Music Group, Song, and Quote.
Franz Kafka, A
Clockwork Orange, the Beastie Boys, Men at Work’s “Down Under,” and Deleuze and Guattari’s “Only the
idea can inject the venom.”
If
you were a loaf of bread what kind would you be?
I was having difficulty with this question, so I asked my
wife. She said French bread – crusty on
the outside and tender on the inside.
That’s fair.
Weirdest
news you have read in your local newspaper?
Loads of news is weird.
I used to get most of my ideas from dreams. Now I get most of them from the news!
But why?
Because we have all been mediatized,
and mediatized subjects are capable of anything.
Here's a photo. (seen on Interview main
page)
“INEDIBLE NOT INTENDED FOR HUMAN FOOD”
You have 112 words. Go.
112? Why not
110? Or 90? Or 113? Well, ok, here goes: I’ve now used 24 words
counting this sentence and the numbers, too.
This photo reminds me of a clip I saw of George Bush on the Bill Maher
show the other night. In the clip, Bush
addresses the issue of tribal sovereignty.
He says: “Tribal sovereignty means that it’s sovereign. It’s … you’re a … you’re a … you’ve been
given sovereignty, and you’re … viewed as a sovereign entity. And therefore, the relationship between the
federal government and … tribes is one between … sovereign entities.” There’s 112 words
(counting this sentence, including this parenthetical note—longer than I
intended to meet the requirement).