Robert Stark and Cartrell Payne talk to Seattle based author James Nulick about his new book Haunted Girlfriend, a collection of short stories. James is also the author of Valencia and Distemper. OUT Magazine called him “a mashup of Nabokov and Larry Clark.”
Topics:
James’ interest in collecting rare and vintage books
The theme of disorientation in Haunted Girlfriend
The centerpiece, “Body by Drake” set in a dystopian future
The trends of corporate control, mass automation, alienation, and despair
Plans to expand “Body by Drake” into a full length novel
The story Delonte Lost, a first person narrative of mental illness
Why James never reads fiction while writing
Changes in James’ writing style and subject matter
James’ novel Valencia about a man who contracts HIV and decides to live it up
Why Distemper is the one novel James would take back
Robert Stark and Pilleater talk to returning guest Count Fosco. Count Fosco has a background in the film industry in Canada.
Topics:
Count Fosco’s background in the Canadian Film Industry
The economic mechanisms for funding the arts
Conservative opposition to funding the arts Robert Stark’s debate with Joseph Dobrian on funding the arts
The cultural left’s influence on grants favoring politically correct demographic groups
Where the free market falls short and the importance of having an economic safety net for artist
Being an artist as a luxury for the rich and the importance of having the right connections and patrons
The fallacy that the best artist are rewarded economically(ex. Van Gogh)
Preferred relative guidelines for artistic funding and support for relative artistic freedom
How grants work for the film industry in Canada Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 Hour Rule’ and how it applies to the arts
Should art serve a purpose for society?
Censorship in the Art World
The debate about what is art and what is pornography and the concept of “degenerate art”
Creating new artistic sub-cultures
Low Brow Pop Surrealism
Surrealism from Dali to David Lynch Robert Stark and Brandon Adamson’s Art
The animated series Braceface staring Alicia Silverstone
The film was based on the book 120 Days of Sodom, written in 1785 by the Marquis de Sade, and was even more extreme than the film
De Sade’s nihilistic anarchic philosophy towards sex, in contrast with today’s society, which has replaced traditional morality with new moral codes rather than De Sade’s libertinism
How each generation tries to shock their elders, and how de Sade,’s work is shocking even by today’s standards
The book Sade by Jonathan Bowden
Kerry Bolton’s book The Psychotic Left
Ian Brady’s The Gates of Janus: Serial Killing and Its Analysis
Censorship, Sade’s imprisonment for his writings, and the banning of the film in Australia
Author Peter Sotos, who has been compared to de Sade, and also prosecuted for obscenities
Photographer Will McBride, who Sotos has written about, the censorship of his Sex Ed book Show Me!, his art book Coming of Age, and Lasse Nielsen’s films
The theme of adolescent sexuality, innocence, and the desecration innocence
Avant Garde filmmakers Harmony Korine, Larry Clark, Kenneth Anger, and Nagisa Oshima
Larry Clark’s film Kids Brooke Shields in the film Pretty Baby
The portrayal and theme of Fascism in the film, and the line “the fascist are the true anarchist.”
Pasolini’s political and cultural views, and his Catholic Paganism
Pasolini’s homosexuality, his love affair with teenage Ninetto Davoli, who was in Salò, and depictions of homo eroticism in the film
Race play in sex, the Nazi S&M Film The Night Porter, and sado-masochist themes in films dealing with political and racial taboos
The film Hard Candy, which is Salò in reverse, but fits within the politically correct narrative
The dominant submissive paradigm in human sexuality
Eli Roth’s torture porn Hostel series
How we have become detached from violence and death in real life, and seek it out in film
The theme of sex as power
The other worldly transcendental aspect to sex
