From carrie at stayfreemagazine.org Mon Oct 8 17:45:02 2001 From: carrie at stayfreemagazine.org (Carrie McLaren) Date: Mon, 8 Oct 2001 16:45:02 -0500 Subject: Stay Free! | 8 October 2001 Message-ID: Hello, I just want to let you all know about an awesome new novel: THE SAVAGE GIRL, by Alex Shakar. I was so taken with it that I interviewed Mr. Shakar and wrote about it for TIME OUT... so here you go... - - - - - - Time Out New York, October 4, 2001 Alex Shakar's first novel, The Savage Girl, lampoons our schizo consumer culture by Carrie McLaren You've got to hand it to Alex Shakar. In a world fashion magazines hire mangled third-world youths to model designer clothing, it ain't easy writing satire. But Mr. Shaker has risen to the challenge with a brutally funny first novel that skewers America's marketing mentality. Savage Girl centers on Ursula Van Urden, a 30-ish layabout who moves to Middle City--a fictional metropolis remarkable for being built on the side of a volcano. There, Ursula secures a job at trendspotting agency Tomorrow Ltd., where she encounters self-styled marketing geniuses Javier Delreal and Chas Lacoutre, the estranged boyfriend of her sister Ivy. Despite misgivings toward her new job, Ursula comes to find career inspiration from a scabby, rodent-eating homeless woman and is swept off her feet by Javier, a steely-eyed dreamer (and manic depressive) who yearns for something he calls the "postironic" age. Ursula's newfound happiness, however, is tempered by her nagging concern for Ivy, a young fashion model who has been diagnosed with schizophrenic and is given to delusions. As Ursula's worries gradually escalate, her world beings to mirror that of her sister's--an alternative universe that is a dizzying blur of present, past and future; of image and reality...a world that, come to think of it, looks a lot like Soho. Shakar, 33, grew up in Cobble Hill in Brooklyn and now lives in Chicago, where he is pursuing a Ph.D. in Creative Writing. We met at the Brooklyn Promenade on a sunny day when you could still see the World Trade Center across the harbor. - - - - - - - Carrie McLaren (Time Out): The volcano is a great metaphor for consumerism. Shakar: Thanks. The Volcano is a huge, threatening thing that is going on around everyone, but none of the characters ever notices or acknowledges it. CM: For a book about marketing, there aren't many brand names. There's Old Navy, Nestl?... Shakar: I almost got in trouble for using those. I don't think anyone would come after me, though, because it would be bad publicity. CM: Yeah, they'd have to mention "Nestl? Shit," for example. Was Savage Girl based on any personal experiences? Shakar: I did a lot of writing sitting in a Chicago coffee shop with a laptop and trendspotters would come in all the time. A couple of them interviewed me. CM: Um, don't take this personally but you don't exactly look like a trendsetter. Shakar: Yeah, I couldn't figure out what they were after. Maybe they were thinking I was a "technocratic Luddite" or an "agrarian urban"--some sort of a paradox. The questions surprised me. They asked about my worldview and the modern condition... but then, casually, one of the women said, "I like you're shoes. What kind are they?" I told them, "Australian sheepherders boots," then the two of them paused and looked at each other like, "We've got it!" I felt so humiliated. It was as if they had found the one product that I romanticized. CM: That was a scene in the book! Shakar: Yes. Australian sheepherders' boots. I think the salesperson must have told me that. A couple years later those shoes were everywhere.. CM: Had you decided to write about trandspotters before that? Shakar: Yes. I found out about trendspotting ten years ago. I thought it would be a great metaphor to explore our increasing tendency to express ourselves through our purchases--and to examine whether this gives us power or leeches power away from us. CM: Trendspotters are all over the place now. Maybe you spotted a trend. Well, I wasn't trying to. In fact, I made up my own trends to avoid that problem, but a lot of the things I wrote about, weirdly, tend to be happening now. Like diet water. Originally, I thought that was too over-the-top. But now there's caffeine water, vitamin water, oxygen water . . . CM: Were you ever concerned that you couldn't out-do reality? Shakar: I was very conscious about not wanting to do a satire in the traditional sense. I wanted to address how irony--a tool satirists use to critique our culture--has been co-opted by the advertising industry. CM: When you refer to _postirony_, what exactly do you mean? It reminded me of a bunch of commercials I've seen lately--ones with people lying, cheating, or killing other people out of devotion to some product. They're all supposed to be funny and ironic, as in "Ha ha, he loves beer more than his girlfriend." But you've got to wonder at what point it stops becoming ironic. Shakar: I purposely left the definition of postirony nebulous, but if you put a gun to my head I would say that it has something to do with that. It's the sense that irony and earnestness are combined in a way where you don't know whether you're being ironic or earnest and, moreover, the distinction ceases to matter. For [each of] the trendspotters in my book, postirony means very different things. For Javier, it means a kind of new earnestness where, by overcoming their ironic doubt, people will be able to customize their beliefs just like they would the rest of their purchases. For Chas, it's more like a hyperacceleration of irony, where people doubt everything, including their own doubt, and allow themselves to be manipulated even more. CM: Mental illness is a recurrent theme, but why schizophrenia? Did you consider any other psychological disorders? Attention deficit disorder, maybe? Shakar: Actually, in an earlier draft I did have a kid who had ADD. But schizophrenia was the central one because Ivy, through her delusions, combined both a sense of power and powerlessness. She has delusions of grandeur and persecution. I think that's a good way of understanding what consumerism does to us. Of course, I also tried to show both lightness and the darkness, the fun and the insidiousness, at the same time. There's a reason we like the lifestyle we do. That's why Ursula herself is torn, about her new powers and the darker realizations about them. - - - - - - - This man is coming soon to your town so go hear him read (see, also: http://www.thesavagegirl.com/ for more information) CHICAGO Thursday, October 11, 7:30 PM Reading & Signing at BARBARA'S BOOKSTORE, 1100 Lake St. OAK PARK, IL. Contact: Mark Pearson 312-642-4818 ______________________________________________________________________ NEW YORK CITY Thursday, October 18, 7:30 PM Reading & Signing at BARNES & NOBLE, 4 Astor Place. Contact: Carolyn Hughes 212-420-0816 _______________________________________________________________________ SEATTLE Sunday, October 21, call for time Panel reading & signing at NORTHWEST BOOKFEST, 4914-B Rainier Avenue South. Contact: Nicole Turgeon 206-378-1883 _______________________________________________________________________ SEATTLE Monday, October 22, 7:30 PM Reading & Signing at ELLIOT BAY BOOK CO. 101 S. Main St. *Joint appearance with Robih Alameddine. Contact: Rick Simonson 206-624-6640 _______________________________________________________________________ SAN FRANCISCO Tuesday, October 23, 7:30 PM Reading & Signing at A CLEAN WELL LIGHTED PLACE, 601 Van Ness Avenue *Joint appearance with Chip Kidd. Contact: Wendy Sheanin 415-931-9248 _______________________________________________________________________ SAN FRANCISCO Wednesday, October 24, 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM Signing/Meet & Greet at M IS FOR MYSTERY, 74 East 3rd Ave San Mateo, CA. Contact: Ed Kaufman 650-401-8077 _______________________________________________________________________ BERKELEY, CA Wednesday, October 24, 6:00 PM Bookclub reception/Reading/Signing at LAFAYETTE BOOKSTORE, 3579 Mount Diablo Blvd. Lafayette, CA. Contact: Gabe Gomez 925-284-1233 _______________________________________________________________________ LOS ANGELES Friday, October 26, 7:30 PM Reading & Signing SKYLIGHT BOOKS 1818 N. Vermont Avenue. Contact: Kerry Slattery 323-660-1175 _______________________________________________________________________ AUSTIN Tuesday, October 30, 7:00 PM Reading & Signing BOOKPEOPLE, 603 North Lamar Austin, TX. Contact: Dara Wolkovich 512-472-4288 x404 ______________________________________________________________________ CHICAGO Friday, November 2, 7:00 PM Reading & Signing 57th Street Books, 1301 E. 57th St. Contact: Laran Brindle (212) 207-7453 _______________________________________________________________________ PHILADELPHIA Friday, November 16, 8:00 PM Reading & Signing Jefferson Book Fair: "Emerging Voices" Benjamin Franklin Hotel. Contact: Laran Brindle (212) 207-7453 ________________________________________________________________________ NEW YORK Sunday, November 18, 7:00 PM Reading & Signing at KGB Reading Series, 85 E. 4th Street bet. Bowery & Second Ave. Contact: Rebecca Donner 212-399-7028 From carrie at stayfreemagazine.org Tue Oct 23 00:52:34 2001 From: carrie at stayfreemagazine.org (Carrie McLaren) Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2001 23:52:34 -0500 Subject: Stay Free! wants yr fast food experiences Message-ID: PLEASE FORWARD TO ALL FRIENDS, C0-WORKERS, LOVED ONES Hello. For the upcoming issue of Stay Free!, we are looking for anecdotes along the lines of the following: Ever had any unusual or disturbing experiences at a fast food chain? If so, please jot down your story and email it to the address below. (odd is good, although just plain poignant, or revealingly mundane, will work.) Responses can be anywhere from 2 sentences to 3-4 paragraphs, but should have some basis in reality. Send to ----> stay.free at verizon.net We'll send you a copy of the magazine when it's out if we use your story. (woo woo!) Here are 2 past Stay Free "polls" to give you an idea of the format: "Ever Been Fired?" http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/archives/17/fired.html "What do you do with your ex's stuff?" http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/archives/16/breakups.html thank you thank you, carrie mclaren PLEASE FORWARD TO ALL WRITERS, DRUMMERS, AND FINE YOUNG MEN From carrie at stayfreemagazine.org Tue Oct 23 01:09:11 2001 From: carrie at stayfreemagazine.org (Carrie McLaren) Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2001 00:09:11 -0500 Subject: Stay Free! wants your fast food experiences Message-ID: PLEASE FORWARD TO ALL FRIENDS, LOVED ONES, C0-WORKERS Hello. For the upcoming issue of Stay Free!, we are looking for anecdotes along the lines of the following: Ever had any unusual or disturbing experiences at a fast food chain? If so, please jot down your story and email it to the address below. (odd is good, although just plain poignant, or revealingly mundane, will work.) Responses can be anywhere from 2 sentences to 3-4 paragraphs, but should have some basis in reality. Send to ----> stay.free at verizon.net We'll send you a copy of the magazine when it's out if we use your story. (woo woo!) Here are 2 past Stay Free "polls" to give you an idea of the format: "Ever Been Fired?" http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/archives/17/fired.html "What do you do with your ex's stuff?" http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/archives/16/breakups.html thank you thank you, carrie mclaren PLEASE FORWARD TO ALL WRITERS, DRUMMERS, AND FINE YOUNG MEN