C.R. Stapor on Sex, Bourbon, and What’s Wrong With Society Today
An interview with C.R. Stapor, from The Write Stuff series over at SF Weekly:
The first time I met C.R. Stapor, I told him we were going to be good friends and he kind of shrugged me off. In the almost 10 years since that happened, we’ve lived together in Charlotte, NC, Knoxville, TN, and Oakland, CA. His writing maneuvers traditional syntax in a way that illuminates the unnecessary distance it often creates between the wonder of experience and its relaying. His imagination and lust for adventure approach the superhuman. He’s the author of a peculiar collection of short fiction called The Wraith Atlas, and the novel Kwazee, seeking publication.
When people ask what do you do, you tell them?
I’m a writer.
What’s your biggest struggle — work or otherwise?
Conceiving my own mortality.
If someone said I want to do what you do, what advice would you have for them?
That sounds about right.
Do you consider yourself successful? Why?
Yes. Because I slay all challengers.
When you’re sad/grumpy/pissed off, what YouTube video makes you feel better?
None.
Do you have a favorite ancestor? What is his/her story?
Not to my knowledge. Wouldn’t know.
Who did you admire when you were 10 years old? What did you want to be?
My godmother, who died the following year. A costumed superhero.
Describe your week in the wilderness. It doesn’t have to be ideal.
I would kill and consume four lifeforms. My ass would get chapped. I would smile at dusk. It would most certainly be ideal.
Would you ever perform a striptease? Describe some of your moves. Feel free to set the mood.
Yes. No. Not necessary.
How much money do you have in your checking account?
(Instead of speaking the author stares intently into your mind until you shut up.)
What’s wrong with society today?
A terminal lack of imagination. Sorry. Gonna preach a bit. There’s nothing easier in this world than making shit up and believing it (religions, money, whatever the fuck else); so let’s think differently, better, as it’s all arbitrary anyway. We need to revolutionize our thought regarding societies, how they survive and thrive. We need first the Exchange Revolution, wherein we conceive of post-monetary paradigms of fluxing the energies extant in all human commerce. Then we need to utterly examine the fundamental lessons of all ethical/metaphysical traditions and get serious about loving our fellow brothers and sisters. We need to give science the throne out and out. We need to stop killing ourselves, or we need to kill all of us but a very few … We need, nay must, stop worshipping empty symbols … We need recover the divinity incarnate in all our own precious tiny finitudes … We need to remember that we own it — the fall and all. Jesus Christ, we just need to start thinking about all this as if we actually shared it with others … we just need to start giving a damn about something other than ourselves … And this time we need to mean it.
Are you using any medications? If so, which ones?
Yes. Alcohol, marijuana, nicotine, caffeine, bicycles, modernity.
What is your fondest memory?
Don’t have one.
How many times do you fall in love each day?
Nowhere near enough.
What would you like to see happen in your lifetime?
The Exchange Revolution.
What is art? Is it necessary? Why?
For too many, everything. Yes. Because we were not born to die alive.
When you have sex, what are some of the things you like to do?
I like to make her feel like the only thought in creation. I also like to get mine.
What are you working on right now?
A novel currently titled The Accidents.
What kind of work would you like to do? Or: what kind of writing do you most admire?
That which sets the foundation, that which not only stands, but forges the test of time.
If there were one thing about the Bay Area that you would change, what would it be?
Bike lanes over the Bay and Richmond bridges.
A night on the town: what does that mean to you?
Chopsticks, bourbon, a view.
What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever seen?
This is an unfortunate question. It presumes a baseline of perfunctory reality. I’m not familiar with any such reality.
What can you do with 50 words? 50 dollars?
Would depend on the language. Make someone very happy.
What are some of your favorite smells?
Kind bud burning in the AM. Fall at Dale Hollow. Bragg’s Amino Acids.
If you got an all-expenses-paid life experience of your choice, what would it be?
I’d like the rest of my life experience to be all-expenses-paid.