On his old, now defunct site, Victor Gischler conducted a series of interviews from the end of 2004 to mid-2005. With his permission BSC will be reprinting his World’s Worst Interview series over the next few days. Sometimes the internet feels temporary, and good content gets lost or forgotten in the rush forward. When possible, we want to blow the dust off of something and bring it back to the front. If you know of something that should be reprinted let me know.
Victor Gischler conducted the following interview in March of 2005 with George Pelecanos.
We here at the World’s Worst Blog were very fortunate to catch Mr. Pelecanos before he went out on tour to promote his latest novel, Drama City. He’s one of the big guns of crime fiction…so naturally he wanted to answer some dumb questions:
Victor Gischler: If you needed an extreme way to relieve some stress, would you rather run over circus clowns in an SUV or throw billiard balls at mimes? (Or perhaps some other way…?)
George Pelecanos: Don’t hate…appreciate. I think people should make love to mimes. So they could see their gestures when they began to achieve nirvana. As for clowns,I would never hurt a human being who was crying inside. Unless it was crawling out from under my bed with a steak knife between its teeth.
What is the most interesting contest you’ve ever won (or lost)?
We used to have contests on all the retail sales floors I worked. Guys always bragged about selling icemakers to Eskimos and sandboxes to Arabs. I once sold a blind man tickets to a silent movie. So I won.
Can you describe your strangest bit of fan mail?
There’s a letter sitting on my desk right now. I don’t know whether to answer it or throw it in the trash. I’m serious. It is as if it’s radioactive or something.
What’s your favorite “bad” movie? You know, a movie you’d normally hesitate to tell people you liked. (It’s Miss Congeniality, isn’t it?)
I was a regular at my local drive-in during the ’70s. I saw a lot of movies that some people would consider bad but that I would gladly revisit anytime. Blaxploitation, kung fu, horror, you name it. Coffy was my favorite Pam Grier. You always got your money’s worth with AIP. I saw the first two Bruce Lee movies–Fists of Fury and Chinese Connection–a sick amount of times. Last House on the Left, Jackson County Jail, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Across 110th Street, Macon County Line, Rolling Thunder, Black Caesar, the original Assault on Precinct 13. I always caught the latest Charles Bronson, hoping that he would recapture the promise of his work in The Magnificent Seven, The Dirty Dozen, and Once Upon a Time in the West. Instead he made The Valachi Papers and The Mechanic. Mr. Majestyk is a pretty cool film that I watch to this day. So is Hard Times, with another of my favorites, James Coburn (R.I.P.). Charley Varrick was considered a B, but it’s one of the best crime films ever made. Another one was The Outfit,with Joe Don Baker, Robert Duvall, and Robert Ryan. Anything with Joe Don Baker was boss, as a matter of fact. I would never hesitate to tell people that I like those films. It would be like hiding that you were into crime novels for fear that some poseur might think you’re not erudite.
You’re a highly acclaimed, well-respected, award-winning author. Do you get lots of free stuff?
On tour, I get taken out to dinner often, which is nice, because I like good food and wine, not to mention high-shelf bourbon. Many people have given me home-burned CDs at signings, and I have been turned on to some incredible music in that way, especially rare soul sides. When I was a stockboy at a local appliance and stereo store, and I’d take air conditioners and televisions out and load them into customer’s cars, I’d receive tips in the form of weed. That was 1973. Today I’d much rather have the music.
Did you ever build anything? You, know, like, with tools? I always wanted to be good with my hands, but I always end up using spoons and butter knives to fix things.
I recently built a nice compost pen in my back yard–steel posts and heavy gauge chicken wire. I can swing a hammer, turn a screwdriver, work on my kid’s bikes and, in a limited way, fiddle around under the hood of my car. But I’m no carpenter, neither a Karen nor a Richard. Man, I do admire people who can build things out of wood. If I could learn one more skill in this life, that would be it.
James Brown or James Joyce?
Who is James Joyce?
Who are you reading right now? Give us some Pelecanos picks.
I discovered the Hard Case Crime line, and have been devouring it. The Cocaine Chronicles, edited by Gary Phillips, has some pretty good stories. I liked Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides, quite a bit. The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem was very good. Cottonwood, by Scott Phillips. In his own quiet way Scott is becoming one of the country’s most interesting writers. The Known World by Ed Jones is a modern classic. With the Old Breed, by E.B. Sledge, is the best war memoirs I have ever read.
Can you give us a glimpse of future projects? Anything we should know?
The Wire just got picked up for a fourth season, and I will be involved as a writer. I recently wrote two hours of a projected 13-hour miniseries, the Pacific-theater version of Band of Brothers, to be produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg for HBO. My father fought as a Marine on Leyte, so I was glad to be able to honor him. I hope to write a book this year. I’m looking for inspiration as we speak.
A big round of applause for George Pelecanos. Thanks for providing quality answers to ridiculous questions.
And BSC Review would like to thank Victor Gischler for the generous use of this interview series!
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Victor Gischler is the author of 4 hard-boiled crime novels. His debut novel Gun Monkeys was nominated for the Edgar Award, and his novel Shotgun Opera was an Anthony Award finalist. His work has been translated into Italian, French, Spanish and Japanese. He earned a Ph.D. in English at the University of Southern Mississippi where they beat him with rolled up newspapers and fed him raw liver. His fifth and sixth novels Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse and Vampire a Go-Go were published by the Touchstone/Fireside imprint of Simon & Schuster.
