Symphony is an amazing work by Jerry Schroeder, a 1,000 page epic journey through initiation and the magical universe. Check out some samples at Quizmeta .
This is the final part of my interview with Jerry on his multidimensional book. Check out the first part here, the second part here, and the third section here.
This is the final part of my interview with Jerry on his multidimensional book. Check out the first part here, the second part here, and the third section here.
What role does initiation play in the narrative?
The entire book constitutes an account of one tall in a short cup/a billion seemingly infinite initiations. Could be for readers too, maybe, but. The narrative might more actually speaking be said to play a role in initiation. Most people need to be going through some kind of initiation to get it. I know one person--also once-mentioned in the book-- who was only able to understand it the one omnes time she went into ketosis. Another person opened the book, and landed on/in that page out of 1000 where his own name appeared. He slammed it shut, refused to look at it again for years, until his father died and it all started to make sentence sense (not that I see myself supporting the black iron prison).
Characters seem to shift identity and names. Can you go into the role this shifting characterization plays in Symphony? Also, can you talk a little about the main character?
Multiple emanations of God. Really. The main character constitutes the initiations embodied as humanoid, mental case, mystic, mistake, author encore, etc. Also covers people’s legal tracks, and hides them from certain agents looking for them. The main character is a card. A tarot card. In fact, a deck. Character, deck: a whole space ship dreck deck, a whole holo deck dreck of characters, yes?
While not a memoir, how have you drawn from your life for the narrative?
Actually speaking, as one or more of my more paranoid mentors used to say, it’s more a memoir than a number of other things, which is of course why it has the opportunity to looks like such a laddie load a bullshit. But then again, it’s not really a memoir. My life just got drawn into it, like shit down the drain. I would say that it might be more causally accurate to see my life as having drawn on the narrative, though it did get a spanking, a grounding, a forfeiture of allowance, no TV and a trip to confession for doing so in indelible markers and dog shit insignia on the nice guy’s garage wall.
The book owes a debt to James Joyce, among others. Can you go into this connection some more?
Hologrammatic manifestation of as much as possible at once, Joyce’s brilliance at this. The miraculous not only in the supposedly quotidian, but indeed more accesible there than under the bright lights of ego stardom. Hyper-density in magical cognition. By the way, Joyce won’t accept my currency in the pay-off as he claims it’s counterfeit. Now what?
What other works and writers/artists influenced the text?
Blake, Anton Wilson, Beethoven, many, many. Castenada, Gertrude Stein, bill bissett, Shakespeare. Stan Brakhage, Bach. Vallejo. Emily Dickinson. David Antin. Neruda. Tends toward modernism, I suppose, but revitalized formally for visionary reportage. Modernists (though only technical advice). Coolidge, Dick, Burroughs, Gysin, Cage, Karasick for fugue. McKenna. Language poets, albeit problematic. Books of Genesis, Revelations. The next generation. Jackson Pollock. Joseph Caveno.
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At 1000 pages, how long did it take you to write Symphony?
Not counting prep work and initiatory mechanisms pre-wired from puture and fast, about 7.5 years. Transpersonally, at least 3000 years as a humanoid, considerably longer if one factors other species and entities in. Who By Fire by Leonard Cohen playing.
From a process point of view, how do you write? Do you do it in long hand first? Do you use a computer? What kind of writing space and schedule did you keep?
For this one, a lot of early longhand notes, though the keyboard took over pretty early into the process. Now I’m mostly a computer, though I do take long hand notes at the time boundaries, sometimes. My schedule was all over the map, irretrievable. Now I write to a schedule, for I have become a quasi-autistic hermit as I write Series E, tales of the secret paths.
BY the way, the latest edition of the Exegesis (Beatles Los Paranoias playing), pages 581 (the footnote) and pages 581-90 seem venty relevant here. Now it’s Bowie Queen Bitch live at Santo Manica, 1972, playing. Bippitty boppitty!
Now REV, I’m hoping this isn’t actually a spoof like that innerview you did with that other famous Canadian author.
Sorry, Doc, not this time.
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