Interview with Brandon Scott-Gorrell

Brandon Scott-Gorrell is a 26 year old author living in Seattle, WA. He has written a collection of poetry entitled during my nervous breakdown i want to have a biographer present, published by Muumuu House, as well as two upcoming novels. He has also been published widely on the Internet.
He blogs here.

I interviewed Brandon on August 28th, 2010 via Google Chat.




Jordan Gillespie: When is your novel My Hair Will Defeat You going to come out? On what publisher?
Brandon Scott-Gorrell: 3:AM is going to publish it some time. we haven't talked for a long time so i'm not sure right now. i can't tell you who will publish it in the states right now. i have signed a contract with a publisher to edit it with one of their editors until january 01 of next year and if they like the result then they will publish it but they haven't been in contact with me and we were supposed to start editing on august 01. there is also another publisher in the states interested in it.

JG: What is it about?
BSG: it is about a 23 year old male living in seattle, WA in a relationship with a female that is in college. the scenes mostly take place in the main character's bedroom, in bars, and in parties. the relationship is not good and the main character is confused about how to be happy.

JG: To what degree is it autobiographical?
BSG: 90%

JG: Is your upcoming novel ASIA/MEXICO finished?
BSG: no, at the moment i have it open in a word document. it is 35,034 words. probably 80% of those words are completely unedited. i have recently started to work on it a lot more. it will probably be finished by spring of next year.

JG: How long did you travel? Which countries did you visit? To what degree is that book autobiographical?
BSG: in late 2009 i traveled for 50 days in thailand, laos, and cambodia. from early march to early july (4 months) i traveled down the western coast of the united states, along the southern border of the united states until texas, into mexico, then to guatemala, honduras, and belize. at the moment ASIA/MEXICO is 100% autobiographical.

JG: Is written in a style/tone similar to the travel blogs you published on Matador?
BSG: i can not discern that right now. because most of the words in the novel right now are completely unedited, the novel exists at this time as a thing that will look completely different than the finished product. i am confused about the tone/style of ASIA/MEXICO currently and can not really offer you a definitive idea of its style when it's finished. i predict it will be non-sequitur-ish and maybe including more information about the main character's thoughts and feelings than MHWDY. it will maybe be writting in the style/tone of the 'drugs' articles i did on thought catalog.

JG: Do you think you have an 'online persona'?  Do you think your psychology degree may have characterized your writing and persona?
BSG: in the way that i interpret 'online persona' and maybe in the way that you use it i feel that i definitely have an online persona, if 'online persona' as you mean it means something 'put on' or 'postured' i feel that i do have an online persona. i think that this persona began as something very different than it is now. i think that maybe having an 'online persona' is impossible to not have if you have account with social networking sites because social networking sights require you to provide information about yourself and you must choose what information to provide about yourself including interests, photos, etc., and this becomes a 'persona' to onlookers. i don't know the degree my psychology degree characterized my writing and persona. i took the degree and as such took certain classes, interacted with certain people and professors, studied abroad, and did other things. i don't feel myself remembering things i learned in college today and being influenced by them 'in my writing'.

JG: Who do you write for? Who do you think your 'audience' is?
BSG: for thought catalog, which is where much of my public writing now 'goes,' i write for the people that would might be interested in what i write about, which if i pictured that in my head or something, it would look like 'the people that read gawker and htmlgiant, and young "smart" people that are internet-gawker-meme-culture-[other things]-"savvy." for novels, i don't really know who i write for. maybe just people that are interested in who i am. i think that my audience at this moment is composed of people that like tao lin, like muumuu house, like htmlgiant, like the rumpus, gawker, and other 'snarky' 'intelligent' blog things.

JG: Can you summarize your experiences on Formspring?
BSG: i have had feelings of suspicion, happiness, disdain, wonder, curiosity, foreboding, 'chill,' boredom, and worry while 'on' formspring.

JG: What do you think of Bebe Zeva?
BSG: she seems interesting. i have a positive opinion of her. she seems like she's doing a good job.


JG: What do you think about Tao Lin’s upcoming novel Richard Yates?
BSG: i unsarcastically feel that 'richard yates' is powerful and has 'transcended,' to some extent, a 'line' between fiction and non-fiction that seems to me like a very significant accomplishment. by that i mean that i think tao did a very good job picking experiences from his life and deciding which to include, 'down to the' sentence-level--such a good job that what is 'really' a collection of non-fiction events seems very much like a novel adhering to literary tradition. i am not well-read but this seems unique and 'very new' to me.

JG: What is gchat realism? What are your feelings when you think 'gchat realism'
BSG: gchat realism is a term used by a number of people describing the writing 'put out' by tao lin, ellen kennedy, me, megan boyle maybe, and zachary german maybe. i think that whoever created this term named it 'gmail chat realism' because muumuu house, who we have all been published by, publishes gmail chats, and gmail chats feature in my poetry book and in tao's book. it might be apparent in ellen's book that gchat has influenced her life/writing but i'm not sure. when i think 'gchat realism' i mostly just have a vague idea of a review that mentions 'gmail chat realism' in arial 10 pt. font and includes a picture of my face. i don't really understand or agree with the term, in the sense that a term can be agreed to.

JG: What role do you think the internet plays in terms of literature?
BSG: its biggest role seems to be to promote literature. it's secondary role seems to be to publish it. but this secondary role seems 'way below,' in terms of effectiveness, the biggest role.