Cooke

Continued from previous page

Torsos is my third novel to be published. I've been lucky, a lot of people don't get early novels published. I don't know why I was lucky enough. Maybe if Torsos had been the first it would have made a bigger splash. But with it, and the next one-which was planned as a kind of follow-up so that if people liked Torsos, they'd have a good follow-now I feel more freedom to do something else. I have broader ambitions. I read a lot of other books other than the kind I'm writing, so that tells me that I'll probably end up writing other things. That's what I want.

It's interesting that you let your reading guide your writing. You have to wonder, reading so many writers today, how much any of them read.

Fiction writers that I know don't read fiction. They read history and biography. I like those things, you get great ideas from history, it really is stranger than fiction. But I still read more fiction than anything else.

One of the press releases describes your other work as "dark fantasy." That's obviously a genre description, but can you talk about that a little?

It's a description that a lot of horror writers prefer because they bristle at the word "horror." Boris Karloff didn't like the word "horror." He said it suggests too much of the horrific and shocking. I don't agree entirely, I don't see anything wrong with calling it a horror novel or movie. These same people, though, point to a tradition, and point out that there's more going on than just the grotesque in these stories. There's an element of snobbery about the term. reflecting a broader snobbery, in America particularly, since actually the whole tradition of American fiction is based on the "weird tale" and the first significant American fiction writer was Washington Irving. From there to Poe and Henry James. People should realize that Stephen King is actually firmly in the American literary tradition.

I love American writers of the 1940s. A lot has been lost in fiction since 1950 or so. My real passion is reading Carson McCullers, Tennessee Williams, Paul Bowles, Truman Capote. A small handful of people who were doing fascinating work that seemed to be going somewhere and just died. Only Gore Vidal has continued to address the same ideas.

Let's talk some more about Torsos. What's been the most intriguing response so far?

I've been surprised today [in Cleveland] to find so many people of a conservative bent who just loved it. Like at the radio stations. I was on this morning show with Lanigan or something, and although he's not quite Rush Limbaugh, he was going on and on about how he hates Democrats and the "Democratic Way," complaining about Clinton and health care reform, this and that. But he just loved the book. His wife liked it. He kept giving me plugs all day...

The reaction of my editors has been nice too, both the British and American, who are both straight men with families. The British

Dykes To Watch Out For

LET GO

AND

LET MO

1994 BY ALISON BECHDEL

RELAX! I'M NOT GONNA POUR NINE MONTHS OF SOBRIETY DOWN THE MATCH. I'M JUST REMINISCING!

183

10-15!

COME DOWN HERE PLEASE!

UM..COULD YOU EXCUSE ME

A MINUTE, BABE?

LOIS, COULD YOU PLEASE EST RID OF *THIS?

WHADDAYA WANT ME TO DO? MAKE SONYA DRINK IT ON THE PORCH?!

REDING DONG

ARARARE!

WOOF!

editor in particular had to really fight in some ways.

Why is that?

There's a bit of conventional wisdom that the main character has to be sympathetic. I don't completely agree, some of my favorite books have main characters who are not wholly sympathetic. Lafcadio's Adventures by Gide, for example, one of my favorite books of all time, with a character who's very ambiguous morally. So Hank Lambert I tried to make a hero, but true to the times. He couldn't be openly gay. Some of the women at the publisher particularly objected to this and felt it was too crude a story. The editor didn't have a passionate political interest, but he fought for it. My agent tells me this editor is fairly conservative, but he was perfectly agreeable and nice with me.

What led you to the Torso Case and what suggested the fictional treatment?

I'd known about the case since I was 15 and read Robert Block's Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper which mentions the case in passing. The name is evocative, the Torso Slayer, and stayed with me. I heard bits and pieces over the years. After my vampire novel I was at a loss over what to write, I started another book that was going nowhere, and I decided I needed to do something else. I made up this list to show my agent, some mainstream, some gay lit, some genre, and the last thing, which I added at the last minute, was a paragraph about the Torso Slayings. He saw the list and said, "This is okay, that's okay, but this one (the Torso case) is the one you should do." I knew it would be a lot of work because of the historical research, but I really wanted something ambitious.

As for the treatment, I knew I was going to keep the killer in line with what people have suspected about him: that he was gay, from an upper class family. I was concerned about the “Basic Instinct syndrome” and having people complain about such a negative portrayal of a gay character. The answer was to have a gay protagonist. So I made Hank Lambert gay, and I knew he had to be in the closet. He had to be older than a rookie so he could think clearly about the case. A homicide detective in his 30s in Cleveland at that time would have to be married to have a career. This is a reality even today for a lot of people.

I needed a potential victim. No one had suggested that the male victims might be hustlers. They were assumed to be vagrants or hoboes and we have no idea who most of them were. They were underfed and generally not very well off. The two women were prostitutes. Eddie Andrassi was a pimp and was known to be at least bisexual. All that's on the record. So it's possible that the others were in the same industry. That gave me Danny.

Hessler, the fictional killer, grew pretty much out of the general myth and I tried to keep him in line with what people believe. The only actual person in all this was Elliot Ness and I used everything I could find on him.

I think novels work best when they're written from one viewpoint, but I couldn't do that here. I had to restrict it though, to these four main characters and a few others. I could have invented more, but that became over-

SHEESH! WHAT DO YOU WANT, SPARROW?!

WHAT IS THIS DOING IN THE REFRIGERATOR?

C'MON IN, MO. WE'RE JUST HAVING

A DOMESTIC

DISPUTE.

APRIL 8, 1994

kill. It's not a subtle book. I'm still learning. In the next one I'm handling the violence and sex in a little more artful fashion. I'm looking to respect the reader's intelligence more, describe less.

But with Torsos it was necessary to describe because people don't necessarily know about Cleveland and the '30s. I used the actual record a lot; like the torso clinic scene, which is very close. Guy Williams was actually head of an asylum for the criminally insane, and the name really suggested a character to me: lots of stuffed shirt psychobabble. It really was psychobabble, too, I don't know a lot of psychology. But he did say that the killer was not the typical psycho, who would escape the asylum, kill someone, and then come back to brag about it. He kept it hidden and functioned normally 350 days a year when he wasn't killing. People are shaking

GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE B-3

his hand, doing business with him, just like Jeffrey Dahmer worked in a chocolate factory. He had this life and we'll never really know who he was.

That's what's compelling about the story, isn't it? We don't know and we won't. You conjectured an end though, that's a very definite end, but by no means an airtight answer.

No, it's a little contrived, I mean the thing on the top of the Terminal Tower is pure Hitchcock. But I had to try for a glimmer of hope at the end. A few reviews complained that it was too contrived, but I wanted not to rip off the reader. Somehow I was able to cobble this ending together that was exciting and had some emotional involvement and still stays within the outlines of the story. A little positive spin.

Thanks John.

Thank you.

FROM THE HART

Pornography and 'Festive Americans'

Advice on love, relationships and other issues relevant to sexual minorities.

Dear Taylor,

by Taylor Hart

My lover and I hardly ever make love any more. He seems to prefer porno magazines and movies rather than having sex with me. He will accommodate me when I initiate making love, but then his sex is mechanical and very quick. I know that he is still interested in sex because of his great obsession with pornography, but he no longer shares his sexuality with me. What should I do?

Dear Frustrated,

Frustrated

A man who avoids having sex with his lover in favor of pornography has a problem. His feelings for you may have changed or perhaps he has some reason that he feels he can no longer be intimate with you. Either way, you should not have to suffer as a result of his problem. Nor should you have to forego having a happy sex life just because he refuses to share his possibly changed feelings toward you. You deserve better treatment.

First, you need to share your feelings and concerns with him. Be honest and direct. Explain how he is making you feel. Perhaps at this point he may share with you what's going on with him.

Secondly, tell him that if he wishes to continue his relationship with you that he either needs to change his behavior and start showing you the love and attention that you

deserve or that he should go and seek professional counseling. Be supportive. Offer to go with him to see the counselor. If he prefers to go alone, agree to it with the understanding that some time in the future the two of you will see that counselor together. Give him a time frame in which he needs to start working towards a change. Make it clear that the future of your relationship depends on his keeping to that time frame. Be firm.

If nothing changes, if he does not seek counseling or change his behavior, I think you should consider finding a new lover. There are many eligible candidates out there who are not addicted to pornography. Good luck to the both of you!

Dear Taylor,

What is the current "politically correct" term for homosexuals?

Dear Ed,

Ed in Columbus

I personally prefer to be called a “Festive American".

But seriously, the terms "gay men" and "lesbians" are currently perfectly acceptable. Also the term "sexual minority" can be used to identify homosexuals, bisexuals, and heterosexual women. (I include heterosexual women in this group because of the discrimination they face because of their gender.)

Got a question that you're afraid to ask your friends? Ask Taylor! Send your letter to Taylor Hart, c/o the Chronicle.

WOW! A BOTTLE OF DRECK'S DARK! THAT WAS MY FAVORITE!

SONYA BROUGHT

IT OVER TO HAVE WITH DINNER LATER. WHY?

I USED TO LOVE TO KNOCK BACK TWO OR THREE OF THESE WHILE I WAS COOKING. IT WAS THE SECRET INGREDIENT IN MY STIR FRY! I HAVEN'T BEEN ABLE TO GET THE FLAVOR RIGHT SINCE.

LOIS, I THOUGHT WE AGREED NOT TO BRING ALCOHOL

INTO THE HOUSE!

OH, YEAH. I GUESS I WASN'T THINKING. I MEAN, IT'S JUST A BOTTLE OF BEER.

AH, THAT DARK AMBER LIQUID... THE HEAVY, MALTY FEEL AS I SWALLOWED... THE BITTER TASTE OF HOPS LEFT ON MY TONGUE... THE SOOTHING BUZZ SETTING IN JUST BEHIND MY CHEEKBONES...

JUNE, GIVE ME

OH, GOOD. I'M ON MY WAY

HOME FROM THERAPY. MAYBE YOU'LL DISTRACT ME FROM MY OWN PETTY TRIBULATIONS. HI, DIGGER!

YIP!

SPARROW,

I'M A BIG

GIRL! YOU DON'T HAVE TO TAKE CARE

OF ME!

YOU'RE RIGHT. I'M SORRY. BUT HAVING THIS IN THE HOUSE MAKES ME REALLY UNCOMFORTABLE.

SPARROW, I WON'T BRING DEER HOME AGAIN. BUT CAN WE JUST OVERLOOK IT THIS TIME? I MEAN, WHAT CAN I DO NOW THAT IT'S HERE?

THAT!

AH, THAT SHELL! IT'S CLUBQ ON A SWEATY SUMMER NIGHT... BEER ON EVERYONE'S BREATH... BEER SOAKING THE SANDUST UNDERFOOT... THE BARTONDER SHONGING FOUR FROSTY LONGNECKs IN ONE CAMBLE HAND... UM.. WHOOPS

DIGGER! No!

CRASH!