Q. What is the image on the book jacket?
A. It’s an oil painting I did titled, “The Can Of Worms Opened”. It seemed rather appropriate to use that particular one for the front cover, just for the title alone. I chanced across it recently, lying at the bottom of a cupboard in a busted up frame.
Q. Where do you think the “automatic writing” sections of Mind Crash really came from?
A. I haven’t quite made my mind up yet. There are a number of theories around the origins of automatic writing, including: entities from other realms, spirit communication, repressed memories from the unconscious mind, or just plain mental illness - none of which I’m perfectly comfortable with, though I certainly don’t discount any of them as being impossible. The use of automatic writing can also be found in the Surrealist Movement. All I know is those words were defintely in my head somewhere, and I’m just thankful they all came out again!
Q. Did you write anything prior to Mind Crash?
A. Yes. I wrote some poetry, song lyrics, and I also used to produce a ‘zine called “Dangerous Visions”, which was distributed by hand on the “festival” scene, or swapped for other ‘zines, tapes, vinyl or obscure pieces of mail art, which had a thriving scene during the eighties.
Q. Some people have said they find Mind Crash to be very “dark”, what are your thoughts on that?
A. I can understand why people might think that way. I’ve always said that Mind Crash felt to me, personally, like an exorcism of some kind, though perhaps this is slightly over-dramatic. That’s not to say I think it was a spiritual thing, but it definitely felt like a cleansing ritual of sorts – better out than in, as they say!
Q. How was Mind Crash received by the world when it was first unleashed as a subscription-only newsletter?
A. It was generally well received, having excellent reviews in the science fiction and occult press of the day, which I take to be a great compliment. I hope this is a reflection on just how diverse the content really is. In fact, I had a problem when the publishing company asked me to categorise the book. By default, I’m reliably informed that poetry gets categorised as “non-fiction”, so there’s a bit of that going on. But clearly some of it is also fiction, although I do sometimes wonder. Some of the stuff I originally wrote had to be removed as it resembled recent world events - even though I’d written it at least 10 years beforehand. I’m not trying to say that I can see the future or anything weird like that, but some of the details were a little too accurate for my liking.
Q. You said one of the techniques used whilst writing Mind Crash was "cut-ups", what exactly does this mean?
A. It's better to get the explanation straight from the horses mouth, so to speak. Here is Bryon Gysin describing it far better than I ever could:
"Writing is fifty years behind painting. I propose to apply the painters' techniques to writing; things as simple and immediate as collage or montage. Cut right through the pages of any book or newsprint... lengthwise, for example, and shuffle the columns of text. Put them together at hazard and read the newly constituted message. Do it for yourself. Use any system which suggests itself to you. Take your own words or the words said to be "the very own words" of anyone else living or dead. You'll soon see that words don't belong to anyone. Words have a vitality of their own and you or anybody else can make them gush into action.
The permutated poems set the words spinning off on their own; echoing out as the words of a potent phrase are permutated into an expanding ripple of meanings which they did not seem to be capable of when they were struck into that phrase.
The poets are supposed to liberate the words - not to chain them in phrases. Who told poets they were supposed to think? Poets are meant to sing and to make words sing. Poets have no words "of their own." Writers don't own their words. Since when do words belong to anybody. "Your very own words," indeed! And who are you?" - Brion Gysin, Cut-Ups Self-Explained, in: William S. Burroughs, Brion Gysin, The Third Mind, 1978
Q. You also mention another technique, "Automatic Writing", can you explain this too?
A. See my comments made on Global Talk Radio in the "Interviews" section for more information. "Automatic writing is the process, or product, of writing material that does not come from the conscious thoughts of the writer. The writer's hand forms the message, and the person is unaware of what will be written. It is sometimes done in a trance state. Other times the writer is aware (not in a trance) of their surroundings but not of the actions of their writing hand. " - Wikipedia.org
Q. What is Mind Crash? (a question posed of the original newsletters)
A. Here are some of the answers:
- Documentary evidence of (inner) space exploration
- Past life regression/future life progression
- An outlet for an over-active imagination
- A direct route to/from the subconscious
- Automatic writing
- Linguistic metaphysics
- Verbal excorcism
- Digital ectoplasm
- Therapy session diaries
- Demented ramblings of a life-burned brain
- Communication with unkown entities
- Painful mental gymnastics
- Seeds and watering can (half-full/half-empty)
- Sporadic electronic impulse patterns
- Status reports from the dark side
- Bah! Humbug!
- The answers to unspoken questions/the questions to unspoken answers
- Server-side monitor tagging
- Brain seepage, mind sewage, brain breath
- Chemical traces
- Misheard next-world directions
- Long-term memory Semtex
- Eso-Terror
- The World's first Wolf/Sheep hybrid