Global Talk Radio
Transcript of an interview with Mike Gill by Kevin Dawson on Global Talk Radio’s “A Story To Tell” show, originally broadcast 9 th May 2005.
Kevin “Hello and thanks for tuning in to another edition of ‘A Story To Tell’ on the Global Talk Radio Network. Today we’re going to be speaking with Mike Gill, author of Mind Crash; he could be on to a new style of writing”.
Kevin “Mike, welcome to the show”.
Mike “Hi Kevin, how you doing?”
Kevin “Very good thank you. I wonder if you can tell us, what is Mind Crash all about?”
Mike “OK, many people travel through life without really knowing themselves. Some people feel compelled to understand more about how the human mind works, about themselves, and about how they interact with the world around them. History is littered with examples, myths, legends and stories of the exploration of the subconscious mind. Mind Crash basically contains the documented results, diary if you will, of my own personal quest to locate, and ultimately liberate, my own true self or soul”
Kevin “Well I guess that some people might choose to keep that kind of content to themselves, as it is rather personal, what made you decide to publish this?”
Mike “Well, Mind Crash originally started life as a series of sporadic newsletters if you like, almost like status reports, which I shared with a close-knit group of, I guess… cultural misfits would be the best way to describe them…”
Kevin (laughing) “oh, cultural misfits?”
Mike “Yeah, these were artists, fanzine writers, new age warrior type folk. And, even though I’d stopped producing these newsletters (a long time ago), the demand was still constant; I had several requests for reprints. So I made the brave, or perhaps stupid decision (Kevin laughs) to publish all thirty three issues, plus some previously unreleased, some new material, and some re-worked pieces, into a single book.”
Kevin “OK, now what are the language exploration techniques that you are using?”
Mike “OK, yeah, basically, written language can itself be used as a tool to explore the human mind; anybody who reads books will know this. So, apart from the structured, literary approach to constructing a book, I also used two key methods, the first of which was the ‘cut-up technique’, which was discovered, or attributed to Bryon Gysin, and utilised to good effect by William Burroughs in books such as ‘Naked Lunch’, etc. The second technique was that of ‘automatic writing’; this is where the mind is calmed using various methods, and then thoughts and words are allowed to flow and are written down in a constant, unconscious stream.”
Kevin “Now this is a new phrase to me, ‘the cut-ups’, could you give me an example of what a cut-up would be?”
Mike “Yeah, cut-ups follow a simple technique, and the good thing is that anybody can use it. Basically, you take an existing piece of written work, maybe your own, maybe a newspaper article, poem, etc., and you quite literally just cut these up using scissors or a knife and re-arrange the order of the words, sentences, paragraphs, etc. to form new prose. Quite often, pages of utter gibberish will come out, but occasionally you get some truly astounding, often quite unsettling prose that emerges. There are various theories about the origins of Automatic Writing: Spiritualist Mediums might say that these are communications from beyond the grave, or from the next world; UFOlogists may surmise theses to be correspondence with aliens; and I guess psychologists would probably attribute them to some kind of mental issue, or even psychosis (nervous laughter).”
Kevin (laughing out loud) “How about you, what’s your theory?”
Mike “I’m not so fussed about the origin, the important thing for me is that it does work; there is a strange, often revelatory nature to the words and phrases that begin to appear”
Kevin “OK, well I understand early reviews thus far indicate… I guess they are discussing your book as having a “chaotic randomness” to the book, so I guess that’s from, in part, the cut-up nature?”
Mike “Yes, precisely. That’s quite a fair description actually (laughs). The book really contains, I guess, about 250 seemingly unconnected pieces, although there are some common themes and patterns in the book, some of which I am only just discovering, I must admit…”
Kevin “Well, what kinds of patterns emerge when you use this new type of writing style?”
Mike “Well, I’ll give you an example; it was recently pointed out to me by a reviewer of Mind Crash that it has a very ‘elemental’ feel to it. What they meant by that was there are lots of references to Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and of course, Spirit, which I hadn’t initially picked up on when I wrote the book itself. I think this goes some way to explaining why the original newsletters were so well received in the New Age and Occult fraternities.”
Kevin “Are there other themes and patterns that emerge from reading the book?”
Mike “There are, but it’s left to the reader themselves to discover that. I mean, I know for a fact that when I re-read some of the content myself, I kind of discover new things each time, so I leave it to the reader to try and pick up on - I leave it in their hands.”
Kevin “So this is something that, if you read it two or three times, you might come away with two or three different interpretations?”
Mike “Yes, I have actually heard people say that… definitely had some reviews that say they’ve actually had to read it four or five times… some people say they still don’t get it after four or five times (Kevin laughs). Other people say they get it after a couple of pages. It’s quite mixed results actually.”
Kevin “How long did it take you to put this piece together?”
Mike “Originally, I first started to write the first chapters just over ten, maybe twelve years ago (NB: actually, it’s over fifteen!), so it’s been a while. It doesn’t bode well for a follow up, 136 pages in twelve years (Kevin laughs out loud). But the most recent was maybe five or six months ago, so it’s a real collection, (of well) over a decade of material”
Kevin “You mentioned that your book includes an interactive element; what’s that about?”
Mike “My real reason for publishing the book was to help others who may be on a similar quest, so throughout the book there are various opportunities for readers to interact with me, and share experiences and talk about things that maybe are coming up… issues or subjects that are raised in the book. So they can interact via the web site, e-mail etc. In fact, I’m considering a follow-on project, which asks readers to contribute to a follow on book, titled “Chapter 17”. Basically, what I’m asking readers to do is to submit their own version of that chapter. The current version (of Chapter 17) was written by a guy named Steve Green, a friend of mine. Judging by the quality of the input received so far, I really feel I’ve got enough to take forward and maybe collect the best together and publish them and split the proceeds with the contributors – it’s quite an exciting project”
Kevin “Do I also understand correctly that there’s a DVD coming out, along with the book?”
Mike “That’s correct, yeah, the DVD contains two experimental movies, which I made at around the same time as (the original) Mind Crash was appearing; there are some clear connections between the film content and the book. The first movie is titled ‘Bluebeard’s Journey Into The Intestines Of A Whale’, and I describe it as a ‘fast moving, but unscripted psychedelic trip around London’s seedy underside.’”
Kevin (laughing) “Oh really?”
Mike “It’s a very colourful piece, quite confusing, and I’ve overlaid a quite hypnotic dance soundtrack”
Kevin “And there’s a second movie on the DVD also you said?”
Mike “Yes, the second movie is called ‘REMember’, as in REM, R.E.M. (Rapid Eye Movement) ember, and that’s based upon dream diary entries. I do, from time to time, keep dream diaries; I’ve found them to be very useful, self-diagnostic tools. I know that Freud said that dreams are a direct route to the subconscious. And I noticed in one dream sequence, spread over about a one month period… I noticed that real physical places began to appear in the dreams, so I decided to highlight these on a map, and I took it upon myself to go film at these locations, just to see what happened.”
Kevin “a-ha, what did you find?”
Mike “Well, it’s quite interesting, some people who have seen this film, they kind of think there’s a sinister undercurrent running through it, which I find quite interesting because it’s quite laid back in my eyes. I took the location footage and I mixed it with some bright, swirling, almost nightclub-like visuals, then I added an ambient soundtrack to it. I’m quite interested in people’s reactions. The intention isn’t to mass-produce the DVD. The real idea is to keep it to a limited, personalised, hand-numbered, signed run of about 100, and details are on the web site about that.”
Kevin “I also understand this is just part of a range of associated merchandise that is going to be available at your web site – what else are you planning to bring out with the book?”
Mike “yeah, what happened was, when the original newsletters started to appear, there were a number of pictures, posters, paintings, slogans, things like that included, but due to the logistics of book production, they were unable to be included, so what I decided to do was put these together in the form of T-Shirts, posters and post-cards, etc. and make them available via the web site.”
Kevin “What’s next for you, you have mentioned possibly getting some input from readers and putting that into a future book, what else is on your table?”
Mike “I’m looking at writing something in a very similar vein to Mind Crash and I’ve just really started the early, embryonic stages of that. I also plan to write about the experiences of my best friend Ballen and I, as we were kind of being brought up as kids, going through school, adolescence, early adulthood, etc.- though to protect the guilty, I plan to use fictional characters to hide behind.“
Kevin “Well, I would encourage all of our listeners to go read up more about you, at your web site. I think it’s a very interesting look at a new book. That web site again is mindcrash.co.uk. We’ve been speaking with Mike Gill, and Mike I want to thank you so much for being part of our show today.”
Mike “Thank you very much, it’s been a pleasure”
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