TLO Member Interview: Nemonymous

INTRODUCTION

Hello, all. I think the reputation of tonight's interview subject will be familiar to most of you. Call him Nemonymous, DF Lewis, or simply Des: names do not matter. Des is an enormously prolific writer, and has a staggering amount of material published. I knew him by name, and by reading his posts, of course, but only recently became acquainted with the man himself. He kindly agreed to this interview, and I was left in the peculiar position of knowing little about a potential subject. I did some research, and was pleaseantly surprised to learn that I had read, and in fact owned, a collection with a story by Des. Yep, first story on Chaosium's Cthulhu's Heirs. I reread & re-enjoyed this story (Watch the Whiskers Sprout), and at the same time struck up a casual acquiantance with Des. I must admit that Pet (Odalisque) was an invaluable resource for some of my research, so thanks to him. AT any rate, Des is a smart fellow, and has shown himself as naught but an affable, friendly gent to me. Oh and there is this: he was at one time presented a Karl Edward Wagner Award by the British Fantasy Society. Pretty neat, eh? On to Des, then:

1. Obviously, you are an admirer of Thomas Ligotti's works. So, how did you first come across his writing?

I’m very much a fan of Ligotti’s writing – in fact I’ve regularly listed his work among that of my top four favourite fictioneers, i.e. him, Robert Aickman, Elizabeth Bowen and Marcel Proust. I first came across Ligotti’s work in the late nineteen-eighties with the ‘Dagon’ Ligotti special. I was blown away! ‘Dagon’ had originally been a Small Press mag that started off as a ‘Call of Cthulhu’ role-playing game mag. (Imagine my shock and delight when ‘Dagon’ published a DFL special a year later!)


2. How long have you been a fan of weird fiction? Also, how were you first introduced to this genre?

In many ways I think most fiction is pretty weird or ominous – but, should I say, I find pleasure in digging the weird from the unlikeliest of fiction mines? Indeed, only the other day, I thought of the Weird Weird as what we must really seek! Somehow, I started reading Dickens at a relatively early age and a little later I had a supposedly un-influenced Road to Damascus about the rich texture of words and the consequent depth of fiction. Where did that come from in my working-class world? Rhetorical question. Then I discovered HP Lovecraft at the age of 17, thanks to a school friend called Michel Parry (who since became notable in the Horror fiction field). The mix was irresistible. I never looked back.


3. If you were to choose, which Ligotti story is your absolute favorite, and why?

Well, to answer obliquely, I did read many Ligotti stories piecemeal over the years, following the first encounter via ‘Dagon’. Last year, I systematically read all Ligotti’s available fiction and remained extremely impressed. So, he was not only a reading passion for a relatively young man, but also one for an oldster! I hesitate to choose one story, because I have no absolute favourite. ‘Ligotti’ (as a canon of work) is the absolute favourite. Meanwhile, I do have a soft spot for Mr Can...


4. Ligotti aside, what are some of your other favourite authors in this genre?

I don’t really recognise the term ‘genre’, though I know exactly what you mean. I shall list my favourite fictioneers over the years, some of whom demonstrate the ‘genre’ more than others (in no particular order): Charles Dickens, AS Byatt, HP Lovecraft, Barbara Vine, Reggie Oliver, Anita Brookner, WG Sebald, Ian McEwan, Elizabeth Bowen, Stephen King, Oliver Onions, Marcel Proust, Salman Rushdie, Paul Auster, John Fowles, Edgar Allan Poe, John Cowper Powys, Lord Dunsany, Algernon Blackwood, Jack Vance, Philip K Dick, Samuel R Delany, Anthony Burgess, Susanna Clarke, Lawrence Durrell, MR James, Robert Aickman, Sarban, Ramsey Campbell, Tommaso Landolfi, Kazuo Ishiguro...
I like lists! I could spend forever talking about each one.


5. And which stories most influenced you? At a young age (dependent on your answer to question two), and as your tastes changed with age?

‘The Outsider’ by HP Lovecraft was the first that sort of crystallised my then overlapping interest in culture / literature and ‘less respectable’ horror – fantasy – SF (in that order and back again). Impossible to define this process because I was that process - as problematic as a mind examining the same mind as itself. You had to be there! Memories are blind hindsight. This thought leads to the Proustian selves and Nemonymity. I am called ‘Nemonymous’ here on TLO. But I think I am really DF Lewis (born 1948 in England), married for 38 years with two grown-up children, someone who exhibits a pattern of selves that only a single self truly knows. Not this self, today, perhaps!


6. I was told that you aren’t a huge fan of either television or the cinema, but I’ll venture to ask if there are any movies/TV programs that have significance for you?

You’re right. Increasingly over the years, I’ve found screen fiction (as I call it) fabricated and unsatisfying. (Almost to the extent of beginning to enjoy Reality TV like Big Brother!!!) Like I’m always ‘seeing’ the work behind the scenes etc. and not the scenes themselves. However, I’ve been impressed with various films, eg: ‘Death In Venice’, ‘Picnic at Hanging-Rock’ and TV such as ‘Twin Peaks’, ‘Lost’, ‘Life on Mars’... I also enjoy the News!


7. And what about this Peter fellow? I have learned that you have had association with him for some while, now. Anything interesting you might impart about this association?

DF Lewis and PF Jeffery (called ‘Odalisque’ as his TLO name) met at University in the nineteen-sixties. At that time, we wrote together ‘The Egnisomicon’ (a Blakean epic) and cross-fertilised vis-a-vis the Horror/Fantasy genre. I often read aloud stories at what we called Horror orgies. Since those days we have kept up a substantial handwritten correspondence on a regular basis, even today when we could be writing emails! Just as an example, during the late Eighties and early Nineties, in particular, PFJ was very helpful in commenting on stories I was writing. Over the years, I think he has had more sea-changes than I on various points of art, life and philosophy...
I enjoyed your interview with him.


8. Okay, departing from this genre, what else do you like to read? Favorite literary piece from other genres, and why is it so?

I enjoy Virago Books fiction i.e. 20th century women’s fiction. I suppose Elizabeth Bowen is part of this field as well as being firmly on my ‘genre’ map (see my forthcoming article ‘Towards the Drogulus’ in the ‘Wormwood’ Journal). Difficult to differentiate this question from No. 4. I simply enjoy deeply textured fiction that feeds landscapes of imagination and sentiment in life and art. I sense that all fiction tends towards the Ominous Imagination (as I call it), whether it is overtly so or not. For example even reading a Jane Austen novel one sees beyond the happy ending... Or one does if one has a certain frame of mind that, I guess, most Ligottians would have. I see this as positive. Although one can never be sure if one’s mind is clouded and if one could be happier without immersing oneself in darkness. Magic Fiction / Magic Realism ... fiction is truth, truth fiction. Who knows where this could all lead? Only in interviews can one extrapolate beyond the fiction and try to give some flesh to the person. Fiction has flesh, too. Which perhaps brings us back to Ligotti’s Mr Can...


9. And aside from reading, what sort of activities do you enjoy?

I enjoy walking along the sea-front here at Clacton-on-Sea where I live, fretting over my grown-up children, attending Pub Quizzes and listening to Classical Music (old and new).


10. Do you have a personal philosophy, an outlook on life, as it were? Anonymity and Intentionality seem to be ideas of some importance to you. Do these involve themselves in your personal outlook?

This continues from my consideration of The Ominous Imagination. I started the ‘Nemonymous’ series of print publications in 2001 which are actively on-going as we speak. One of them even doesn’t exist! It’s where literary theory actually becomes a character in literature rather than a commentary on it! You heard it here first. Never said that before in such terms. Not enough breath within the flesh to expound on everything that’s gone through my mind on this subject. I’d only add, in answer to the last bit of your question, that I have been a person who is easily swayed by the last argument he hears. I am the Nemo. But then my family say I can dig in my heels! My intentions are good, if sometimes wishy-washy and too succinct. Often too diffident. I find it difficult to write (speak) large expanses of wonderful integral prose like your previous interviewee. I do only snippets or thingies!


11. Would you describe yourself as a believer in the possibility of the supernatural, or a skeptic?

I’m interested in the concept of the supernatural. But I think nothing is supernatural or, rather, that everything is. Any dreams are real. They happen. Or they would not be a dream that one had. There’s also a sense of wonder in my ‘Nemonymous’ thoughts just now. Ghosts that populate the page between the neat ranks of near-dead insect-creatures that form the print that ignites them. Sorry, that may sound facetious or pretentious. But I do believe something beyond what I believe. It’s just nailing that ‘something’.


12. What is your greatest fear? Your greatest wish or inspiration?

Death. Death. In that order.


13. My goodness, you are a prolific writer! Beyond prolific, I would say, fecund even! How easy is it for you to write so abundantly? Thousands of stories...does your brain produce ideas constantly? Tell us, please, a little about your writing process.

The process is just doing it (tripping a switch simply by starting the process) and every time I sit down to write fiction I seem to write something I’m (immodestly) pleased with. And each time it seems something new and not re-hashed DFLery. In that case, perhaps I should do it all the time, i.e. in all waking hours, for the sake of posterity! But I do allow myself fallow periods. Without this fallowness, maybe I would have written millions of stories, rather than just thousands. When I eventually look back at this presumptuous answer I shall probably wish I hadn’t given it! Indeed, unless solicited, I haven’t been submitting any stories for publication since 2000. All my print-published (approx) 1500 stories (i.e. some in Best Ofs, DFL Specials etc etc and selected for ‘Weirdmonger’ (Prime Book 2003)) came out between 1987-2000. I like to see myself as the Platonic Form of the Amateur writer. Never made much money from it. Also, these days, an editor/publisher. Never made much money from that, either! So far.


14. Writers aside, any other heroes/idols, so to speak, be they fictional (Mandrake the Magician, for instance) or actual?

‘Heroes’ is a word I don’t often use. My wife is a heroine, though. And my mother. My late Dad, a hero. My two children are hero and heroine, respectfully. Friends are my heroes, too. Fleshy and/or electronic and/or epistolary friends. Some more heroic than others. Some more fleshy than others.


15. Do you have any interesting folks hiding in your family tree? If so, what did they do, what are they known for?

I come from an apparently working-class background, East End dockers on my Mother’s side, South Wales miners on my Father’s. Cheesemakers, tinmen, too.


16. Musically speaking, what are your tastes? A few of your favorite performers?

Another list! Anton Webern, Goldfrapp, Brahms, Mahler, Sixties Pop, Penderecki, Ligeti, Schubert, Thomas Ades, Havergal Brian, Sorabji, Beethoven's chamber music, Eugene Goussens, Mozart's 'Requiem' and 'String Quintets', John Cage's 4' 33", Glass's 'Akhnaten', Wagner's 'Parsifal' ETC.


17. More importantly, in what ways has music influenced you?

I go back to what I said about ‘screen fiction’ (TV and Films) being fabricated. Music gives me what I need that seems unfabricated. Almost a religion of sound. Fiction is closer to this music ideal than any ‘screen fiction’. Music, I’d say, is another trip-switch ... like my own fiction? Forgotten dreams made audible.


18. Are you a fan of the arts, aside from writing? Discuss, if you will, a few of your favorite styles and artists.

I love all forms of painting. Vermeer, Magritte.... Vigeland’s sculptures since visiting Oslo last week. I love modern art and traditional. Cacophonous music. Shapes. As well as Bach and Landscape. Still Life. Dada. Zeroism (formed by me and PFJ at University in 1967).


19. Do you have a vivid recall of your dreams? Are your dreams astounding, or pedestrian?

Rarely do I have a detailed recall of a dream that lasts. But when I do recall it, I find myself incorporating it in a story. I do dream a lot, however, because I remember remembering a dream soon forgotten. Getting up in the night with a weak bladder makes you know more easily that you have just been dreaming. If not the lasting details of the dream.


20. Anything you would like to add, perhaps something I didn't think to ask that you feel I should have?

No, but thank you for interviewing the active members of TLO, a home for me and the new friends I’ve found here.

”The nemo is an evolutionary force, as necessary as the ego. The ego is certainty, what I am; the nemo is potentiality, what I am not. But instead of utilizing the nemo as we would utilize any other force, we allow ourselves to be terrified by it, as primitive man was terrified by lightning. We run screaming from this mysterious shape in the middle of our town, even though the real terror is not in itself, but in our terror at it."
-- John Fowles 1964 (from 'The Necessity of Nemo' in 'The Aristos')