If you haven’t heard of him already, remember this name: Joshua Ferris. Ferris has enjoyed a tremendous amount of praise in his short time on the literary radar, vaulting on to the scene this year with his debut novel, “Then We Came To The End,” the hilarious and heartbreaking story of a Chicago ad agency during the dot-com boom and bust. Since then he has been tapped for pieces by The New York Times and Granta. A recent arrival in Brooklyn via Illinois, Berkeley, Key West and Japan, Ferris recently talked to Borough of Writers about why a change of scenery is important, the inanity of advertising and his grave disappointment at not being able to dunk.
You’re associated with several states and regions — small town Illinois, Key West, Chicago, California, and now Brooklyn — talk about the moving so often and how it has affected your writing.
Moving broadens the mind. It’s not a requisite for good writing, of course. Many great writers have stayed put in the same place their entire lives. I can’t think of who. Oh, Faulkner’s a good example. For me, every relocation opened up possibilities I didn’t know existed. I’m thinking of Key West in particular, where I learned about different ways of living, of being. I spent a year in Japan — that mixed things up a great deal. Personally, I’m glad to have at least a passing familiarity with each of these places. If they have affected my writing, they’ve done so only insofar as they’ve informed me as a person, broadened my spectrum of experience.
Being recently honored as having written one of 2007’s best “New Stories From the South” puts you in rarified air. First, does living in Key West for a time make you a southern writer? And, explain for our readers what makes certain writing Southern?
I was honored to be chosen because many of the other contributors are writing at the top of their game, and great writing in the collection is in high supply. But I don’t think of anyone appearing in “New Stories From the South” as being a Southern writer. Somehow the qualification “southern” strikes me as doing a disservice both to the writers and to the region, as if to say, “Let’s give the southerners and the south this anthology here, and then we can go back to focusing on the real writers.” It’s true that the anthology separates those stories set in the South from others, which gives them a distinction. But if you start to break it down, it would be hard to say this contributor or that is Southern, because what does that mean? Only Southern? Merely southern? Or, in my case, sometimes Southern?
Your debut novel made a major splash — “Then We Came to the End” depicts office life during the dot-com bust. Were you part of the boom and resulting bust?
I was part of the boom and then got out right as the hammer was coming down, probably because I knew sooner or later it was bound to come down on me. But I was there for the bonuses. I hear the bonuses are back now, which must erase some of the bad memories from the bust years. Although I should point out that it never got to some “The Grapes of Wrath” point. The coffee bar will operate until we enter the era of McCarthy’s “The Road.”
What was the most inane technology and/or advertising concept you’ve seen?
You know how, if there were a transcript of human speech throughout time, there’d be a few places of intense interest, and then reams and reams of the most boring and tedious exchanges, which, if given enough time, you’d read to the point of tears, and then dream of forgetting? Trying to remember inane advertising concepts is a lot like that. I suppose I’d say whenever there was a box involved, it was pretty bad. “What exciting things should we say on this box?!” That was no fun.
Are the rumors of a film adaptation true? If so, how soon can we see this on the screen?
HBO bought the rights to the book. It may be a film with theater distribution or a made-for-HBO movie. I don’t think they know yet what they want to do with it. And my guess is they have no idea when it might be made. From what I know of the movie business, it’s lucky that anything ever gets made.
Athletic prowess is not one of your strengths, as shown in your hilarious piece in the New York Times about basketball. If you could, what sport would you excel at?
I play pool well. If I could chose a sport to be good at now, at 32, I’d say tennis. No, I’d still have to say basketball. It’s just that I’ve been hurt too many times. And I don’t mean physically. Why can’t I be good? I should look on Craigslist for a coach.
Country music is another influence you’ve mentioned, do you still have your mother’s mix tape?
I don’t have that wonderful tape, though I’ve stitched together through memory probably half of it — one full side — and it includes some classics from Mel McDaniel, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Johnny Paycheck and Don Williams.
You seem to be trending more towards humorous nonfiction pieces, David Sedaris-ish, what can we expect next from you?
I’m working on a novel called “The Unnamed.” I’m also working on a short story for Granta and I’m contributing to an anthology called State-By-State, edited by Matt Weiland and Sean Wilsey. A wonderful idea — 50 writers, each writing on one of the 50 states. It’s an attempt to go beyond the traditional “blue state versus red state” mentality.
And finally, how did you first arrive in Brooklyn, and how does it rank with your other, prior, hometowns?
I came to live in Brooklyn on the advice of some friends of my wife. She came to New York to practice law and I followed. One of the first things we did was buy a map of Brooklyn, and I was amazed, I looked on the map with utter astonishment at how big Brooklyn was. Huge! And since that time I’ve come to think of it as one of the best places on earth for its dynamic neighborhoods, its tempo changes, its wild diversity, its bars and restaurants, its busy BQE noise, its dirty streets, and its loopy, lovely people.
Brad Lockwood is the award-winning author of five books, including >“Wink” and “Tested XX.” The audio version of his novella “Sellout” is now being broadcast at www.podiobooks.com.
© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2007
All materials posted on BrooklynEagle.com are protected by United States copyright law.
Just a reminder, though -- It’s not considered polite to paste the entire story on your blog. Most blogs post a summary or the first paragraph,( 40 words) then post a link to the rest of the story. That helps increase click-throughs for everyone, and minimizes copyright issues.
So please keep posting, but not the entire article. arturc at att.net
Main Office 718 422 7400
