Meakin: Your Dangler story didn't suck at all. I loved it. It seemed born out of
the head of Zeus and so on. I've got patterns in my story. Almost always,
they're pot heads. Usually southerners. We all have our tendencies. I get so
bored with my own. Wish I could just write a thriller or Moby Dick 2. Or
anything other than what I normally write. Christ. People in a basement. Jesus.
Couldn't they be on a yacht off the coast of France?
Sam: Heh heh. I vote for France. What's with your predilection for the South?
Didn't you grow up out (far) East?
Meakin: My parents got divorced and I was pitched into the South as a kid, after
Japan. I should write about that stuff, but can't, for some reason. Only wrote
a short thing about it for Mr. Beller's Neighborhood. That's it. Maybe one day I will.
What's your stock character?
Sam: A guy named Sam. I'm an egotist. Or I would be if he wasn't constantly
behaving terribly and doing exactly the wrong thing. Truthfully, though,
there's not much in the way of non-fiction in my stuff. I think I name my guy
Sam because I'm lazy and I'm not very good with names. I just wrote a German
character and the only thing I could think to name him was "Kaiser von
Krautenheimer." It's not Steinbeck.
Meakin: Ha. Love it. But Steinbeck is Steinbeck and you're you. I think [the
point is] not to get all high-toned, it's to figure out what you've got and to
make it totally what it is. If you've got a story with Kaiser von K, then
that's what it is, and you go from there. At least I'm no longer trying to
write like Hemingway. Ugh. What a painful period. For me and everyone else.
Sam: I had big problems in grad school trying to write Steinbeck, actually,
because I was so embarrassed that I secretly liked humor writing, which, I
felt, was looked down on (and still think it is, and sort of look down on it
myself, despite myself).
Meakin: Ah, yes. But Steinbeck was trying to write like others, I'm sure.
Sam: I would imagine so. While Hemingway was just balling women and shooting
endangered animals.
Meakin: And Mark Twain was trying to write serious stuff, too, if I remember.
Toward the end, no comedy at all. Seems to be the fate of the funny-man, to try
to write something serious and so on. Jesus—look at Robin Williams. Wouldn't you rather he just stayed with comedy? I mean,
Christ—Patch Adams? You've seen it, no? Like on a plane? Just be who you are.
Sam: Good point. Even Twain—the humorist's legitimizer—tried to get serious. Egad.
Meakin: Think we have enough here?
Sam: I think so. Good talking again. Maybe they'll give us our own monthly column.
Meakin: Ha! Maybe they should. That was good...
Sam: Talk to you soon. Take care!
Meakin: See you. Hope the toe is cool. Signing off...
Sam: Thanks. See you.
