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Interview: V T 1i T CJOI^ i\o By CHRIS HANDAL whimpe Book Cntk audienci "My r "I want my world to live in me. She yours. 'Copperpenny yankee thatwhc sky. Brassy as my dreams. I for 45 was new and dizzy in the breathe: North,'" he says from the I talked podium in USC's Alumni Greer Mouse. tne neec With his thinning hair on from hi top, sharp nose and thick absolut mustache and beard, he manipu "One thing that he (Di galvanized me was that to I had to be able to risk ever) reminds one of a critic or Shakespearean actor 'used u reciting a monologue. He is and wil Ben Greer, author of two coerce novels, Halloween (no reading relation to the movie) and plained. Slammer Hp fllsn flrppr English at USC. cernsa The opening lines come to the E from his third novel, un- to vii titled, and were spoken relative during a reading Thursday The bo< night. His appearance as an five y< actor upon a stage is not grown t surprising, for he is the son revisior of an actor. revisioi When his father would be trii take the stage at a high pages,' school, he would be quiet for The the first minute to silence the came t< ctlirtpntc Whon ho e t o rtofl in UVMV*V?1VU. If "V OVU1 VV/U, 141 * 1 there would not be a cough, a Hallow< a Bnwsaa sstv a S Fast, I Old Fashions 1 Nev Local lyO | SPRING TIM | TWO I ! and 4 [ Only $7.5i One C 256-0301 V, ' sattire^zidt; velist Takes I r or a sneeze in the fig perserves and working by e, Greer recalls. candle light, Greer asked a nother used to tease friend of his for some money 'd say, 'Do you know to help turn Halloween into a in your father speaks movie. minutes no one His friend didn't have the s?'" Greer said when money, but gave Greer the utith him ropontlv nnmKnr nf n mnn ntVin sJirl nitu unit i vvviivaj . iiuiiiu^i ui a man wiiu uiu. claims he inherited When Greer explained to the 1 to memorize people man his idea, the man liked s father. "I want to it and asked him to fly up for ely control and a few weeks to discuss it. late the reader. A The writer told him he didn't ??? even have enough money for a plane ticket. . v .11 The man offered Greer ckey) said that $300 for the plane ticket ? : J 1? A ?1 ~ v*iwi saiu tie waiueu a >e a writer vou thousand because, "I like to * have some spending change in my pocket. He agreed and 'thing." before I ever set foot in a plane I knew what my next D r novel would be about, -7 Ben breer regardless of how the film deal turned out. Which it ______ didn't," Greer said. ice said of my work it Living with the rich took rords like weapons' its toll on the author. "I th those weapons I could have been ? -J ? : ~ ~ ..... . me icauci muo psycnoiogicaiiy destroyed my work," he ex- by living with the family. Near the end, I was living in 's new novel con- a log cabin in the woods young man's journey without heat, electricity or last for the first time running water. I wanted to sit super-wealthy stay up there so bad I was is he has never seen, vomiting blood," he said, ak, which has taken Putting himself in mental ;ars to write, has or physical danger is nothing o 850 pages. "It needs new to Greer. Before writing 1. Massive, massive his first novel, Slammer, he l. The novel needs to became a guard in the nrned a solid 200 maximum security section ' the author admitted, of a prison. While there, idea for this book Greer said he shot two men 5 Greer while he was and saw a guard stabbed six innah, Ga. finishing times with a screwdriver. sen. Broke, living off "There are two times I feel or i I'-'-"-! Free Delivery E Bd Hand Rolled Pizza I v York style B wned and Onpraferi IE MONEY SAVER | I i Large | I item Pizza j I Free Cokes | I D a &9.00 value ! Hi oupon Per Pizza \ 19 Expires: 3/12/82 I j j mama mm mm win mmmm wmmm mmm ?mm amim mm mii i j lisks For His --I-;.-. jL'~:r zjL"V\~H--."-..".";-.;';^^B ^ !^-:t,Zr:^=:-i X'.' y > V ^ BT x';X.V. -.." I- / v { * '/ Y< .<> > : ,'/ ' v,<<4-V V ' *'" ^'\v ' s 11111 -V .; ;r><; ?' VX ' * .^V * -Xv-V ' -: \ < fl jJ~ Wr ' ' X ' " * ^ ' . s ; ' .'^; > -/. *.^y'- x V'.v : . Novelist Ben Greer is currently revisii unnamed third novel and teaching at anatomically alive. The first Greer risked dc is the soft, tenous days of past summer, sp< falling in love with a girl and week in the Yucata the second time I feel with rebels. "I dynamically alive is when needed a distant tro I'm certain I stand in the feverish ending to tl shadow of death," he he said. "I was in revealed. with a friend wher Iljifci, Ell ^ggp= fif^; iSfflBBnT TB tfB j -' ' - E - .:- . .-. " ?4 , _ ^S;|p I IR_ WAR OF THE \ Byron Haskin an j^QsjQr, the Martians offei alarming swan-shaped machine Gene Barry me,all'c ticking and hissing soun Ann Pnhincnn frightening science fiction epic v Ann Kooinson Stars Gene Barry Ann Robinson Les Tremayne SCI-FI I P c Wednesdi I HC 2:30,7:00,i | j a??? I MADt POSSIBlf BY STUDENT A< Writing (about some trouble in He and his friend flew down and while his friend relaxed, Greer rented an old VW Beatle and drove 400 miles inland to an Indian village. He made contact with the rebels and during his stay with them he "saw . them pull this person from the crowd. I couldn't tell if it was a man or woman because thev all had lone ... O " hair. They threw this person a on the ground and beheaded Greer credits this notion of risk-taking to poet James Dickey, who taught Greer when he was a student at USC. "One thing he (Dickey) said that galvanized me was that to be a writer you had to be able to risk everything." The word "intense" describes Greer. Talking with him, one can feel his energy and his commitment to his novel. After describing I m a scene from the book he itfhic Sa^> "This one will really iW- get them." Sometimes it's hard to tell ;ath this . what drives him: his writing jnding a * or ^is risks. "I still dream n jungles about the prison. I dream knew I unarmed and when I picaland wake up you know what I lie book " feel ~~ absolute and comHouston plete joy to be so near 1 I heard death." ^ <4swrfBB8B8BBBs3BaKoBHS^ S iir\ni r\C This chll,in9 1953 version | j 'VUKLUO. of H.G. Wells' classic tale of j ! :s a dlstuibing vision of the enemy ? ingeniously [ t s that menacingly glide along accompanied by f"\ ds. demolishing everything in their paths. This j J jon an Oscar for its remarkable special effects. i unu los k iy ?- ? g I wo [R >1 I russo# house 3 S