The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, March 10, 1982, Page Page 6, Image 6
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<
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there would not be a cough, a Hallow<
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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
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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
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Gene Barry me,all'c ticking and hissing soun
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Ann Kooinson Stars Gene Barry Ann Robinson
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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."
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'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
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