YOUR NOVEL IS SUCH A POWERFUL AND INCISIVE WORK, BUT YOU'VE DECIDED NEVER TO RELEASE IT OR SHOW IT TO ANYBODY. WHY IS THAT?
During the writing process, I realized I was more interested in how we talk around fiction than the fiction itself. In some ways, the book tour, the interviews, the reviews—they're more important and impactful than the book itself.
I saw my peers' books get published, but I never read them. Why not remove that first step for my own novel?
BUT THE NOVEL EXISTS? THE WORK HAPPENED?
Oh, it exists, and it's extremely good. And I'm not just saying that; believe me—I'm my own worst critic. I'm not saying it revolutionizes the form, or anything, but it definitely says something about our society, and the way we interact with technology, with each other… Even with ourselves.
And the work? Look, my blood is in this book. My heart and soul. I spent hours every day writing this book. It's a product of labor, of effort. Yes.
THERE ARE RUMORS YOU KEEP THE MANUSCRIPT IN A VAULT…
False. Fake news. I won't entertain that kind of talk.
WHERE IS IT, THEN?
The manuscript (which is such a reductive word, by the way) is in a secret location, and a secure location. It's locked away, yes, but there's no vault. Unless you count the vault of the taboo I'm trying to construct, the idea that reading the book is anathema to the experience of truly knowing the book. In that sense, we are all the vault. Culture is the vault.
DO YOU HAVE PLANS FOR A FOLLOW-UP PROJECT?
I've thought hard about a sequel, but I don't know if I would end up releasing that either. And at some point, not releasing the work will have diminishing returns, in terms of impact, and effect, and the mark on the zeitgeist. But conversely, to publish it would be…
…AN ANTI-CLIMAX?
It'd certainly ruin some aspect of the first book, in as much as one could infer certain things about the first book from the second. It would be—
A POST-SPOILER?
Yes.
TALK TO ME ABOUT HOLLYWOOD.
There's been… Talk of a film adaptation. I'm ambivalent at this point. Obviously, the money would be nice.
(LAUGHTER)
But to have an idea of what I'd want the audience to experience? I don't know if I have enough of a grounding in the language of cinema to really decide that. And I don't want to abdicate that responsibility to another writer, or director. I think I'd need to make the film myself.
OR NOT-MAKE IT.
(MORE LAUGHTER)
Exactly! A blockbuster anti-movie.