| OnlineHost: | Critics' Choice is honored to welcome novelist, filmmaker, painter and playwright, Clive Barker. Clive has served as Executive Producer on the film "Candyman" which was based on his short story, "The Forbidden," and on "Candyman 2: Farewell to the Flesh." His "Lord of Illusions," is coming to home video on January 16th from MGM/UA Home Entertainment. |
| BJudell: | Welcome, Mr. Barker. |
| BrkrClive: | Thank you very much. |
| BJudell: | Stephen King said you were the future of horror. Is the future different than the past and why? |
| BrkrClive: | In movies, the horror field has changed radically, I think, since I began. The rise of special effects, the rise of budgets, the rise of the video...all have contributed to a very changed atmosphere for a horror film maker. But, at heart, the stories remain the same, I think: tales of obsession and madness, death and despair. |
| Question: | I feel your books are brilliant while you films are interesting at times, though not always successful. Do you agree that you are a genius as a writer and a tyro as a director, at least in the communication of ideas? |
| BrkrClive: | Yes and no. I would never claim the word genius for myself. I believe the density of my ideas lends itself more to literary work more than it does to cinematic endeavors. That said, there is no literary equivalent of Pin Head from the Hellraiser movies. The iconographic power that certain images have, the way they touch the popular consciousness has no literary parellel. |
| Question: | How do you come up with your ideas? |
| BrkrClive: | The most oft asked question, and the most difficult to answer. I dream them, I daydream them, they appear in front of me spontaneously as I am writing a scene or as I am painting a picture. I use my imagination in some medium or other 7 days a week, 10 hours a day. It's become a powerful muscle. In truth, I can't stop having ideas, even though sometimes they threaten to overwhelm me. |
| Question: | Edmund White wrote: It's rare that we read a book by a handsome man; most writers are so homely that only the best of the lot rate being called "distinguished." You're so adorable. Do you agree with White? And do you feel if you were uglier, you'd write more? |
| BrkrClive: | Adorable? I think any man who gets up in the morning, and tells the mirror "you're adorable" deserves to come to a bad end. Thank you for the compliment, but I think the profoundest feelings we have about ourselves are formed in childhood. I was a very homely, overweight, shortsighted child, who's greatest pleasure was to communicate the ideas in my head to others. As to how much more I might produce if I'd been born a Quasimodo, who knows? I'm presently working on my new book 13 or 14 hours a day. I couldn't work any harder, whatever my profile looked like! |
| Question: | Mr. Barker, Hi, my name's Matt Schantz, and I am (of course) an aspiring writer. "Imajica" has fascinated me, and I am in the midst of reading it...How long did it take you to write it? It seems VERY complex to me. |
| BrkrClive: | Well, Matt, "Imajica" took me longer than any other book. About 18 months, not including editing. The last two or three months were the closest I've ever come to a kind of fugue state in which I would work every waking hour, sleep and dream the novel, and wake again to work another day. It really was a kind of madness. |
| Question: | Did you read H.P. Lovecraft. If so, how did it help you? |
| BrkrClive: | I read Lovecraft when I was younger, pretty much all he ever wrote. His breadth of imagination is extraordinary. He inspired me in this sense: he was writing, not simply about the human perspective, but also about the ab, sub, and inhuman perspectives. In short, a vision that cannot help impress us with its ambition. As a stylist, I think he's a little verbose. |
| BJudell: | We should say you're here to push LORD OF ILLUSION now in video. Where's this flick stand in your heart? |
| BrkrClive: | As you may know, the video of "Lord of Illusion" is a much fuller version than was released theatrically. There are 12 minutes of material restored, bringing the running time to 121 minutes. I am extremely proud of THIS version: It contains many scenes that I think go a long way to answering narrative obscurities in the theatrical cut. It also restores material removed so that we could get an R rating from the MPAA. |
| BJudell: | Will we blush? |
| BrkrClive: | In short, it is the definitive "Lord of Illusion." And as I said before, it's very close to my heart. Note: 8 out of every 10 videos that will be released next week are the unrated directors cut, including the copies carried in most popular video rental stores. There are a few outlets which refuse, as a matter of policy, to carry unrated videos. I urge you all to seek out the director's cut in preference to the much shorter rated version. |
| Question: | What influenced the epic nature of "Imagica"? I got the feeling it was much more than fantasy....that it had a lot to do with archetypes and the name Satori rings a bell from somewhere. |
| BrkrClive: | Where do I begin? Whenever I write, what may be loosely charactorized as fantasy fiction, I am using it as a format in which to explore issues which are both very private to me "ambiguities of sexuality," "personal details of childhood," and much larger, if you will, archetypal elements. "Imajica" is about - in no particular order - the rise of goddesses, the destructiveness of fundamentalism, the complexity of our sexual selves, Jesus, London, and half a thousand other ideas, images, and story elements. |
| Question: | I have enjoyed "History of the Devil" and can't wait to read the plays just published. However, I haven't been able to find the one that intrigues me the most....Is "The Secret Life of Cartoons" published or is it ever going to be? |
| BrkrClive: | "The Secret Life of Cartoons" is not yet published, but it will be. The volume of plays which was published three weeks ago, INCARNATIONS, contains three plays. "The History of the Devil" is one. "Colossus," a play about my favorite painter Goya is the second. And a third is a very dark meditation on human depravity called "Frankenstein in Love." I am, by the way, presently in discussion with theatre companies in Texas, New York, Florida, and Kentucky to mount productions of these plays. If there's anybody interested to put the pieces on stage, my address and that of my agents, is at the front of "Incarnations." It's my intention to make it possible for non-profit, community and college theatres to mount these plays with the minimum of financial stress! |
| Question: | Love your work, Mr Barker. When novel writing, do you work from a strict outline or do you make it up as you go? Also, how many drafts do you typically do? |
| (Clive Barker is whisked away by the spirits at this point in the interview. He is somewhere on AOL, but the forces won't let him reenter the auditorium.) | |
| BJudell: | Mr. Barker disappeared for a second. Let's see if we can find him. |
| BJudell: | This is one of those AOL vs. the Devil happenings. If we join forces, no doubt we can beat the devil and get Barker back. |
| BJudell: | We're still trying. |
| BJudell: | Clive is somewhere on AOL. We're trying to steer him back here. Sorry. |
| BJudell: | I'm sorry, folks. I'm still trying. |
| Comment: | HEY CLIVE, I'M A BIG FAN OF YOUR BOOKS |
| BJudell: | Well, if Clive ever gets back, he'll appreciate that. |
| BJudell: | The system is fighting Clive Barker. Maybe if we clap. It saved Tinkerbelle. |
| Question: | By the way, the pit bull that was on your signing desk in the bookstore in Ann Arbor Michigan is fine...LOL |
| BJudell: | We'll let me Barker know about the pitbull as soon as he returns. |
| BJudell: | If we can't get him back today, we'll set up a return engagement. Why couldn't this happen when I was interviewing Liberace? |
| Question: | I am! |
| BJudell: | We are glad you are. |
| Comment: | Brandon, thanks for the help. I finally made it! |
| BJudell: | Someone rushed home from work to see Clive type and this is what happens. I'm so sorry folks. |
| BJudell: | *Wheel's on Fire* |
| BJudell: | A little music to cheer you up. |
| BJudell: | We have to end folks. We promise to bring you back Clive. Thank you so much for your patience. Good night. |
| BJudell: | Thanks again, folks. Next time Clive Barker will conquor the System. |