Author’s Note: As you may have heard, Rudius Media is discontinuing hosting of the majority of its websites. New traditional material will be up when this site is on its new server next week. More details on that to come.
This piece is short, a link to one of a few interviews I’ve done over the past two weeks. This Q&A was with the good folks at Brobible, covering a wide range of topics. Below are a few highlights. The rest of the Q&A is here: “Think Work Sucks? The Philadelphia Lawyer Agrees.”
In addition to this, a new piece I wrote, “You’re Not Getting Laid Because…” will be up on Brobible tomorrow. We’ll link to that when it’s up.
What possessed you to start writing the tales of your life? Did you find the experience therapeutic?
Combination of things. The material was there, I knew I could write, and the scene around me was so absurd I figured, “Somebody has to deconstruct this shit — show it for what it is. Mine out the funny angles of this shit to show what an absurd, wasteful McProfession practicing law in this city is.”
Your book covers a decade of your rather unscrupulous, yet desirable life. What is the most insane moment of those 10 years?
That’s tough. I don’t know how to explain it, but in the vortex of chaos, I tend to feel calm, so looking back, it all seems normal, with the peaks flattened a bit. I think most people have a great capacity to adapt to the strangeness of a situation, so it’s hard to say what was most “insane.” Like I said in the passage in “Twenty-Six” regarding driving on nitrous, when you’re used to living in a certain element for a time, the weird gets regular. That’s why most of the serious freaks in society don’t write books. They figure, “Nobody’d be interested in this…”
What would you like to say to the nice folks over at Publishers Weekly who had this flattering statement to say about you: “Other people barely seem to exist for him: of his future wife we learn little more than that she has a dancer’s ass and amazing nipples”?
I’d say what I said in the Author’s Note: “Lighten up, Francis.” Have a sense of humor. I’d also say there’s no individual less qualified for his or her job than a critic.
A lot of our readers debate that you shouldn’t ditch your boys when your out drinking to go get some ass. What is your stance on that? Do you think its acceptable to cut out for a romp with a hot piece of ass?
How is that a debate? Of course you ditch. A guy who’d whine about that needs a slap. Or to reassess his sexuality.
Prostitution. No more, no less. Up against the wall motherfucker. PIZZA! PIZZA!
PL: “Cut the fences at Woodstock, allowing thousands to enter for free.”
How did I not hear of these people before? I always figured that was Abbie Hoffman.
I just graduated from law school myself, and though I’m happy with my decision I wish I would have gone in with my eyes more wide open. At least once a week I hear from kids I knew from college, younger siblings of friends etc asking me about law school. I tell them that the job prospects aren’t what they think they are and the expense and time necessary for the whole enterprise but it seems to always fall on deaf ears. I am a big fan of the site, keep doing the good work…as futile as it may be.
PL: People live in narratives, and the narrative on law school is that it’s a degree you can use in many fields and quite lucrative. The middle class believes myths. It’s what keeps them in the middle, and there’s little you can say to most of us to convince us otherwise.
“Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV,
And you think you’re so clever and classless and free,
But you’re still fucking peasents as far as I can see”
- Lennon, “Working Class Hero”
Kind of thought the getting laid peice was underhanded. Got my hopes up beleiving it would sort of be a nuanced and derisive satire of modern men and the women they pursue. However I hate the PUA culture so kudos on 5.
PL: That piece would be as long as “Infinite Jest.” I’ll be back to the regular stuff in a week, when I’m done:
1. Digging out of ten different business issues;
2. Working with my old editor to get everything from the website to the new website;
3. Doing promotional pieces and interviews (I’m supposedly doing five radio station spots back to back next week).
Frankly, my wires are fried right now. But shit always works that way… Everything hits at once. The old stuff will be back shortly.