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Apex Reviews Interview with Author Sol Luckman on BEGINNER'S LUKESol said Mar 28, 2008, 11:17 AM: |
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 The Adventure of an imaginary lifetime begins. Request your FREE copy today! “BEGINNER'S LUKE is a welcome start to what promises to be a mind-bending journey through the mind of the ultimate iconoclast.” –Apex Reviews “BEGINNER'S LUKE to a conventional novel is what an animated film is to a documentary. It is creative, imaginative, humorous and very distinctive.” –Reader Views “BEGINNER'S LUKE is truly an experience that cannot adequately be described except to say that it is extraordinary and grabs one from the first word of the first chapter and never lets one go. Definitely a spiritual journey that you do not want to put down.” –Niama Williams, Ph.D., Host, “Poetry & Prose & Anything Goes” APEX REVIEWS: Sol, thanks for joining us for this interview. We're looking forward to learning more about your books. Your writing style is very original and unique. Who have been some of your chief literary influences? SOL LUCKMAN: My main influences, as they apply to the BEGINNER'S LUKE Series, in addition to the “towering figures” of Henry Miller and Jack Kerouac, are a whole line of “metafictionalists” running from modern writers like Sergio Sant'Anna, Julio Cortazar, Jorge Luis Borges and Italo Calvino back in time to writers like Jonathan Swift, Henry Fielding, Diderot, and Cervantes. APEX REVIEWS: What is the original inspiration behind the BEGINNER'S LUKE Series? SOL LUCKMAN: About a decade ago, when I started the Series, I was very sick with a mysterious autoimmune illness and thought I was dying. Luke came to me, so to speak, as a friend and teacher showing me how I might literally imagine a different life for myself. Sure enough, I eventually healed and made a drastic change from the soul-withering constraints of academics and literary theory to a “brave new world,” for me anyway, of play and experimentation. APEX REVIEWS: What kinds of reactions have the books in the Series generated thus far? SOL LUCKMAN: So far, the first three books in the Series have generated a number of enthusiastic reviews, such as the following one of Book I from Reader Views, which called BEGINNER'S LUKE a “modern-day ALICE IN WONDERLAND, where anything can come alive when you start with a blank page … [Luckman] shows the reader that as individuals, we, too, have choices and potentials. There are no boundaries or rules to limit us.” My all-time favorite review, however, came from a friend and early reader of BEGINNER'S LUKE, who completely changed her life after reading a very rough version of Book I and wrote, “I've had quite a journey ever since you shared BEGINNER'S LUKE with me. I'm more careful, these days, when someone gives me a book. I haven't been the same since reading it, as if I contracted the disease of restlessness and have spent months reconsidering every facet of my life. Your novel changed me forever and I blame you for it.”
APEX REVIEWS: What are your ultimate hopes for what you'd like the Series to accomplish? SOL LUCKMAN: It needs to be translated into a dozen languages and made into a Series of three movies. I believe BEGINNER'S LUKE can play a significant positive role in the planetary awakening into higher consciousness–in which imagination is the new faith–that's currently occurring. APEX REVIEWS: You've mentioned that you'd like to start a new literary movement. In what direction would you like to see the movement proceed, and what elements would you like to incorporate in order to define it? SOL LUCKMAN: I actually mentioned that I'd like to be part of a new literary movement, not start one all by myself. The new literary movement, which I believe is already happening, is a maverick movement of independent self-published writers who abandon myopic realism, slavery to book markets and the publishing industry, MFA book assembly lines and the foolish hobgoblins of plot and genre, in favor of experimentation and exploration of the only thing that matters, since it creates everything: consciousness. Or if you prefer, imagination. APEX REVIEWS: In keeping with that theme, you also mentioned your desire to create a veritable literary “Drummond light.” Please share with our readers precisely what a Drummond light is, as well as how it applies in this context. SOL LUCKMAN: In response to this question, I prefer to quote from the Source, my “Manifesto for a New Fiction,” and let it speak for itself: “Once in every generation, if we're lucky, a character shows up who can teach us about reality because he's more real than ourselves. Melville called such a character a 'Drummond light' after the type of light once used in theaters that was capable of providing illumination in many directions. May one of us create such a character. Better yet, let's buck tradition and create a string of Drummond lights, each a brilliant facet of the Hope Diamond that is our new fiction. Let's turn away, once and for all, from old Enlightenment tropes toward a new narrative of Enwritenment. Together let’s write light.” APEX REVIEWS: Please explain for our readers the significance of “sprezzatura.” SOL LUCKMAN: Through the mouth of the character Billy, I define “sprezzatura” in Book II, THE TOY BUDDHA, as “a Renaissance term for nonchalant creative spontaneity.” Sprazzatura is the essence of a life well lived. Either you have it and you're “quick,” or you don't and you're “dead.” APEX REVIEWS: Out of curiosity, do porcupines really masturbate? SOL LUCKMAN: According to Trivial Pursuit, yes. I've never actually witnessed a porcupine in the act. APEX REVIEWS: What are your future writing/publishing aspirations? SOL LUCKMAN: I'm currently working on a nonfiction book, the sequel to my internationally acclaimed and bestselling Conscious Healing: Book One on the Regenetics Method, which has been translated into Turkish and, more recently, Spanish. APEX REVIEWS: How can people learn more about your writings and other efforts? SOL LUCKMAN: I invite those interested to visit one or more of my content-rich websites: http://www.beginnersluke.com http://www.phoenixregenetics.org http://sol.gaia.com http://consciousartistry.ning.com APEX REVIEWS: Any final thoughts you'd like to share with our readers? SOL LUCKMAN: Enjoy the Adventure! APEX REVIEWS: Thanks again, Sol, and best of continued success to you in all your endeavors!  |
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