// Noah Cicero's controversial novel Burning Babies
Who ever said that a person from a small town, not into the spotlight couldn't possibly spit fire was wrong. Because that definitely seems to be the case for author and poet, Noah Cicero whose work stings with a tinge of his signature explicit form of expression. With his latest novel, The Human War, Cicero discusses topics that other authors may not have the courage to say but after reading, are in agreement with his wicked ideology on political issues such as the present war in Iraq. Cicero spoke to Art Nouveau Magazine on why writing became his form of expression instead of talking, why “impromptu conversations have never satisfied him” and more.
"The Iraq War turned every American into a murderer"
Art Nouveau Magazine: First, I want to ask you, in your latest book "The Human War," how did you create your main character, Mark? What was the creative process that you went through?
Noah Cicero: During that time, when America had first invaded Iraq I had read three books close to each other, The Adolescent, Waiting for Godot, and Nausea. Those books mixed with the war showed me how little and nothing I am. Mark is a symbol, he is young people in general, how we felt. Well, some felt like it was awesome we were going. During that time we sat in Denny's all night on Belmont, which has a mixture of YSU kids, and poor people all mixed together. And I would sit all night listening to people talk about the war. People took it so seriously. Kids would say things like, "I'm going to Washington to light myself on fire to stop this war." One person was like, "I'm going to Washington and not moving or eating until this war is over." As time passed the conversations got more and more absurd. People were so obsessed with knowing every little fact, every f**king detail, it was f**king horrible. I was so caught up in myself. Then it hit me, it didn't matter. That all the facts the news gave out were only there to let us feel powerful. But we weren't at all. There was no power, no one had anything to say about The Iraq, people I will for sure never meet wanted the war and bought it. Then it really hit me, how huge all this is, there are 300 million people, the machine is huge, everyone is so small, so worthless, needless, expendable, replaceable. The Iraq War turned every American into a murderer.
ANM: Where does your inspiration come from to produce your works?
NC: My mother never stopped talking and never let me talk. My father never spoke and therefore never giving me a chance to speak. My teachers never let me speak. No one ever let me talk growing up. So I started writing. Conversation never goes right either. Impromptu conversations have never satisfied me. The only way I really enjoy conversation is if one person does a monologue, the other person thinks about what the other person said, it could take ten seconds, it could take two minutes, it could take a week, and then they respond. And that is how the conversation works. Everybody randomly saying crap doesn't lead anywhere. It is fun when you are drunk, but without alcohol small talk is hell.
ANM: Why do you feel compelled to speak on the issues such as drugs, sex and bad jobs that come across in your writings?
NC: I don't feel "compelled." Those issues: drugs, sex, bad jobs, existential despair over living a needless life is all I know. If I write something that someone construes as being as being political or sociological it is because I experienced something that was in the context of political or sociological. I suppose I could write horror or sci-fi, I guess I don't have that urge to escape reality. I don't if I am okay with reality, but I think I do handle it better than other people. I don't have that thing where I constantly need to paint over reality, to dress it up, so it looks presentable to company, so I can sleep at night. I want to say I'm not s**tting on sci-fi or horror, all the emotions I present are found in those works, but instead of saying directly, "I'm afraid and feel powerless." They construct a character that is trapped in an alien space cell waiting to get punished by wizards or something. (Noah Cicero looks at his hands and feels bad for people.)
ANM: Why do you always depict crumbling urban America in your works?
NC: I depict more "useless America." I think what I mean by useless is that there are parts of America that are considered useful and some parts considered useless. Las Vegas, LA , San Francisco, NYC, Boston, Austin, Seattle etc are considered useful currently. You can live in those cities and feel sweet, like you are part of something, that you are rocking with the best of them. And there are places like Youngstown, Pittsburgh, Kansas, Nebraska, Reno, basically most of America. You live somewhere that doesn't mean anything to anybody. Everyone just lives, what for, no one knows. Anti-Depressants, alcohol, sex, drugs, video games, reality television, fishing, sports keep them alive, which isn't much. One can understand how they can turn to the church and Republican insanity; they want to mean something because they can't stand that feeling of not being mean to anything, not even to themselves. I think I want to show people that live somewhere useless that craziness and humanity is all around them. That if you live somewhere useless, don't love Jesus, booze is better than Jesus.
ANM: You speak openly on raw issues but in an interview you stated that you start to hyperventilate and get panic attacks in a crowd. How could you describe being an author like yourself that receives great recognition for your work but yet you don't consider yourself a people’s person?
NC: Nietzsche said, "In individuals madness is rare, in crowds it is the rule." People are insane and there are too f**king many of them. Creating a mass amount of humans is not like creating a mass amount of tooth paste. Tooth paste does not freak out and start killing people, tooth paste does not rape small children, tooth paste does not start wars, tooth paste does not pay for the production Mission Impossible 3, tooth paste doesn't tell you that Jesus hates queers, tooth paste doesn't carry automatic weapons into schools and blow people away. The humans are barely under control, you can see it, the sea of flesh driven by free will, a free will warped and disfigured by years of bad television. Look at the French revolution, one day they are sitting there, the next day they have people's heads on pikes parading them down the street, look at the Germans, one day they are sitting there, the next day they are Nazis killing everything in sight, the next day they are docile little creatures. I'm scared of people, because I know myself, I know that I am sick and warped and f**ked, and I am capable of murder and insanity and cruelty and ruthlessness.
ANM: Who are the other contemporary writers that you look up to?
NC: Tao Lin and Fawzy Zablah. I think and I add this is personal and subjective both of them have written some things that are truly great, that could sit on the shelf of great literature with London or Hemingway. Tao Lin's "Insomnia for a Better Tomorrow" and "Sasquatch," Fawzy Zablah's "The Woman's Army" and "Darling, It was an Uphill Battle Loving you." Those stories blow me away, they say a s**t load about lives, they have crazy emotion, I go nuts when I read them, I'm just like, "Holy s**t, this is it, this is it." Those stories feel like there is a real human behind them, a human sending you a note, like you are in prison cells, and there's a little crack in the wall and the guy next door gets some paper and writes a note to you, it feels that personal to me. I've read Foer and Shteyngart, those books with their names on them are very smoothly written, they flow well. But there is no human behind them, you can tell that Foer writes like fifty outlines for books, the agent says write 80 pages for that one, Foer writes the 80 pages, the agent is like no good, Foer does that like ten times, finally 80 pages turn out okay, they have a meeting, like ten people who have all graduated from Yale and Harvard and Columbia from business and marketing programs, and are like staring at each other, and write comments, and then Foer writes like ten drafts and each draft is like red lined to hell by his agent and editor and the ten people with the money, and this goes on for like two to four years and eventually something with no substance but seems like it has substance, a massive sick inhuman trick is played upon the world and we all keep paying taxes and kissing The Man's penis. Fawzy Zablah and Tao Lin, I know edit they a good amount, and red line their s**t to hell. But it is them, and because it is them, and no one else, and they aren't trying to impress anyone, they are editing because they love to write, and they want it to be right.
ANM: What works are you reading now and by whom?
NC: I'm reading Flags of Our Fathers. This probably doesn't sound hip. I'm reading a lot about World War 2. I just read Stud Terkel's The Good War, his oral history of World War 2. World War 2 is mankind's great accomplishment, it is the one time mankind challenged nature, mankind said, "Nature you think can be f**king evil, watch us." It is really sick, World War 2 is really sick. 22 million Russians die and beat the Germans for what? So American corporations can make billions and take over the world. Russia got f**king slaughtered for what? They got no reward. Did you know the Nazis plan was to kill all the Jews, Gypsies and Russians? That was it, they had no other plan. The reason they took France was basically to hold the [British] off so they could kill more Jews, Gypsies, and Russians. Did you know that America killed 100s of thousands of Japanese by lighting their cities on fire with incendiary bombs, the U.S. lit Tokyo up, killed thousands of women and children. Did you know that the original CIA was called the CSS and it was actually a group of communists that fought in Spain, and they were later black balled for being Communists. Did you know that the military wasn't part of the budget before World War 2, there was a piece of it for defense, but not for war. That war could only continue with war bonds. But after the war the corporations figured out how much they could make off of war and had the budget redone for war. Imagine if they had war bonds right now, we could get all the troops home right now just by not buying war bonds. I could talk about World War 2 for hours. The studying of World War 2 can teach a person a lot about humanity, how really f**king weird we are.
ANM: What are you views of Tao Lin and his latest book? Other works of his?
NC: When I was little I saw Sid and Nancy, in that movie there's this scene where Rotten and Sid run over to a limo and scream, "Rod Stewart, Rod Stewart." My friends and I always used to yell "Rod Stewart, Rod Stewart," in funny British accents. I think why we found it so funny and why we find Tao Lin so funny when he s**ts on celebrities and ourselves, is that Rod Stewart and Elijah Wood are really pointless. Elijah Wood doesn't care about books, he'll appear in anything that "involves" books because he's Elijah Wood and that's his gimmick. Let me explain Elijah Wood, he's 15 or 16 years old, his agent finds him a job acting in The Ice Storm. He's 16 years old, he doesn't know what is going on, if he reads it is probably Edgar Allen Poe or The Giver, it is for sure not Rick Moody. So he ends up acting in this Rick Moody movie and he isn't really attractive or tough looking so he can't be an action star. And he has stared along side the likes of...Kevin Kline and Toby McGuire and he gets an indie audience, and he becomes an indie actor that isn't actually an indie actor because the movies he is in cost no less than 30 million dollars to make. And those Ring movies probably cost more to make than to feed Africa for twenty years. What I'm trying to say is: Elijah Wood is a piece of s**t whore. We all know this: Elijah Wood right now is sitting with Uma Thurman drinking a 6,000 dollar Martini and Elijah says to Uma, "We are really s**tty people, aren't we?" And Uma says back, "We totally f**king are." It is like I feel horrible for even knowing who Elijah Wood is, I wish that I could have lived and died without ever knowing who that...is, but I know, and it makes me feel horrible. I even enjoyed that movie he was in Try Seventeen, but it was mostly because I want to f**k Franka Potente so much. But it makes me feel dirty for even enjoying one of his movies.
