An Interview with Tales of Woe author John Reed

Yesterday I posted a review on a very unique and engaging book called Tales of Woe (MTV Press) by author John Reed. If you have not read the review yet, I invite you to do so by clicking here.

Reed presents his readers with several independent stories of pain, suffering and heartache. All of which are completely uninvited and undeserved from each tale's affected victims. Rarely does reality ever let anyone live happily ever after or fulfill their lifelong dreams. Happy endings for everyone only exist in Hollywood movies, fairy tales and literary works, Except for this one. Sin, suffering, pain, dread, and depravity are all the overlying themes of Tales of Woe.

John Reed is the son artist David Reed and earned his MFA in Creative Writing at Columbia University. He is the author of the books Still Small Voice, The Whole, the SPD bestseller Snowball's Chance, and All the World's a Grave: A New Play by William Shakespeare.

Today it is my privilege to welcome John Reed into The Man-Cave to discuss his latest work Tales of Woe.





ETMC: John, thank you for taking some time to stop by my site and discuss your book, which I must say was an interesting work to digest.

John: Thanks. I'm still feeling queasy.

ETMC: I did warn you that cooking is very touch-and-go, and today was more go than others. This is a very general opening question, but an important one. Where did the idea for this book come from?





John: You know it was just a desperate author having lunch with an editor. I pitched hundreds of ideas in breathless spurts and shoveling food in my mouth when I had the chance. The editor happened to hear the right idea exactly when the plateful of roasted garlic arrives, and said "that's a book!"

That was the beginning of the book--of working with Jacob to figure out what it was, and how to make it happen.

Almost all of the stories we see in popular culture -- advertising, movies, television, even the news -- are modeled on sin, suffering, redemption. The presumption is that people who suffer have done something to deserve it, and that if they haven't, their suffering is somehow for the best. But that's bullshit. That just makes it easier for us to ignore suffering and makes us easier to control. The sin, suffering, redemption model is powerful, and not an accident. It's the Christian story, as approved by Rome when Rome wanted a religion to control everyone. In Tales of Woe, I was trying to take all that Rome and Vatican stuff out.

ETMC: You told me that these stories are 100% true. So a great deal of research must have gone into collecting so many of these tales. What method of research did you use to compile these stories?





John: I had someone help me, but I mostly looked myself. Local newspapers, as much as possible. At that time, news sources were still working pretty well, so I was able to subscribe to those. Now, of course, they don't work as well; you'd have to look up the stories individually on the individual newspaper sites, which individually require subscriptions. Not a good thing.

After that, it was me on the telephone, talking to people. Very old-fashioned.

ETMC: How many total stories are in Tales of Woe?

John: I'm pretty sure 25. We originally planned to have 50, but the stories we found were so awful, they ended up longer than we thought.

ETMC: How many crazy tales did not make the final cut?





John: Three. Two were sort of not horrible enough, and one was far, far, far too horrible. We swore we wouldn't censor ourselves, but in this case, we did.

ETMC: Was it taxing to translate others' tragedies onto paper? Did it ever get to be too much at any point and if so, did you need to perform some type of desensitization?





John: I wish I'd found a way to desensitize myself. When I was pitching the book, I assumed it'd get easier. It didn't. The work got more and more difficult and emotionally taxing. But I did become a better father--I'd go home and want to hug the kids. And I think I became a better person--my petty bullshit seems much more like petty bullshit.

Getting back to original idea of the book. The Greek notion of catharsis: you watch someone suffer, and go home feeling better for it. The Hollywood notion of catharsis has the hero overcome a sin, or overcome an obstacle and achieve redemption--or a mix of the two. And that is not a realistic or healthy narrative to apply to one's own life. Justice, as a presumption, can only lead to unhappiness.

ETMC: Any tale in particular that you enjoyed writing the most? Was there one that had the most impact on you?

John: Momma's little Angel was the 14th story I worked on. Exactly the middle. Zeke was very near the age of my own children. That story killed me. And I knew I had 14 more to go.

Any I enjoyed? Not really. But I did talk to some really interesting people in the course of the Tyke story. The people at PETA were amazing, and put me in touch with amazing experts. And many of them--I google everyone--were extremely attractive.

ETMC: One of the great bonuses I liked about the book was the impressive artwork. Who submitted these and which one was your favorite?





John: We looked at no fewer than 3000 artists. We wanted the illustrations to serve the stories, very much in keeping with the pre-Comics Code pulp journals. We'd have a monster guy do the monster stories, a pin-ups person do the pin-ups, etc--that way we could implicate more of pop culture, manga, horror, underground comix, news ...

ETMC: Well the choices are truly breathtaking. What's next for you, John? Anything currently in the pipeline?

John: Working on a bunch of things. But Shitty Mickey comes to mind. A web comic I've put together with Michele Witchipoo, one of the Tales of Woe artists. ShittyMickey.com We're on the fourth episode. It's too salacious and provocative for anyone to pubish.

ETMC: Will we see a More Tales of Woe?

John: I personally think it would be a good idea.

ETMC: Me too. Would love to read another installment. Anything else we have not discussed that you would like to mention about the book?

John: TWO SARAH PALIN PIN-UPS!





ETMC: Haha, well there you go , John. You ask you receive! Thanks again for coming by ETMC to discuss your book and hope you will come back some time.

John: As you know, I haunt ETMC, and if you lift the restraining order I'll start dropping by the house again.

ETMC: That's another discussion for another day.

Tales of Woe by the incredibly talented John Reed is available now. So everyone please stop by your local Barnes & Noble or visit Amazon to pick up your copy for something interesting and definitely out of the norm.