An Interview With C.B. Williams August 16, 2024
Q: If I were to list the salient characteristics of your odd little novel, “The Book of Beaux-eaux,” I might place, at the top of the list “A pack of lies.” Would you agree? [Williams chuckles for several seconds, then laughs out loud] I do not mean to be insulting.
A: No offense! It is true! I mean….Christopher Columbus did not actually land on Long Island, fall in love with Pocahontas and start breeding Republicans. And the Negroes did not come to America by accidentally drifting across the ocean on a large baobab tree. Also World War III did not begin on September 11, 2001.
Q: Some people would disagree that your third example is an….untruth.
A: Oh. Yeah. Sometimes I disagree with myself about that one.
Q: [He chuckles again. From now on I will omit any mention of his chuckling. Mr. Williams is a very chuckly person] I am sure it has occurred to you that your readers will wonder why….you choose to write a pack of lies.
A: Yeah, well there is no simple answer. There is the why do I do it now answer and there is the why did I do it in the beginning answer.
Q: How about we start with the now answer.
A: Right. Ok. Um….It has occurred to me over the years….
Q: How many years?
A: 75 so far. It has occurred to me that Homo sapiens does not typically possess a passionate love of truth. But I suspect that they do, on the other hand, possess a passionate hatred of being lied to.YECCH! I HATE sentences that end with a preposition!!!
Q: I am quite ok with that….It is very normal.
A: The Germans do it better. I like the way the Germans do it. Churchill did not. And don’t get me started on the normality thing…
Q: [I take a deep breath and try to be patient with his rambling]
A: Where were we?
Q: Love and hate. True and false.
A: Right. Love and hate. Listen! If hatred is the only passion you have, then why not go with it? It’s honest, right? Better that passion than no passion at all, right?
Q: Right….[I am lying].
A: If you tell humans the truth they fall asleep. But if you tell them a lie, they wake up and say, “Hey! Wait a second, Buddy! That is not true!!!” with 3 exclamation points!!!
Q: Always? There is Hitler and his famous Big Lie Technique.
A: Ok. Ok. Not always. Matter of fact I suspect that our cultural climate has gotten so awash with lying that lying is now the norm. I never imagined that some day I might become normal. I long ago decided that normality was not one of my multiple choices.
Q: How long ago?
A: 17 years old. 1965.
Q: What was that like?
A: All my efforts at being a normal teenager failed miserably. But I heard that there was a whole world of abnormal people out there. So I set my sights on joining them.
Q: Where was this world of abnormal people?
A: Greenwich Village. They were called beatniks. My friend Harold showed me how to get there on the subway.
Q: So you became a beatnik?
A: More or less. A bop a doo bebop. A boobidy bibbidy bum. A bop a doo bebop. A boobidy beee
bee bum bee bum…
Q: What is that?
A: From “Twisted” by Wardell Gray. Beatnik equals hipster equals jazz fan who smokes marijuana.
Q: Reminds me of something Joni Mitchell did.
A: Yeah, she liked it too, me and Joni….about 25 years later…with those lyrics by Annie Ross added in.
Q: So you are a more or less beatnik who tells lies for money and scat sings?
A: Yeah, but I was an art major at Queens College. I try to tell finely crafted lies. The professors taught us how to make finely crafted pictures. I don’t want to let my lies just fly out of my mouth or my pen thoughtlessly. I want my lies to be beautiful. I want everything I do to be beautiful. The lies in our political culture are not beautiful. They are clumsy, clunky, without nuance or flair.
Q: So “The Book of Beaux-eaux” is a pack of finely crafted lies?
A: Well, I try. I keep getting better at it….I think…