M. J. Nicholls – intoviews

What is your name?

M. (Mark) J. (Jeremiad) Nicholls.

How would you describe what you do?

Writing. Or, more literally: sitting on a chair, occasionally clacking on a keyboard, stroking my stubble, and sighing for months on end.

What are you currently working on?

A novel about death, the universe and everything.

What has had the greatest influence on your work?

My writing is influenced by the endless desire to understand why I dislike other humans so much. I am endlessly decrypting my profoundly negative reactions to others: insatiable repulsion, hatred, disgust, envy and terror. It’s a lark being me.

What is the greatest misconception about you or your work?

That people have actually read it.

What do you see as the main strengths and weaknesses of the medium you work in?

Literature, despite the valiant attempts at artistic annihilation made by mainstream publishing houses, cannot be devalued through cheap celebrity exploitation, gross homogenization, or crass commercialism. There is always a place for great writers, and talent shall prosper despite the tyranny of our masters.

And so say all of us.

How has technology impacted upon the work you do?

The internet has made it easier for writers to publish, yessir, but it is practically impossible for writers to establish themselves online on merit alone. Nosir.

Too many people who shouldn’t become writers (like me) also feel inspired to write. Never a good thing.

Literature, being a central component of today’s überconnected multimedia experience, will continue to evolve into an interactive, reader-encompassing, never-ending entity. Novels of the future should, ideally, have no beginning, no middle and no end, and be authored by everybody.

What’s the greatest piece of advice you would like to pass on?

Never take advice from me, ever. Everything I have said so far, I don’t mean. Honestly. Especially that rubbish about novels being authored by everybody.

Where can we find you online?

http://quiddityofdelusion.blogspot.com

What are you reading at the moment?

Right now:

Coming Soon!!! – John Barth (postmodern prankster and casual genius)
Finnegans Wake – James Joyce (purely out of curiosity, and deep-seated resentment of anything remotely commercial, you understand?)

Next week:

Will Self: Feeding Frenzy (Britain’s greatest living male writer)
Nicola Barker: Small Holdings (fearless experimentalist undaunted by limitations)

What are you listening to at the moment?

Magnetic Fields. Everyone should bump bottoms with Stephin Merritt.
Lisa Germano. She seems to understand why humans don’t quite work.

Anything else we should know?

You can never have too much alliteration. Don’t listen to those floppy finagling fools.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply