Writing Wednesday - Visiting with Adam the Immortal

@GeneDoucette was kind enough to pass on my request to Adam - the main character in his book Immortal - for an interview.  Adam was very gracious in accepting my invitation.

Adam, thank you for joining me this week on my blog.  I appreciate your time.

First question is this: How have you coped with living for so long?  Aside from drinking, I mean.

I don't know that it's something requiring an extra coping mechanism.  Staying alive is sort of an instinctual thing, and in more ways than you might realize it's also a largely passive thing.  Suicide-- and I've thought about it-- requires action, whereas continuing to exist generally doesn't.  So in a lot of ways all I've done is decide not to get up off the couch.

Second question. What was your favorite time period to live in?

Every era has its high points and its low points.  I'm really fond of the one I'm living through right now, actually.  I can read books at midnight; I don't have to hunt my own food; fresh water is available every twenty feet; and I can relieve myself without worrying about frostbite or carnivores.  

Third question: What do you REALLY think of Clara?

Kind of a sore subject for me right now.  She's off in Europe somewhere, I believe.  I'm sure we'll run into one another again.

Fourth question: They say history repeats itself.  Have you seen that with your long life?

Yes and no.  It's fair to say history repeats itself in broad strokes, but only as long as you're standing a good distance away and squinting your eyes to make things look blurry.  Societies do have a certain circularity to them, though.  One could compare-- as I've heard-- the current United States to the Roman Empire, but only if you ignore a huge number of basic facts.  But if you're talking about the way people with lots of wealth act toward people with little, or the way a large community changes when most of the people in it no longer have to worry about where their next meal is coming from, then you'll find repetition.  More to the point, I've found that people react in a consistently predictable manner in response to circumstance.

Fifth question: What's your favorite beer?  Your favorite liquor?

Oh, I don't know.  I was very fond of fourth dynasty Egyptian beer, but that might be more because the Egyptians were the first ones to get beer right than from any true superiority.  I imagine there is better beer being brewed now, but memory can gild things.  I feel the same way about Athenian wine, and that stuff could kill you if you didn't cut it with water.

Sixth question: I know this was probably covered in the book, but I don't remember (and my stepmother has my copy of the book right now).  Do you, or have you ever gotten sick?

In the sense of acquiring a disease, no.  I've gotten sick plenty of times, but that was alcohol-related.  (See: Athenian wine.) 

Seventh question: Why are you such an asshole?

I've been thinking about this question all day.  I can't decide on a single best answer, so here are a few to try.

1: I don't think I'm an asshole.  If one thinks of oneself as an asshole, it's because one is trying to be an asshole, and I'm not trying to be any such thing.

2: It's such an odd question, and I think the reason you think I am is that Gene's book is my unfiltered (or mostly) interior monologue.  If you look at what I SAY in the book, I don't think I come off as one; it's what I'm thinking that gives one that impression.  And honestly, if you get that much access to anybody, they'll come off as kind of an asshole.

3: When I was born our language was limited to four phrases: "I want to eat that", "I want to kill you", "I'm going to fuck you", and "ouch, that hurts."  I survived for at least two centuries never having to say anything more than that.  (Although I think "run away" and "duck" might have been added sooner.)  For several dozen centuries after that, even with a modestly expanded vocabulary at our disposal we-- meaning mankind-- used language to express directly and immediately whatever was on our minds.  Even when abstract thought became important (as in, not "go kill them" but, "when we reach the clearing, you two go that way and we'll go this way") we still didn't bother with things like subtlety or nuance or hurting someone's feelings or what was proper and improper.  So I tend to be rather direct.

4: Now add in the fact that I am fairly clever and history is absolutely FULL of idiots.  I'd estimate that better than 80% of every conversation I have ever had has involved me speaking to a moron, just statistically.  I'm completely serious.  I'm nearly positive I invented sarcasm, but it was 200 years before anyone around me even noticed.

Put all of that together and I think the fact that I am at all likable is a minor miracle.  

Eighth question: There's a new book coming up.  Can you tell us anything about that?  And do you know when it's supposed to be released?

There's no release date yet.  Gene and I are still working on the best way to tell the story, although there is a draft so it's nearly done.  I can tell you that we discuss the Greek sphere quite a lot.  (The title is Hellenic Immortal.)  The events in the book transpired a few years after the end of the last book, shortly after Clara left.

And no, I'm still not talking about that.

Thank you, Adam.  And you do raise some interesting points about how much of an ass you come across as in the book.  Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with us.

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Adam the Immortal (@AdamtheImmortal) is the voice behind the book Immortal, penned by the remarkably gifted Gene Doucette (@GeneDoucette).  Follow both of them, and go here to buy the book.  Help support an independent author in his endeavors.