Frank’s Radio Interview
A recent interview Frank had with CFXU, the student radio station at StFX University. In the interview Noel and Frank discuss Metazen, metafiction and Frank’s serialized novella, American Serial.
Noel: No, I can tell it’s recording because the little red light is on.
Frank: Alright. Well should we pass it back and forth or do you think it will be able to pick both of us up?
N: It’s a digital tape recorder.
F: Yes, but I bought it at The Source.
N: It will be fine.
F: Okay. Should we start then?
N: Sure, so we’ll edit all this out then I’ll play the interview on my radio show.
F: Okay. Can I transcribe it for my site?
N: No.
F: Alright. Well let’s just start then. I have to get into my ‘hip writer’ mode.
N: How?
F: I’m imagining I’m wearing a black turtle neck and I know a lot about Miles Davis.
N: (Laughing)
F: No really, my therapist said it helps build confidence.
N: Imagining yourself in a turtle neck builds confidence?
F: Well I’m imagining the kind of person I’d like to be.
N: Alright, let’s just get started.
F: Okay.
N: Four…three…two………Hello there folks I’m your host Noel MacDonald and you’re listening to Zero Charisma on 93.3 FM The Fox. We’ve got a great show lined up for you today. First off I’ll be speaking with Frank Hinton the elusive writer and editor of Metazen.ca a metafictional journal. Later on we’ll discuss Margaret Atwood’s new novel, The Year of the Flood and we’ll wrap things up with a listen to Wild Beast’s impulse-driven new album, Two Dancers.
(Note for the sake of TOPIC, transcription has been fast-forwarded to MY relevant moment)
N: …Frank Hinton is a blogger, writer, satirist and web-fiction innovator hailing from Halifax, Nova Scotia. His website, Metazen features authors and poets from all over the world and focuses specifically on meta-fiction. Frank, thank you for joining us here on Zero Charisma.
F: No problem. Thanks for having me, Noel.
N: Can you tell us a little bit about what you do?
F: Sure. I ah, I have like a fiction zine or journal or whatever you want to call it. I publish stories and stuff on there. Sometimes I put my own stories up on it as well.
N: Now you describe it as a ‘meta-fictional’ site. What is metafiction?
F: Metafiction is basically fiction that plays with the idea of fiction. Traditional fiction is designed to make the author and reader collude and create something totally convincing. When you read Jurassic Park you are supposed to completely suspend your belief that dinosaurs are extinct. Just as alcohol suspends your insecurities, good fiction suspends the fact that you are actually reading something that’s not real.
N: So metafiction isn’t trying to trick the reader into believing some fake world?
F: No, it’s trying another trick altogether. Metafiction turns reality on its head. Nothing is real in metafiction. You take away assumptions and conventions, you take away expectations and traditional plot motifs. You use tropes but not for the sake of motif but for the sake of critique. You build a new world from a very old and beautiful one.
N: And you have written yourself into this fictional world?
F: Yeah.
N: Some people might say that your site is just a manifestation of your own vanity. Writing stories about yourself, crowning yourself as the king of your own fictional world…isn’t that just your ego just playing with itself?
F: It’s a drawback of metafiction yes, I’m always going to get slammed for being vain. I think that’s why most metafictional authors combat the critique by framing their characters as depressed or forlorn.
N: And are you depressed and forlorn in real life?
F: Very much so.
N: (laughs). Now, currently on Metazen there is an ongoing fiction series called American Serial. Can you tell us a bit about American Serial?
F: Yes. It’s a novella I’ve been releasing in serialized parts. Sherlock Holmes stories were originally serialized, different parts put out at different times.
N: And what is the serial about?
F: Well it’s about a person and he goes to this little office and meets with a woman who is the secretary to an apparent man who “has all the answers”. So the story is about a person’s quest to find the man with all the answers and ask a very important question.
N: What question is that now?
F: I don’t know.
N: You don’t know.
F: Well, I’m only on part nine of the serial. Frank hasn’t met the man yet.
N: So Frank is your man character, you. You’re the protagonist of the novel.
F: Pro and antagonist, yes. My friends come along with me too. The journey is with my manager Joshua and my therapist Bradbury. We all drive down to Saratoga and look for this man. Along the way Frank gets caught at the border with a strange box and Bradbury also ends up getting Frank involved in a weird romantic side plot in search for a very powerful root that apparently makes you write brilliant fiction.
N: Very interesting.
F: Yeah, it’s convoluted.
N: What inspired you to write this serial?
F: A lot of Chianti.
N: (laughs)
F: That and a real trip I took down to Saratoga in a lime green VW Beetle. I just got the idea one day and I started writing.
N: And how do you go about crafting your fiction?
F: Well usually I just get an idea and I let it roost for a few days. I do a little research, take a lot of notes and then I just kind of sit down and let things flow on the paper. Sometimes it comes out okay and sometimes it comes out shit.
N: Very interesting. Thank you for coming in Frank. If you’d like to know more about Frank or American Serial check out his website at www.metazen.com
F: .ca. It’s a Canadian site. www.metazen.ca
N: Very well. Thanks again for joining us. You’ve just been listening to Frank Hinton, author and editor of Metazen.ca
F: Thanks for being part of my website.
N: Excuse me?
F: Well this. This is really just me writing right now. Everything you say is just a story. I’m writing it all out.
N: (laughs) I’m sitting right here. We’re looking at each other. You’re not writing at all.
F: Can anyone prove that?
N: How about the people listening to this show?
F: I dare anyone reading this to find an actual recording of this transcription. I made this all up. I made you up. You are a foil.
N: Frank, you asked me to be on this show. Nobody knows or gives a shit about your stupid little site. Do you think the people listening right now want to read a bunch of self-interested, loathsome fiction?
F: I don’t know.
N: We have to move on.
(stops tape recorder)
American Serial Part 10 will be released on SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 19. To read the American Serial novella from the start, click here.
No here.
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