Markus: Hi Noah, we don’t know each other but i’ve been reading your books lately and think they are excellent. I don’t know why added you. I guess i thought it would be cool to get into your top 5000. Thanks.
Noah: Thanks for reading the books Markus. That makes me happy. Are they hard to get in Helsink?
JUN 28TH, 11:22AM
Markus: kindle/amazon makes this possible otherwise i would’ve never heard of you… i read Sam Pink who was recommended on a James Altucher Podcast and then Amazon suggested books from the same publisher “Lazy Fascist Press” and i just randomly chose your book “go to work, pay the bills, etc” because i liked the title and cover. funny how we find the things that make up our lives, such small and seemingly trivial coincidences
JUN 28TH, 8:48PM
Noah: That is awesome. Yes, a lot of people tell me they found my books through Sam Pink on those lists.
JUN 28TH, 11:20PM
Markus: You guys have a similar style, do you agree? I’m a big Bukowski fan and you also remind me of him although you seem to be more of a Kerouac fan. How the hell do you manage to write like that with zero pretension? What is that style called? Do you have to edit or cut down alot of what you write that ends up in the books? Does someone else do that?
Markus
Sorry for all the questions… just think about this stuff often as i’m reading and your interviews don’t cover these
JUN 29TH, 12:50AM
Noah: Hi Markus, I didn’t read Bukowski until I was about 24 I think, but since then I’ve read all his books of fiction and several books of poetry. Our styles originate in Europe in the late 19th Century/Early 20th Century writing I think, with like Rimbaud, Sartre’s Nausea, Celine, Knut Hamsun’s Hunger, Jean Rhys, Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, Kerouac, Hunter S. Thompson, etc. It is basically a first person narrative that is experiential in nature, that uses vernacular language, with often a self-aware neurotic first person character that is having a dramatic experience in life. I don’t know what the style is called. I don’t edit a lot, I just write it. For go to work and pay your bills, it was edited by the Editor of the press. For my poems, they are never edited, and I never edit them.
Markus: How the hell do you manage to write like that with zero pretension?
Noah: I think that is a question of personality and not literature, I don’t have a lot of pretension in my life. I don’t think Bukowski or Kerouac did either. But I am from a very working class background, I grew up in a small town in America with less than 2000 people, mostly working class people. A lot of pretentious writers grew up with professor/lawyer/doctor parents, and had a certain upbringing that created a certain type of personality. Just like my upbringing brought up a certain personality.
THU 2:52PM
Markus: god damn it, i somehow missed this message by you. Anyways, that’s a very interesting analysis.
Do you read a lot of other authors or just focus on your work these days? do you find inspiration from movies, tvshows, etc? I dont know like breaking bad or something.
I’ve been trying to learn online business and try to understand how some people are so successful and happy and wealthy. They have these big smiles on their faces and life is so positive that they get energy out of that. But every time i try to get up early, exercise and all that self help crap, i feel like i wanna kill myself. And they all tell me my attitude is wrong for business and that i’m too negative. That kind of perspective feels dishonest somehow.
I have a hard time concentrating on anything these days. As Bukowski wrote, the days go by like wild horses over the hills.
Is it difficult for you to discipline yourself to write a book from beginning to end and get it released?
I think i’m ready for it. Just gotta cut out all this bullshit.
THU 7:23PM
Noah: lol, I’m not wealthy or anything. I don’t know what success is
I don’t watch Breaking Bad or series tv shoes, I can’t really handle talking on plots on tv shows.
I liked Lost, and a few other that’s about it
I like It’s Always Sunny, Archer, Trailer Park Boys etc
Comedy shows heavy on irony
I read a lot of books, yes. I have been reading a lot of Soseki this year
I read a lot of indie books
Now I’m reading Wallace Stegner novel Angel is Repose
I don’t think I am happy, I feel mostly exhausted of life. But I exercise for about a half an hour three times a week and hike on sundays, so that is exercise too. If I don’t move around, I feel kind of gross and stuck.
I don’t really have any hope for my life, I am poor, I am really bad at work and life, and I make people feel weird.
I haven’t dated anyone in years and will probably die poor somewhere on a floor mat.
but it is okay, I think for me, I’ve read and studied the zen masters, Bodhidharma, Lin Chi, Hui Neng etc
and the Lankavatara Sutra. Studying buddhism helped
I listened to alan watts speeches on youtube and read his books. I feel okay now
Trying to hold onto anything is like trying to hold water
All that will ever happen, is that you wake up, feeling like yourself
There is no were to go, nothing to do
just do nothing
sleep when you feel like sleeping
eat when you feel like eating
fuck when you feel like fucking
THU 9:08PM
Markus: you do some kind of buddhist meditation or something to calm the mind?
btw, check out Ryu Murakami’s novel In The Miso soup, you might like it although it’s a pretty sick book… haven’t read his other books yet but would like to.
man i’m reading Bipolar Cowboy and really resonate with your stories, it’s like they are mine. Noah, i really struggle with keeping this “markus” character going. I just wanna fuck shit up. And people are so content at being who they are, it really fucking baffles me. I have no idea what I’m supposed to be in this world.