I love those two Besson’s movies. They’re a main unconscious influence for my work and all those kind of vibes and martial obsessions that you can taste in The Ballad of Mila and even in its sequel Black Queen, The Justice of Mila. But, sometimes I have to plan something like a synopsis or a plot, especially if I have to write something different like my last historical thriller. I researched and studied so much that, in the end, the story was perfectly completed and well-defined in my mind, but I know this doesn’t work with Mila. She’s like a beast sometimes: she has no plans, no dreams, no projects, she is pure fury… you know what I mean? And it’s fine to me because I know that, in this way, I can be honest with my character and with my readers.
Integrity and faith in your story and characters: this is the best way to write a good story, I mean.
Do you agree? About integrity and loyalty to the story and characters? What do you think about that? Because it seems to me that this is very important for you, as a novelist, and for your stories. You do not seem that kind of writer who wants to please his readers…
TW: Well, I wish I could please more readers, but it’s hard to make characters do what they don’t want to do. I’m not sure readers care all that much about the author, or that they should. My loyalty as a reader is more to the characters. I can think of plenty of writers whose work I liked only in part, i.e. I loved some, or even only one, of their novels and not others, or only one of their characters. For instance, Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer brought me an immense amount of joy, but his other series characters left no impression on me. D.H. Lawrence said, “Never trust the artist, trust the tale”. There are far too many stories in which the characters act out-of-character in order to fulfil the larger message that the author wants to convey. All that ‘hero’s journey’ stuff has become a bit tedious, too, the ‘character arc’, and so forth – the hero as student, learning some great truth (usually a very obvious one) about himself. It’s certainly become a disease in Hollywood.
In fact, the great series characters never fundamentally change at all. Mike Hammer would rather pull his own teeth out, and eat them with the entrails of dead communists, than alter his rabid machismo. James Bond never changed. Parker never changed. We didn’t want them to. Real people only change by tiny increments, and that’s usually for biological reasons – i.e. age and its associated neuro-endocrine decline - rather than because of some moral epiphany. It takes truly great drama to pull off a real character arc, and that’s rare. What was that great Conrad line in Heart of Darkness?
“Droll thing life is – that mysterious arrangement of merciless logic for a futile purpose. The most you can hope from it is some knowledge of yourself – that comes too late – a crop of inextinguishable regrets.”
Wow. Imagine being able to write a line like that. But Mila is a series character. Do you see any fundamental changes coming for her?
MS: Wow, an incredible line: breathless! Hey, this is Heart of Darkness! Well, after this, what can I say? Yes Mila is a series character… I think that integrity for her is the most important thing, but integrity, for her, is something that works in a very particular way. She is a predator, that’s for sure, and she is ‘damaged goods’, like she said. She can’t accept herself for what she is, because someone made her ten years ago into what she is now, and she doesn’t like what she sees. So, she is full of regrets and rage and pain and sweetness and all these feelings and bloods and souls are trying to stay together in just one woman. I love what she represents for me. She is not only a character, of course, she is a woman in flesh and blood, you know what I mean? And I remember that it was a little bit strange when, after the first novel, the readers asked me if Mila would have fallen in love with someone, and I must confess that I said, “No.” And for that reason, I wrote a second book that was tougher and harder and more bitter than the first one. Black Queen was strongly influenced by more UK authors: Derek Raymond, Adrian McKinty, Allan Guthrie, and as I probably told you, an author named Tim Willocks. There is also the German tradition: Friedrich Schiller, Novalis, Theodor Storm, Ernst T. A. Hoffman, Heinrich von Kleist, but the point was that I wanted Mila to be able to face the evil side of men, not for a personal vengeance, but to protect another woman. That topic was really intriguing for me. After that, in her third novel, I think she will deserve a little bit of tenderness, but a little bit, not more than that, and she will protect a black child from traffickers, contractors and slavers. Together with that small child she will recover and collect something she had lost. But all these kind of changes are necessary for her to leave her life and path of blood and glory, because Mila IS blood and glory and not because I want that for her. Maybe one day she will fall in love, but not today. Personally I don’t like it so much when a series character is the same every time. I like that it’s coherent, that’s for sure, but what I need and like, as a reader and also as a novelist, is that she or he will grow up and discover new feelings and reactions and things that belong to her or him. I don’t like so much to read the same old story in every episode or novel. That’s the reason why I loved Cicero Grimes and Jefferson as characters in novels like Bad City Blues and Bloodstained Kings, you know what I mean. Probably what I love are epics and sagas more than series. What I want is not only a new quest or adventure for my character, I think that I need more than this.
And you? What do you think about the difference between series and epics and sagas? I’m asking because, in fact, even your second novel - in the Tannhauser series - is completely different, in my opinion, from the first one: darker, stronger, faster than the first one, in my opinion, do you agree?
TW: I’d say that, apropos my above comment, the ‘epic’ or ‘saga’ – grand tales of heroes, usually historical – are the classical embodiments, or even the literary blueprints, of ‘the hero’s journey’. There is some evolution in the nature of the character; it’s more of a chronicle of a life, or part of a life. The traditional series character – Bond, Parker, Travis McGee - doesn’t change, but that’s part of the appeal – they’re like an old friend that you can rely on. They never get older; they don’t change their attitudes or methods. This makes them more predictable, but that’s part of the pleasure they give us. Perhaps it goes back to the pleasure of childhood when we loved to hear or read the same story dozens of times. “Read it again!” Some research suggests that we do actually get more satisfaction if we know how a story ends – which is why some people read the end of a book first. It makes one wonder why one should go to the trouble of creating suspense, though even if one does there is always someone who will smugly declare that they saw it coming from page thirty. Another reason not to try to please people, as you can never please everyone.
I always feel an obligation to go beyond where I have been before in a new novel, though I am not sure it is wise. Like everyone else, I have often had the experience of being disappointed by something new from an artist I love. Why wasn’t Blood Money as good as Rain Dogs? Why wasn’t The Aviator as good as Goodfellas? Where is Blood Meridian II? What’s wrong with these people? Gimme another masterpiece, now! But of course it’s ridiculous; inhuman even. To make even one great work is almost impossible. Six is a miracle. But twelve? Twenty? The fine arts are an interesting – or puzzling – exception. I am no expert in these matters, but it seems that while we don’t hesitate to identify at least some work by even such towering figures as Shakespeare or Beethoven as ‘minor’, virtually everything splashed on a canvas by Picasso or Monet is, by definition, ‘a masterpiece’. I know that used to mean simply, ‘a work by a master’, but that’s not what we mean. There are a handful who never fell below that level - Leone, Kubrick - but they tend to have smaller outputs.
The Twelve Children of Paris has a different tone and pace to The Religion because it was a very different place and situation. It had to be darker and more intense, though the pacing is in some ways an illusion created by the timescale of the story. As Aristotle pointed out, a story taking place over mon
ths or years will inevitably feel ‘slower’ than one taking place in hours or days, no matter how ‘intense’ the writing or events. Film has developed various techniques for cheating this - Goodfellas uses them all, brilliantly – but the manipulation of time in film is easier because time is part of the very fabric of the medium. Twelve Children is more like High Noon or 24; it’s a 36-hour story that probably takes about 36 hours to read. Most of my books take that approach – I like the intensity it provides. When there are time gaps, I always wonder what the hell the characters are doing. Sleeping? Talking about football? Why isn’t there something important going on? Even though one leaves out the boring bits, the reader knows unconsciously that they are there.
The 21st century is moving faster than anyone can keep track of. Everyone is clinging to the roof of the train hoping they won’t fall off – except for the elites, who are inside it; but even they, if they have any intelligence, are waiting for the train to hurtle off the tracks, or hit the various trains coming in the opposite direction. Literature has always tackled its own present, tried to illuminate it even if subliminally. How can the novel – how can we – approach our own present, given that it is changing at such speed? Even the most prescient writers, like William Gibson, are outdated almost by the time their novel is published. Technology is moving faster than the literary imagination – which is no surprise as technology is imagination and, unlike the writer in his isolated pit, the techies are working in vast, highly-paid teams in gleaming laboratories all over the world. So how do we write about now? Can we? Has the novel outlived its time? Are we heading the way of opera and theatre – into the museum of culture?
MS: Personally, I don’t think so. Of course technology has changed prices, distribution, marketing strategies, but not the most important thing: a good tale is a good tale. I have no doubt about this and it doesn’t matter if you sell that tale in eBook, audiobook, paperback or hardcover, because I’m sure that the story is the central point, even today. And also powerful characters, razor plot, fast-paced action, a unique atmosphere, profoundly and originally described and written, are all key elements. You can write original and strong stories for movies and videogames, you can call them screenplays or screenwriting or plot or synopsis or whatever you want, but everything must start with a great tale, a great story. Love and war, passion and hatred, history and fantasy, are immortal and enduring and represent our hearts and feelings and souls for ever. The point is: how good is your story?
More than this, I think that through technology, we will have more readers today than in the past, and maybe thanks to technology, they could give a chance to a new author for a very small amount of money, and if that novelist is a good one and they love him, then maybe they could buy a hardcover edition of one or more or all of his books. So, I’m optimistic, and I’m very grateful to Exhibit A and Angry Robot, because they understood perfectly how important it is today to offer different editions and formats of the same story. We have new devices like Kindle and Nook or whatever, and we have to use them to help build and create a close relationship between an author and his readers, today more than ever.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
For this spectacular English-language edition I would like to thank His Majesty Allan Guthrie, an extraordinary author and the King of all British Editors; Marco Piva-Dittrich, the Grand Bailiff of Translations and a very close friend – practically a brother; Emlyn Rees, the best Editor in Chief I could ever dream of having. Huge thanks to all the team at Exhibit A and Angry Robot. And then thanks to Lyda Patitucci, who directed the cinematic teaser “Mila in Bloodstained Delta”, and to Melissa Iannace, who took the amazing cover picture. Tim Willocks gave me the huge honour of discussing Mila with me at the end of the novel. It was wonderful: for me Tim, just like Allan, is a role model and a guiding light. Thanks to Victor Gischler for the fantastic intro. He is my personal hero and a huge inspiration for my work. Many thanks also to Linwood Barclay and Joe R. Lansdale. And to Marina Alessandra Marzotto... she knows why, ha ha. To all of you who are reading this English language version – please give the killer with the red dreadlocks a chance: you won’t regret it. To booksellers, promoters, journalists and bloggers who are kind enough to give Mila some exposure: I hope to meet you, wherever you are, to thank you in person.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Matteo Strukul is an Italian author of pulp-crime fiction. His first critically acclaimed novel The Ballad of Mila was shortlisted in his native Italy for the Premio Scerbanenco /La Stampa and won the Premio Speciale Valpolicella. This is the first in an on-going series focused on a female character, the Italian Bounty Hunter Mila Zago, a.k.a. Red Dread. Matteo Strukul is also a well-known graphic novel writer. Together with international artist Alessandro Vitti (MARVEL and DC), he created Red Dread, a comic book series with Mila Zago as protagonist. The series is published by Italian independent label Lateral Publish and was awarded the Premio Leone di Narnia as “Best Italian comic book series of the year”. Creator and founder of Italian literary fiction movement, Sugarpulp, Matteo is also the artistic director of the Sugarpulp Festival – an international event focused on crime and popular fiction – as well as being line editor of Revolver, a crime fiction imprint of Edizioni BD. Matteo earned a PhD in European Law of Contracts at the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and lives between Padua and Berlin with his wife Silvia.
matteostrukul.com
twitter.com/matteostrukul
EXHIBIT A
An Angry Robot imprint
and a member of the Osprey Group
Lace Market House,
54-56 High Pavement,
Nottingham NG1 1HW
UK
PO Box 3985
New York
NY 10185-3985
USA
www.exhibitabooks.com
A is for Azzurri!
Copyright © Matteo Strukul 2014
Matteo Strukul asserts the moral right to be
identified as the author of this work.
Cover photograph: Melissa Iannace, from the set "Mila in Bloodstained Delta"
(directed) by Lyda Patitucci; design by Argh! Oxford
Set in Meridien and Franklin Gothic by EpubServices
All rights reserved.
Angry Robot is a registered trademark, and Exhibit A, the Exhibit A icon and
the Angry Robot icon a trademark of Angry Robot Ltd.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and
incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination.
Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or
localities is entirely coincidental.
Ebook ISBN: 978 1 90922 374 5
UK Paperback: ISBN: 978 1 90922 372 1
US Trade Paperback: ISBN: 978 1 90922 373 8
The Ballad of Mila Page 17