The following is a sample interview I did with a friend of mine, which hopefully answers some FAQs about Joie de Vivre.
What is Joie de Vivre, in your own words?
It's an existential horror novel dressed up in science fiction clothing.
Beyond that, it's quite difficult to describe as it's very abstract and surreal. When I wrote it, I never really thought that some day I'd have to try and describe it to potential readers. I just wrote what was in my in head at the time.
I often describe the book as being a bit like a David Lynch film because a lot of the plot works on dream logic—however, the book is also heavily philosophical and has a bit of a cerebral, even satirical, edge to it.
And though I've marketed it as a horror novel, personally I see it as being an extremely black comedy.
Where did the idea for the book come from?
Joie de Vivre began life as a short story that I wrote circa 2021 when I was going through a very dark time in my life. I’d lost my job, had nowhere to live, my car broke down, I was completely isolated and my physical health was in the toilet—and all of these things happened within around a month of each other.
I ended up posting the story in various places online and it got a very positive response, but because it was a short story I didn’t feel that there was a whole lot I could do with it.
The novel came a few years later, after reading David Lindsay’s A Voyage to Arcturus, which gave me an idea for what the second half of the book could look like. The novel is also a lot more tongue-in-cheek than the original short story, as I was in a much better place mentally while writing it, and wasn't taking it or myself nearly as seriously.
Why did you choose to write it in second person?
I originally wrote it in first person, but that didn’t feel right. Then I tried third person and that was even worse. Which meant that my only other option was second person, because I have no idea how to write a book in fourth person or zeroeth person.
Who or what is MACHINE?
You'll have to read the book to find out.
What themes were you most interested in exploring?
I wanted to explore the relationship between intersectional feminism and quantum physics.
Unfortunately, I don’t know anything whatsoever about either of those topics, so instead I wrote a book about people on a spaceship getting tortured by an AI.
Is this a dystopia, a horror story, or something else?
Yes. To all of the above.
Is Joie de Vivre meant to be political?
No. No, no, no, no, no! God no!
I wasted the best part of my 20s taking politics seriously and half the reason I started writing fiction was to try and distance myself from that sordid period of my life.
That said, I don’t begrudge people the right to draw political conclusions from the book because it is a very abstract book, and like all abstract art it’s really a mirror that shows the viewer or reader their own subconscious.
I’m sure that there’s a lazy, surface-level reading of the book that might see it as a critique of capitalism or fascism or socialism or whatever. And if you see that then that’s what you see... but please remember that any conclusion you draw is a reflection of your own psyche and values being projected onto the book.
It in no way shape or form reflects my own views. I don't even know what my own views are, these days.
How much of this is personal?
Oh, this is a VERY personal book. In fact I’d say it’s the closest thing to an autobiography that I’ll ever write.
Obviously it's not a literal biography, as I've never owned a dog before, but I did once live on a spaceship run by an evil AI.
Why set the story on a spaceship?
Well I was originally planning to set the book in a dung heap but somehow I don’t think anyone would have wanted to read that. Including me.
The honest answer is that I don’t quite remember why, though I am a big fan of science fiction and so it felt natural for me to cloak the narrative in the language and aesthetic of sci fi, even though it's not really a science fiction book.
What were your biggest influences while writing the book?
Well I’ve already mentioned David Lindsay’s A Voyage to Arcturus. The book also owes a very obvious debt to Harlan Ellison’s I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream. And Franz Kafka probably had a hand in this too.
Some early readers have compared the book to House of Leaves, which is very flattering and I guess I can kind of see where they're coming from. It's also been compared to Jeff VanderMeer's Annihilation, however I can't claim that as an influence as I didn't end up reading Annihilation until after I'd written Joie de Vivre.
The other big influence on this book was the Bardo Thodol, or Tibetan Book of the Dead, which I read just before I started writing the novel—and this is what inspired the structure of the book and all the allusions to Buddhism.
I imagine that Joie de Vivre would have been a VERY different novel had I not randomly stumbled across the Tibetan Book of the Dead just as I'd started outlining it.
Why did you write something so dark?
I don’t know if it is that dark. Far worse things happen in real life every day. To be honest, I find most of it quite funny—but then again, I am a very sick person.
Is it just torture porn? Or is there a point?
Why can’t it be both?
No, I’m kidding, there’s definitely a point. If you read between the lines you’ll hopefully see that there is an element of satire to the violence—it’s a metaphor for something else. But I don't want to say what, as it's a little too personal.
Is MACHINE actually evil, or just misunderstood?
I don’t believe there’s any such thing as good or evil—in fact that I find the concept of good and evil to be quite a childish way of looking at the world.
As for MACHINE, well... actually, I don’t think I can answer this question without spoiling the whole book. You'll just have to read it to find out what MACHINE's true motives are.
What was the hardest part of writing this book?
Editing and rewriting, by far. I would rather spend five hours in a room alone with MACHINE and be injected with Liquid Pain than to ever have to go through the rewriting process again.
What’s something you’ve learned from writing Joie de Vivre that you didn’t expect?
The biggest surprise about Joie de Vivre was how quickly I was able to write it.
The first draft was around 100,000 words and it only took me two months to write. To put that in perspective, the first novel I ever wrote was 80,000 words and took me nearly two years.
This was a real loose stool of a book—I don’t know where a lot of it came from, but by gum, it came and it came quickly.
What do you hope readers feel after finishing it?
I hope it gives readers a small taste of the existential dread and despair I’ve been living with for most of my life.
Unless they’re already experiencing existential despair.
If that's the case, then I hope reading this book makes them feel a little less alone.
Do you see this as a standalone book, or part of something larger?
I generally see it as a standalone, but I’m not ruling out the possibility of a prequel or even sequel one day.
Either way, I can absolutely promise you that MACHINE will be back, in some form or another.
Why did you choose the title Joie de Vivre — of all things?
What do you mean? Does this book not fill you with a sense of joy and wonder at how great it is to be alive?
If MACHINE could read this interview, what do you think it would say?
I’m sure MACHINE is reading this interview. And we’ll all find out what it has to say soon enough.
Is there hope?
No. But we can always learn to laugh in the face of despair.