{"id":714,"date":"2010-06-21T14:07:31","date_gmt":"2010-06-21T20:07:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/booklifenow.com\/?p=714"},"modified":"2010-06-21T14:07:31","modified_gmt":"2010-06-21T20:07:31","slug":"careening-off-each-other-on-the-bus-with-peter-conners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/booklifenow.com\/2010\/06\/careening-off-each-other-on-the-bus-with-peter-conners\/","title":{"rendered":"Careening off Each Other: On the Bus with Peter Conners"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Growing up Dead: the Hallucinated Confessions of a Teenage Deadhead<\/a><\/em>, Peter Conners tells the story of coming of age in the suburbs in the 1980s and discovering the music of the Grateful Dead<\/a>.\u00a0 Starting in high school, Conners<\/a> followed the Dead, learned to dance without inhibition, and discovered the joys of living a creative life through making music and writing.\u00a0 Those first Dead shows started a lifelong romance that has permeated every aspect of Conners\u2019 life.<\/p>\n

I love Growing up Dead<\/em>.\u00a0 Not just because Conners and I are the same age (we were born within two weeks of each other), and not because we went to some of the same Dead shows<\/a> (most notably Silver Stadium June 30, 1988<\/a> which gets a chapter in the book).\u00a0 I love Growing up Dead<\/em> because it is beautifully written — Conners has a poet\u2019s grace, a seeker\u2019s heart, and a musician\u2019s ear.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Maybe, too, I\u2019ve been carrying this book around with me so much lately because Conners answers the question a lot of Deadheads, myself included, have struggled to answer over the years \u2013 why<\/em> the Grateful Dead?<\/p>\n

As a writer, Conners moves around a lot, from project to project, genre to genre.\u00a0 He is the author of Whiskey and Winter<\/em> (poetry) and Emily Ate the Wind<\/em> (novella).\u00a0 His next book, White Hand Society: The Psychedelic Partnership of Timothy Leary & Allen Ginsberg<\/a><\/em>, is due out from City Lights in November 2010. He’s got a collection of poems, The Crows Were Laughing in Their Trees<\/em>, on the way from White Pine Press in spring 2011.\u00a0 There are rumors that he has two music-based novels hiding in his desk drawer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hit fewer dead ends [these days] because I\u2019ve tried just so many different approaches and found out what works best for me,\u201d said Conners. \u201cThat doesn\u2019t mean I don\u2019t try new things, but it does mean that I can sniff out the fruitless ideas faster and move on to more fruited plains.<\/p>\n

\u201cWriting keeps me from looking at the world the same way every day.\u00a0 I see things through the filter of my writing and as long as I\u2019m working on different projects, I\u2019m seeing the world in different ways. It\u2019s a great way to get high and stay that way without being arrested.\u201d<\/p>\n

Below, Conners and I talk about creativity, dancing, and riding the bus.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

How\u2019d you come to write Growing up Dead<\/em>?\u00a0 What sparked it off after all these years?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Peter Conners:\u00a0 <\/strong>I\u2019ve been writing and publishing poetry and fiction since I was about 20, but other than book reviews and the occasional essay, I hadn\u2019t tried nonfiction. So, in some ways, it was just time to try that genre and see how it worked, how it felt, etc. It also seemed like the right time to capture my touring years. Many of the experiences I wrote about in Growing up Dead<\/em> are from the 1980s and, frankly, my memory isn\u2019t getting any better. I\u2019m also still in touch with a bunch of people from those days and, like memory, people don\u2019t last forever. So I was artistically in the right place and also chronologically in the right place to write Growing up Dead<\/em>.\u00a0 Then I just had to do it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

You write poetry, fiction, non-fiction.\u00a0 What is it about the memoir form that appealed to you?\u00a0 That suits this material \u2013 the story of your days on tour \u2013 more so than, say, fiction or poetry?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Peter Conners:\u00a0 <\/strong>I\u2019ve touched on the Dead scene in some of my fiction, but nothing as in-depth as Growing up Dead<\/em>. I certainly could\u2019ve tried fictionalizing the story and it may have made certain things easier (i.e. \u201cI didn\u2019t really do all those illegal things\u2026 it was purely fiction!\u201d). It was important to me to really own<\/em> this story though. To tell it as I remembered it and as my friends and I lived it. The experiences I wrote about were so powerful for me, so formative, that fictionalizing it would\u2019ve felt a bit like copping out\u2026 or selling the story short. If I was going to do it, I was determined to do it as true as possible. Ironically, for the screenplay of Growing up Dead<\/em>, just the opposite was true. The best way to tell the story was to turn it into fiction.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

S<\/strong>urely, it was a challenge to bridge the gap between worlds, between the world of Deadheads and the uninitiated.\u00a0 How\u2019d you keep the book from being inaccessible or too cryptic for the non-Head?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Peter Conners:\u00a0 <\/strong>A lot of the book relates to the general experiences of growing up in the suburbs in the 1980s. That might sound limiting, until you think about how many people in this country had that experience. Once you isolate those factors (teenager, suburbs, 1980\u2019s) you can approach the material from a sociological standpoint \u2013 what was the culture, the clothing, the traditions, the underpinning of the relationships, and, of course, the music? In that way, the book can strive to illuminate a unique social experience with the potential to be just as fascinating as the study of a remote village, or an Amazonian tribe, or Paris in the 1920s. If an author finds his\/her subject matter truly relevant and fascinating, then he\/she will communicate that. As unhip as it may be, I grew up in the suburbs in the 1980s. That was my life. No apologies, no regrets. So for people who aren\u2019t into the Dead, the book offers insights into a more familiar time and place \u2013 and those insights can, in turn, be a doorway into understanding what attracted many suburban kids to the Dead scene.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Being \u201con the bus\u201d grew out of the days of Ken Kesey<\/a> and his Merry Pranksters.\u00a0 In \u201cThat\u2019s It for the Other One<\/a>,\u201d Jerry Garcia<\/a>, Bill Kreutzmann<\/a>, and Bob Weir<\/a> write, \u201cThe bus came by and I got on\/ that\u2019s when it all began<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 What does it mean for you \u2013 as a writer, a father, a husband, a man, a human being \u2013 to be \u201con the bus\u201d?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Peter Conners:\u00a0 <\/strong>It\u2019s an inextricable part of who I am. I\u2019ve been on the bus<\/em> for 20 years now and I\u2019ve got a pretty good window seat. I\u2019m on the bus as a Deadhead and I\u2019m also on the bus as a writer and artist \u2013 and that combination keeps me grounded and also reaching for constant growth (as Bob Dylan says, \u201c He not busy being born is busy dying.\u201d) To me, being on the bus is about movement and not settling for a mundane point of view. It\u2019s a state of mind and I wouldn\u2019t want to live any other way.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

How much of the prankster do you reveal in your writing?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Peter Conners:\u00a0 <\/strong>All of my previous answers are lies.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Growing up Dead<\/em><\/strong> alternates between first person past tense and second person present tense, from \u201cI was\u201d to \u201cyou are.\u201d\u00a0 What prompted you to make this decision?\u00a0 What were the limitations?\u00a0 What did it allow you to do?\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Peter Conners:\u00a0 <\/strong>The second person allowed me to do a few different things. First of all, it kept the structure of the book from getting too staid. It\u2019s one thing to sit around telling \u201cwar stories\u201d with your buddies, but on paper, that gets old pretty fast. You want to tell a good story in an interesting, fresh way. So the second person point of view helped me structure the book in way that kept the reader engaged, not lulled. Along those same lines, there\u2019s an immediacy to the second person \u2013 it\u2019s not \u201cme\u201d telling you about my experiences all the time. It\u2019s \u201cyou\u201d \u2013 the reader – getting put into the middle of the scene. I found that certain experiences – for example drug-infused ones that cause the mind to race and search for traction – can be better communicated by foisting that confusion upon the reader rather than telling them about your befuddlement. The second person also allowed me to bring more of my lyrical, poetic bent to the writing of the book. I\u2019ve spent a lot time writing, reading, editing, and studying prose poetry and that\u2019s a tough habit to break. So the second person allowed me to take off onto poetic flights without abandoning the heart of the story.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

You describe the freedom of dancing at Dead shows, the safety, the using of your hands to direct balls of light and energy\u2026 What did dancing at a Dead show teach you about writing?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Peter Conners:\u00a0 <\/strong>Fluidity, experimentation, freedom, not worrying so much about what other people think, creating beauty even in ugly places (next to garbage cans in a coliseum hallway), valuing individual expression \u2013 my own and other people\u2019s \u2013 and seeing what stifling that expression can do to people, how to find joy, the importance of release, the value of repetition (you become a better dancer by dancing\u2026 and so too with writing), and the importance of being simultaneously present and completely gone when creating. <\/strong><\/p>\n

S<\/strong>ome of the most compelling sounds at a Dead show come when the band doesn\u2019t stop between songs, during the fade into<\/em>…\u00a0 the gloriously improvisational exploration of possibility between<\/em> recognizable songs.\u00a0 Is there an equivalent in writing for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Peter Conners:\u00a0 <\/strong>There is, but \u2013 for me anyway – those parts get edited out before the final piece of writing is published. Jack Kerouac is the best example of a writer who communicated at his best when leaving those parts in. I learned a lot and found a lot of joy by swimming through his \u201ctuning\u201d sections. But other writers have tried the same only to come off indulgent and tedious. For my own work, I\u2019d say those sections can warm me up as I find the true subject, the true pulse, of a piece of writing. But then I\u2019ll go through and trim them out before the work is published, so the reader can get right to the jams.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

At any point during the writing of the book or after its publication, did you worry about your kids reading this stuff?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Peter Conners:\u00a0 <\/strong>Oh sure. All the time. I still do. But, you know, Daddy\u2019s a writer, he\u2019s an artist, and that means he\u2019s walking a different path than some of the other Daddies. Eventually, we\u2019ll have to have more in-depth talks about what that all means. But one good thing about coming clean like I did in Growing up Dead<\/em> is that my ability to bullshit them just got slashed. And I choose to see that as a good thing. That said, my kids are eight, six, and three. Talk to me when they\u2019re teenagers and I may be whistling a different dirge.<\/strong><\/p>\n

You mentioned that you\u2019ve adapted Growing up Dead<\/em> for the screen.\u00a0 Was this your first go at a screenplay?\u00a0 How\u2019d the material adapt to the new form?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Peter Conners:\u00a0 <\/strong>Yes, this was my first screenplay. It was a real challenge and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Just like with trying nonfiction for the first time \u2013 I was eager to tackle a new way of writing, and this offered that opportunity. Growing up Dead<\/em> didn\u2019t convert easily to screenplay because there isn\u2019t a strong, distinct narrative arc to the book. So I had to pull out some key characters (Harry and Peter) and focus on a succinct period in time (their senior year of high school leading up to 1988 spring tour). The film will bring out those sociological aspects of 1980s suburban culture I talked about in the book while shaping a story that rings true, even though it\u2019s 90% fictionalized. The screenplay is very much \u201cbased on the book\u201d or \u201cinspired by the book\u201d as opposed to a pure adaptation. But the main thing is that \u2013 within this particular art form, the film form \u2013 the piece works. I think that it does. Now I stand back a little bit and learn about the collaborative nature of filmmaking. I\u2019m working with some really sharp and passionate people who are as dedicated to bringing Growing up Dead<\/em> to film as I am. It\u2019s gonna be a good ride.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

What are you working on these days?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Peter Conners:\u00a0 <\/strong>I\u2019ve been swinging back and forth between working on the Growing Up Dead<\/em> screenplay and finishing up my next nonfiction book which has been heavily research based. The book is called White Hand Society: The Psychedelic Partnership of Timothy Leary & Allen Ginsberg <\/em>and it will be published by City Lights in November 2010. Rather than reinvent the wheel, I\u2019ll just paste in City Lights\u2019 description of the book below. I\u2019ve also recently finished my next poetry collection, The Crows Were Laughing in their <\/em>Trees, which will be published by White Pine Press in spring 2011. As usual, I\u2019m juggling projects and enjoying how they careen off of each other and what that does to my brain, my perspective, my life. That\u2019s my window seat on the bus.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how City Lights <\/em>describes my new book, White Hand Society<\/em>:<\/p>\n

In 1960 Timothy Leary was not yet famous \u2014 or infamous \u2014 and Allen Ginsberg was both. Leary, eager to expand his experiments at the Harvard Psilocybin Project to include accomplished artists and writers, knew that Ginsberg held the key to bohemia’s elite. Ginsberg, fresh from his first experience with hallucinogenic mushrooms in Mexico, was eager to promote the spiritual possibilities of psychedelic use. Thus, “America’s most conspicuous beatnik” was recruited as Ambassador of Psilocybin under the auspices of an Ivy League professor, and together they launched the psychedelic revolution and turned on the hippie generation.<\/strong><\/p>\n

White Hand Society<\/em> weaves a fascinating and entertaining tale of the life, times and friendship of these two larger-than-life figures and the incredible impact their relationship had on America. Peter Conners has gathered hundreds of pages of letters, documents, studies, FBI files, and other primary resources that shed new light on their relationship, and a veritable who\u2019s who of artists and cultural figures appear along the way, including Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs, Thelonious Monk, Willem de Kooning, and Barney Rosset. The story of the “psychedelic partnership” of two of the most famous, charismatic and controversial members of America\u2019s counterculture brings together a multitude of major figures from politics, the arts, and the intersection of intellectual life and outlaw culture in a way that sheds new light on the dawn of the 1960s.<\/p>\n

Lastly, what\u2019s some of the best writing advice you\u2019ve received over the years and how did you use it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Peter Conners:<\/strong>\u00a0 It\u2019s sort of bleak, but my favorite college professor told me not to be a writer. He told me I was too smart for it and it was road of misery. I used the advice by ignoring it but never forgetting it. It has evolved to this little gem: If you don\u2019t need to write, don\u2019t do it. It\u2019s sort of a mini-MFA course in 9 words. Young writers will either heed it or they won\u2019t. It doesn\u2019t much matter. If you don\u2019t need to write, then don\u2019t. But if you do, then do. And good luck to you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Growing up Dead: the Hallucinated Confessions of a Teenage Deadhead, Peter Conners tells the story of coming of age in the suburbs in the 1980s and discovering the music of the Grateful Dead.\u00a0 Starting in high school, Conners followed the Dead, learned to dance without inhibition, and discovered the joys of living a creative life through making music and writing.\u00a0 Those first Dead shows started a lifelong romance that has permeated every aspect of Conners\u2019 life. I love Growing up Dead.\u00a0 Not just because Conners and I are the same age (we were born within two weeks of each other), and not because we went to some of the same Dead shows (most notably Silver Stadium June 30, 1988 which gets a chapter in the book).\u00a0 I love Growing up Dead because it is beautifully written — Conners has a poet\u2019s grace, a seeker\u2019s heart, and a musician\u2019s ear.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/booklifenow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/booklifenow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/booklifenow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booklifenow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booklifenow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=714"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/booklifenow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":720,"href":"https:\/\/booklifenow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714\/revisions\/720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/booklifenow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booklifenow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booklifenow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}