Paul Many

BIO

Paul Many is the author of My Life, Take Two for Walker & Company, which was named a New York Public Library “Book for the Teen Age”. Paul lives with his family in Ottawa Hills, Ohio.

INTERVIEW

February 26, 2002

Paul Many is both a teacher and writer who knows the importance of finding your special niche and following your own dreams. In MY LIFE, TAKE TWO he explores the troubled mind of a young man who seems to have no direction in life until he accidentally discovers an intriguing opportunity. Read what Many has to say about the pressures placed on artistic teens, his storyboard presentation, and more in the this interview with Teenread.com's Rob Cline.

TRC: MY LIFE, TAKE TWO'S narrator, Neal, is a young man whose friends and family pressure him to give up artistic pursuits in favor of more "serious" endeavors that might lead to a more "conventional" future. Do you think a lot of artistic kids feel this kind of pressure? Did you feel it as you worked to become a writer?

PM: First, let me say that I wrote the book to show how people go about finding their calling in life, not necessarily to say that pursuing artistic goals is the way to go for everyone. Ultimately, each person has to find his or her own way, and that's what Neal does. I'm sure there's pressure to be what people call practical, and it's often hard for young people who have artistic leanings to get support. People will say to you, "You want to be an artist (writer, musician, etc.)? Get real!" but what they are really saying is "accept my reality." Reality is, to some degree, what you make it. If you imagine something you want to be and steadily work towards it, even if you never get there, you'll have a wonderful trip and a fuller, happier life. My father owned a one-truck moving business and my mother was a full-time homemaker, but despite their practical backgrounds, they didn't pressure me but gave me the support to be who I wanted. I was lucky, I guess.

TRC: Neal uses his art --- his film --- as a way to come to terms with the loss of his father, an event he has struggled with for several years. What is it about artistic expression that helps us deal with grief and loss?

PM: In making his film Neal projects the memory of his father out into everyone's memory --- at least everyone who sees his film, thus helping to preserve it. Making art is making connections with people, usually on an emotional level. To paraphrase what C. S. Lewis said of literature, art helps us know we are not alone. I don't know if you've ever read a book where a character expressed a thought or idea that you thought only you ever had. Books allow us to see into the private lives of characters in ways that usually are restricted to only a few people we intimately know. Reading about characters who have gone through grief and loss can be comforting in trying times. Books also organize and make sense of the crazy reality we live in. This is also comforting.

TRC: As Neal tells his own story, it's clear that you worked hard to capture the nuances of "teenspeak." Was it hard to write in the voice of a young person? How did you find Neal's voice?

PM: I have too much respect for teens to try to imitate the way I think they speak. Instead, I imagine a teen character who has certain experiences and references and I let him honestly speak for himself. I think this is what real people do whether young or old. I found Neal's voice by steadily working with the character over the three years it took me to write the book.

TRC: Much of the book is told through Neal's storyboards or his film (though you had to portray that through words rather than visually). Do you think MY LIFE, TAKE TWO would make a good movie? Could this story be told as powerfully on film as it is in the book? Why or why not?

PM: I tend to read two or three books at a time, reading twenty pages of one and then switching to another. In my writing, I like to give readers a couple of different formats within the same book so they don't have to switch books like I do. That's why I used the storyboard formatting here. I also believe in the old writing rule: When writing about a bear, bring on the bear. So in writing Neal's story, I wanted to bring on the storyboards he was actually working with. Storyboards also enabled me to better deal with the fantasy nature of some of Neal's visions. I'd like to think the book would make a good movie. I tried to think cinematically to reflect the story line. But when all is said and done, I don't know if anyone ever makes a movie that is better than, worse than or equal to any book. It's a different art form that stands or falls on its own. I'd like to believe some talented filmmaker could make a movie out of Neal's story.

TRC: Much of the drama in the book grows out of the fact that the adults never take the time to understand what is really going on in any given situation. From Neal's parents to his employer, all the adults seem to jump to conclusions that eventually cause them embarrassment and pain. Do you think people --- and adults in particular --- are too quick to assume things about each other and about situations?

PM: One of Neal's chief characteristics is that he is a careful observer. Many people, instead of really observing, anticipate what someone will be like or how a situation will play out. Then they react to the person or situation they imagine instead of the one really in front of them. People both young and old may be guilty of this. In its extreme forms it leads to such things as superstition and prejudice. Using someone's haircut, manner of dress, or body structure as the sole means of deciding who a person is can cause the problems you mention above.

TRC: Late in the book, Neal suggests that not everything or everybody needs to have a specific, useful purpose. Can you expand on that idea? What does Neal's dad mean when he tells him that "It's important to have some things that aren't used for anything?"

PM: I have a lifelong love affair with the eccentric and the quirky. I love people who build cement castles in their backyards, wear coats made from sod, or write music based on the genetic code using instruments made from kitchen utensils. Once you liberate yourself from always being pragmatic, you allow yourself to make the leaps that may lead to things people have never imagined. In the book, I use the line from the poet e.e. cummings who said it best: "Dreams can do what deeds can't dream."

TRC: What was the most difficult aspect of writing MY LIFE, TAKE TWO?

PM: The book started out as something totally different, which I realized simply was not working. Unfortunately, the point I realized this was after I'd spent two years writing and polishing it. At that point, I had to come to a complete stop and start over. This is equivalent to putting a car in reverse while you're driving it down the highway, and for a short time, it stripped my gears. Once I tore apart what I'd done and started over, it finally went smoothly again.

TRC: What is your next writing project and when can we expect to see it?

PM: I'm just finishing a book to be titled WALK AWAY HOME, scheduled to be published by Walker & Co. in October, 2002. It's about a young guy who enjoys the adventure of walking long distances. One day he walks off to find his aunt who was the only one in the world who ever really understood him. He finds her living in a collection of rundown cabins along with a group of eccentrics. (There's that word again.) They are being harassed by the snotty kids who live in a nearby fancy development. Of course, he winds up falling in love with a girl from the development, and that's when things get interesting. It's played for laughs, but I believe it has something to say about how we go about finding a place in this world to call home.

For more information about MY LIFE see www.utoledo.edu/~pmany/MyLife1.html

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