AnOther/2016/Interview

InterviewPhotoshoot
DOCUMENT
Guest-edited and illustrated by GRIMES
Shot by Craig McDean for AnOther’s cover, Grimes aka Claire Boucher floats in a pastel, apocalyptic mist that brings to mind the planet SOLARIS, as described by Stanislaw Lem in his unnerving 1961 sci-fi novel. The book is one of a handful of favourites chosen for Document by the mercurial musician, whose taste in literature is as esoteric and far-reaching as her own sonic universe. The fantasy realms she loved to escape into as a child are represented by Marion Zimmer Bradley’s retelling of Arthurian legends from a female perspective; there’s a nod to her longtime love of Russian literature in Dostoyevsky’s THE IDIOT (her friends, she says, have compared her to Nastasya Filipovna); some haunting lyrics written by fellow Canadian Nicole Dollanganger, the first signing to Boucher’s artist co-operative, Eerie Organisation; and UFC champ Ronda Rousey’s call to arms, MY FIGHT/YOUR FIGHT, which is as outspoken as Boucher has been on the subject of being a woman in a male-dominated industry. Rousey, she told us, would be her ideal dinner party guest – along with Patsy Cline and Genghis Khan. The following 32 pages are filled with the stories Boucher loves, illustrated with her intensely scrawled, anime-inspired artwork.
Editor Hannah Lack
Illustrations Claire Boucher
1. THE IDIOT by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
“I really relate to the particular type of mental instability that Dostoyevsky describes in pretty much all of his work. A character starts talking, and things start getting out of control and become increasingly animated, intense and disturbing. It reads like an extreme version of how I feel whenever I have to interact with humans. The Idiot is probably my favourite of his works, because I love Nastasya Filipovna, Aglaya Ivanovna Epanchin, Rogozhin... I think a lot of my friends think I’m a bit like Nastasya! Anyway, it’s the most cartoonish and absurd of everything I’ve read by Dostoyevsky, and the best distillation of insanity as a virtue. A Baz Luhrmann-esque treatment of this book would make an incredible film.” 
2. THE GOOD EARTH by Pearl S. Buck
“For some reason I became enraptured by this book as a teenager. It smelled really amazing and dusty. I think our copy was from the 1940s and the pages would crumble as I turned them. I’ve never been so careful while reading a book, and I think that really endeared it to me. I’m very calmed by methodical descriptions of farming. The images of opium addiction amongst the wealthy Chinese aristocracy, who ‘smoked the flesh off their bones’, always come back to my mind; it’s so decadent and horrifying.” 
3. SOLARIS by Stanislaw Lem
“This book scared the shit out of me. I picked it up after watching the film adaptation by Tarkovsky, which is one of my favourite movies. Sometimes I feel like the only explanation for human life is that our planet is a terrible god. I like thinking that planets are living, sentient behemoths that we completely misunderstand. I’m horrified to think what it would be like if such an abstract sentience had no regard for us, or enjoying toying with us. The act of repeatedly killing a doppelganger or a loved one seems so horrific; how could anyone think of something so awful? Whenever people pour cream into coffee in a clear glass, it reminds me of this book, because that’s what I imagine the surface of Solaris to look like.” 
4. MY FIGHT/YOUR FIGHT by Ronda Rousey
“I was so touched by this book. I relate to Ronda in such an intense way, like I’ve almost never related to anybody my age – at least in the media. As a female producer who won’t work with co-producers, sometimes I feel like I don’t have any peers. When I first discovered Ronda, I was so moved that she was literally responsible for women entering the Ultimate Fighting Championship; that she walked into a man’s world and made it her own, even though everybody acted like she was crazy and didn’t think she could do it, or claimed that she only got there because of her looks. Everything, from being constantly exhausted because of eating issues, to the shame at being considered too masculine, to having no coach or mentor willing to train you, is something I have dealt with being a woman in a man’s industry. I also completely understand the commitment to being an entertainer whilst simultaneously perfecting your craft, and the kind of vitriol that this inspires from people on either end of the spectrum. Her dedication to being an autodidact, and the degree to which she has to train mentally to deal with the long hours and exhausting work, really struck me as both instructive and deeply relatable. This book changed my life, and made me feel so much less alone. I think all girls should read it.” 
5. POACHER'S PRIDE by Nicole Dollanganger
“When I first saw these lyrics written down I remember being shocked by how well they worked as a poem, which even great lyrics rarely accomplish. I appreciate how metaphorical this song is, how many things it can mean, but taken at face value it reads like a Frida Kahlo painting. Magical realism at its best. A small girl taking her father's rifle, shooting an angel, crucifying it, watching it die and getting a sick pleasure out of it. It's so vivid and horrifying... Simultaneously detestable and weirdly relatable.”
6. THE MISTS OF AVALON by Marion Zimmer Bradley
“Before I could read, I was obsessed with the cover art for this book, and would stare at it for hours at a time until I was finally old enough to read it and instantly devoured it. Being rased Christian and obviously in the patriarchy, a retelling of one of my favourite stories from the perspective of a female pagan protagonist was pretty much the best thing I could have imagined as a kid. I know the author is extremely controversial, but I know the proceeds of this book go to Save the Children... I guess everyone takes a differest stand on separating art from the artist, but I think taking this book out of the fantasy canon is a real shame.”
7. THE FLOWERS OF EVIL by Charles Baudelaire
“I’m not typically interested in poetry, but I discovered The Flowers of Evil in high school as I was just becoming a goth and getting into Trent Reznor – and everyone else was getting into the Beat poets, who I find comparably boring if we’re going to discuss druggy, surrealist poetry. This work is so visceral, filthy and gorgeously written. It feels like a distillation of the opium scenes from Pearl S. Buck’s The Good Earth, but more abstract and extensively documented. This one poem is just a disgusting, sexual description of a corpse that is permanently burned into my mind.” 
FURTHER READING
“I don't think there is any page-turner quite like One Thousand and One Nights, other than maybe Harry Potter. I read it when I was living in Russia and it was my only escape into the English language at the time (obviously I was reading an English translation). I brought it becaue it was the biggest book I could find in my house; I only had room for a few books, and luckily it turned out ot be awesome. It's incredibly surreal, dark, optimistic, dirty, and you're at the edge of your seat the entire time. As a child I used to go to the library a lot - I read mostly fantasy, sci-fi or historical fiction, and I got into Russian literature too, because my dad said it was cool. These days I usually get books from friends, but Pulpfiction Books in Vancouver is great, and Drawn & Quarterly in Montreal.”
Anonymous, THE ARABIAN NIGHTS: TALES OF 1001 NIGHTS. Penguin Classics, 2010.
Anonymous, DAS NIBELUNGENLIED (THE SONG OF THE NIBELUNGS). Yale University Press (translated by Burton Raffel), 2008.
B, David, EPILEPTIC (1996). Jonathan Cape, 2006.
Bulgakov, Mikhail (1928-1940), THE MASTER AND MARGARITA Penguin Classics (translated by Larissa Volokhonsky and Richard Pevear), 2007.
Dostoyevksy, Fyodor (1864), NOTES FROM THE UNDERGROUND. Penguin Modern Classics (translated by Ronald Wilks), 2009.
Gogol, Nikolai (1835), ARABESQUES. Ardis Publishing, 1982.
Herbert, Frank (1965), DUNE. Ace, 1990
Nabokov, Vladimir (1959), NIKOLAI GOGOL. New Directions, 1961.
Otomo, Katsuhiro (1982), AKIRA. Titan, 2991.
Pushkin, Alexander (1833), EUGENE ONEGIN. Oxford World Classics (translated by James E Falen), 1998.
Salinger, JD (1961), FRANNY AND ZOOEY. Little, Brown, 1991.
Uris, Leon (1958), EXODUS. Turtleback Books, 1983.
SINGER, SONGWRITER, PRODUCER AND COVERSTAR Grimes, AKA Claire Boucher, GUEST-EDITS THE DOCUMENT. READ IT IN FULL ON PAGE 001
Ever experienced a life-changing moment at a party? I suppose I have.
Fancy dress go-to outfit? A suit.
What makes a great party? If the percentage of reasonable attendees is 70 per cent or higher. Outdoor events are preferable as well.
Party trick? I can do Columbia's tap dance from Rocky Horror Picture Show.
https://www.anothermag.com/design-living/8394/grimes-the-books-that-made-meCategory:InterviewCategory:2016