INTERVIEW with soup
Gregory Keith "SOUP" Phillips Jr. agreed to do an interview with mannequin haus About his latest Book MOMBASA RADIO RADIO.
MANNEQUIN HAUS: Did you listen to mombasa radio broadcasts during the composition of your book mombasa radio radio
SOUP: well writing mombasa was actually more of an event. i took too much lsd and had a schizophrenic break and started hearing voices. they would play me songs in my head without me actually listening to the radio and they would talk and I would take notes. So Mombasa Radio Radio is basically my psychedelic journal in novela format
SOUP: it was torture i might add
MH: In the process, what instenses emerged most in the final book for you as the author
SOUP: well the chapter the wall. during my episode nothing i ate tasted good and i got diagnosed with cotard syndrome which you think you are already dead, so i stopped eating. i weighed 108 lbs and almost died. all the while being tortured psychologically and even physically. awful tactile hallucinations. pure pain
SOUP: so the chapter the wall is very important to me, for people to understand what it's like to have schizophrenia
i would also get beatings
the voices whatever they were would slap me using my own body
MH: I'm enraged by the medical die cut system, which turns people with no prior symptoms into completed, and labeled emblems of the status quo "crazy person" when people who are struggling with illnesses of the spirit or mind cannot find true help, what have you found in this text that explains this predicament, if any, and what take do you have as an individual?
SOUP: well schizophrenia is a very misunderstood illness. it's very complex, but basically you aren’t schizophrenic unless you are having a schizophrenic episode, you are just diagnosed with schizophrenia. i sadly fit into the category of violent schizophrenic though which is well under 1% of the schizophrenic community. what the voices said to me were some of the most deranged things i've ever heard, so naturally it made me mad and there were suspects. I never actually hurt anyone, but I wanted to. This is not the case with most schizophrenics. They are generally very passive.
SOUP: to this day no one knows where the voices come from.
MH: I am interested in schizophrenia on many levels, since in fact it Is one of the most most complex mental orders, ( not disorders) which can subject the body to so much stress, releasing some of the most brilliant conversations in music, film, poetry and fiction, performance art and other forms of human expression. It seems there is a subtle form of mysticism, a form in its textualization that refers to spirituality, such as shamanism that must be recognized, what is your stance on this broadened idea?
Or total non idea?
SOUP: Apparently I am a Lucifer spawn. The voices going by the priory of sion tell me there are 26 Lucifer spawns on earth at any given time and are always poor. which i can relate as i don’t believe in crowns. i believe everyone is God, or nobody is God. that’s it.
MH: I want to ask you about the cookies on the cover
SOUP: oh
well i just like cookies
SOUP:
in the book the guys live off cookies for a while and are tortured but they're tuff so all that happens is is they like cookies a lot
so
yeah its cute
MANNEQUIN HAUS:
When did you start writing, and what does your process look like? Do you keep a journal around, use note cards, type on an old laptop, do you record your voice with dictation, and then transcribe later. What have you found that keeps the writing effortless? Or free flowing?
SOUP: Well I took all my notes on a private fb page and write all my books on an iphone 6 using pages. my process for my work is I just kinda start writing and it comes to me, but Mombasa Radio Radio was a little different because it’s based on notes, so I had to compile them and make it a congruent story but yeah. I write all my stuff on an old iphone 6. i like the little keyboard
MH: What authors do you read?
SOUP:
i'm actually dyslexic so it's really hard for me to read. i've read maybe five books in my life
i flip words and numbers
my editor hates me
MH:
What do you think writing can offer people in this technological era we live in
SOUP:
i haven't thought about it
i just enjoy writing
my books are strictly entertainment
but mombasa is a statement
MH:
You have mentioned sustaining a three year bought of full blown schizophrenia, during the composition of Mombasa. Did writing this piece help you in the end? Or did that exasperate your condition
SOUP:
to be honest, writing mombasa was triggering, very difficult to write without becoming delusional. The voices know history and places I didn't know existed, but yes... Writing Mombasa was kinda the final chapter of recovery
so going over notes im just like “How do they know this stuff?” and that is triggering because they do give you facts everyone in a while*
so i like this msger interview it feels more official than email
like i'm actually being interviewed
this is good great questions
MH:
I'm always searching for something new, like a new movement or writers innovating in ways that haven't been tried, I feel like most of the experiments have already happened, I see it in old texts, do u think there is anything new under the sun, or should authors look into the past? Also, can schizophrenia texts have their own genre, or is that exploiting the mental illness and glorifying it ?
SOUP: um... well a lot of schizophrenic writing lacks contexts and is generally a mess of psycho-babble so I guess that is a genre
i'm really not sure if we should look into the past. I very much live in the present, but with media storytelling has become very complex with stories like Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones. I feel like you can look forward to this style of writing from younger writers
a more complex writing style
we are in a modern age
MH:
What is your stance on the medical system? Does it inspire or destroy creativity?
SOUP: you can't destroy creativity, but you can destroy a creation
the medical system is fucked
i've been in it for a long time
basically unless your rich you get gov workers who don't give a fuck about you and wish they went into another field or are like miss ratchet totally fascist
luckily i finally found a dr i'm going to keep. took over a decade
MH:
Do these characters end up in parts of your stories?
SOUP: ah nah
MH:
OK, doctors who know what they are doing is almost impossible to find.
That's awesome
SOUP: well to be more accurate are we talking about psychiatrists?
MH:
I guess so
SOUP:
because they are basically specialized pharmacists
MH:
I was curious if any of the hospital stuff ever ends up in your writings
SOUP:
that's what a psychiatrist is
it will
i have 5150 notes
future stories
MH:
Does violence take a role in your work, is it glorified, or do you like to stay away from it
SOUP:
i don't glorify violence, but my voices do. Mombasa Radio Radio is a very violent book
it's about a spec ops dude, so that's kinda his job. Violence. The Unofficial Special Forces Motto is “When I get there, I will arrive violently”
i actually had to dumb down all the Violence in Mombasa Radio Radio or it would have been smut
MH:
Can you tell me a little bit more about what organizing the notes was like, did you have a kind of mind map where you write down sections, circle them and connect them, or what was that part like ?
SOUP:
it was very linear. Voices would show up and we would write down everything they wanted, then it would be followed by a signature of the active voice and signatures of the other entities who were in here with me followed by a timestamp. Sometimes I’d be awake for days writing down every sick and twisted thing they told me.
MH:
I wonder, Nature seems to be violent, there are natural predators, and natural prey, what does this say about us as humans, do you think we are inherently predators, or prey? Or in my theory there are different subspecies of humans, like there are orangutans and then there are bonobos, silver backs etc. Some are violent some not. What do you think of this kind of idea?
SOUP:
its a predatory world... sadly
formal was the word i was looking for earlier
when i said this is a better vehicle for the interview
MH:
What is your take on mental illnesses being viewed as shamanic in other cultures outside of us of a? I believe that people considered mentally Ill have great gifts that are being ignored or stamped as crazy, and thrown aside,
SOUP:
well, this is an interesting fact. schizophrenic episodes are different for the person depending on where you are. For example in India schizophrenic episodes are beautiful. in the states and the uk they are incredibly scary.
where you are in the world
world
that is a fact
so
MH:
I believe that, because environments create the feedback loop inside the interpreter
sure
MH:
The environment makes us what we are
SOUP:
i'm not sure if i can back that
MH:
What makes a good writer in your opinion?
SOUP:
adjectives and a good plot
you can be just about anyone, but if you have good adjectives and a solid plot. You can write a book
MH:
What can writers do to give people like the thing known as the trump the middle finger, backed with a real damaging follow through, how can we as people stand against these awful sons of assholes, like republicans or this whole fucked system in general?
SOUP:
Inspire, create and share ideas.
anyone can do this
MH:
You mentioned taking too much LSD. I have read a lot of things about LSD lighting up the entire brain. Why do you think this can lead to hearing “Voices” and do you still like to take LSD or are you careful, I know microdosing is a thing people have been doing, and have heard that LSD can be good for headaches. What’s your take on the drug?
SOUP: well lsd can’t make you schizophrenic, but if you are it can result in an episode.
episodes last anywhere from 10min to five years, If I remember correctly
luckily Kaisar the Cuban leprechaun told me to get on psych meds.
and even more fortunately they worked
as far as my lsd use, my tripping days are over. I’m over it and my meds wont allow any action
so that’s that
MH:
What inspired Ruby (lilith)?
SOUP:Lilith was a full on hallucination
she was one of my voices
MH:
The sadness I felt was great when I found out that ruby had been raped, It felt personal and created a bond with the main character, something in which I wanted to see him "win" What inspired this thread
SOUP:
i mean mombasa radio radio is a product of madness. It just wrote itself
MH:
Did you research for the plot, or was research done afterword? What is your take on the US military, are you pro or anti, or somewhere just in the middle
SOUP:
there was no research done
lets leave out part two of that question
the voices knew their history
thats the confusing part
def sentient beings