The Nelson-Boswell Reading Series returns to NMSU’s Milton Hall Friday night at 7:30, featuring author Jessica Alexander. Jessica will be reading a sampling of her work, including her latest novel, the Gothic parody “Agnes, We’re Not Murderers.” Scott Brocato recently spoke to her about her work.
Scott Brocato:
Jessica, your website describes "Agnes, We’re Not Murderers” this way: “Lesbian vixens from another dead world thread through moon-drenched cornfields and opulent drawing rooms in the literary horror remix of iconic Gothic sagas.” So please break all of that down and talk about what the book is about.
Jessica Alexander:
Sure, I'd love to!
So it's a Gothic parody. That description that you just read, it's a little over the top. It's Gothic camp or Gothic burlesque. which is to say that the genre celebrates the Gothic, but it's also critical in ways that comedy can be.
So the novel plays on certain Gothic tropes or retells iconic Gothic narratives. And one of which that's sort of central to my novel is Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu’s “Carmilla,” which is a 19th century vampire novel. And it actually predated (Bram Stoker’s) “Dracula.” I think people think “Dracula” is kind of the iconic vampire novel, but it came before “Dracula.” And it's about this female vampire, Carmilla, and she's pretty irresistible to young women of marriageable age, and she vampirizes them. And it's upsetting to the men because they're all trying to arrange these alliances by marrying their daughters off. And so in other words, Carmilla is disrupting an economy dependent on the exchange of women. So the men obviously hunt down Carmilla and kill her.
So in Sheridan Le Fanu's novel, Carmilla's bad, but there's also something that's kind of unclear about it because she's so irresistible; and as a reader, you're really drawn to her. But I would also say that like any horror, they represent cultural anxieties. And so the vampire takes many different forms throughout history and each form is representing some different cultural anxiety. And I would say probably kind of early 19th century female vampire seducing women, I would say that that's representative of maybe an anxiety around women's desire and the need to control and channel it.
Scott Brocato:
And what inspired you to write it?
Jessica Alexander:
I was really curious about the form of the Gothic. I was reading a lot of Gothic novels and I was just interested in these stylistic choices that were being made. And so I wanted to sort of embody it, but really kind of exaggerate it in a comedic way.
Scott Brocato:
And it's unique in that it's written partially with footnotes, with a “mystery of interwoven red text.” Talk about that and why you decided to go with that kind of form.
Jessica Alexander:
So there's a couple of answers to that one. And one is sort of a more personal answer, and maybe I'll do that one second. And the other one is that there's the novel that exists, and it's this fictional world. And in some ways, when I'd written it, I wrote it a while ago, and then I came back to it and I felt very distant from it. And I wondered kind of what my relationship to this fictional world was. And so what I started to do was highlight certain words. and then write a footnote that was autobiographical. And so in some ways, underneath the text, there's this other text, kind of what's haunting me.
So you could think about the fiction as a house and the autobiographical footnotes as sort of my own life that's haunting my fiction. And I think when we write fiction, our fictions are haunted by our lives. We are very much inside of them, even if we don't exactly know how to access that personal experience that we've hidden away in there.
Scott Brocato:
Well, let's go backwards a little bit further. What led you to become a writer?
Jessica Alexander:
I mean, I think I've always been kind of a dreamer. And so I have always had that kind of instinct for story. And I was a reader as well. And so from a young age, I was telling stories, I was writing stories, but I really began to seriously pursue it in college, I had writing groups and we would get together and we would write outside of class and share our stories. And then I went and got my MFA. And I was taking fiction classes, but because I was really interested in style and sentences and word choices, I was also taking a lot of poetry workshops. So I got kind of the best of both worlds. The poets would look at my sentences, and the fiction writers would look at my story.
Scott Brocato:
Well, you'll be appearing Friday night here at Milton Hall at NMSU, part of the Nelson- Boswell reading series. What can we expect from you that evening? From which of your works will you be reading? I assume “Agnes” will be one of them?
Jessica Alexander:
Yeah, I think I'll read a little bit from “Agnes.” I'm currently working on a campus noir novel. It takes place on a college campus, and it's sort of a mystery. It's sort of inspired by noir, and I'm excited about that. That's kind of the thing that's energizing me creatively right now. So I always like to read the thing that is alive in me. So I'll probably read a little bit of both of those.
Scott Brocato:
I've asked you ahead of time to read a portion of your work. I suggested "Agnes, We’re Not Murderers.” Is that what you would like to sample for us now?
Jessica Alexander:
I'd love to. Yeah, and I'll just read the opening of a chapter just a little bit, give you a taste.
“The inn sat outside of Bath. The doctor rolled up five weeks or more before. Catherine was convulsing on the carriage floor. Catherine's mother, who was also the doctor's mistress, sat swaddled in furs and shuddered. The inn sat black and bird-like on a copse of oaks, whose dark and gnarled branches stretched skyward as if to choke. To stroke, the doctor corrected, the heavens. She didn't like it. Catherine needed a bed, the doctor insisted. Lightning split an oak in twain. One massive half crashed down, took a horse out. That settled it. The girl was dead, the doctor knew, but his mistress didn't need to. The doctor carried Catherine upstairs. His mistress stood over the bed. “She doesn't look like herself,” the doctor's mistress said. “Nonsense,” the doctor told her. She wrung her hands, the green froth around her lips. She asked, “Is it normal?” Catherine snapped and caught her mother's necklace in her mouth. She snarled and yanked at it. The necklace burst, beads bounced off the floor, rolled under the bed. The mistress fell down.”
Scott Brocato:
All right, that's from "Agnes, We’re Not Murderers.” What do you want people to take away from Friday night's appearance?
Jessica Alexander:
I want them to enjoy it. Yeah.
Scott Brocato:
First and foremost.
Jessica Alexander:
I want them to enjoy the narratives. First and foremost, pleasure. (Laughs)
Scott Brocato:
All right, well, it's Friday night at NMSU’s Milton Hall, part of the Nelson Boswell reading series. Jessica Alexander, it's a pleasure speaking with you. We'll see you Friday night.
Jessica Alexander:
Thanks so much, Scott.
