V.S. Durruti

Jesse Lawrence
Jan 27, 2024
3 min read

For the friend, life's a trip. But it's just that most people are tripping really hard. For the old boy, shrugging a playful shrug, life is just a game. Albeit a noble one. Whatever life is, the man continues to walk his walk, with one foot in fear and the other in wonder of it all. Sisyphus is an existential tale - an allegorical, Dante-esque, and surreal walking meditation through a not-too-distant future. Questioning the notion of Will and Choice against Nature and inevitability, it is ultimately an homage to life and to living.

Today, I'd like to welcome V.S. Durruti to Authors Spot to discuss all things writing. Welcome, V.S.. Would you take a moment to tell our readers what you write and what how long you've been doing it?

I'd like to say I 'write' but I have to work for a living, so it's more a case of I 'have written'. I have written a philosophical, anthropological, and spiritual, fiction novel. It took 3 years to write. I'm painfully old school—I wrote it all out pen and paper first—only with a pen in hand can I keep up with my thoughts. I can't write spontaneously; I have to reason everything out first. For every two or three pages in the book, there's a week's worth of thinking!

Excellent. For your first novel, you wrote a combination of dystopian and allegorical mind-trip of a novel. How did you narrow in on that concept?

Through a lifetime's study of philosophy, religion, evolutionary biology, and the Huxleyan use of psychotropes. Not that the book subscribes to any particular religion—I think it's as anthropological as it is spiritual—but the man's predicament runs parallel with the biblical story of Job. There are some more obvious parallels too, namely The Tower of Babel and The Flood. Note also some Hindu and Buddhist references and there's also a subtle nod and a wink to Islam for those in the know...

How did your story morph over the life cycle of the writing process?

I didn't start the book until I had the basic structure sorted in my mind - the beginning, middle, and end so to speak. From then on it was a case of just fleshing it out as I went. Having said that, the title 'Sisyphus' only came to me about halfway through the book when I realized the conclusion to what I wanted to say.

Can you tell us about your influences, and how they shaped Sisyphus?

Ok, you asked - Existentialism, Albert Camus, Martin Heidegger, Absurdism, Dada, Religions (plural), Cormac Mccarthy, Thomas Hardy, J.D.Salinger, James Hilton, Mike Leigh's 'Naked', Terence Malick, nature, biology, physics, Pornhub, the Doors, Loscil, and a past Love. Probably best just read it and you'll get it.

Here's my goofball question for the day: If you replaced your idol, dead or alive, sidled up to you and handed you some headphones, what would be coming out of them?

Perhaps a goofball answer, but music, hopefully! And I'd assume it'd be the exact same kind of music I listen to. Speaking of idols, I'm a huge fan of the director Terrence Malick. I'd absolutely love to see a film adaptation of Sisyphus directed by him – I find his work mesmerizing, so wonderfully contemplative, and visually beautiful.

For some reason, I always get hung up on the word, allegory. In your opinion, what distinguishes an effective allegory from a less successful one?

Allegory works better when there's cultural familiarity. Some will understand most of the allegories in the book, but many will only understand the literal. There's a certain expectation of the reader - it's just the way it is.

And, how do you balance the mind-bending reactions of others with a tale that doesn't distract from what you've written? Pushing the edge while holding back enough to enjoy?

I don't think it's so mind-bending as to distract from its core message. Everything is placed 'just so', everything about it is perfectly fluid, logical and natural. I think the reactions to it speak more about what the reader is about and where they are in themselves.

Well, that was informative. Thank you for sharing. Before we go, please tell us about a forthcoming project or release.

Well, if some kind soul were to give me some money, so I could give up the day job and carry on writing, then yes, there is another book inside me. There is a sort of 'sequel', albeit a rather oblique one. More of a 'furtherance' of the point of the the first one. But til then, the Gods would have it that I am otherwise much distracted. Everything's exactly as it should be.