Adam Skelter, Author/Story Artist/Screenwriter: It’s interesting, the other day I went to
this bookstore…this cool experience I had yesterday.
Film Courage: There’s one left?
Adam: I know right? This little used independent bookstore over in Atwater Village [near Hollywood/Glendale,
CA]. And I walked in and saw these beautiful typewriters of these Remington’s that were
reconstructed and painted (beautiful) and I was drawn into it.
There was this woman, she was writing on it. And I wanted to buy one but I was checking
it out and she says “These are my typewriters.”
And I say “Oh? Are they are on exhibit?”
She says “Yeah, they are on exhibit and I’m actually a poet. I’m doing kind of
an exhibit.”
I say “What kind of poet are you?”
And she goes “Well I do this thing where I’ll look into your eyes. You can tell me
a word or a theme or something and tell me something that is relevant to you and then
I’ll write a poem for you and you can just pay me whatever you think it’s work.”
I was like “That’s amazing! I have to do this!” It was very cool.
So there was this phrase that was going through my head earlier in the day of outrunning ghosts.
It’s just an interesting idea and so I mentioned that.
She looked at me for a little bit and I could see the wheels turning and there’s this
kind of unique connection and then she turns around, it’s a small slip of paper into
the Remington and she starts typing and she starts out with the first “Outrunning ghosts
of love” she wrote.
And then she started writing this poem. It just flowed out of her and she almost ran
out of space and she says that rarely happens because something connected and I just worked
and she pulled it out and said “Can I read it to you?” I was like “Yes, of course.
It’s even better.” So she read it to me and I was surprised that genuinely moved me.
I love poetry. Most poetry is awful. So I’m a little skeptical when it comes to poetry
but I wanted to hear it and she came from such an emotionally open place when she wrote
about it. So she started writing this thing that genuinely moved me. My eyes teared up
and she realized that she got emotional from it as well.
What was amazing was that she was actually tapping into something that was deeply relevant
to me personally and I think that right there is the core of great writing which is that
she opened herself up emotionally and she delved into her own subconscious in a way
that she was able to extract this metaphors that resonated with me in a very, very deep
way.
We don’t know each other at all. Her name is Jacqueline Suskin [Author, Performance
Poet, Speaker] and I just remember because she signed it and put her name on the bottom
of the poem. It was this beautiful experience where just but engaging the metaphors that
were relevant to her she spoke to something that I needed to learn and experience and
that to me is at the core of what it means to be a writer, it’s at the core of what
it means to be an artist. It’s at the core of what it means to engage those metaphors
and so what we’re trying to do as writers (screenwriters, novelists, storytellers, short
stories, whatever) we’re trying to delve into that meaningful place, that vulnerable
place and in some way diagnose or identify or even just express some conflict through
the metaphors we are engaging and that’s where we find the meaning…The Anatomy of
Chaos.
Film Courage: Do you think she’s empathic (poet)?
Adam: Definitely. She was showing pure empathy. I’m skeptical when it comes to supernatural
things and things like that but whatever metaphor she was dealing with or that she was drawing
on spoke directly to me in a really beautiful way and I think great writers can do that.
When I say great writers I mean…I think everybody should be writing. It makes us all
better. It’s like [Kurt] Vonnegut says “Go write a poem. It will make you a better person.”
But great writers are able to tap into that subconscious in such a way that they’ll
speak to a human experience that connects to all of us.
Film Courage: It’s interesting because you said “Ghosts” and I just finished Every
Love Story Is a Ghost Story: A Life of David Foster Wallace [Author D. T. Max]. It was
all about his life. Adam: That breaks my heart.
Film Courage: I couldn’t read the ending. It was too sad. I started to get very angry.
He was so talented. It was such a waste and I was very upset and couldn’t read the ending.
But I read the beginning and the middle [parts of the book]. It’s an interesting concept
of ghosts as well. Because in some sense is that all we’re seeking is just this like…just
how she [Jacqueline Suskin] wrote this poem, this empathic experience through what we watch
or what we read? What we are looking for, what we’re watching to basically tell us
about ourselves? You brought up the word ghosts so, it had me wondering.
Adam: Yeah, that’s beautiful. David Foster Wallace [raises his glass to toast].
Film Courage: Okay…sorry.