Benjamin Parzybok

Hugo House: Soon you will debut a brand-new piece at Hugo House; could you tell us a little bit about it?

Benjamin Parzybok: Here's what I know about it so far: It's trending a little more toward performance than straight fiction. I may ask the audience to use their cell phones in the middle of it. I may simultaneously release some opensource software, and I'm worried I'm juggling too many items. I've only had one dream about it so far which was more or less the prototypical pre-high school nightmare where you dream you've gone to school in nothing but your underwear. I plan to wear both pants and a shirt at the performance, check.

HH: Most writers we invite to create a new piece of writing on an assigned theme say no. Why did you say yes?

BP: Well, for one, I feel grateful to the Hugo House for housing a Gumball Poetry machine for a number of years. Second—I enjoy writing within a set of restrictions.

A friend of mine, Mel Favara, runs a Portland reading series based on the concepts of Oulipo, which on the surface seems completely wacky and yet writing under those guidelines can produce startling work. I was influenced by Lars von Triers' movie, "The Five Obstructions," where a director had to recreate the same short film under a strict set of restrictions five times.
Certainly part of the challenge here is writing under a theme, but a larger and more intimidating one is to write a piece that is meant to be performed rather than just read.

HH: Could you tell us a little bit about your process—how you approach writing something new?

BP: Most of my ideas come while walking. I religiously carry a stack of
3x5 cards in my pocket. In the upper right-hand corner, I use a symbol to categorize the project, and then, I write the note. The cards get spread out on the desk around me while I write.

HH: If you had one hour and you could visit anyone, living or dead, who would it be? Why?

BP: I continue to be intrigued by our roots as a species and the first organized civilizations, so I'd probably go as far back as I could to spend an hour with an urbanite in one of the first large-scale civilizations.

I just read that Babylonia was the largest city in the world in 1700 BCE, which really doesn't seem all that long ago. Isn't there anything farther back? Also, the universe feels very lonely. Were there someone who had really, *really* had contact with an intelligent non-Earth entity, I would like to talk to this person.

HH: If you were in prison, what item would you most want snuck in for you hidden in a cake?

BP: How big is the cake? A wormhole might be nice. Or my wife. Is that asking too much? And an internet connection.

Hear Benjamin read new work commissioned by Hugo House at Visiting Hours on Friday, November 20, 7:30 p.m. Tickets may be purchased at brownpapertickets.com.