Featured Interview With Author Greg Scorzo
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
Originally from Los Angeles,, I’m a writer who was originally a philosopher. I have a PhD in Meta-Ethics, and an MA in Ethics and Political Philosophy from the University of Nottingham, as well as a BA in Philosophy from Whittier College in California. I was a founding member of One plus One magazine which evolved into the online platform CULTURE ON THE OFFENSIVE. I’ve also contributed to One+One Filmmakers Journal since 2010. I ran philosophy seminars at the University of Nottingham from 2008 until 2013, but became disillusioned by the constraints of academia.
I currently write political and cultural essays, I host a podcast, have recently finished my first audio play, am composing my first album of electronic music, and have just released my first novel (Love Before Covid, 2021). I’m also a speaker, teacher and someone who devises interactive talks and events.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I've never not been fascinated by books of various sorts. And I was always embarrassed about having a talent for writing. I always wanted to do anything other than be a writer, until I accepted it could be an incredibly compulsive and satisfying experience.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I enjoy classic and more contemporary examples of dark thought provoking and highly philosophical fiction: George Orwell, Amy Bender, William S Burroughs, David Foster Wallace, Kurt Vonnegut, Anthony Burgess, JG Ballard, Sylvia Plath, Donald Barthelme, Charles Bukowski, William Gibson and of course, George Batailles.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
Love Before Covid is the story of writer and English teacher Joe Pastorious. Joe is a jazz fan, a Leicester based poet, and a victim of horrendous sexual and emotional abuse at the hands of his mother. The book takes you on a trip through Joe's mind, a journey through real-time dialogues that emerge from his corrupted memories and dystopian dreams. The contents of Joe's unconscious tell us more about Joe than he could ever know, and more about our world than a dream is supposed to tell.
In Love Before Covid, you will meet an altruist who can’t stand up for himself, an impulsive bartender who will do anything to get pregnant, a traumatised art historian who hates children, a successful Mexican writer who dislikes her own friends, a charming public intellectual who once violently disfigured her boyfriend, a tall beautiful dancer who hates fat people and a teenage genius who fantasises about his porn star mother.
You will also encounter passionate feminists, violent alcoholics, religious fanatics, sadistic parents, kind misanthropes, woke bisexuals, a woman who is pressured into cutting off her penis, female kick boxers, violent vegans and a successful therapist who has a habit of ruining people’s lives. The stories in Love Before Covid co-exist within parallel realities, dreams within dreams, and very passionate and sometimes violent arguments.
It is up to you to decide whether there are any heroes or villains in this book. Whatever you decide, your moral boundaries will be pushed to their limits. And yes, before you ask, some of the characters in this book eventually catch Covid 19.
However, there is still hope in Love Before Covid. For Joe Pastorious, hope comes in the form of a psychopath named Janet Waverley.
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