SHALLA CHATS with Alice Andrews

“Biofiction Introduced ”

by Shalla DeGuzman

First of all, who ’s Alice?

Alice teaches psychology with an evolutionary lens at the State University of New York at New Paltz, and is the editor/publisher of Entelechy: Mind & Culture, an evolutionarily-informed interdisciplinary online journal. She is also the author of Trine Erotic, a novel that explores evolutionary psychology and other behavioral science themes.

Alice is currently working on a book (based on her essay with the same title, published at Metanexus) called An Evolutionary Mind (to be published as part of Imprint Academic's series: "Societas: Essays in Political and Cultural Criticism"), and plans to begin writing another novel soon.

Shalla: Hello Alice, thanks for being here.

Alice: Hi Shalla, thanks for wanting and having me here.

Shalla: First of all, tell us about Trine Erotic, it has a perfect five stars at Amazon.

Alice: Trine Erotic is my novel about love.It may be the first novel ever to explore evolutionary psychology (the new "science of the mind").

Apart from EP, it also explores why we write: to seduce (as mating strategy), to process, to heal ourselves and ultimately readers, to find meaning. It's concerned with memes — and art and culture's ability to influence our lives. And it attempts to address the questions of love that preoccupy us, like passionate love versus companionate love, selfish love and selfless love; looking at love through a triune system: "evolution, experience, and culture." It’s also a book about reconciliation of familiar polarities and dichotomies — of spirituality and science; feminine and masculine principles/archetypes, etc.

Shalla: How long did it take you to write Trine Erotic? What inspired you to write it?

Alice: Hmm… I started it in 1999. It started out as a very short story called “Love Stories,” which was a story within a story, just like the book. I stopped for a while and then from about 2000 to 2001, couldn’t stop.

Shalla: For those of us writing literary novels, do you have any tips on keeping it smart, well-informed and witty without sounding too pedantic and esoteric?

Alice: I don’t have a problem with pedantic and esoteric! But seriously, it’s all about the writer and his or her audience. There may be some parts in TE that some people, for one reason or another, don’t get, and they will perhaps just pass over it. But for the people who get it, it will feel good. I’ve talked to people who have loved the book despite not getting everything and they said they enjoyed having to look something up—they felt like they learned something…

Let me give you an example of something that not everybody will get due to their age or TV habits or reading habits. I have a line that goes something like:

He said, “You know, three is a magic number.” And she said, “Yes, it i- i - is!”

It’s very silly, but that’s a reference to…can you guess? “School House Rock”! The old TV show from the 70s, when I was growing up. There was a little segment about “three, the magic number.” Remember? She’s singing it back to him…And the thing is, maybe four people in the world got it, but that’s okay. If others didn’t, it’s okay, too.

But I also have to quote one of my protagonists on this issue. Helen says to Ed:

“ How much more underscoring can I do? I fight very hard with myself as a writer not to be too didactic. To leave gaps. Not to answer everything. Not to tie every piece up. Because what I’ve learned about art and also love is that you can’t force it. If you really want to teach something to somebody you can’t put it in their face. You have to be artful.” [p.215]

Shalla: Besides being a writer, you are also the editor and founder of a literary journal. Please, tell us about Entelechy: Mind and Culture.

Alice: I liked Nina Shengold’s (author of the novel Clear Cut and the children’s book Harriet the Spy!) description of it:
“ A peerlessly heady online journal of "creative and beautiful work that is concerned with ideas," "Darwin-touched," and lives at the visionary interface between art and science. Mind-bending reading.” [www.chronogram.com/issue/2006/07/arts/books/shorttakes.php]

Shalla: What kind of submissions would you like to see more of? Ie. Any specific subjects or angles? Types of characters?

Alice: I like very smart, passionate work. If we’re talking about the stories and poetry section (we also publish essays, visual art, and book reviews), I’d say work that combines a great knowledge of human nature, with an extraordinary poetic sensibility—almost mad.

Shalla: What makes a poem perfect for Entelechy?
Alice: You’d have to ask my new poetry Editor Tim Horvath www.entelechyjournal.com/editors'musings.htm. But I confer with him on all the poems. We really try to strike a balance between many elements.

It's kind of a gestalty thing for me. I like having a little of everything in every issue— something Darwinian, something neuro-bio, something sexy and raw and euphonious, something that is ‘universally’ (at least in English) appealing; you know, the kind of poem where people say upon reading it: “Now, I like that poem! Why can't all poetry be like that? I understand that!’ Etc.

Shalla: I’ve been reading poems in Entelechy and I would like to ask you the reasons for the different formatting.

In “Essentially” for example, the first 5 lines are tabbed once, the next 7 lines are tabbed twice and the last lines are tabbed three times. Why? Is this just for visual effect? What should writers consider when formatting their poems?

Alice: Well, I think it says somewhere on the site that I’m ‘Calla Jones’ and the author of ‘Essentially”—so I’ll not pretend to conjecture! I formatted that poem that way for a visual effect…The poem talks about bleeding (as in menstruating), peeing, and sweating. The overall visual impression I had hoped to evoke was of those bodily processes, of flowing…

Shalla: What would you say is different from today’s poetry to, say, Wordsworth’s or Blake’s? And would you publish something like Wordsworth’s or Blake’s?

Alice: You should read my friend Christopher Porpora’s poetry. (See: www.anneshousepress.com )

Here’s what I’ve said about it.

“Archetypal and universal, romantic and sensual, and, yes, post-postmodernly old-fashioned, Christopher Porpora's poems in Becoming are sonorous and evocative gifts to the world. Cognitive psychologists and biopoeticists are just now starting to figure out why it is that something like:


And I have always loved
the allure of books
But your eyes have outdone
all of literature
with their longing looks


makes us feel good; lights up reward centers in our brain—perhaps even has a healing effect.

And it doesn’t take a scientist to know that when we read about love and beauty, jasmine and sandalwood, cedar, sage, and wine, it can evoke a primal place in us. Though scientists do speculate on this, too. As Steven Pinker, the Harvard evolutionary psychologist, notes in The Blank Slate:

" Organisms get their pleasure from things that promoted the fitness of their ancestors, such as the taste of food, the experience of sex, the presence of children, and the attainment of know-how."

Perhaps Porpora's poems give us pleasure because they 'reenact' these fitness-enhancing events and sensations. And yet, despite this universal, ancient-quality that his poems breathe and sing, his poems are also fresh and modern.

In this postmodern period of sometimes abstruse poetry, of poetry that often disdains beauty, it is thrilling to come across poetry which is clear, unafraid to be beautiful, and music to one's ears.”

He submitted one short poem to Entelechy and it was not picked by my editors, but I hope to publish his work soon…Yes, I’d publish a Wordsworth or Blake—bring ’em on!
Shalla: Entelechy has some very impressive contributors. Do we need a PhD, a Guggenheim Fellowship or the like to write for Entelechy?

Alice: Well, of course not! There are plenty of smart and creative people without advanced degrees and the like. Bring them on, too!

Shalla: I enjoy reading short stories in Entelechy, I feel entertained and somewhat smarter afterwards as if I eavesdropped on a couple of scientists flirting (ie. “Arctic Refuge”). Can you tell us what makes a short story right for Entelechy?

Alice: I’m looking for stories that are significantly informed by advances in the biological understanding of the human mind and behavior; i.e., stories that use biological, neurological, psychological and/or evolutionary language and lenses. Truth is, there is not a lot of this kind of writing out there. That’s why I came up with the Entelechy Biofiction Prize—to find more.

Shalla: In “Arctic Refuge” some words are used repeatedly, eg. Brilliant —“It is quite something to be brilliant about the brain and also to have that brilliance reflected in the arrangement of the parts where we take information in for it, where we take inspiration; where we express and nourish it.”
In some school of thought—like when writing romance novels—writers are told never to use the same words for at least several pages but in literary short stories this does not seem to apply.

So, how do we know if we’re doing it right? How do we show that, yes, we know what we’re doing and no, we’re not just being too lazy to look up synonyms? Any tell-tale signs that mark something “smart” as opposed to something “just plain sloppy”?

Alice: I think you can’t worry about that. Certainly a true artist can’t worry about that. When it comes to any rules for art, if you feel confident that you understand the rule’s purpose, and you know how to employ it, then you should be able to break it. If you know why it’s not such a great idea to use the same words for at least several paragraphs or pages (an evolutionary explanation would be that we are neophilic—see Geoffrey Miller’s The Mating Mind ), and if you can feel why, then you should feel free to do so when it seems right and fitting. In the above example, the word ‘brilliant’ is not repeated, only the combining form is. It does not appear that the author is lacking for another word to denote intelligence, genius, etc; but rather, the author appears to be playing with our many senses of the word ‘brilliant’. The scientist is brilliant and his brilliance is reflected in his physiognomy. Brilliance as light …etc.

Shalla: Do you have any tips for writers? Any tips on editing? What to look for? What to improve?

Alice: Honestly? To not read any tips. I know a lot of writers say read, read, read. I guess, if forced, I’d say I agree with the other big writer tip: write, write, write. This summer my 10-year-old daughter had to read a book (A Gathering of Days) and summarize each chapter. I asked her about the process when she was done. She explained that in the beginning, she was basically not summarizing, but retelling the chapter, etc. But by the end, she had figured out how to summarize. She didn’t read a tip on this, I didn’t tell her how to do it; she learned by her own experience with the process.

Shalla: Lastly, any writing groups and/or writing communities you recommend? (eg. Authors Guild? PEN?)

Alice: Poets and Writers (my ex-husband used to be an editor at their magazine) is a wonderful resource!

See: www.pw.org.

Additionally, I’d recommend reading stuff about Darwinian Literary Studies, just because so many people don’t know about it, and it’s yet another piece in the puzzle.

• The New Darwinism in the Humanities. By Harold Fromm
www.hudsonreview.com/frommSpSu03.html

• Contributions to Adaptationist Literary Study [written/compiled by Joseph Carroll]

http://babel.uoregon.edu/cogsci/biopoetbib.htm

I’d also suggest taking a look at some of the links I have on Entelechy!

www.entelechyjournal.com/emac%20links.htm

Shalla: Thanks Alice! For more on Alice Andrews and Entelechy, please go to www.entelechyjournal.com.
Alice: Thank you, Shalla, this was a lot of fun!