Talking with Tim

Last month, after reading Whitney (Pop Candy) Matheson’s review of Robert Schnakenberg’s new book, Secret Lives of Great Authors, I tracked down the author to interview him. In addition to discussing the new book, Schnakenberg took questions about the upcoming release of his revised Encyclopedia Shatnerica (about all things William Shatner, set for an August 2008 release) as well as a new Christopher Walken A-to-Z book (set for October 2008 release). But the bulk of this interview covered the book that answers such questions as “Is it true that J. D. Salinger drank his own urine? Why was Ayn Rand such a big fan of Charlie’s Angels?” My thanks to Schnakenberg for his time.

Tim O’Shea: How often in trying to research facts for Secret Lives did you find out the anecdote was not true?

Robert Schnakenberg: That happened occasionally. Sometimes I’d find a really good anecdote about someone, and then another source would say that it happened to someone else entirely. You know, one book says it happened to Ernest Hemingway, another says it happened to F. Scott Fitzgerald. That happens with quotes a lot. They are always attributed to two or three different people. So you throw those out, or you find the one source that you trust and you go with that. I can’t promise that every anecdote in my book is 100% true—I mean, I wasn’t in the men’s room with Hemingway and Fitzgerald when they compared schlongs—but I can say everything is reliably sourced. Double and triple sourced, in fact, as much as possible.

O’Shea: In digging up obscure info about authors, were there any situations where an author you once enjoyed reading you can no longer enjoy because of facts you uncovered–or vice versa did you gain a newfound appreciation of some writers after researching them?

Schnakenberg: I try not to judge an author’s work by their lifestyle. That would be like saying “I’m not going to listen to Jimi Hendrix anymore, because I found out he was a drug addict.” Ultimately, the work stands on its own. I still love Faulkner—even though the portrait that emerges in my book is a less than flattering one. There were cases where I got intrigued enough to take a second look at a writer I never really appreciated before, but usually my opinion didn’t change. That happened with William Burroughs. I never really understood what the big deal about him was. But in reading up on some of the bizarre events in his life—blowing his wife’s head off in a game of William Tell and so forth—I got interested enough to try to give him another shot. I think I got about ten pages into Nova Express before I put it down. Clearly, whatever gene you need to possess in order to appreciate his work, I completely lack.

O’Shea: Were there particular anecdotes in this book that were immensely more challenging to research than the others?

Schnakenberg: I would say it was mostly a case of some writers leading totally anecdote-free lives. There are a number of “great authors” who by all rights should be in the book, but aren’t because of a lack of good material. Jane Austen would be a prime example. I tried really hard to get her in there, because she’s so popular. But every biography I read basically paints her as leading a rather drab, dreary life that would have been of no interest to anyone. So I had to let her go. Same thing with Flannery O’Connor, one of my all-time favorite writers. Other than being a devout Catholic and owning a bunch of peacocks, she really didn’t do much. So I had to scrap her and put Carson McCullers in instead.

O’Shea: Did any of your material for Secret Lives end up being edited out for space–is there a possibility of another book if sales are strong enough?

Schnakenberg: We took out one chapter, on the Marquis de Sade, but that was mostly to avoid scandalizing school librarians in Omaha. Also, certain people got removed from consideration because they were too similar to other people in the book. For instance, Dylan Thomas was basically a drunk. I chose not to put him in because I already had drunks covered with Jack London, Jack Kerouac, and so on. I didn’t want it just to be a parade of alcoholics. I could easily fill up another book along these lines with some of the people who didn’t make the cut this time.

O’Shea: I didn’t even know Penthouse ran book excerpts–how did your book excerpt end up in the magazine?

Schnakenberg: All glories go to the Quirk Books publicity department for that one. I am so proud it was bylined too. Now I can put “His work has appeared in Penthouse” in my official bio from now on. I’m sure my late father must be very proud.

O’Shea:How long did it take to compile the original Encyclopedia Shatnerica back in 1998 and can you gauge how much new information you have been able to add in the upcoming revised version? Were you able to gather more toupee stories?

Schnakenberg: I believe I worked on that for at least six months. That was in the days before the Internet really blew up, so research entailed actually leaving your house and going to libraries to photocopy things. At one point I had a folder of Shatner clippings about the size of a phone book. For this one, everything was just bookmarked. I think I guesstimated that there is 33% all-new material in the revised edition. Plus all the old material has been thoroughly rewritten. I did find some new toupee material. In fact, there was an actor who worked with Shatner on a project who witnessed the application of his hairpiece firsthand. I would presume that man has been “disappeared” by now.

O’Shea:Do you know if Shatner is aware of the encyclopedia?

Schnakenberg: Oh, he’s aware of it, alright. When I was doing a radio interview for the first edition, his sister called up the station and asked for my phone number. They put her through to me and we had a nice, pleasant chat. A couple of weeks later, I went to a Shatner book signing in New York and introduced myself to him. I mentioned that I’d spoken to his sister on the phone and that I’d written a book about me. He looked right through me like I wasn’t there, signed my book, and moved me along. I think he probably considers me in the same manner a water buffalo considers a gnat.

O’Shea: How does one go about researching for a book like Christopher Walken A-to-Z? In terms of researching do you try to watch all his films or research the making of his films/plays (or a mixture of both)?

Schnakenberg: Yes, a mixture of both. I made a determination early on that I was going to watch every one of his films from scratch, even the ones I’d seen before, just to view them from a “Walkencentric” perspective. And with some help from a few stalwart Walken fans, who supplied me with some of the more obscure stuff, like his Kojak appearance, I was able to do that. I have to admit there were some films, like Gigli, where I had to fast forward through any scene that Walken wasn’t in.

O’Shea: How much does the book delve into his SNL appearances?

Schnakenberg: I have an entry on SNL, plus entries on The Continental, Cowbell—all his more memorable characters. I even watched an episode of the original Continental, with Renzo Cesana, to see how he developed the character.

O’Shea: It’s amazing to me how Walken influences pop culture across many ways–while I was aware of Walken’s appearance in Fatboy Slim’s Weapon of Choice video–but I had do idea about Fugazi’s song “Walken’s Syndrome [which] references Woody Allen’s film Annie Hall, where Christopher Walken’s character feels an urge to crash into on-coming traffic at night.” Do you try to cover items like that in the book, or do you focus on Walken’s work rather than his entire sphere of influence?

Schnakenberg: I focus mostly on his life and work, though had I known about that Fugazi song I definitely would have included it. It’s funny—the book I am writing now is called Secret Lives of the Supreme Court, and in it I mention a song Fugazi recorded about Supreme Court Justice William Brennan. So apparently there is a Fugazi thread running all through my work now. There’s also a song on the last Wilco album called Walken, though I don’t mention it because it doesn’t seem to be about him at all. Good tune though.

O’Shea: Also, in a book like the Walken A-to-Z, do you broach the matter of his presence on the boat the night Natalie Wood died or is that too far out of the scope of the work as well? If included in the book, I’m curious, with the passage of time has Walken talked about it much publicly?

Schnakenberg: Oh, I broach it. I decided not to dwell on it too much because it’s a little outside the scope, plus who am I to say what really happened? But I felt there was enough curiosity about that episode that I couldn’t not mention it. If you ask me, it’s much ado about nothing. From all the accounts I read it’s pretty clear her death was an accident. Some of the behavior that went on on the boat was odd, but it wasn’t really suspicious. I mean everyone involved was shitfaced drunk at the time, so it’s not surprising their stories didn’t add up. Walken has talked about it in a couple of interviews, and I have included some of the relevant quotes in the book, so readers can judge for themselves.

O’Shea: In addition to your period working for the Museum of Television and Radio, what is your research background/experience?

Schnakenberg: I was at MT&R (now known as The Paley Center) for two years, writing and editing program descriptions for their database. Since then I’ve been an itinerant writer and editor working mostly for reference and educational publishers. You’ll find my name buried in the fine print of a lot of library reference sets—Contemporary Authors, The Encyclopedia of World Biography, that sort of thing. My favorite was a series called Fashion, Costume and Culture. I got to write about the history of the codpiece and get paid for it. What more could you ask for?

Tags: Christopher Walken, great authors, interview, Shatner

This entry was posted on Monday, May 19th, 2008 at 11:57 pm and is filed under Literature, late night TV, pop culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.