Deviated Septum links to an incredible interview with Richard Hell (of Television and Heartbreakers fame) from Bookslut. The interview is intriguing, but what elevates it to the realm of spectacle is what happened after it was conducted. Upon transcribing the interview from his tapes, the Bookslut author, Adam Travis, wrote up an introduction and sent it over to Hell for his perusal. To say that Hell was not amused would be putting it mildly.
Hell sent the introduction back to Travis with what I can only describe as one of the most antagonistic and entertaining dressing-downs of a young writer that I have seen. Hell dared Travis to publish his responses along with interview, and Travis had the balls (and the good p.r. sense) to do just that. Here is a small taste (Travis’ original intro in bold; Hell’s response underneath):
Fuck you. If you want to say something like that, say it to my face. You don’t hear me making claims about how “good” my poetry is, but who the fuck do you think you are? All this writing of yours is presented as if you’re a person called upon to make judgments from some position of earned respect. That’s not who you are. You’re a callow kid with a job reading slush for a pretentious irrelevant “poetry” magazine [Poetry, not Bookslut]. You sought an interview from me, I was kind enough to grant it, and now you’re being an asshole by exercising some grotesquely deluded misapprehension that your role in this includes some call to fucking critically assess my skills. Also, it was not twenty but ten years I spent with bands.
Go on, read the whole thing. Just pray that Hell doesn’t hear you talking about him as you’re walking down the street, because he just might kick your ass.
And for more on the 70s punk scene in New York, take a look at this post from Tom Watson on Johnny Thunders.
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