William Walsh

William Walsh is the author of the novel Without Wax, A Documentary Novel. Without Wax is the fictional tale of Wax Williams, an adult film star. Available from Casperian Books.

BERGEY
Why did you decide to write a novel about the adult film industry?

WALSH
I came about it sort of sideways. I wrote Without Wax as a short story when I was an undergrad about twenty years ago, and I just kept taking notes on it. The adult film world is interesting to me, but I’m not an aficionado. I don't have an encyclopedic knowledge of the industry itself . But the character of Wax Williams fascinated me, especially once I started imagining him as a younger boy. Once I saw who he was and how he came into his line of work, I started pursuing the story a little harder. And then the idea of bringing in the perspectives of some of his fans sort of just happened accidentally. I found myself writing about characters who, suddenly, made connections to him, this title character of Wax. I think it was a natural thing, and I didn't really do a lot of research on the adult film world. I think it's so mainstream now that you read about it in magazines, it's on television—on the gossip shows—particularly on the web. The world that surrounds the product is kind of interesting to me.

BERGEY
What lengths did you go to in research? The deposition and surgery scenes are pretty convincing.

WALSH
Well, for the surgery scene I looked up a few surgical techniques online. I looked at some vasectomy surgery run-throughs, some text run-throughs of what happens step by step, just to get the anatomy. Then I sort of let it fly, with the surgeon narrating as she performed the surgery . The words were just there. I had that anatomy and how she would make those incisions and cuts. That was probably the most research I did because I didn't want it to sound silly.

BERGEY
Was there anyone in particular that inspired the character of Wax?

WALSH
No, not really. I tried to make Wax a heroic character. I wanted readers to see him as a hero—a heroic character who is trying to work through something, trying to escape from a life that he wants to change. I wanted him to be a reactive character. And I think because of the world that he was working in, the people he was encountering, they were always either offensive or on the offense. So I saw him as reactive. And in terms of physical descriptions, I didn't really see anybody particularly. Just a handsome young guy. Nobody specific from my life or from literature or film.

BERGEY
So you don't know any adult film stars?

WALSH
I don't. You know, I really don't even track porn movies. I don't own any pornography; I don't buy it or collect it. I think that the brushes with pornography that you have as a youngster, they form a really deep impression . And today I don't encounter it and haven't for a number of years. So some of Wax’s story might be dated in terms of the narrative-style adult films that used to be made years ago. I’m not even sure that that's the case anymore. But I didn't see Wax as any of those well-known performers, because it seems that the males in that industry are all sort of repellant people . So I wanted him to be different from that for sure.

BERGEY
Have you met any resistance regarding the subject matter?

WALSH
I don't think so . Before I found a publisher, I sent samples chapters to probably fifty different agents and maybe ten or twelve asked to see entire manuscript. I think I got good reads from them and I’d say well more than half of the agents who asked to see the whole manuscript were women. I think although it's focused on an industry that people don't necessarily want to publish in the mainstream, I didn't get any resistance to that. A lot of people who read the entire manuscript liked the consumer profiles that were attached to the main story, and suggested that I focus on a collection and turn Wax’s story into a novella, or something like that. But I saw it as a whole and wanted to keep it that way. Most of the agents said, I like it, but I don’t like it enough, or, simply, I don't see how I could sell it. They didn’t know how to market it to a publisher. And that's the thing with agents--if they don't think they can find a publisher for a novel, they won't commit their time and energy to it.

BERGEY
All of those consumer profiles, which are more or less short stories that are loosely related to the main story, are all written in the second person, which is a somewhat uncommon voice. Being written in the second person, it does a good job of drawing the reader into the story, even forcing them into the story, where the subject matter might have made some readers a little uncomfortable. Was that your thinking in writing in the second person?

WALSH
Yeah, I think the second person POV was a natural choice. I like second person because it forces the reader to become complicit in what they’re reading and to place themselves into that character's head. There are six Consumer Profiles in the book. Three women and three men. I think three of the consumers are avid consumers and the other three are passive or barely consumers of this XXX product. But they all encounter it and have to reconcile it in some way within their story. It was a good way for me to find myself within the story as well. My own reaction to pornography. Those characters were pretty quick in coming to me.

BERGEY
You call the novel a documentary novel and much of it is written as if you're reading the script from a documentary. Why did you choose this form and what do you think it adds to the story? Is the entire book considered a documentary or just those main sections?

WALSH
The entire book. I had originally had written an author's note or introduction, creating a fictional author for the book. He had a brief introduction explaining what this document was. I ended up pulling that when I sent Wax to the publisher who accepted it. And I’m glad I did. A friend of mine suggested I do that because it really added a layer to the story that wasn't necessary. But the form of the documentary was natural to me because as I was writing this I wasn't writing in a linear fashion. I was writing scenes that were miles apart, and I think in order to connect them there would have been a lot of engineered writing to deliver the reader from one scene to the next, if it were a linear book. If the story had been told in a linear fashion, it wouldn't be as exciting. It was just more fun to tell several stories at once. I consider the whole thing a documentary because it's not bound as a traditional novel would be. And I thought that was a good way for a reader to pick it up and know from page 1 that it was going to be put together in a different way and it was going to read in a different way.

BERGEY
Two of the major chapters in the book are called Seens [sic] From The Life Pt.1 and Pt.2, in which the characters, style, and point of view shift just about from paragraph to paragraph. Was it difficult to keep track of that? You mentioned you didn't write it in a linear order.

WALSH
What I tried to do with those two long chapters was to bring Wax from birth, practically—one of his first memories is being in a wet diaper—to his teen years when he's encountering the first issue of puberty. And as I was telling that story, also tell the story of his entry into the adult film world. Then I pick up those themes again later on, showing him as a teenager in that second puberty of his, when he takes on this new manhood. And as that story is being told, present scenes showing his declining interest in being a performer in the adult films. The challenge at the center of the novel is Wax’s desire to leave the adult film world. It’s a difficult escape for him.

BERGEY
The story takes place in a town called, Ampersand, Massachusetts, which I believe is a fictional town, correct?

WALSH
Yes.

BERGEY
What’s the inspiration behind Ampersand?

WALSH
It's just a town that I’ve used as a setting for a bunch of my stories. And I’m not sure why I decided to keep all of the action in the novel in Ampersand, except that I want to keep Wax’s story a little separate from the rest of the adult film industry, which is in the valley in California. And I guess in New York City as well. I wanted to portray their world as a little cottage industry and present the characters as a repertoire of players. I think it's interesting that Wax stays in this town where he grew up and continues this lifestyle that’s very different from and very separate from his family. As I was writing it seemed to be more interesting to keep Wax in Ampersand and to also set a few of the consumer profiles there. And I think that helped ground it a bit too, just to say, that it could have been set anywhere. It didn't have to be some kind of global story.

BERGEY
Almost like it adds to the sincerity or authenticity of the story.

WALSH
I saw Wax, and I also saw his manager, Lyle Mammon, as guys who wouldn't take their business elsewhere, out of their comfort zone. I just didn't see them as those kind of people. They wouldn’t have the wherewithal to go off to California to start their enterprise—make their XXX movies. I just didn't see that those two guys had that in them. And they're very insular , and I think keeping them in Ampersand helped show this element of their characters, as well.

BERGEY
Wax seems to be a very introverted character, which is kind of interesting for an adult film star.

WALSH
Right, considering the work he's in. You do find that a lot of people in show business—performers, singers, actors—are introverted when they're not performing. I saw Wax as that type of person. I think he finds himself in the adult film world because that's what he's made to do and he does it for several years until he finally realizes he can't do it anymore.

BERGEY
One of the things I like about the book are the names of the films that Wax stars in, such as Dormitorgy and, my personal favorite, The Well-Hung Jury. How did you come up with those names? Was it Easy?

WALSH
Just fooling around. As I said, it was such a notebook exercise for so many years, that I just had a lot of those scribbled down and wrote them up as I thought of them. As far as naming the characters, I think because performers in the industry have such colorful names that was just a lot fun to do. I think you've got to wing it and try to come up with some names that make sense for the character.

BERGEY
Did you know that there's a band called The Well-Hung Jury?

WALSH
I did not know that.

BERGEY
There is.

WALSH
That's funny. I guess that's something that is in the air—waiting for someone to put those words together.

BERGEY
You mentioned that you started writing it twenty years ago with a short story. How long did you spend on it? Have you been working on it, more or less, for twenty years? What are your writing habits?

WALSH
I just I kept writing it in notebooks, but when I went to grad school I didn't bring it to workshop. I kept thinking: I don't want this to be the first novel that I publish. I want to do something different and then maybe pursue this story later. But, I think, a couple of years ago I started typing up all the notes that I had and trying to put them into different structures. And I probably have another forty pages of notes that left out of the book because they were similar to other scenes. So that's a good thing. I think with revision it should be a process of subtraction. So I wasn't working on it as my main writing project for all those years. And I don't get a lot of time to write from week to week with a full-time job and I teach every once in a while and I’ve got a bunch of kids. So I don't get a lot of time to write.

BERGEY
I think that's something we all struggle to find the time for.

WALSH
It's impossible sometimes.

BERGEY
The title is Without Wax, and the word "sincerity" is derived from the Latin phrase for "without wax." Is that intentional?

WALSH
Yeah. Definitely. That was the inspiration.

BERGEY
So what is the sincerity referring to?

WALSH
I think a few of the characters remark on Wax as a sincere person. And he's just so out of place in this adult film world, and I thought that was a good place for some dramatic friction, for some conflict. For inner conflict, anyway, because his livelihood goes against who he is and what he's like at heart. And you get to see that when he's a young boy and then later when he's trying to get out of this XXX world. But you know it also connotes sculpture , and I wanted to see him as this perfect male form and his sincerity is a part of that. I think that concept, that phrase—without wax—helped me to push the book further and further.

BERGEY
Would you consider the story a comedy or a tragedy?

WALSH
I think it's a comedy . It’s meant to be. I sent a copy to one of my early writing teachers and she read it and sent me a note back saying that she found it interesting that there's a lot of humor in the book but the central character is not very humorous himself. And it seems that there's a lot going on around him that's funny or silly or ridiculous and he's not. Maybe that's another place for some conflict in the story. But I'm hoping from page to page that it's funny. That there are some chuckles there on the page.

BERGEY
Yes, there definitely are.

BERGEY
I understand that you are a James Joyce fan. During my reading of Without Wax, several times I thought about Ulysses—not that there are a whole lot of surface similarities to Ulysses, but something about the book seemed Joycean to me. What influence does Joyce, and Ulysses in particular, have on your writing?

WALSH
Now that you mentioned it, there might be some elements—under the surface—in Without Wax that were inspired by Ulysses. I minored in Irish Lit as an undergrad and spent a lot of time reading Joyce, really immersed in it. Wax and Mammon are a duo similar to Stephen and Bloom—a sensitive young man and a sloppy, boorish older man. I think Wax’s childhood experiences have some similarities to Stephen’s in Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. The greatest lesson I learned from Ulysses was that the form of a novel does not have to follow the traditional narrative model. Joyce based the novel’s structure on forces outside of the lives of his Dublin characters. He used different stylistic approaches to each chapter. It can appear very authorial to take that approach to a novel’s subject, but after you’ve studied hundreds of conventionally structured novels you realize that a conventional narrative structure is as much of an application to a novel’s subject as Joyce’s use of the Homeric.

BERGEY
What other writers influence your writing?

WALSH
Biggest influences when I first starting writing were Don DeLillo, Martin Amis, Charles Bukowski, Robert Coover, Samuel Beckett. Latest influences have been Michael Martone and David Markson.

BERGEY
What are your thoughts on the current state of literature in America?

WALSH
In terms of independent presses, it seems there is a greater variety of voices out there now than at any other time. The web has opened up this market. It’s easier now to find new writers and to read their work.

BERGEY
What is currently on your reading list?

WALSH
I am just finishing Ovenman by Jeff Parker, and I think it’s great. Very unique narrator. Lots of energy. I also enjoyed American Genius by Lynne Tillman last year and have been rereading parts of it ever since I saw her read in Providence. I really like Lydia Davis’s collections, and I just bought her novel The End of the Story. I began reading Paul Auster’s novels a few years ago, and I am still catching up on some of his older books. I really liked Brock Clark’s new novel, An Arsonist’s Guide to Writer’s Homes in New England. Both of his collections are very good.