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Interview: August 2010

August 2010

Inspired partly by the classic Pinnochio tale and partly by the ’80s family sitcom “Small Wonder,” John M. Cusick’s debut novel, GIRL PARTS, centers on a robot who develops a will of her own with the help of two teenage boys.

In this interview with Teenreads.com’s Sarah Rachel Egelman, Cusick explains how memories of his awkward adolescence combined with his “geeky” love of science fiction prompted the idea for the book’s plot, and elaborates on its ongoing metaphor for fiction and its ability to teach empathy in others. He also discusses the novel’s slow evolution from first draft to finished product, reflects on technology’s effect on “real life,” and touches upon future projects currently in the works.

Teenreads.com: What was your inspiration for GIRL PARTS? Was the idea something you had been thinking about for a while?

John M. Cusick: It was three-fold. At 16, I felt like I’d been born yesterday; everything was so new, vivid and strange, and I wasn’t sure at all how to relate to it. Rose really is born 16. Secondly, I’ve noticed how people (myself included) may connect to characters in books more immediately than to real people. In this sense Rose is a metaphor for fiction, a teaching tool for human empathy (Sakora’s ridiculous shock-therapy notwithstanding). Finally, I’m a big sci-fi geek. I love robots. I can’t help it.

TRC: The novel begins with a suicide and a power outage. In what way are these events symbols of the themes you explore in the story?

JMC: Poor Nora becomes a caged bird who rattles through the rest of the novel. She wants to connect with people, and feels she must destroy herself to get their attention. But the immediate result is the ultimate disconnect; suicide severs her from everyone else. What some of the characters, and I hope the reader, discover is that we are all connected in ways we can’t always see. Nora’s death starts a chain reaction that ends with Charlie Nuvola, a boy she never met, changing his life, and David Sun, a boy she barely knew, driving his car into a lake. On a metaphysical level I wanted to symbolize this interconnection by having Nora communicate from beyond the grave, in a snagged necktie, a crossword puzzle, and elsewhere.

TRC: Would you consider your book satire? Is it critical of the Computer Age and its technologies and possible sense of alienation? Or do you think of it more as a coming-of-age story with a technological twist?

JMC: Any satire is directed at oblivious parents, bonehead school administrators, and shady drug companies like Sakora. (I’ve had at least one reader confuse Sakora’s psychobabble for my own sentiments.) As to our technology-rich society, I’m not sure I was satirizing so much as observing what seems to be out there. Something is lost when we cease to communicate face to face. I’m an Internet fiend, but I do believe we need one part web to nine parts “real” life.

TRC: What about the setting? Except for the technology of the robots, the story seems to be set today. Is this a futuristic novel or just an alternate version of today?

JMC: GIRL PARTS is set in the present day, with the added fantasy of Rose’s technology. There really are girl-bots on the market, though these are slightly creepier than Sakora’s life-like models. Horizon Lake is an important physical setting, as Charlie and David are reflections of each other, with Rose passing from one side of the looking glass to the other.

TRC: The main characters have three very different perspectives on the same story. Of Charlie, David and Rose, did you prefer one character over the others? Did you enjoy creating and writing one of them more than the others?

JMC: Rose is the heart, Charlie is the brain, but David might be the soul. In a sense his journey is the most difficult, and remains incomplete at the end of the novel. He gave me the most pleasure to write. From the outside he apparently has it all, yet he’s deeply unhappy. David is dissatisfied with the role he’s expected to play, but he doesn’t have the vocabulary to articulate this. Rose does begin to change him for the better, though not in the way his parents or Dr. Roger expect.

TRC: The journey to becoming one's true self is a major theme in the book. Why did you choose Rose, who is not actually human, to represent the path to self-realization and adult identity?

JMC: Rose is learning about her relationship to the world, and in so doing discovers herself. She says the wrong thing, loves the wrong guy, and has an ambivalent relationship with her body. So, she’s a typical teenager. Her robot-nature telescopes and exaggerates a journey we all go through.

TRC: Sakora, the name of the company that creates the Companions, means “cherry blossoms” in English, and the Companions all have flower names. What does that signify?

JMC: Sakora has a great marketing team. The flower names are branding, a cutesy pink garden from a black and greedy company. “Sakura” does mean cherry blossom, It also means decoy, shill, hired applauder, and horse meat.)

TRC: Do you have any favorite novels that explore topics such as intimacy and sexuality, the benefits and dangers of technology, or adolescence? Were there any books that particularly influenced or inspired you in writing this novel?

JMC: PALE FIRE was the biggest direct inspiration. I adore FAHRENHEIT 451, and David’s campsite was probably inspired by Guy Montag’s night with the vagabond book-memorizers. I read M.T. Anderson’s FEED after completing GIRL PARTS, but that’s another favorite. I appreciate the way “Doctor Who,” when it was produced by R.T. Davies, addressed homo- and bi-sexuality as an omnipresent fact rather than an issue. I tried to do the same. I’ve never seen Weird Science, or the fem-bot episode of “Buffy,” but the old ’80s sitcom “Small Wonder” was an unconscious influence, I think. I was also inspired by the Disney movie of Pinocchio (that Pleasure Island scene still gives me the creeps).

TRC: Did you enjoy the writing process when working on GIRL PARTS? How much did your story and characters change or evolve as you worked on them?

JMC: Writing is my favorite thing ever, though the first critiques from my agent were big pills to swallow. My rough draft was in the present tense, first person, and took place 17 years in the future. As I revised, Charlie went from slightly odd to complete misfit, and Rose grew more awkward and robotic in the opening chapters. It was a process of making the characters less typical, more unique, and I suppose stranger. David was more or less fully-realized --- in my head at least --- from day one (June 1st, 2008).

 

TRC: In the end, is it getting “girl parts” that makes Rose real? Could she have lived a satisfying life without her “alteration”? Why did you think anatomical conformity was important to her and important to her development?

 

JMC: Unlike Pinocchio, Rose will never be “real,” but she becomes her own person, supplementing the programming and hardware her “parents” gave her. She’s built to love in the service of others, and finds a way to make this love hers. May Poling only helps her complete this process. Her “girl parts” are a symbol of Rose’s self-actualization, which really occurs when she’s alone on May’s operating table (i.e. when May turns up the music to drown out her noises), and not in Charlie’s arms.

TRC: Are you at work on a new book? If so, when can we look forward to seeing it?

JMC: I’m revising a follow-up tentatively titled CHERRY MONEY BABY, about surrogate pregnancy. I’m also tinkering with the sequel to GIRL PARTS, as well as a few other books that are just in the zygote stage. It’s too early for release dates, but my engine’s going full-tilt.