Happyland, J. Robert Lennon, Part III

At this point it’s safe to say that Happy Masters has overtly and in the most subversive of fashions taken over Equinox. In a number of different ways J. Robert Lennon is turning certain players in this wonderful story against Happy, who be her own admission doesn’t really give two shits about anyone to bother paying attention to every detail of her day-to-day life. But she suspects something is going on, and perhaps is ignoring which is the price of creating something as diversely obsessive as your own town. Janet Ping has quickly allowed herself to be monopolized by Happy and her husband Jim. I don’t think Happy has time or the interest in having sex with Jim, even though he is supportive and a willing participant in her doings. Janet is awash in a sea of new-found emotions, one of which involves pretending she’s Happy Masters while Jim has his way with her. This should come as no surprise to anyone who has been reading along at home, but it’s making for an emotionally-riveting narrative arc that might just break this story open.

Lennon launched the threat of a left-of-center visiting “artist” in the first two chapters of this story, and now Sally Striet has arrived on campus to perform her world-renowned performance art, in the hopes of awakening an entirely female audience. Ruth, our faithful librarian, is in attendance and is mildly amused and occasionally bored by what she sees Sally perform on stage. Sally does a kind of audience-participation sex act and gives a raw and revealing speech that reminded me of T. J. Makey (played by Tom Cruise) in the movie Magnolia. It’s so close to that performance that it works to an opposite effect in this story. Instead of energizing the crowd she sets the college and its students in an entirely different direction than she hoped.

Happy uses this moment to vilify the college, which is in deep trouble as it’s been discovered that some of their professors have forged their credentials. Happy lights the rampant liberalism/feminist bonfire and watches it burn. In one quick snap of her fingers Happy will most likely bring this college to it’s knees. Meanwhile her foil is Ruth, who is quickly followed by Kevin, the local no-gooder, who she has hired to do her dirty work. Things get moving in the wrong direction and Ruth gets chicken skin, while her bedmate Archie, the fair weather Mayor of Equinox just wants a good night’s sleep. Reeve, our luckless college professor, seems to be wading into the deep end with out any clue as to what’s going on. I suspect he and Archie will be casualties of this tug of war. But only time will tell.
Jason Rice: This chapter seems like a shifting point for all involved. When you were writing this part did you intentionally try to bring the story to a point where you could successfully wrap up the story in the next chapter, or was it more organic?

J. Robert Lennon: I knew I had to start turning the ship around, so I began maneuvering the various plotlines into place. I find it fun to do this, when I’m in this event-heavy mode–it’s a bit like trying to solve a logic puzzle.

JR: Was it always your intention to bring Sally Streit into the fold? Make her performance a breaking point for everyone involved? Or did she pop up as you began to outline the book? Or did she just come along one day while you were writing?

J.R.L: She is one of the few details I borrowed from real life–a student once told me about a lesbian sex lecturer at the college that inspired the one in the book, and though I didn’t get the details, I instantly wanted to get a sex lecture of my own into Happyland. And make it as controversial as possible, of course! I liked the idea of Sally as a Laura Ashley punk, with muscles, who is both sexy and terrifying.

JR: You still bring new and exciting things to each character, every chapter, and there isn’t a moment when the character is left idle (we can never take one for granted). How hard is it to get this type of character building to work, and make them fresh and unpredictable?

J.R.L: I’m not really sure. I mean, as I work through subsequent drafts, I can tell when something sounds an off note, and I know I have to nudge it back into place. I’m kind of particular, usually, about such details–I don’t like eliding over stuff the reader is probably wondering about. What has so-and-so been doing? Why is so-and-so acting this way? What I want to avoid is characters behaving in a manner that’s convenient to me, rather than true to themselves, and ultimately, that’s the hard part–balancing my needs with theirs. It’s especially tough in a book like this, that is so absurdly event-driven. But really, I am not sure how I’m managing to accomplish this, if in fact I am.

More from J. Robert Lennon in the coming days, and the last chapter of Happyland…

-JR

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