Melancton Hawks

BLOOD SUGAR SEX MAGICK SPOOKY

Abbie Foxton puts on psychic panties and gets a ride in the mind of Monster Skin author Melancton Hawks

I love it when fate stops and slaps a giant cold tentacle across your face – invigorating!

That’s kinda what happened… how I was introduced to the indescribable 21st century, masterpiece that is Monster Skin.

This author’s mind is wired to twist and dance descriptive through brain matter. A lust for life, shirtless, arm splaying spaz attack. He nails it, spins it on its axis, carries it on his shoulders and walks away. Occasionally you can see him releasing a hot breath over his knuckles to shine on his chest, but if I had the word talent of Melancton Hawks, I would swing on ropes nude through skyscrapers with ‘bite me’ tattooed on my ass.

I am thrilled to have my new pin up boy, Spooky Bonsai creator – Melancton Hawks – join me in conversation this evening. Early morning for him on hopefully what will be a sunny summer’s day in Brooklyn?

Err, no, sadly, very gray and soon to be pissing rain…again. But its OK, I hardly ever leave the house during the daylight hours anyway.

You are Nosferatu!

Thanks, though I do trim my fingernails occasionally.

Morning rituals?

My wake-up routine is fairly strict. It can be startling to emerge from 12 hours dreamland without a highly regulated wake-up routine. Once my muscles are engaged enough to open the hatch to my sensory deprivation tank, I’ll pull myself out and blend up a nutritious smoothie of seaweed, granny smith apples, whiskey, hot sauce and hemp protein to activate my gut and renal system. Then it’s off to the shower to wash the epsom salts from my skin, followed by intense calisthenics and cardio vascular activity.

This book has been tagged as ‘not easy to genre’, which is true. So making up your own sub genre seems like the logical thing to do. Sci Fu (your idea) has been coined, as has Erospiracy Psychofunk (my idea). Why does everything have to be neatly categorized when we know very well the realm in which we live in is one giant chaotic energy of randomness?

I think we are at the mercy of the mandatory urge to Google and to be Googled.

What a sad conclusion. But good for sales.

Exactly

Isn’t everyones goal these days to be at the top of a Google search when you punch their name in?

Well, that’s easy. You just cheat with money.

Exactly.

The main issue is that there is a billowing storm cloud of noisy content out there and we have to find gems in it somehow. We’ll be at a point soon when everyone is writing, or making music, or films and throwing them on the internet.

Yeah, everyone is creating and no one is consuming, I still consume – insatiable!

You have to. You can’t Art in a vacuum.

We might as well talk about the elephant in the room – Lovecraft! He is such a beautifully dense writer and you have very cleverly interwoven an old tale of his into your own mix. Your love and ‘homage’ to HP Lovecraft is inspired. Are you continuing the work of the dark prophet – Lovecraft,  not Satan –  his ancient knowledge of the psyche and archetypes from our collective consciousness or was it just for shits and giggles?

Lovecraft has become a cultural meet-up point. Like all mythology the archetypes are seeds buried inside of ideas that germinate when imagination is applied. Monsters grow like those spongy capsules you toss in the bathtub, wait a few minutes and then…Tyrannosaurus.

Where Lovecraft goes with his knowledge on the occult I see you have more an affinity with erotica – it’s darker dance delves into these realms also.

I enjoy the power potential of sex magick. There is an awful lot of energy

generated/stored/released during a sexual encounter, so I think it’s important to be conscious of where it’s coming from and where its going.

We could illuminate cities.

Yes we could. I’d be interested if anyone has ever gaged the wattage. The porn industry ought to be completely carbon neutral. They should make a goal of it. Just stick some kind of kinetic dynamo beneath the beds/tabletops/pool tables/lounge chairs/bearskin rugs…

I think of Aleister Crowley and oddly enough the Dalai Lama when it comes to the sex magick thing. Crowley coined the term, which is sort of about using Tantra to invoke entities, and got me thinking about directing sexual energies by force of will. I read a book called Jew In The Lotus, about a group of Rabbis who go to India to meet the Lama and when the question comes up about his sexuality (Tibetan monks must be celibate whereas Rabbis marry, have crazy numbers of children, and sex itself is a mitzva) the Lama starts talking about the spiritual rewards of imagining deities fucking. I think he was probably more eloquent than that, but there you go. Monks meditate the day away just fantasizing almighty god porn. And this will bring them to enlightenment.

I wonder what god is wearing…

Nothing but a smile, Abbie.

Melancton puts the real into surreal. A phantasmagoric place of what he describes in his book as a reality tunnel – we all live in our own reality tunnel. The wider your reality the more you will acceptance of phenomena – could this be a problem for many readers to get into Monster Skin?

Reality Tunnel is Robert Anton Wilson’s term, one of my favourite writers of all time.  For a long time I’ve had the feeling that every song, painting, movie, book, whatever, is somebodies favorite. I know that this book isn’t for everyone – I write for an intimate fan base of a few dozen friends and they dig the hell out of what I do. That being said, I love making new friends and discovery is usually a great adventure. I feel bad for people who can’t open themselves to new things, I hope my book acts as a crowbar.

Oh, it’s a crowbar! Readers should face the fear of words and ideas, they have such a knee jerk reaction to the slightest threat to their programmed boundaries. How does one free the mind?

To paraphrase Bill Hicks, I always recommend a healthy dose of psilocybin mushrooms. And to quote Hicks directly, “It’s only a ride.” Both life and a book. But especially life. People (not Amish people) love to play dress-up. Why not try on the persona of someone who is not terrified of new ideas?

I’m actually dressed as an Amish right now.

I do like the bonnets

Your book has been described as surreal, I’m more inclined to lean towards superreal – a heightened state of literature.

Surreality is reality, just look at the news. Wasn’t an Australian MP recently attacked by a Kangaroo? Literature is always a psychedelic state whether it’s Wuthering Heights or Gravity’s Rainbow.

I love reading about monsters, they break rules, they do things we can only imagine and dream of, observe no limits, respect no boundaries, attack without compunction – Spooky has to confront many monsters, especially the one that has now repressed part of her self.

Yes. Monsters are great incarnations of the unconscious.

Do you believe in a paranormal world

I’m a believer in personalized, customizable realities. Whatever you invite inside your consciousness, whatever you pursue, tends to manifest. Humans are really good at filtering information. I try, as much as I can without causing brain damage, to eliminate the filter.

Hawks has created a magnificent female force. Her name is Spooky Bonsai. She is an angry sixteen year old fashion obsessed kleptomaniac rebel and I am in love with her. She’s street smart, hormone ravaged, acutely aware and hell bent on revenge…and justifiably so.

I want to be in Spooky’s gang, embrace her emotions gaze up at her in awe. Spooky Bonsai is fearless.

Do you think you have created a role model, a new superhero for damaged psyches?

I want people, men especially, to be aware that Spooky exists.

Why is that?

Sexism, chauvinism, violence in general but specifically against women is holding back the entire species from evolving. Instead of a fluid exchange of ideas there is isolation, anger, and fear. This behavior is intolerable whether it takes place at a bus stop or the halls of power. I see Spooky as an evolutionary catalyst, a brain surgeon snipping out bits and pieces of the reptilian mind that are no longer healthy for humanity. This ought to terrify some people.

Spooky Bonsai has superhero stamina – flawed and fantastic.

She is annoyingly good at everything she does.

Even in heels. Is her distraction, the whole caper that follows – her revenge, her sexual reawakening a coping mechanism to her ?

I think so. Revenge is always a coping mechanism. History is shaped by men dealing with their problems with revenge, instead of thinking rationally and doing something constructive with anger.

You can’t help but think that you are on some extreme female bender, Honey, Sugar & Spooky a conglomerate of your wildest dreams.  Is this far from the truth?

Strength and confidence is sexy. Sugar is sexual to the extreme. She’s a hedonist, believes the purpose of life is to give and receive pleasure and has made her fortune in creating a line of high-end sex toys called S(K)IN. Her entire life is an elaborate sexual fantasy where she can play any role she likes.

I start with the realization that physical gender is a genetic flip of the coin (which can sometimes land on its side). Since the building blocks are the same, physical and emotional desires and potential must be equivalent . You can then see that attraction is a state of mind and ‘normality’ is an illusion closely guarded by people who are terrified to confront truth.

This book has the potential to send weaker minds cowering in a corner consumed with existential angst. I don’t want to scare off readers but this book is full of ideas!

Tune into the notes, swing along and ride in the Hawks wings, feel the psychedelia of his shimmering rainbows. Melancton has this wondrous ability to centre your minds eye and zap into it, scenarios that are charged with alternate view – universes within universes –  a total mind trip of fucking brilliant imaginings.

You know all our feminine secrets, coloured with the most delectable descriptions, at times this is a very sexually confronting read. So in touch with your feminine side – this is a good thing.

I’ve had help. I ask a lot of questions.

Monster Skin is one of the most erotic books I have ever read, but I find smart very, very sexy – too smart to be a one hand read – OK, I lied, maybe once.

You talk about sex as a healing force to cure dullness and misery “Fucking Is The Road To World Peace”

“Fucking is the road to world peace” deals with all aspects of the word fucking, which when you boil it down comes to respect. It’s both, let’s fuck and fuck off. Living in New York City you are constantly antagonized and Fuck you, fuck off, fuck it becomes a mantra. For the most part people respect that and leave you alone. It would be really nice if everyone could just love each other unconditionally, but that is a massive leap and we’re just getting comfortable with walking. Lets learn to play first. And what is a fun way for adults to play with each other?

Jenga!

Ding-a-ling!

You don’t need to love your neighbors, but if you like your neighbors, fuck em, if you don’t like your neighbors, fuck em.

You’ve seen the extreme animalism that desensitises. Too much animalism makes you crave the metaphysical.

Animalism is just fine, but we should aspire to be more like bonobos than chimps. Bonobos are the ‘free love’ hippies of the ape world.  

Yeah bonobos are way cooler. Chimps hunt in packs when desperate.

And us humans have made desperation the norm. We’ve got to chill the fuck out.

Explicit, intense, you give your readers a chance to find their sexual chi.

Then they must learn to use it to smash bricks.

Cowabunga!