Official Interview: Scott Hughes
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Official Interview: Scott Hughes
Today's Chat with Sarah features our very own Scott Hughes, webmaster and author of The Banned Book about Love as well as Justice.
To view The Banned Book about Love on Bookshelves where you can view the many reviews as well as download the book for free, click here.
To view Justice on Bookshelves with its reviews and links to purchase it, click here.
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1. Running a website that discusses books, when and why did you decide to write a book of your own?
It was after publishing the book Holding Fire: Short Stories of Self-Destruction. I didn’t write that book, but through OnlineBookClub I handled the publication of it. That book is made up of the 10 winning short stories from a short story contest we held. I had personally chosen the theme for the short story contest: the self-destructiveness of vengeance and hate. I also wrote the introduction to Holding Fire.
Through Holding Fire, I got a taste of writing and publishing books, both in the role of writer and in the role of publisher.
Friends and family gave me really kind and encouraging feedback about the short introduction I wrote for Holding Fire. A few explicitly suggested they would like to see me write a book.
2. You have a couple of books to discuss. Let's start with The Banned Book about Love. Why was the book banned from Amazon?
There was a ton of backlash on social media, especially Twitter, about the book from people who didn’t even read it. There was actually an attempt to hack my account on Twitter in regard to that.
Both publicly and presumably also privately to Amazon, there were many heated complaints about the book from very triggered people who did not read it.
They literally judged the book by its cover, and title, the original ones. The original title was, “I love Brock Turner”, who was a rapist making news headlines at the time. So we can easily guess at the kind of crazy things a person might think if they judge the book or assume the content based on just those four words: “I love Brock Turner”.
For those who read the short book, they knew it was about unconditional love for everyone.
I believe even a rabid dog deserves unconditional love and forgiveness.
And of course, that doesn’t mean we don’t put the dog–or violent criminal–in a cage, or worse, as I make clear in the short booklet.
3. How did the ban affect you?
It was an honor. I am proud to be the author of a banned book.
The reaction from people who didn’t read it was a case in point proving many of the points of the book, including but not limited to those about tl;dr culture and about passionate hate tending to be a byproduct of ignorance and conclusion-jumping.
4. The book discusses crime and punishment. It seems that you believe we should be trying to create less crime instead of just punishing criminals. How do you think this is to be accomplished?
I don’t believe in “shoulds” at all. My newest book–In It Together–will explain that more explicitly and in significant detail, among other things.
I look at things as they are. Insofar as I have a choice about something, then I look towards the future and consider what I can choose to make happen or not make happen, but even those choices then must always be made in the present–a here and now–and thus are based on what is and are themselves an aspect of what is.
In that way, as my book In It Together will explain, I believe not only in unconditional love for all people and all animals, but for all things. On my right forearm I have a tattoo of something Ram Dass said, as quoted by Mike Posner: “Just love everything.”
With that said, to your question about crime, I am not opposed to crime. In fact, most of my heroes were criminals. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a repeatedly arrested criminal offender. Henry David Thoreau was a criminal who was jailed for his crime.
One could also mention Jesus and Socrates, both of whom were not only jailed for their crimes but executed.
Point being, I am not opposed to crime per se at all. Depending on the crime, I may support it. If the crime is freeing a human slave, I’m all for it. If the crime is going over 65mph on a highway with a 65mph speed limit, I’m going to do it. And if I find myself on a one-lane highway behind you, and you’re driving only the legal speed limit, I’ll probably be a bit frustrated that you don’t go faster.
What I do oppose and want to see reduced as much as possible is victimization, namely violent victimization. In other words, I am strongly opposed to non-defensive violence. My pinned tweet on Twitter explains that a bit more and invites those who feel the same to connect with me by retweeting it.
My book Justice, while fictional, does in part explore the fact that most incarcerated criminals in the USA are non-violent and are only accused of non-violent actions such as marijuana possession.
I would definitely prefer to prevent violent victimization when possible, rather than merely deal with the violent offenders, but I also fully support the incarceration of violent human offenders as well as rabid dogs as needed to protect the rest of us, which I did make clear in my short banned book about love.
It’s only people who didn’t read it who might hear me say that I love all humans including child murderers and all animals for that matter including rabid dogs and falsely think that means I support non-defensive violence or oppose defensive force, namely incarceration of some kind or another.
5. Let's move to your novella Justice. From the title, it appears this book has similar themes to The Banned Book about Love. Did one flow from the other?
Well, Justice is fictional. I’m not sure I’d say one flows from the other. We could say both flow from the same general attitudes within me, especially considering they were written around the same time, within a year of each other if I remember correctly.
To kind of reiterate what I mentioned earlier, I don’t believe in ‘justice’, or ‘shoulds’, or ‘oughts’, or ‘morality’, or ‘evil’. I don’t believe in the concept that any person or animal deserves suffering and ought to be punished or such. Instead, I believe very strongly in respecting the dichotomy of control and by extension unconditionally accepting what I cannot control as simply being a matter of what is.
Instead of looking at what is out of my control and saying it “shouldn’t” be the way it inexorably is, whatever that would mean, I look at what is within my control and choose. And I control my choices 100%. Where is the sense or meaning in having the choice between A and B and choosing A while saying I should be choosing B? To me, that’s meaningless nonsense.
The epitome of something that is out of your control is the past. So for example, to me, it just doesn’t make sense to look at the past and resentfully say it “shouldn’t” be the way it is, or it “ought” not be the way it is, or it is bad or evil for being the way it is. Instead, I believe of accepting the past as it inexorably is.
6. Why is the theme of unconditional love so important to you?
It’s a necessary part of my inner peace.
Insofar as I did engage in shoulds, meaning not unconditionally accept and love what inexorably is, then I wouldn’t have inner peace. I would be at war with unchangeable reality, which to me sounds like it would be a miserable way to live. If I looked at unchangeable aspects of reality, namely the past and present as they inexorably are, and said it shouldn’t be the way it is; it’s evil; it’s bad, then I wouldn’t have inner peace.
I can’t think of anything more important than inner peace, meaning that true deep invincible contentment one can experience when one fully believes life is worth living and is in love with timeless reality and the infinite beauty of each and every present moment–and that’s presence in the sense of space as much as time, meaning a here and now rather than just a now.
I believe that inside of every living human skull there is an entire universe.
7. What do you find to be the most difficult part of the writing process?
I can’t say I really find anything particularly difficult about the writing process. I don’t have to write. When I write a book or a poem or an essay or whatever, it’s usually something I do almost by accident. Sometimes I start writing what I think will be a short little social media post or entry in my private journal, and then before I know it I have written pages and pages.
I suppose sometimes the hard part is knowing how to trim up the writing, and knowing what and how much to throw out, or when to give up on a whole piece.
8. I've heard that you're planning to write another book. Is this true? Can you tell us a little about it?
I am not sure if you mean my book In It Together. I already finished the first draft. It’s not a secret. I actually had a successful Kickstarter for it years ago. The book is extremely overdue. But I would rather release it later than originally predicted to ensure it is polished and perfected as much as possible rather than put out something rushed and sloppy.
As of now, I expect that to be my last book. But plans can change.
I like to end with some fun questions.
9. How do you relax?
I like boxing. I spar with my friends in my backyard a lot.
I like riding my motorcycle.
I have a hot tub, so I enjoy sitting out there looking up at the night sky.
I also meditate sometimes. My favorite way to meditate is to sit down in the grass in my backyard in the sunlight. Similarly, I very often sit on my front patio or at my backyard table drinking seltzer or tea and watching nature. And for me watching nature includes seeing the humans walking by with their dogs. It’s a good reminder to me that humans are a part of nature.
I like to take walks around the neighborhood.
I work out every day in my gym.
And I like to dance, especially salsa dancing.
10. Who's been the biggest influence in your life?
If we are talking about people I’ve never met, then maybe my favorite musician, Mike Posner.
If we are talking about people I know in real life, then my children.
11. What's your favorite food?
Either ice cream or pizza. I eat a pint of ice cream every night before bed.
I don’t eat pizza very often because I like it too much. It’s a dangerous thing for me to have around. But I can go in on some pizza.
12. If you could be any animal, what would you be and why?
I’d really need more details about the hypothetical to answer: Would I be keeping my human memories, mind, and intelligence?
I’d say I relate most to a big cat, like a lion or a tiger. I think the big cats and I both follow the habit of work hard and rest hard.
—Neil Gaiman
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Good luck with the new book, and thank you both.
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"In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you." (Mortimer J. Adler)
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