A Novel Approach to Cult Fiction: John Lennon

Cult Fiction: Shoeless Joe

noreply@blogger.com (Cat Spaulding) — Thu, 28 May 2015 17:34:00 +0000

Shoeless Joe by W. P. Kinsella is probably the most famous novel that only a few people have read. It was the basis for the hit movie Field of Dreams, and yet far more people have seen the film than read the book. It can be classified as cult fiction since sales took off in 1988 when Field of Dreams was released. It retains a loyal cult following and is still in print twenty-seven years later even though sales dropped off quickly.

The book is far different from the movie, although the basic characters and plot structure are in place. The story revolves around main character Ray Kinsella, who builds a cornfield on his Iowa farm so that Shoeless Joe Jackson and other disgraced members of the 1919 Chicago Black Sox can find redemption by playing ball in the here-and-now. Ray is accompanied on his mystical quest to find meaning in the experience by J. D. Salinger and former baseball player Moonlight Graham. In the film, the character of Salinger was changed to Terence Mann in order to avoid a lawsuit from the very unhappy Salinger, who hadn't given permission for his name to be used in Kinsella's novel.

Like John Lennon and the Mercy Street Café, Shoeless Joe is a work of magical realism, blending real history with fictional and supernatural events. And that's also why this book can be classified as cult fiction. It appeals to a sense of magic that everyone wants to experience. Twenty-seven years after the film, people still make a pilgrimage to the cornfield in Iowa where much of the movie was shot.

Kinsella wrote two other novels, neither of which attained the same status as Shoeless Joe.

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What Is Cult Fiction?
Is Cult Fiction the Same as Underground Fiction?
Cult Fiction and Genre
Cult Fiction and ON THE ROAD
Cult Fiction and A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES
Moby-Dick: The Ultimate Cult Novel
John Lennon and the Mercy Street Cafe: Cult Fiction in the Making?
The Next Wave of Cult Fiction
List of Cult Fiction Classics
Cult Fiction Websites
Current Trends in Fiction
Literary Fiction
Breakout Fiction
Literary Agents
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Cult Fiction: Trout Fishing in America

noreply@blogger.com (Cat Spaulding) — Wed, 27 May 2015 14:52:00 +0000

Trout Fishing in America by Richard Brautigan is one of the great cult novels of all time. It was published in 1967. The book is highly abstract, with surrealistic prose that at times borders on poetry. Its storyline is amorphous. The book is broken into short chapters (as all of Brautigan's work is). Most of the chapters were written on a camping trip in Idaho with his wife and daughter Ianthe in 1961. Besides being the title of the book, the phrase "trout fishing in America" is the act of fishing as well as a character in the book,

The cultural influences of the book are numerous. W. P. Kinsella, author of Shoeless Joe, claimed that Trout Fishing in America was an enormous influence on his novel The Alligator Report. Apollo 17 astronaut Jack Schmitt was a fan of the novel and named a crater on the moon "shorty," who was a character in the book. People have changed their names to Trout Fishing in America, and various rock bands have adopted the name.

The surrealistic prose of the book and its eccentric characters and style still resonate with readers today, in 2015. The book has acquired and re-acquired a steady readership throughout the years. Trout Fishing in America is classic cult fiction because it breaks the boundaries of the traditional novel and challenges the reader to reassess exactly what a novel is.

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What Is Cult Fiction?
Is Cult Fiction the Same as Underground Fiction?
Cult Fiction and Genre
Cult Fiction and ON THE ROAD
Cult Fiction and A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES
Moby-Dick: The Ultimate Cult Novel
John Lennon and the Mercy Street Cafe: Cult Fiction in the Making?
The Next Wave of Cult Fiction
List of Cult Fiction Classics
Cult Fiction Websites
Current Trends in Fiction
Literary Fiction
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Cult Fiction: Richard Brautigan

noreply@blogger.com (Cat Spaulding) — Wed, 27 May 2015 14:35:00 +0000

Richard Brautigan--novelist, poet, and short story writer--is an author whose work fits the classic definition of cult fiction. While Brautigan did receive conventional publishing contracts before his death in 1984, he did self-publish at first and eventually published with City Lights Press (run by beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti). After Kurt Vonnegut read his work, Brautigan was recommended to and published by Delacorte. Later he would be published by Simon and Schuster.

Brautigan's novels include Trout Fishing in America, In Watermelon Sugar, Sombrero Fallout, The Hawkline Monster, So the Wind Won't Blow It All Away, A Confederate General from Big Sur, and An Unfortunate Woman. His short story collection is titled Revenge of the Lawn.

Brautigan's work was definitely an acquired taste in the beginning, and his original poetry collections were sewn together by hand and distributed on the street. His prose style is playful, challenging, and more often than not, dark and satirical. In almost all of his fiction, he challenges established values, a hallmark of cult fiction.

Brautigan's work is still sold and read today. His complete work, including unpublished work by unknown authors, is housed in The Richard Brautigan Library.

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What Is Cult Fiction?
Is Cult Fiction the Same as Underground Fiction?
Cult Fiction and Genre
Cult Fiction and ON THE ROAD
Cult Fiction and A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES
Moby-Dick: The Ultimate Cult Novel
John Lennon and the Mercy Street Cafe: Cult Fiction in the Making?
The Next Wave of Cult Fiction
List of Cult Fiction Classics
Cult Fiction Websites
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John Lennon and the Mercy Street Cafe now on Kindle, Nook, and iTunes

noreply@blogger.com (Cat Spaulding) — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 17:33:00 +0000

The cult fiction classic by William Hammett, John Lennon and the Mercy Street Cafe, is now available in e-format on Kindle, Nook, and iTunes at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and the Apple Bookstore, respectively. The paperback version remains in print at all online bookstores and at most independent bookstores and some chain outlets, such as Books-a-Million, B&N, and others.

The novel's e-format is very inexpensive and downloads in less than a minute.

With eBooks finally taking off, publishers and industry analysts expect the book to continue to gain traction. You may access the eBook format at the following links:

Amazon/Kindle

B&N/Nook

iTunes/Apple

More news on John Lennon and the Mercy Street Cafe as it develops.

Peace,
Cat

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What Is Cult Fiction?
Is Cult Fiction the Same as Underground Fiction?
Cult Fiction and Genre
Cult Fiction and ON THE ROAD
Cult Fiction and A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES
Moby-Dick: The Ultimate Cult Novel
John Lennon and the Mercy Street Cafe: Cult Fiction in the Making?
The Next Wave of Cult Fiction
List of Cult Fiction Classics
Cult Fiction Websites
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San Francisco Chronicle and Philadelphia Inquirer to Review JOHN LENNON AND THE MERCY STREET CAFE

noreply@blogger.com (Cat Spaulding) — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 18:17:00 +0000

Two of the nation's top newspapers, the San Francisco Chronicle and the Phildelphia Inquirer, will be reviewing John Lennon and the Mercy Street Cafe in late June. This marks yet another milestone in the publication of a novel that continues to gain the status of cult fiction.

Many European newspapers have also favorably reviewed the novel during the past year, and the book continues to gain traction in Eastern Europe, where the Beatles' music was banned for so many years. Once source told me that "All things 'Beatles' are popular in the former Soviet Union." Many teens even sport Beatles hair styles (from the group's early days). Buying electric guitars and forming Beatles tribute bands is becoming the "thing to do" as a rite of passage for kids discovering rock and roll.

A simple Google search often brings up John Lennon and the Mercy Street Cafe, and since the book merges hundreds of Beatles facts into the plot, Europeans are now buying the book in record numbers.

Peace,
Cat

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Index of Articles on This Website
What Is Cult Fiction?
Is Cult Fiction the Same as Underground Fiction?
Cult Fiction and Genre
Cult Fiction and ON THE ROAD
Cult Fiction and A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES
Moby-Dick: The Ultimate Cult Novel
John Lennon and the Mercy Street Cafe: Cult Fiction in the Making?
The Next Wave of Cult Fiction
List of Cult Fiction Classics
Cult Fiction Websites
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False Rumors About the Book of the Month Selection

noreply@blogger.com (Cat Spaulding) — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 17:36:00 +0000

Although there was a lot of buzz flying through cyberspace this week about John Lennon and the Mercy Street Cafe being chosen as a Book of the Month Club selection, the rumor is complelty false. As near as I can tell, a few bloggers were speculating on the possibility, and as is so often the case, speculation turned into alleged fact as it was passed along. The game Kindergarten is alive and well! Perhaps if the book continues to enter new markets, this rumor might one day be converted into fact!

Peace,
Cat

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What Is Cult Fiction?
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Cult Fiction and Genre
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Cult Fiction and A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES
Moby-Dick: The Ultimate Cult Novel
John Lennon and the Mercy Street Cafe: Cult Fiction in the Making?
The Next Wave of Cult Fiction
List of Cult Fiction Classics
Cult Fiction Websites
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Free Promotional Copies of JOHN LENNON AND THE MERCY STREET CAFE

noreply@blogger.com (Cat Spaulding) — Tue, 31 May 2011 18:13:00 +0000

Three thousand free copies (promotional) of John Lennon and the Mercy Street Cafe will be distributed on college campuses this Friday, June 1, 2011. I don't have the names of all colleges yet, but I am told by the author's publicist in an email that the following campuses will definitely have copies available at their respective student centers.

Louisiana State University
Harvard
Yale
Princeton
UCLA
Tulane
Loyola (New Orleans)
Johns Hopkins
University of Pennsylvania
CUNY
University of Nebraska

Approximately ten other universities have been chosen to receive free copies. More info as it becomes available.

In the past few days, it seems as if John Lennon and the Mercy Street Cafe is moving from cult fiction to mainstream fiction, although it is likely to retain its cult status.

Peace,
Cat

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What Is Cult Fiction?
Is Cult Fiction the Same as Underground Fiction?
Cult Fiction and Genre
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Cult Fiction and A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES
Moby-Dick: The Ultimate Cult Novel
John Lennon and the Mercy Street Cafe: Cult Fiction in the Making?
The Next Wave of Cult Fiction
List of Cult Fiction Classics
Cult Fiction Websites
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Retracing the Road Trip in JOHN LENNON AND THE MERCY STREET CAFE

noreply@blogger.com (Cat Spaulding) — Mon, 30 May 2011 18:20:00 +0000

A group men in the their sixties, all diehard Beatles fans, recently took a road trip paralleling the trip taken by Lennon and his friends in John Lennon and the Mercy Stree Cafe. Without providing too much of a spoiler, the men retraced the path taken by Lennon as his station wagon, nicknamed the Big Ugly, travels back in time to a point when the ex Beatle meets legendary folk singer Woodie Guthrie before returning to New York City.

"We thought it would be a fitting tribute to Lennon," said Ed Diebold, a retired accountant. "I mean, we all knew that Lennon never actually made the trip, but it seemed like he did after we read the book. Everything about the journey felt right, as if we were doing something positive." Diebold was accompanied by three other men, all retired.

This kind of action is exactly what cult fiction does: it inspires people to do things that might have seem ludicrous otherwise. Analogously, many fathers and sons took motorcycle trips after the publication of Zen and the Art of Motorcyle Maintenance, another cult favorite.

This latest news is one more example of how cult fiction can grab hold of a reader's imagination and result in life-changing experiences.

Peace,
Cat

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What Is Cult Fiction?
Is Cult Fiction the Same as Underground Fiction?
Cult Fiction and Genre
Cult Fiction and ON THE ROAD
Cult Fiction and A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES
Moby-Dick: The Ultimate Cult Novel
John Lennon and the Mercy Street Cafe: Cult Fiction in the Making?
The Next Wave of Cult Fiction
List of Cult Fiction Classics
Cult Fiction Websites
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Summer Reading: John Lennon and the Mercy Street Cafe

noreply@blogger.com (Cat Spaulding) — Sun, 29 May 2011 14:48:00 +0000

With John Lennon and the Mercy Street Cafe scheduled for eBook release (Kindle, Nook, and iPad) in the first or second week of June, 2011, readership is expected to rise over the summer months. Additonally, I've learned that professors have requested review copies of the book to submit to their English departments for curriculum approval in anticipation of assigning the novel in the summer and fall. This is the second year that the novel has gained notice from academia. Paperback sales recently increased as well, which may indicate that many vacationers taking to the highways this summer will use the book as a "beach read."

As stated in many other articles on this site, such gradual escalations of a book's visibility is a prime indication of how a book can gain an immense following over a period of years and eventually be regarded as a "cult classic."

More news on the eBook versions of John Lennon and the Mercy Street Cafe when the the novel is available in e-format on Amazon, B&N, and at the Apple Bookstore.

Peace,
Cat

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About This Website
Index of Articles on This Website
What Is Cult Fiction?
Is Cult Fiction the Same as Underground Fiction?
Cult Fiction and Genre
Cult Fiction and ON THE ROAD
Cult Fiction and A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES
Moby-Dick: The Ultimate Cult Novel
John Lennon and the Mercy Street Cafe: Cult Fiction in the Making?
The Next Wave of Cult Fiction
List of Cult Fiction Classics
Cult Fiction Websites
Current Trends in Fiction
Literary Fiction
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The Most Widely Read Book on College Campuses: John Lennon and the Mercy Street Cafe

noreply@blogger.com (Cat Spaulding) — Sat, 28 May 2011 16:51:00 +0000

Having followed this novel as an example of cult fiction (and how such a book can go viral), it is no suprise that John Lennon and the Mercy Street Cafe was the most widely read book on 1,216 college campuses from January of 2010 through April of 2011.

Although several English departments had previously assigned the book in courses on magical realism, most students surveyed said that they had heard about the book from friends, in person or in email, sometimes with a link provided to the book's promotional site.

Paul Rankin, an engineering student at the University of Oklahoma, said, "Hey, I'll read anything about Lennon. The book had an interesting premise."

It will be interesting to see if this trend continues. John Lennon never goes out of style, as evidenced by the theatrical release (and now at Blockbuster) of NOWHERE BOY, the story of young Lennon's relationship with his mother Julia and his Aunt Mimi. It is also the story of how he met Paul McCartney and George Harrison.

Peace,
Cat

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Index of Articles on This Website
What Is Cult Fiction?
Is Cult Fiction the Same as Underground Fiction?
Cult Fiction and Genre
Cult Fiction and ON THE ROAD
Cult Fiction and A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES
Moby-Dick: The Ultimate Cult Novel
John Lennon and the Mercy Street Cafe: Cult Fiction in the Making?
The Next Wave of Cult Fiction
List of Cult Fiction Classics
Cult Fiction Websites
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Cult Fiction: Nineteen Eighty-four

noreply@blogger.com (Cat Spaulding) — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 17:58:00 +0000

Nineteen Eighty-four, George Orwell's 1949 masterpiece of dystopian society, certainly qualifies as cult fiction even though it had a more traditional publishing path compared to many of the novels examined on this site.

Through the novel's plot, Orwell was commenting on the limited freedoms in the post-war Soviet Union as the KGB began incessant brainwashing and surveillance of the Soviet population. The book has taken on a much broader significance since its publication, however, with "nineteen eighty-four" becoming a universally acknowledged phrase representing oppression, not only in totalitarian regimes, but also in the context of any political or societal scenario in which authority of any kind threatens individualism.

The phrase "Big Brother is watching" has entered the vernacular as an idiom applied (sometimes sarcastically or humorously) to work environments, the military, government, and even family structures in which freedom of expression is limited, privacy is compromised, or arbitrary rules are enforced for the sake of achieving compliance and conformity. The phrase found new life in the twenty-first century as many Americans believed that the the Patriot Act and actions of Vice President Dick Cheney within the Bush administration violated essential American freedoms. Wiretapping and surveillance of civilians seemed to be very reminiscent of the oppressive government of Oceania in Orwell's novel.

More than anything, the book's consistently loyal following because of its strong theme of individualism and combating propaganda has made this novel one of the biggest cult classics withing the last sixty years.

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What Is Cult Fiction?
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Cult Fiction and Genre
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Cult Fiction and A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES
Moby-Dick: The Ultimate Cult Novel
John Lennon and the Mercy Street Cafe: Cult Fiction in the Making?
The Next Wave of Cult Fiction
List of Cult Fiction Classics
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Cult Fiction: The Fountainhead

noreply@blogger.com (Cat Spaulding) — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 15:48:00 +0000

Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead is one of the most iconic titles that falls within the category of cult fiction. It's publication history reiterates the publication pattern of many cult fiction novels.

Although Rand's first novel, We the Living, had been published by Macmillan, the company rejected The Fountain head when Rand insisted on more marketing for her second, more ambitious novel. Subsequently, Knopf agreed to publish the novel but balked after reading the first chapters. A total of twelve publishers rejected the novel before publisher Bobbs-Merrill accepted it.

The book was published in May of 1943, but sales were slow. It finally made the New York Times bestseller list in 1945. Currently, the book has sold nearly seven million copies, and Ayn Rand readers are fiercely loyal to The Fountainhead and all of the book's in Rand's cannon.

The book's protagonist is Howard Roarke, an idealistic young architect who is expelled from the Stanton Institute of Technology for his non-traditional adherence to new designs. He later leaves the firm of Francon & Heyer because he refuses to employ traditional architectural modes in order to please clients.

This theme of individualism in the face of great persecution is a hallmark of many cult fiction novels. When one considers the theme in conjunction with Rand's difficulty finding a publisher and the novel's initial track record of sluggish sales, it fits the criteria of cult fiction perfectly. The final variable in the equation for this book is the huge following Rand acquired over the years and the status of The Fountainhead as one of American literature's most popular titles.

Individualism (or "man against society") is one of the most prevalent themes of cult fiction. In John Lennon and the Mercy Street Cafe, Lennon's independent-minded artistic qualities and his anti-establishment posture on a variety of issues are crucial to that novel's plot.

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What Is Cult Fiction?
Is Cult Fiction the Same as Underground Fiction?
Cult Fiction and Genre
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Cult Fiction and A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES
Moby-Dick: The Ultimate Cult Novel
John Lennon and the Mercy Street Cafe: Cult Fiction in the Making?
The Next Wave of Cult Fiction
List of Cult Fiction Classics
Cult Fiction Websites
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Cult Fiction: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

noreply@blogger.com (Cat Spaulding) — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 17:41:00 +0000

One of the clearest examples of cult fiction in the twentieth century is Robert M. Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Published in 1974, the novel was rejected by 121 publishers, although it went on to sell over four million copies (typical of a cult fiction title). The book chronicles a father and son's seventeen-day motorcycle journey from Minnesota to California.

Like so many cult fiction titles, the narrative deals with metaphysics, philosophy, and the nature of reality. Specifically, the book expounds Pirsig's personal philosophy called the Metaphysics of Quality, or MOQ. While this belief system is not Zen (the novel's title is a variation on another book title, Zen in the Art of Archery), it does reveal Pirsig's exposure to eastern philosophy while a soldier in Korea. Weighty at times, the book is populated by many father-son discussions, labeled Chautauquas. While the philosophy is too intricate to describe in depth for the purposes of this discussion, Pirsig is, in the final analysis, arguing for a balance between pragmatism and romanticism--a way to embrace living in the mysticism of the moment while also tending to the the rational demands of the physical world (such as motorcycle maintenance).

The book has a history of appealing to a younger audience, one that is seeking answers to the quest looming large as one leaves adolescence. It also has the lure of describing a road trip (so many cult classics do the same) on a motorcycle. Older audiences, even those once enamored by the book, often find the long, philosophical diatribes to be a bit much, perhaps because their own life experiences have ultimately settled the issues Pirsig raises.

But the novel has had staying power and continues to sell. Its publishing history, themes, and narrative structure make Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance as good an example of cult fiction as one can find in American literature. While John Lennon and the Mercy Street Cafe explores metaphysics and a different spiritual approach to life as the main characters take a road trip, it is far less didactic than Pirsig's work.

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Moby-Dick: The Ultimate Cult Novel
John Lennon and the Mercy Street Cafe: Cult Fiction in the Making?
The Next Wave of Cult Fiction
List of Cult Fiction Classics
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Cult Fiction: Investing in Penny Stocks

noreply@blogger.com (Cat Spaulding) — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 16:17:00 +0000

Readers often find a great novel from a small press, one that will eventually be sold to a larger New York house and gain a wider audience, thus becoming part of what I like to call the "literary psyche." It's exciting to make such a find. This is no doubt how early readers of Ernest Callenbach's Ecotopia felt when they found the book before it became a cult classic, selling millions of copies for Bantam. Prior to that, Callenbach had published the novel with Banyon Tree Books, with Harper's magazine also issuing a condensed version.

Finding a great piece of cult fiction is like finding a penny stock destined for bullish movement on Wall Street. I myself collect first editions--an expensive hobby, to be sure--but as this site indicates, I also love to find a title that has the potential to "break out," as they say in publishing. Some titles do, some don't, and some take the literary scenic route.

I'm not really talking about a title's monetary worth, although owners of early editions of Woody Guthrie's Bound for Glory , for example are sitting on a lot of money. The same can be said for the novels John Grisham sold from the trunk of his car before he became mega-famous. And so forth. I'm talking about buying stock in an idea, a trend, knowing that you've found treasure in a book that is circulating in cult and underground circles. Non-readers won't know what I'm talking about. Fiction junkies--you already get it.

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Moby-Dick: The Ultimate Cult Novel
John Lennon and the Mercy Street Cafe: Cult Fiction in the Making?
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List of Cult Fiction Classics
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John Lennon: An Icon Makes His Way into the Classroom

noreply@blogger.com (Cat Spaulding) — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 16:29:00 +0000

Here's an update on the novel I've been following for a while, John Lennon and the Mercy Street Cafe. In the summer and fall of 2010, many universities across the country have begun to assign the novel as part of their lit curriculum. Usually, the book is part of a course focusing on the genre of magical realism.

This is another testament to the fact that the novel continues to meet the criteria for cult fiction (or an underground novel) since neither I nor the author, William Hammett, knows how or why his novel was incorporated into the curriculum of various universities. As was noted in several earlier articles on this site, however, there is a strong word of mouth campaign about John Lennon and the Mercy Street Cafe. The book is passed around among friends or else it is spotted online or at an indie bookstore. The name Lennon draws attention, and at a time when metaphysics is enjoying new popularity thanks to a more generalized interest in all things quantum, the synergy of Lennon and metaphysics seems to be attracting people to the title.

As I've said before, this is usually how it begins with cult fiction--a strong interest in a title that flys below the radar. I continue to think that this book will be around for a very long time. It has staying power, and after three years it continues to surface in new places around the world.

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Index of Articles on This Website
What Is Cult Fiction?
Is Cult Fiction the Same as Underground Fiction?
Cult Fiction and Genre
Cult Fiction and ON THE ROAD
Cult Fiction and A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES
Moby-Dick: The Ultimate Cult Novel
John Lennon and the Mercy Street Cafe: Cult Fiction in the Making?
The Next Wave of Cult Fiction
List of Cult Fiction Classics
Cult Fiction Websites
Current Trends in Fiction
Literary Fiction
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Literary Agents
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John Lennon and the Mercy Street Cafe: Looks Like Cult Fiction to Me

noreply@blogger.com (Cat Spaulding) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:27:00 +0000

My conversations with William Hammett, author of John Lennon and the Mercy Street Café, were over. More than ever, I was left feeling that the novel was an extraordinary piece of work. People who like fantasy and the Beatles are the target audience, although I think, as noted earlier, that the book has demonstrated a cross-genre appeal. Small presses, however, have a very tight promotional budget (if any) and Hammett has had to do the promo himself, some of which was described in earlier articles (see index or site navigation).

I am convinced that the book will be around for a while and that it is one of those rarities that just might attain the status of cult fiction. It continues to be disseminated and discovered in unusual ways. It elicits strong reactions from readers, who like its message of hope and counterculture leanings. Like cult fiction before it, the novel finds its way into the hands of readers by an indefinable inertia, after which people use both word-of-mouth and the Internet to pass along the title.

John Lennon is still alive in the pages of this book. It will now be a sociological experiment to see whether or not this book does indeed have the staying power to break out into a wider market. A well written book on John Lennon by a professional writer? My bet is on this solid tale by William Hammett, who I thank for his time in answering so many questions.

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What Is Cult Fiction?
Is Cult Fiction the Same as Underground Fiction?
Cult Fiction and Genre
Cult Fiction and ON THE ROAD
Cult Fiction and A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES
Moby-Dick: The Ultimate Cult Novel
John Lennon and the Mercy Street Cafe: Cult Fiction in the Making?
The Next Wave of Cult Fiction
List of Cult Fiction Classics
Cult Fiction Websites
Current Trends in Fiction
Literary Fiction
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Film Rights for John Lennon and the Mercy Street Cafe

noreply@blogger.com (Cat Spaulding) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 14:54:00 +0000

I was surprised to learn that Hammett had been approached by a representative of a production company that was interested in making John Lennon and the Mercy Street Café into a movie. After brief negotiation, Hammett declined. His explanation as to why follows.

Hammett: Post-Katrina, there are a lot of movies being made in New Orleans, but this particular production company had no experience making feature-length films. I decided that if it was ever going to happen, it needed to be done right. The company had only made short films, ten minutes in length, and commercials. Many people, such as my ghostwriting clients, believe that if a book is published, Hollywood scrambles to make it into a movie. They don’t understand that an exceedingly small number of novels get made into films. But I’m prejudiced, of course. I’ve been told by a Los Angeles-based screenwriter that the story lends itself to film, and I don’t think she was just out to flatter me. A lot of readers have made the same comment.

Cat: If the story is sound, which this one is, I think people would love to see a Lennon movie.

Hammett: You’re preaching to the choir.

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Agent Reaction to John Lennon and the Mercy Street Cafe

noreply@blogger.com (Cat Spaulding) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:34:00 +0000

I knew that John Lennon and the Mercy Street Café had been published by a small press, but had William Hammett sent the manuscript to agents? His answer was very revealing ... and a bit disheartening.

Hammett: Numerous literary agents were very enthusiastic about my query. The name John Lennon usually gets people’s attention quickly, and more importantly, agents liked the hook in my query. Several asked to see the manuscript or a partial. As for what they thought after reading the book, most responded very favorably but believed that "non-literary" magical realism wouldn’t fly in the literary marketplace. They said that the days of Shoeless Joe were over. I didn’t agree since magical realism is a form of fantasy, which is very popular. As for Shoeless Joe, it is now in its 28th printing, and thousands of people still make the pilgrimage to Iowa today to see the baseball diamond because the book and movie gave them hope. I decided that I was going to get the book out because, as we’ve already discussed, people are hungry for hope, and that’s what John Lennon and the Mercy Street Café is about.

Cat: Any other experiences with agents and editors.

Hammett: Many. The former head of the juvenile division at McIntosh & Otis, the oldest agency for the juvenile market, loved three of six picture books I sent her, plus she liked two middle readers but thought they needed revision. She nevertheless declined representation, which I never understood. Why not represent the three she thought were superb and let me work on the rest? I also had a piece received very favorably by an editor at Simon and Schuster, but the project was killed by senior editorial staff. Scholastic Press accepted one of my middle readers, but after an editorial shake-up, the new editor wasn’t interested and claimed she couldn’t even locate the manuscript. I have also had agents request avant-garde, experimental novels, which I sent in, and the response was, “This is fantastic, but it’s avant-garde. It will never sell.” I was left scratching my head since the agents had, after all, asked for avant-garde fiction that would "break the mould." All this having been said, I’m not complaining. Most agents have treated me very well, and our relationships have been very good.

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An Inspirational Letter from a Beatles Fan

noreply@blogger.com (Cat Spaulding) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:08:00 +0000

Hammett forwarded the following letter from one of his readers, but it wasn’t what I expected. The letter follows in its entirety, which is brief and poignant.

"Dear Mr. Hammett,

I bought your book because I liked John Lennon and the first two pages seemed interesting. It was a good book, but that’s not why I’m writing. My life hasn’t been a happy one. Pretty much everything has gone wrong. A lot of magical things happen in your story, and I sure wish they would happen in my own life. It was fun for a few moments to pretend that they might. When I read the book I remembered being very excited every time I saw the Beatles on TV, thanks for helping me to remember what that excitement felt like."

Cat: Very moving.

Hammett: If that man had been my only reader, it would have been worth all the time and effort of writing the book. I think there are different ways to define a miracle. Somewhere in between the lines of that letter is hope. Maybe that’s magic enough during tough times.

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Moby-Dick: The Ultimate Cult Novel
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Synchronicity, Miracles, and John Lennon

noreply@blogger.com (Cat Spaulding) — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 16:44:00 +0000

Cat: Do you believe in miracles?

Hammett: Yes, but most humans are cynical and materialistic. As Dr. Bernie Segal, author of Love, Medicine & Miracles said, nothing impedes the miraculous like logic, reason, or doubt.

Cat: Have you witnessed miracles or unusual events in your own life?

Hammett: After I wrote chapter one of John Lennon and the Mercy Street Cafe, which mentions Mercer Street in Greenwich Village, I got a wrong number on my landline thirty minutes later from Mercerville, New Jersey. Counting home phones, cells, and business phones, there are approximately ten billion telephone numbers in the United States alone. That kind of synchronicity happened to me almost every day I was writing the novel.

Cat: Can you give another example?

Hammett: I wrote a scene in which John Lennon recounts the Beatles’ visit to New Orleans, where they were impressed above all else by meeting Fats Domino and seeing his enormous diamond-studded watch. The next day, I was sitting in the exam room of a doctor’s office. I looked down at the small table next to me and saw a four-year-old People magazine open to an article on the Beatles. The picture used for the story just happened to be a shot of the group in New Orleans. All four Beatles were gathered around Fats Domino, admiring his diamond watch. What are the odds that an old magazine would be sitting there, open to a page illustrating a scene I’d just written? Readers from all over the world have emailed me to share their own synchronistic or miraculous events in their lives. I’m a believer.

Cat: Care to share any of the letters?

What William Hammett forwarded to me was proof that John Lennon and the Mercy Street Café was having an impact on people, a further indication, along with many others, that the book was quietly gaining the status of cult fiction.

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Moby-Dick: The Ultimate Cult Novel
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A Metaphysical Beatle

noreply@blogger.com (Cat Spaulding) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 17:16:00 +0000

William Hammett held fast to his belief that magical realism best described the genre for John Lennon and the Mercy Street Café, although he understood why readers sometimes classified it as belonging to other genres.

Hammett: The email I receive from readers classifies the book in any number of ways. This, in itself, isn’t that unusual. If ten people see a movie, all ten may come away with a different interpretation of what they’ve just seen. Surprisingly, though, a number of readers refer to John Lennon and the Mercy Street Café as metaphysical fiction. It goes without saying that in a book that opens with John Lennon standing in Grand Central Station in 2006, we have an element of the supernatural imposing itself on the narrative from the get-go.

Cat: There are other elements of the supernatural in the book as well, although they never seem to impinge upon the plot, if that makes sense.

Hammett: That’s the beauty of it. Keep a tight rein on plot, character, and theme, and some of the more unusual things that take place simply seem an integral part of the narrative. Actually, I have no problem with anyone labeling the book as metaphysical fiction. The term is being used more frequently, and it’s a niche that’s about to explode.

Cat: Why is that?

Hammett: Because of the enormous interest in quantum physics reflected in movies—What the Bleep Do We Know is a very successful cult movie on quantum reality—and then also on TV and in hundreds of nonfiction titles on creating one’s reality through positive thinking.

Cat: Quantum physics?

Hammett: You have everything from the mega-hit The Secret to the classic The Tau of Physics. The universe is thought-responsive. Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle has proven that matter behaves according to the expectation of an observer.

Cat: Connect this to the book for me.

Hammett: It all goes back to hope. People are searching for ways to make their lives more meaningful. The new physics is now reinforcing ideas of faith as old as the New Testament Gospels or the Tao. As a man thinks, so shall he be. The ideas of intention and manifestation are jumping from nonfiction lists to fiction.

Cat: So is John Lennon and the Mercy Street Café cutting edge metaphysical fiction?

Hammett: (laughs) I’d like to think so, but who knows? Only time will tell. What I do know is that John Lennon was firm in his belief in the ability to change things. He challenges us in “Imagine” to create a different world through the simple thought process of imagination. He was a metaphysical Beatle.

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Moby-Dick: The Ultimate Cult Novel
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Cross-Genre Appeal of John Lennon and the Mercy Street Cafe

noreply@blogger.com (Cat Spaulding) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 18:06:00 +0000

One of the first things I noticed about John Lennon and the Mercy Street Café was that people were labeling the novel differently respective to genre. I thought the book was a great piece of mainstream fiction, with strong characters, plot, and theme. My friend Sarah said it was a first-rate work of science fiction, while my sister and her friends listed it on their blogs and Facebook pages as fantasy. Were we reading the same book?

I looked up “magical realism" (the author's label) and while many scholars disagreed about the definition and proffered several complex literary definitions, most critics defined the term as a genre in which magical or supernatural elements intrude on realistic settings or are made part of real-life (historical) fiction. The latter, more simplified definition seemed to fit John Lennon and the Mercy Street Café perfectly. John Lennon, a real person, is put into a setting that is historically accurate for the year 2006. The book’s fictional plot takes place within the context of these realistic elements.

The more I reflected, however, the more I began to believe that people’s ability to see the novel as belonging to other genres was a further argument for regarding it as cult fiction. Vonnegut’s fiction, such as Slaughterhouse-Five, involves a protagonist, Billy Pilgrim, traveling back and forth in time. Vonnegut’s work, originally labeled as science fiction, is now viewed as solid literary fiction. Joseph Heller’s Catch-22, a work of literary fiction, certainly contains an element of the absurd that challenges a reader’s concept of what is normal and real. Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes, a classic cult favorite, has been labeled as science fiction, horror, and literary. This, of course, tallies nicely with our definition of cult fiction: that which moves people profoundly, albeit in different ways. Because cult fiction almost always challenges perceptions and is iconoclastic in nature, themes often (though not always) have a subjective element to them.

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Moby-Dick: The Ultimate Cult Novel
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The Demons of John Lennon

noreply@blogger.com (Cat Spaulding) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 15:26:00 +0000

Cat: You’ve mentioned that Lennon needed to exorcise his demons. How does one approach getting into the mind of John Lennon?

Hammett: You don't. It would be impossible. I found only two other novels, quite awful, that used Lennon as a character and attempted to imitate his habits and mannerisms, I suppose, for the sake of realism, while using every speech pattern on record. Big mistake. No one can get inside the head of John Lennon. Hell, even Lennon himself couldn’t do it. Plus there is disagreement over Lennon’s personality at the end of his life. He was indeed starting to call his son Julian and share tracks from Double Fantasy, but Julian himself, according to Cynthia Lennon's biography John, reported to his mother that Lennon was a reclusive man in his last days at the Dakota, staying in his room and watching TV. Julian, we are told, saw no sign of the devoted, bread-baking father we’ve all heard about. Julian said he saw a mostly-neglected Sean. It's a question of individual perception. The answer probably lies somewhere in the middle. As for treating Lennon in fiction, I took some of his more obvious character traits, such as his insecurity, cockiness, fears, and caring, and worked with those. I didn’t try to do caricature or use a consistent Liverpudlian accent. Imitation can come off flat, as when Hollywood makes a film about my hometown of New Orleans. No one there has a southern drawl or a Cajun accent. The only accent is a Brooklyn accent in the suburbs. We look at the screen, laugh, and shrug our shoulders. Whatever Dennis Quaid said in The Big Easy was not intelligible to native New Orleanians. He tried to merge Cajun with a drawl. It doesn’t exist. Same thing would hold true for Lennon. Trying to reproduce his accent past a very limited point would be ludicrous. I think that’s why John Lennon and the Mercy Street Cafe works. It enables people to identify with him more. It’s the confused Lennon people can see and feel. And, of course, Lennon the clown. John Lennon was a lot of things to a lot of people. Painting him in broad strokes was the key. Indeed, he’s not even the narrator. One could say that the real protagonist is a very strong female narrator.

Cat: I noticed that. She’s very believable.

Hammett: That was a conscious decision. I think it gives the novel a strong, three-dimensional narrator who is ringmaster for the narrative, not Lennon. We see the ex-Beatle through her eyes.

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Moby-Dick: The Ultimate Cult Novel
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John Lennon's Musical Twin

noreply@blogger.com (Cat Spaulding) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 17:58:00 +0000

Hammett gave me an interesting teaser for his novel’s plot as we discussed John Lennon.

“I had always read a lot about Lennon, but in no biography did I find a description of the stunning resemblance between John Lennon and another twentieth century musical icon. It’s almost inconceivable that no one has ever pointed out the similarity between Lennon and this figure, who I won’t name in order to prevent providing a spoiler. Suffice it to say that Lennon and this iconic figure shared the guitar, drawing, poetry, pseudonyms, a troubled childhood, womanizing, political activism, and an outspoken quality in their rhetoric. Even the two figures’ mothers were similar in that both suffered from some form of mental instability and died when their sons were seventeen. The relationship between the two men is an essential part of the plot of John Lennon and the Mercy Street Café.”

My curiosity stayed piqued. Finding undiscovered relationships between people or places is often an important aspect of the allure of cult fiction.

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Moby-Dick: The Ultimate Cult Novel
John Lennon and the Mercy Street Cafe: Cult Fiction in the Making?
The Next Wave of Cult Fiction
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The Inspiration of John Lennon

noreply@blogger.com (Cat Spaulding) — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 17:26:00 +0000

We had touched on the Beatles, so I thought I would return Hammett’s attention to the central figure of his novel. His words helped to validate my belief that John Lennon and the Mercy Street Café was cult fiction. What follows is the next portion of our interview.

Cat: John Lennon and the Beatles were obviously very important to you.

Hammett: Absolutely, and it goes beyond the music. The Beatles were catalysts for change. But Lennon, he was special, a more complex man than the others. Even in his eccentricities, such as the bed-ins, he was pushing against the status quo. He was challenging us all to think, and not just with his anti-war political activism.

Cat: How else did he challenge people in your opinion?

Hammett: He thought way outside the box. In some respects, he refused to acknowledge the box was even there. He fought a long battle with the feds over deportation, and just as with his anti-war protests, he asked us to rethink the very meaning of terms such as peace, citizenship, justice, authority, and individuality. With Yoko, he asked us to redefine art and aesthetics. In some ways, John Lennon and the Mercy Street Café is about realizing the impossible, about seeing what no one else can see. It's about redefinition. That’s what John Lennon was about.

William Hammett’s thoughts on John Lennon reminded me of how the novel’s themes were common to cult fiction. In John Lennon and the Mercy Street Café, basic assumptions of reality are challenged. The world is turned on its side and redefined. What is possible is not determined by an objective, rationalist viewpoint, but rather by intuition, a belief in hope and faith as the arbiters of what we call reality. As Hammett had put it, such a process not only entailed looking outside the box, but doing away with the box altogether. I couldn’t think of a single work of cult fiction that didn’t do exactly that.

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What Is Cult Fiction?
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Cult Fiction and Genre
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Cult Fiction and A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES
Moby-Dick: The Ultimate Cult Novel
John Lennon and the Mercy Street Cafe: Cult Fiction in the Making?
The Next Wave of Cult Fiction
List of Cult Fiction Classics
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