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Vanity Fairey Interviews Writer Noël Alumit
- University of Wisconsin Press
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221 Noël Alu mit God fuck ing dam mit,” yells Noël Alu mit, wav ing around a let ter from his doc tor. “I have to go on cho les te rol med i ca tion.” He crum ples up the let ter and throws it across the room. “I lost fif teen pounds and gave up sugar so I wouldn’t have to go on med i ca tion. After all that work, I still have to go on it.” He stands quietly for sev eral sec onds, then sighs. “I don’t know how those HIV-positive guys do it. Tak ing all sorts of meds. And here I am quib bling about tak ing some thing for my cho les te rol.” He oc cu pies a small apart ment, filled with books and art. He lives in Sil ver lake, a trendy part of Los An geles. “It wasn’t al ways trendy,” he says. “I grew up around here. I stayed here be cause it was af ford able then—with lots of art ists and gay peo ple and peo ple of color. Then the gay peo ple died. Then the brown peo ple were bought out. Then the art ists were re placed by peo ple who man aged the art ists . . . I’m get ting worked up—” He abruptly stops talk ing. He pulls out a cush ion and sits quietly on the floor. He med i tates for nearly twenty min utes. I sit there and look around. Bud dhist icons spread here and there. I no tice a red pro tec tion cord around his neck. He looks up and says, “I was raised Cath o lic, but Bud dhism seems to fit me bet ter.” Van ity Fai rey Inter views Writer Noël Alu mit Noël Alumit 222 Noël Alu mit seems to be at a cross roads. Last year, he won the James Dug gins Prize, an award re served for writ ers in “mid-career.” He’s forty-three years old and pon der ing the fu ture. He in vites me to sit on the floor with him. I sit down and we talk books, writ ing, and plans. j Van ity Fai rey: Who was the first au thor to make an im pres sion on you? Noël Alu mit: I’d have to say Shel Sil ver stein. His children’s book The Giv ing Tree made my heart cry. It was a story about a boy’s re la tion ship with this tree. The Tree loved the boy dearly. As the boy grew, he kept want ing and need ing things. The Tree did its best to pro vide for him, even when the boy grew to be an old man. The Tree was still there for him. I was only a lit tle kid, but I re mem ber that story truly mov ing me. I still think about it. That’s how you know when a book is good. It makes a last ing im pres sion. VF: Did you read lots of books as a child? NA: Yeah, I guess more than most kids. I read a lot of books in comic book form— graphic nov els they’re now called. I read Dra cula, Fran ken stein, The In vis ible Man—books lit tle boys like to read. VF: Who was the first gay writer to in flu ence you? NA: It was Arnie Kan tro witz. He wrote Under the Rain bow, a me moir about the gay rights strug gle. I read it at the Echo Park branch of the LA Pub lic Li brary. It was the first time I’d read of the gay ex pe ri ence. VF: Did you like it? NA: I did. That was prob ably the first time I was really intro duced to the gay aes thetic. When I picked up Under the Rain bow, I didn’t know what it would be about, but I knew it was going to be queer friendly. Just from the title, I knew it was a play on Judy Garland’s “Over the Rain bow.” Even then, I knew Judy Gar land was some how a gay icon. I was a lit tle un com fort able with it, too. Arnie Kan tro witz talked about how he liked to knit, and I was...