| 20 Questions with Ned Vizzini | ||
| Meet Ned Vizzini the teenage author of the hilarious book TEEN ANGST? NAH.... | ||
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Ned's writing style is "Seinfeld-esque". He is witty, intelligent and surprisingly fresh. He has an edge, he has attitude and man, does he have writing talent. Whether you're an adult, a teen or a little of both, you'll laugh out loud at Ned's portrayal of teen angst. Don't miss his book, if you do you'll be missing out on one of the best reads of the new millenium. |
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The Questions
In the book you say you started writing about what happened to you to help you deal with the frustrations of teen life - did it really help?
Absolutely, writing helped me deal with high school. First off, it gave me an accomplishment to be proud of. I could go to homeroom and bungle some sort of social situation, then run to English and read an essay out loud to the class and think "Hey, at least I can do something right." Also, writing gave me a sense of control over my own life, and an outlet for my emotions. Before I found writing, my only emotional outlet was Nintendo.
Your writing style is hilarious, are you that funny in real life?
Nah. I spent two years making that book funny. I'm funny in real life, but not as much, and only in spurts, and a lot of people don't get the humor.
You went to a high school for the academically gifted - do you think that your experiences at that school are typical?
Well, my school was a weird place, no doubt about it. We had a large and vocal collection of chess fanatics, plus a kid who dressed up like Jesus and carried a cross around on Halloween. But despite that, I think my basic experiences - girls, getting drunk, getting into stupid situations, learning how to deal with authority figures - were typical. You go through those things no matter where you attend school.
You were in high school when the school shootings started happening - any thoughts? Are teens today more violent and/or more apathetic?
I get asked this a lot. First of all, many parents don't realize what a big deal Columbine was. They think we teens are so jaded that we just shook it of. Nobody shook it off. The day it happened, kids were shocked, and for the next two weeks we all went to school wondering, "Hey, is that goth kid who hangs out on the fourth floor a normal weirdo, or one of the extra special kind that comes to school with firearms?" It made us re-evaluate everyone we saw in the halls.
I wasn't too worried, because I went to school in New York, where I didn't think a school shooting was likely to happen. In New York, there's no space; if you tried to load a machine gun in the morning, your mom would hear you in the closet.
Yes, teens today can be very violent and apathetic, but teens in the 60's could be violent and apathetic too. It's the parents' job to recognize those traits. Blame for the school shootings rests directly on the parents, no question. TV is an influence, but it's your job to make sure that your kid isn't a gun nut, bomb enthusiast, Nazi, etc. That shouldn't be too hard.
Girls - you don't say much about them in the book, have you learned anything more since high school that you want to share?
The advice I gave in the book was pretty sound.
- If a girl expresses interest in you, act fast -- you have two weeks, and after that, she will move on.
- Don't talk too much around girls; they like guys who are quiet and brooding.
- When you do talk, make them laugh.
- It helps if you can dance well.
That's it. The only thing I've learned recently is, try to date outside your race, social class, age group, etc. You'll learn a lot and you'll get good stories.
Parents - yours come across as kind of goofy but basically easy to get along with, is that really how they are? Any tips for teens?
Yeah, they're cool, except when they treat me with that parental mixture of anger and pity ("How could you do such a stupid thing?! Ah, youth, you'll never learn").
My tip for teens is to use your parents. They're smart. They have a repository of information that can help you out. They know how to buy a car, deal with landlords, and apply for credit cards. So ask them questions when you're in trouble, and don't piss them off so much that you'll be unable to ask them questions when you're in trouble in the future.
Virginity and sex - almost absent from the book, what are your thoughts on the role they play in the life of the average teen?
Sex was almost absent from the book? Well, it was almost absent from my high school life. Oh, wait, except on TV. TV taught me that sex in America is available anytime, anywhere: on office copy machines, in high school locker rooms, in movie theatres and in airplane bathrooms.
Sex is what corporate America uses to sell teens. If you watch enough TV, you'll start to think that the whole world is having wild threesomes and you'll feel pretty bad about your own sex life. (You also might wonder why your school is full of such ugly people.) The role that sex plays in young people's lives is highly exaggerated by television, and that's sad, because TV is sexier than we can ever be.
You admit to drinking while underage - is this common in teens? Do you think the drinking age is too high?
Yes, it's common in teens, and no, the drinking age is fine. I think we're actually at a good place with adolescent drinking. Teens drink, but they know it's bad, and they feel guilty about it, and they have a general idea that it's very bad to drink and drive. Of course, there are some drunks - there are always going to be - but keeping the drinking age officially 21 with the understanding that kids will "experiment" (love that word) earlier on seems to have put us in a good place. I don't think America is overrun with drunk kids.
Is there anything you regret about your high school experience, anything you wish you had tried or hadn't done?
My regrets are social and mostly girl-related. Nothing big, just people I wish I'd talked to or hung out with. Give me ten years, I'll have some good ones, maybe.
What 5 words best describe your generation? Why?
Rich, motivated, smart, Nintendo, and trying-hard-to-be-jaded
We're rich because hey - the whole country's rich! We just lived through a decade that made the roaring 20s look like nothing. You're reading this on a computer that would have been unthinkable 10 years ago. Congrats.
We're motivated because we see successful people getting younger and younger. We have young tennis stars, young actors, and a fairly young president…We feel that we have to succeed just as quickly as they did.
Smart - I don't buy this whole declining-test-scores American youth idiocy business. Teens today may not be book-smart, but they deal with cell phones, pagers, computers, and many-pocketed pants. They manage complex school and social schedules. They find new and interesting ways to cheat on everything. For street smarts and business smarts, I would put us up against any generation.
Nintendo isn't an adjective but it has to be there. My generation was raised on Nintendo. We love it and it brings tears to our eyes.
Trying-hard-to-be-jaded…I wish that were one word. Our generation tries hard to act like we've seen it all because in some cases, we have. We've seen people brutally beaten on TV; we're seen the president talk about his pee-wee for a whole year; we've seen a truly great Pee-Wee, Mr. Herman, get treated like a witch for masturbating! We can go on the Internet and see whatever we like. So we are ashamed to act surprised, amused, or interested in anything. We just want to act old and cool.
If you could change one thing about your generation what would it be? Why?
Less TV. I would love for us all to just boycott TV for a year and give the network execs epilepsy.
What do you consider a positive strength of your generation? Why?
We do work hard. Kids get out of high school and try to make it in Internet companies. They take internships in 11th and 12th grade. We all want that cash, and I don't think we're afraid to work for it.
Moxy Fruvous - what's the deal with that? Why are they so great? Do you identify with any of the music of your generation? Why or why not?
Moxy Fruvous (www.fruvous.com) is just a skilled pop band, and one of the things I latched on to in order to get some individuality in high school. They're great because they can really sing and play their instruments and they write some fine songs. I identify with lots of my generation's music, most notably Nirvana. I'm an obsessive Nirvana fan; I spend some late nights getting bootleg Nirvana mp3s and I know most of the lyrics.
I don't identify with rap, except for Eminem. Emimem I love because he talks about how bad his life sucks, and he has a terrific sense of humor about it. All the other rappers are just bragging, so they make me jealous and depressed.
When I was a teen the Cold War ended and the Berlin Wall fell - what world events (if any) do you think have helped shape the identity of your generation? Why?
PLEASE NOTE: this question was asked in August 2000, almost one year before 9/11.
Hmmm, there seem to be a lot of 'speak for your generation' questions. I just want to say that I'm a silly guy with a book (Teen Angst? Naaah…, mindless plug), and I shouldn't speak for anybody. But the things I remember were Rodney King getting beaten and Nelson Mandela getting out of jail. The O.J. trial, where it seemed like the media could never outdo itself, and Monica Lewinski, where it finally did. Columbine. The important years were 1990, when we all got Nintendos, and 1995, when we all got AOL.
What do you hope teens will get from reading your book?
Just some laughs, and the ability to look at their own situations. Hopefully they'll find one story in Teen Angst?that really hits them, that reminds them of something they went through, that makes them feel, you know, warm and fuzzy. The nicest comment I have gotten from teens is that they read the book all at once. That means they got it; you don't read 200 pages of something if you don't get it.
Tell us about what DIDN'T make it in to your book?
The time I took lots of drugs and bit the head off a bat! No, seriously, most of the essays that got cut from Teen Angst? were either too New York-specific or too time-specific. For example, I wrote one about a computer convention that happened in June 1997; that would have looked hopelessly dated in the book now that all the computer products are discontinued! Also, some essays talked about places or events that only a New Yorker would understand - we cut those so as not to alienate readers. And some essays were just stupid; you can see them at NedVizzini.com.
Are you planning a sequel?
Only if there's a great public clamoring for one. Writing about my life was great in high school, but now I'm 19; I don't want to enter the cluttered field of 20-something personal essayists. Plus, I'm just not as interesting as some people would like to think…
How hard was it to get published? In the book it sounds like it "just happened", was it really that simple?
Woody Allen said that 90% of life is showing up. That's basically wow my writing career has worked. I just showed up. I'm not going to repeat the story (it's in the introduction of Teen Angst? Naaah…), but here's the short version:
- In 1996, when I was 15, I sent a sample of my work (an essay that I wrote) to a local newspaper called New York Press (www.nypress.com).
- The editors at the paper liked my sample, so I became a New York Press freelancer, writing when I liked and getting published and paid only if my articles were good enough.
- In 1998, the New York Times Magazine asked me to write an essay for them (they had seen my work in New York Press).
- Someone at Free Spirit Publishing saw the New York Times Magazine article and emailed me, asking if I was interested in doing a book.
I guess that sounds easy, and I know I've been very lucky, but those four steps took four years. To do anything for four years requires stubbornness, and that's the trait that has served me best. Showing up and staying stubborn. Baby.
Any advice for aspiring young writers?
Very simple. If you want to be a writer, take any magazine or newspaper that you read and look in the front (where the writers and editors are listed, this is called the 'masthead'). You see that little address down there? That's the 'slush mail' address, where you can send unsolicited writing. The newspapers and magazines don't like getting slush mail, because most of it is very bad, but if you send something to that address, it will get read; and if an editor likes it, he will call you up.
Breaking into the writing industry isn't like becoming a movie star - you don't need inside connections. You just need to write to the slush mail address.
Ned, what do you see yourself doing for a career: going in to politics (you'd be great) and if so how do you think the underage drinking will be handled by the press? What about a career journalism? Do you have any faith in the media to report facts without sensation?
Ha ha! Politics! Believe me, publishing a book about my life has been quite enough; I don't need to pry my insides open in the name of politics and let everybody see what's inside. Politicians can't do anything without deep analysis. How could anyone live like that?
My policy is simple. If I can make a living out of writing - which is starting to actually look possible! - I'll do that. I love writing and it comes to me naturally. That means journalism and a novel, if I have it in me. Then again, if I can't make a living out of writing - also quite possible! - it's computer programming all the way. Baby.