A Portrait of an Aggressive Artist: an interview with Novelist Brian Celio

April 7, 7:33 PMLA Books ExaminerFrank Mundo

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Photo courtesy of Brian Celio

Go five miles in any direction and you're in a whole new world with different people and a completely different culture. Go another five miles and you just might be delighted or horrified at where you end up or what you might discover. That's what I love about Los Angeles. That's what I love about LA's literary landscape as well.

The problem, however, is that most us don't go that extra five miles when it comes to reading. We stick mostly to what we know and what seems comfortable. We rarely explore and, because of that, we rarely discover. And that's a shame.

With this in mind, meet Brian Celio, an "underground" writer and artist in Los Angeles who lives in that extra five miles that, unfortunately, many of us never dare to go. Author of Catapult Soul, a new book from Exile Publishing, Celio won't be featured this week in the LA Times, and he won't be signing his new work at Border's Bookstore in Pasadena next weekend. His work, however, is gaining a lot of attention in Los Angeles, as well as in his hometown Pittsburgh, and might be something worth discovering on your own.

Catapult Soul is a portrait of a modern artist, one shaped by a blend of classic literature and Punk Rock music in a truly hostile environment. Catapult Soul by Brian Celio is available at Amazon.com.

I met up with Brian the other day and had a few questions for him.

Q. Clearly you put a lot of work, a lot of yourself, into Catapult Soul. How did it come about? What inspired you to write it?

A. I started Catapult Soul when I was 19 and momentarily stopped when I was 24. I needed some time off because it was literally pushing me to the brink of insanity. Then I plunged back in for a few more years and finally felt at peace with it shortly after turning 27. As for what inspired me to write it: I felt a void inside and something calling me to fill it. Then I found myself writing a novel that would eventually take over my life. About three years in, I realized that not only was the novel writing itself but it also seemed to be writing my reality. I kind of got lost between what was real and what was fiction. I couldn't tell if I had control over my protagonist, or if my protagonist had control over me. I'm still not sure if there's a difference between us, or who actually wrote Catapult Soul: Brian Celio or Vincent Vallano. That's what happens with an artist’s novel, satirical or not.
 
Q. How would you describe Catapult Soul?

A. To be honest, I struggle with this and say different things every time. My first reader (a friend) said that it's too multi-faceted for a synopsis. So I asked her to at least tell me what writer I'm like or name a book similar to Catapult Soul. Again, she didn’t have an answer. But I continued to push til she finally said, "It's like A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man electrocuted with 30 amps of sex, drugs, and Rock 'n' Roll." I laughed, taking it as a compliment, as well as finding some truth in it, seeing as they're both about the development of an artist, only mine is edgier and set in the millennium. But I'm still conflicted over its deeper elements. On the surface, you have a realistic love story between Vincent "V" Vallano and Ivy Pineda, who meet at a party in Pittsburgh and find out they attend the same college in Maryland. Then you have V's mother, Tèa, who immigrated to Pittsburgh from Catania, Sicily. She's not your typical hand-flinging, starving Sicilian. She's very melancholy and down-trodden, mainly because of V's abusive father, Rick, who slaves away at one of the three remaining steel mills in Pittsburgh. Another plot line is V's loyalty to his best friend, Pessi, who falls in love with Ivy's best friend, Teresa "Squawk" Cazzata. She’s a loudmouth dope fiend who quickly pulls Pessi into her insane little world, while V struggles to pull him out. Meanwhile, V develops a mentor relationship with Dr. Rosenbaum, a sagacious professor at Aristod. Dr. Rosenbaum gives V the initial push forward into writing the story you're already reading. After that, the chaos of love and insanity dueling above the development of anti-postmodern art ensues.

Q. Your book has received a lot of attention without a lot of publicity or major reviews. How have you managed to do what a lot of "artistic" writers haven't?

A. I gained my initial readership through people taking a liking to my poetry many years ago, before I even considered being a novelist. I started reading classical poetry around 8 and fell in love with Romanticism, which can be seen here and there in my prose. I ended up incorporating many styles into Catapult Soul, not to be showy but because I’ve been influenced by all kinds of art and people from all walks of life. So it’s easy to make it appealing to anybody who likes to read.

Q. Is there anything else readers should know before they read your work?

A. I believe Catapult Soul is a story that defies everything else out there while affirming that Art is not dead, that Art is not inherently boring, and that Art can hopefully make a difference. With that said, I'm an aesthetic nut who comes from Harold Bloom's line-of-thought that says aesthetic value is the essence of what makes something Art. But I also believe combining and balancing it with cognitive value is the key to revolutionizing Art. If anything, I just hope my readers enjoy the struggle and take something away from it.