Author Andrew Vachss
New Yorker Andrew Vachss is certainly an interesting soul. He works as a child protection consultant (who Bill Clinton has credited with the writing of the National Child Protection Act), an attorney (who represents child and youth exclusively), and an author of Crime Fiction. Not limited to novels alone, he has written pieces for The New York Times, Parade, Playboy, and Esquire, as well as comics, and short stories. He is a founder and national advisory board member of PROTECT: The National Association to Protect Children. Vachss is also an advocate against animal abuse and breed-specific legislative bans, training dogs to serve as therapy dogs for abused children. His newest book, The Weight is out now( http://vachss.com/weight ).
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Q: I read that your mother used to read to you everyday and that your grandfather introduced you to the magic to be found on fifth avenue.Are those memories you hold dear to this day? Why do you think Fifth Avenue had such an impact on you? Do you feel it is important for all children to discover the wonder of written word?
A: I don’t abandon what is dear to me. But I’m not sure where you get 5th Avenue from … its sole importance to me was that it was where you could find the greatest Public Library in the world … and all kinds of new worlds inside its lion-guarded portals. For far too many children, survival itself is a lot more important that discovering the wonder of the written word. Those things we take for granted inthis country — such as the right to vote — is beyond the imagination of children who are forced into “service” as soldiers, laborers, prostitutes … children whose ultimate “value” is that of organ donors to those who “own” them.
Q: Your mother and father both were very..protective of children. Do you feel blessed to have had parents that were so inclined?
A: My parents weren’t inclined to protect their own children. Words have no meaning in such a context: only behavior is the truth. Any parent who is not so inclined should be made to turn in their license. Having seen what I have seen, experienced what I have experienced, I realize I was well beyond “fortunate” in that regard. But blessed isn’t a term I use … who would be doing the blessing?
Q: What were you like yourself as a child? What was it like to grow up in New York? Do you ever regret that you didn’t become a scientist?
A: I’ve been like myself — and, for this, I must rely on secondhand accounts — since I was a tiny child. To explain what it was like to grow up anywhere would be to write a book — I won’t reduce my early life to epigrams. And who says I’m not a scientist? I just study different areas than I originally planned.
Q: What was it like to work in Biafra? Was it comforting to be able to feed those who needed it? What did you learn from that whole ordeal?
A: Again, another book. I didn’t feed those who needed it. That mission failed. At least a million died … although it was never called “genocide”. Once the country was landlocked, once the Red Cross plane was shot down, it was only a matter of time. I learned a lot of things … too numerous to list, and too difficult to explain in short sentences. But take a look at any day’s news dispatches out of Nigeria … it’s not over. Tribalism is the curse of humanity, and nowhere is it more exploited than in resource-rich Africa Why else does Joseph Kony still rule his army of child soldiers? Why else does Rwanda cross borders hunting the Hutu genocidaries? Ask the ghost of Mobuto.
Q: What first led you to write your own books,etc?
A: Whose books would I write other than my own? And why? To reach a bigger jury than I could ever hope to find in any courthouse.
Q: What led you to first become a defender of children? It must be a very rewarding thing to know you have helped keep a child..safe?
A: I am a protector of children, not a defender. Yes, I defend children accused of crimes, but even that is child protective work — contrary to nonsense you’ve seen in the movies, no child is “born bad”.
Q: What advice would you offer children who are struggling with issues of abuse in all forms?
A: Advice? How would I get access to such children? I’ve not been offered a slot on Sesame Street. If you mean teenagers, I have no generic advice … and would not trust anyone who presumed to hand it out. Believe it or not, children are individuals, and any “advice” must be individualized to be worth transmitting. What I would avoid is garbage like, “To heal, you must first forgive.” That’s in the same class as “Just Say No.” And, thus, simple-minded enough to be “popular”.
Q: What was it like to write the Child Protection Act? Did you enjoy meeting Bill Clinton? What is he like?
A: Writing legislation is an art form. It is also a specialized skill. I had the concepts, not the language … that is always best left to experts, and I have access to the very best. Bill Clinton is a politician. More intelligent than most, and certainly charismatic, but I don’t know what a man is like until he’s been tested, and that chance was never offered.
Q: What does it feel like to have your site Vachss.com [4] average over 1.5 million visitors a year? Do you find it rewarding to be able to reach so many people with your message?
A: First of all, that number of visitors has increased substantially.However, the site is not about my message: The Zero is a collective, and it also gathers contributions from many other frontline soldiers in the only “holy war” worthy of the name. What other author’s site has RESOURCES … or promotes other writers?
Q: Do you ever get writer’s block? If so how do you deal with that? What advice would you offer aspiring authors?
(I did NOT mean published authors by the way:)
A: I’m damned if I know what “writer’s block” is. My father never got “factory block” when he had to go to work. As for “aspiring authors” you mean “published” authors, right? That’s the wrong standard. There are better writers than you’ve ever heard of who have yet to be published, just as there are better actors who never even got a screen test, musicians who will never record … “art” is about as subjective as religion. As I’ve said many times, there’s many paths to the “success” door, not all of them honorable. The only advice I ever give anyone in such situations is twofold: (1) spectators don’t win fights; and (2) the reason pit bulls are so feared has nothing to do with mythological “locking jaws” … it’s all down to this: they don’t quit.
Q: You are also an adamant defender of animal rights. Why do you think it is so important to work to protect those who can’t protect themselves? Why do you think people are so hard hearted when it comes to animals?
A: I am no defender of “animal rights.” I do my best to defend those animals who have been maltreated, and those who politicians are trying to legislate out of existence. And I have a special hatred for those who engage in dog-fighting. I would happily rid the earth of all those who engage in (or enjoy watching) torture of any kind.
Q: What it is like to train therapy dogs for children of abuse?
A: Hard work.
Q: What does it feel like to bring a little comfort to a child of abuse and the dog at the same time? Seems like they would go hand in hand?
A: Perhaps to you. I’m not interested in bringing “a little comfort” to either. I’ll leave that to the celebrity twits who
think that a little comfort will change a child’s life. Shoving a child out of the way of gunfire is a “little comfort.” Taking out those who are shooting at the child is the real thing.
Q: You coined the phrase Children of Secret. Can you tell our readers a little more about that?
A: I guess it’s best explained by the fact that I’ve never had to explain it to any member of the vast tribe Once, child abuse itself was a secret.No more. But each individual responds to trauma differently. Those who break the chains and stop the cycle are the heroes of our race … that’s the human race. Those who imitate the oppressor are the great single
threat to that race.
Q: Why do you think emotional abuse has gone so..unnoticed over the years? Any advice to those who do deal with that?
A: Answers to both: http://www.vachss.com/av_dispatches/disp_9408_a.html
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Q: How do you not pay attention to such things?
A: Ask the media, which “ranks” abuse in some kind of bizarre pyramid, with sexual abuse, of course, being at the top. And who’s “you” in your question? What does “paying attention” mean? If the answers are what I suspect, ask the media, again.
Q: What about those who were raised in such an environment, what do you think they should do to see that they do not repeat the cycle?
A: They are impelled, not compelled. In the final analysis: evil is a decision, not a destiny.
Q: What was it like to write the Batman novel and comic? Did you enjoy those stories yourself as a child? Is it nice to work dealing with a character that appeals to so many children?
A: Writing Batman: The Ultimate Evil was an opportunity bring the message into territory where the usual presentations would not be seen … much like Hard Looks was. I didn’t pay any attention to “Batman” when I was a child, nor did any of my crowd. I don’t like working with characters created by others, and it is not something I would do again, despite the success of that one attempt (both commercially and in promoting our work … otherwise, I never would have undertaken the work at all). There is one exception: collaborating with my brother Joe on Veil’s Visit was a treat. And, of course, there are the cross-contributors to certain works, such as Heart Transplant … that is, we are all equals in the process.
Q: Did you ever dream you yourself would become a protector of children?
A: “Dream?” No.
Q: What projects are your currently working on? What can your readers look forward to next?
A: The Weight has already been released. As has Heart Transplant. I don’t talk about future work projects to outsiders–why send the enemy a signal flare? My next book will be what some readers–those who’ve been paying attention–might expect. To others, it will come as a shock.
Q: When your time comes how do you hope to be remembered?
A: As a man who died trying.
* Andrew Vachss & Honey Pit Bull, courtesy of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine