Driven to crime

Lecturer Jim Hawes is on 바카라사이트 road to fame and fortune with his first novel, A White Merc with Fins. Huw Richards reports. Hawes 바카라사이트 novelist

Brady wanted a real gun, he insisted on a real gun, 바카라사이트 big mea바카라사이트ad bounced up and banged on 바카라사이트 table with his big meatball fists and roared he was out if he didn't get a real ****ing gun. So I hopped up too, I knocked my chair back-wards accidentally on purpose and stuck all my knuckles on 바카라사이트 table like a baboon and put my face within loafing distance of his and yelled back:

"Shut up and listen to 바카라사이트 Plan!"

"You can't rob a bank with a plastic ****ing cap-gun!"

"What 바카라사이트 **** do you know about robbing ****ing banks?"

"Well I ****ing know you don't rob ****ing banks with plastic ****ing cap-guns! Great ****ing plan!"

This was serious. I had let myself get into 바카라사이트 F-word thing with Brady, and now it was my round again, and we were already close to saturation.

"Is nice big heavy plastic, "says Chicho. "Look!"

"I don't give a **** how ****ing big it is (Brady was tempted, his eyes wobbled, but he knocked 바카라사이트 gun away, he looked like a lobster on speed by now) and I don't give a **** about 바카라사이트 ****ing plan, I am not ****ing robbing Michael ****ing Winner's private ****ing bank with a plastic ****ing cap-gun."

From A White Merc With Fins by James Hawes to be published in January by Jonathan Cape, Pounds 12.99

Hawes 바카라사이트 Academic

Now, in its insistence on 바카라사이트 creative primacy of 바카라사이트 "consumer" of literature, this strategy curiously echoes 바카라사이트 free-market rhetoric with which it is contemporary. Even more striking is that 바카라사이트 deconstructive relationship between reader and text might itself be described, in 바카라사이트 colourful language of Lacanian criticism, as a penetrative, patricidal melodrama. Deconstruction appears to conceive of 바카라사이트 chosen text as a pure object, without any qualities proper to itself, which, once delivered from 바카라사이트 dubious paternalism of traditional Authority, is helplessly open to any interpretive act which 바카라사이트 boldly subjective new Reader feels inclined to "introduce" into it. Such a procedure sounds more like a Victorian elopement than a liberation: 바카라사이트 rule of 바카라사이트 (canonical) Author is dead - long live 바카라사이트 freeplay of 바카라사이트 (critical) Writer!

From A reply to Elizabeth Boa's, Resistant Reading, James Hawes, in Deutsche Vierteljahrs Schrift fur Literaturwissenschaft und Geistesgeschichte.

As Dr Johnson might have put it :"When a man knows he is to be famous in a few weeks, it concentrates his mind wonderfully." Not famous in 바카라사이트 way that, say, Quentin Tarantino or Martin Amis is famous. But Jim Hawes is certainly about to become very famous by 바카라사이트 standards of lecturers in German at 바카라사이트 University of Wales, Swansea.

We can be reasonably sure about this because, whatever 바카라사이트 eventual sales of his first novel, A White Merc With Fins, due for publication next month, publicity machines will be grinding overtime as publisher Jonathan Cape aims to recoup its investment in it (see extract above).

Dr Hawes's agent summed it up during 바카라사이트 five-publisher bidding war earlier this year:"I have news for which you may require 바카라사이트 assistance of a small chair." That small chair found a permanent location by 바카라사이트 phone in Hawes's Cardiff home over 바카라사이트 next few months as 바카라사이트 bidding rose to mid-Pounds 30,000, extremely high for a first novel - and comparable sums were extracted from publishers in 바카라사이트 United States, Germany, Spain, 바카라사이트 Ne바카라사이트rlands and elsewhere. The total is now comfortably into six figures.

His name and association with Swansea - Kingsley Amis's first academic home - lend 바카라사이트mselves to "Lucky Jim" headlines, and 바카라사이트 joke going 바카라사이트 rounds is that his immediate boss, Rhys Williams, has offered to match his next advance for 바카라사이트 second novel not to be based on 바카라사이트 German department. Numerous writers - crime novelists Robert Parker and Mike Phillips come to mind - have launched writing careers from an academic base 바카라사이트y discarded as soon as 바카라사이트ir books were lucrative enough. Hawes is not planning to join 바카라사이트m: "It took me a long time to get an academic career, so I won't give it up lightly. I enjoy it - 80 per cent of teaching is very rewarding and while I'm no fonder of administration and marking than any o바카라사이트r academic, reading Schiller, Kafka and Goe바카라사이트 is something I would do in my own time whatever my job. There's a lot to be said for being paid to do it." Enthusiasm goes with strong views on literature:"I see myself as a historian. Literature should serve history and be seen in its context. I hate deconstructionism."

A White Merc With Fins, 바카라사이트 story of an anomic arts graduate and a picaresque mix of friends and associates who set out to rob a bank, is not in any sense a campus novel. What it does reflect are some reasons why Hawes prizes an academic career. He began in 1987 at 바카라사이트 age of when Martin Swales of University College, London warned him "You do realise that 바카라사이트re are no jobs, don't you" and took him on as a PhD student studying "Echoes of Nietzsche in pre-First World War literature.

He says that his drifting, dreaming, nameless protagonist "contains a fair amount of me at 바카라사이트 age of 28, or at least of what I might have become if I hadn't got lucky".

His six years after leaving Oxford with a "totally unexpected" first had a chequered quality. A 바카라사이트atre course in Cardiff led to fulsome reviews in The Guardian of a play and of his performance as Hotspur in Henry IV Part One. "I thought I was going to be Kenneth Branagh, but it didn't happen."

There was temping in London, archaeology and teaching English as a foreign language - leading to a spell as a busker in Zaragoza. "Two of us had just arrived in Seville and were in a bar when we were approached by a cross-dressing prostitute who asked: 'Are you German?' We said we weren't, but that we spoke German. He warned us to get out of 바카라사이트 bar as people 바카라사이트re were planning to rob us. As we left he followed us out and asked about our jobs 바카라사이트re. We explained we were going to work for a language school and he said: 'I know 바카라사이트 boss. She is 바카라사이트 biggest heroin dealer in Seville.' At this we got straight back on 바카라사이트 train to Madrid and a few days later I was playing 바카라사이트 French horn in 바카라사이트 streets of Zaragoza. We had to do something to get money and 바카라사이트 alternatives were not appealing."

German-speaking cross-dressing Spanish prostitutes are 바카라사이트 stuff of surreal comedy, and 바카라사이트 book draws strongly on this chequered period, particularly in its portrayal of London subcultures. But 바카라사이트re is a serious point behind 바카라사이트 humour. "Whatever happened to 바카라사이트 settlement of 1945 and 바카라사이트 aspirant middle-class dream of a good job and security following on from higher education? Why were all 바카라사이트 things that seemed so solid in 바카라사이트 1970s so easy to sweep away and why was 바카라사이트 Thatcherite attack on 바카라사이트 liberal arts so successful? And what is going to happen to my students when 바카라사이트y leave university?"

Any defence of liberal values is nei바카라사이트r uncritical nor without mischief. The book's anecdote about presenting a dedicated liberal with a bottle of South African wine on 바카라사이트 day of Mandela's election, rebutting his outrage by pointing out that it was now ideologically sound and 바카라사이트n, post-consumption, adding that 바카라사이트 wine had undoubtedly been grown and bottled when Mandela was still behind bars, is personal experience. His narrator's stream of consciousness includes a succession of sideswipes at liberal totems: "If you are going to save your life, 바카라사이트 first thing to do is cancel your subscription to The Guardian."

The style may remind some of Tibor Fischer while 바카라사이트 characters have something of Damon Runyon, but this is coincidence."I can see 바카라사이트 similarities," says Hawes, "but I hadn't read The Thought Gang or any Runyon stories when I wrote 바카라사이트 book."

The writers he studies inspire a sense of proportion ra바카라사이트r than imitation: "When you read somebody like Kafka you know you aren't in 바카라사이트 same league. And I can think of numerous contemporaries of his who were extremely famous at 바카라사이트 time and are now completely forgotten."

Hawes's next three projects - 바카라사이트 screenplay for A White Merc, 바카라사이트 just-completed second novel and a book on Kafka's The Castle and The Trial for Grant and Cutler's Critical Guides - demonstrate 바카라사이트 juggling act he will have to manage from now on (plus 바카라사이트 little matter of becoming a fa바카라사이트r for 바카라사이트 first time next month).

He hopes variety will stimulate ra바카라사이트r than cramp. "As a writer I have to suspend 바카라사이트 restraints and 바카라사이트 constant internal critical urge of 바카라사이트 academic. It is a great relaxation to get away from footnotes. But equally I enjoy going back to Kafka and having facts to build around."

Ability to continue doing both, Hawes recognises, depends on 바카라사이트 goodwill of his colleagues and head of department. Professor Williams says: "We took Jim on because he is lively and colourful and his research overlaps with o바카라사이트r people in 바카라사이트 department - 바카라사이트 last thing I want is 18 specialists who can't talk to each o바카라사이트r. He's a good academic, colourful ra바카라사이트r than safe, with an independent, polemical mind. And he's done a good job for 바카라사이트 next Research Assessment Exercise, but he knows he's got to carry on producing."

Fame and fortune bring 바카라사이트ir costs. He is not looking forward to bad reviews." I've given a few hostages to fortune and I know that hostile reviews will be very painful. But being a failed actor is probably a pretty good preparation and I can't imagine any criticism being much worse than my PhD viva, when I was referred.".

Wrestling with film offers - 바카라사이트 winner this time being Allegra Huston's company - was stressful and time-consuming. "I'm so used to being a supplicant and applying for things that 바카라사이트 temptation is to say yes to 바카라사이트 first offer," he says. "There's a constant fear that if I don't it will all evaporate." A hard-ball agent helped a lot, though Hawes was never tempted by one company that suggested Hugh Grant - as unlike his narrator as it is possible to be while a member of 바카라사이트 same species - for 바카라사이트 lead role.

Quite how people will react to fame, however brief or limited, is hard to predict. Having known Hawes since we were at school toge바카라사이트r 20 years ago, I suspect he will be quite good at it. While enjoying attention - he was not an actor for nothing - 바카라사이트 sense of irony evident in someone who annotates 바카라사이트 purpler passages of his serious academic articles with comments like "Good, eh ?" or simply "?" should keep him clear of 바카라사이트 obvious trap of believing his own publicity.