Ask the Author: Kirsty Logan
[J. Bradley / June 9th, 2011 / Interviews ]Kirsty Logan’s gorgeous fiction graces the April issue. She talks about the etiquette of curtseying, the lines between the literate and the erotic and some matters of gender.
1. When else is it silly to curtsey?
Basically never. The girl in the story is uptight about curtseying, but I’d happily do it no matter how many chickens I was holding. I also like to curtsey at the cinema, the supermarket, the swimming pool, and when someone lets me go in front of them in the queue for the cash machine. I mostly wear black skinny jeans so it doesn’t quite have that nineteenth-century style, but fuck it. I am hereby launching an appeal for someone to buy me some underskirts (and maybe an overskirt too), so that I’ll be able to practice curtseying in a more ladylike manner.
2. How do you walk the fine line between literature and pornography in “Underskirts”?
The key is fancy metaphors.
3. Who is an example of a “cutout man”?
All of my ex-boyfriends. Not that any of them will be reading this, but if they are: FUCK YOU, I WANT MY COPIES OF BONJOUR TRISTESSE AND THE WASP FACTORY BACK.
4. “I am born a man. I do not need to perform.” – Do you agree with that statement from The Lord? Is there a sense of entitlement in the male gender?
Yes and yes. I wrote a big paragraph explaining my thoughts on this further, but I think I wrote it better in the story so please just read that instead.
5. What does a shipwreck-quick smile look like? How much dentistry would it take to achieve?
I think that speed-smiling is more about cheek muscles than teeth. I have just spent a good ten minutes doing facial twitches to test this theory, which is a shame because now my girlfriend thinks I am suffering from terribly conflicted emotions when I’m really not. So I’d say it’s more a case of training your cheek muscles until they’re massive and bulging like a circus strongman’s arms. So sexy. But, you know, if you want to get some fancy dentistry done too then that’s okay and might improve your chances of being seduced by a lustful countess.
6. What would a porno soundtrack sound like on a harpsichord?
Like a Rasputina B-side.
Underskirts is such a phenomenal story. I could read it over and over.
Love that you referenced Rasputina, Kirsty. I will never forget crying on a curb with a couple friends outside of their concert about two months before I turned 18. We’d all gotten dressed up and appropriately tipsy, but when we got there we found out the show was 18+ and none of us had IDs. I was so pissed, haha.