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making the days go away By day, I appear to have turned up as a mild-mannered Internet consultant and so-called computer professional. (The gory details are available in abundance.) But by night! I am revealed as a squint-eyed, head-banging writer of edgy yet cerebral—and comprehensively unpublished—fiction. (Increasingly, I'm happy to blather on about that, too.) When not epoxied to the keyboard, I can generally be found locomoting myself up mountains (via running shoes or bicycle), picking up heavy things, or otherwise indulging my freakish and entirely obsessive athleticism. With leftover moments, I hang around doing damage to piles of books (principally contemporary literary fiction, philosophy, and popular science; with dollops of history, sociology, travel writing, "classics," humor, science fiction); sitting happily in the dark (movies and theater); darting, generally far too haphazardly, through museums and galleries; or removed to various remote corners of the globe, trekking through Mayan ruins or lounging in sunny piazzas. |
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| Date of Birth: | October 28, 1970 (!!!) |
| Height: | 5'10"-ish (in big, ass-stomping boots) |
| Weight: | 150lb-ish (also in boots) |
| Status: | Straight, single, typically loosely attached (i.e. "dating"). |
| (Adopted) Hometown: | San Francisco Bay Area, People's Republic of Northern California, USA |
| Current Locale: | The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Island |
| Last Seen Fleeing In: |
• Original Rugged Outback fake leather boots
• 1994 Bridgestone MB6 mountain bike • 1981 Yamaha Maxim 650cc motorcyle |
| Color Scheme: | Virtually any shade of black is fine. |
| Noisemakers: | Electric bass, trombone, acoustic guitar, slide whistle, wicked air drums |
| Best thing about me: | My spectacular sisters: Sara Natalie, Danielle Katherine, Erin Sabra, and Emma Gabrielle. |
| Contact: | fuchs@michaelfuchs.org
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| thanks, TMFI, already | |
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My work deals predominantly with the effects of very new and disruptive sciences
and technologies—such as evolutionary psychology, cognitive neuroscience,
genetics/genomics, artificial intelligence, this wacky Internet thingy—on
the ways we address, and manage, the important (and prodigiously enduring)
problems of philosophy and religion. These include: The nature of
consciousness—does it come from a soul, or simply a very complex brain?
Which is true of our fate—free will, or determinism? What's the truth
about morality—are some things really right, and others always wrong?
Why have we been put on this planet, if we have been put here? And
God: Yes or no? Perhaps seemingly incongruously, my work also tends to feature rather a lot of slambang action—two-fisted gunplay, leaps from burning buildings, demonstrably unstoppable hitmen, complex polygonal Mexican standoffs, white-knuckle computer hacking—all intended to give the reader a ride like Neal Stephenson just strapped him to a rocket, and then John Woo blew it up with a second, bigger, rocket. Other (not necessarily related) themes include: the deeply absurd existence of the modern Silicon Valley cubicle serf; solitary young men getting a long way off from their last good relationship; powerful- but-still-rather-on-edge women who are very handy with computers, guns, or both; unredeemed, unbearable tragedy—both personal and social, actual and imminent; and the particular vexing plight of the Net-savvy twenty-something in this our post-millennial spin cycle of spiritual anesthesia and information soot. I have a longish novel, and a shortish collection of short fiction, written—as well as critiqued, frequently rewritten, and ready to hit shelves, oh, as far as I'm concerned, any time now. Most improbably, I have literary representation. If you're an interested editor or publisher, please contact Sandra Martin, Paraview Literary Agency, <sandra@paraview.com>, and/or see the two book synopses above. |
| enough, M. Artiste |
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Things I Can Be Said to Believe In . . . . . . include, but are not limited to : • the perfectibility of the human soul • the spectacular unlikelihood of conscious, hairless hominids wandering around on this spinning, damp rock • that the human brain is the second most complex thing in the known universe (right behind relations between and amongst human brains) • that Vonnegut pretty much had it right when he said, ". . . And there's only one rule that I know of, babies: 'Goddamnit, you've got to be kind.'" • that violence of virtually any kind is always abhorent and tragic • that, not unrelatedly, animal products should not be eaten nor worn foremostly because animals are not ours to productize—and that, perforce, fruits and vegetables are what's for dinner • that any universe with Kate Bush, David Foster Wallace, Jeanette Winterson, Renee Magritte, and Luc Besson in it is truly okay by me • that Manhattan is indeed the Capital of the World • that using the body is a one of life's great joys • that happiness, while all well and good, is not really the highest human objective we might countenance • that some people do indeed deserve to be spoken to like children—but simply being a child is no reason to be taken for one • and that art and love are far and away the two best palliatives for all your existential aches and pains. I further cast my lot with two-wheeled transportation • clunky boots • Libertarianism • 2nd Amendment rights • the people and state of Israel • and now the brave people and free state of Iraq • trying to help out a bit where and when manageable • the soul's ardor, devotion to family, Honor (and other Romantic values . . .) • always, safety first • the ambition—simultaneously humble and humbling—that if we could get through all our days without hurting anyone, we would be doing pretty well • the lessons, both profound and practical (but always powerful) of evolutionary psychology (and related fields) • and the enduring if embattled faith that, well, most of us are probably really doing just about the best we can. |
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| 26 Fiction Titles That Have Knocked My Socks Off | |
| Infinite Jest | David Foster Wallace |
| Already Dead, A California Gothic | Denis Johnson |
| The Passion | Jeanette Winterson |
| The Razor's Edge | W. Somerset Maugham |
| Stories | Vladimir Nabokov |
| The French Lieutenant's Woman | John Fowles |
| The Magus | John Fowles |
| High Fidelity | Nick Hornby |
| Cold Snap | Thom Jones |
| London Fields | Martin Amis |
| A Perfect Peace | Amos Oz |
| Snow Crash | Neal Stephenson |
| Skinny Legs & All | Tom Robbins |
| The Moon is a Harsh Mistress | Robert A. Heinlein |
| Illusions | Richard Bach |
| Brothers Karamazov | Fyodor Doestoyevski |
| Orlando | Virginia Woolf |
| Tropic of Cancer | Henry Miller |
| Fox in Socks | Dr. Seuss |
| Girl with Curious Hair | David Foster Wallace |
| La Nausee | Jean-Paul Sartre |
| Under the Frog | Tibor Fischer |
| Riverworld series | Philip Jose Farmer |
| Hardboiled Wonderland & the End of the World | Haruki Murakami |
| The End of the Affair | Graham Greene |
| The Plague | Albert Camus |
| NONFICCIONES, POR FAVOR | go away |
| 25 Nonfiction Titles That Have Nicely Decremented My Profound Ignorance | |
| How the Mind Works | Steven Pinker |
| Zen and the Art of Motorcyle Maintenance | Robert Pirsig |
| A History of Israel, From the Rise of Zionism to Our Time | Howard Sachar |
| The Myth of Sisyphus | Albert Camus |
| The Moral Animal | Robert Wright |
| A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again | David Foster Wallace |
| Consilience | E.O. Wilson |
| Tao Te Ching | Lao Tzu (S. Mitchell trans.) |
| Rubaiyat | Omar Khayyam (E. Fitzgerald trans.) |
| The Size of the World | Jeff Greenwald |
| Animal Liberation | Peter Singer |
| Falling Off the Map | Pico Iyer |
| Black Hawk Down | Mark Bowden |
| The Age of Spiritual Machines | Ray Kurzweil |
| Interface Culture | Steven Johnson |
| No One Left to Lie to | Christopher Hitchens |
| Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind | Julian Jaynes |
| Complexity | M. Mitchell Waldrop |
| Darwin's Dangerous Idea | Daniel Dennett |
| Burton | Byron Farwell |
| Backlash | Susan Faludi |
| Citizen Soldiers | Stephen Ambrose |
| Resistance | Israel Gutman |
| French Revolutions | Tim Moore |
| The Sickness Unto Death | Søren Kierkegaard |
| FINZIONE, PER FAVORE | go away |
| 30 Albums That Have Kept Me Happy, Productive, Awed | |
| Gilt | Machines of Loving Grace |
| Machines of Loving Grace | Machines of Loving Grace |
| Pubic Fruit | Curve |
| Open Day at the Hate Fest | Curve |
| Aenima | Tool |
| The Dreaming | Kate Bush |
| The Sensual World | Kate Bush |
| This Woman's Work, vol. 1 | Kate Bush |
| The Distance to Here | Live |
| From the Choirgirl Hotel | Tori Amos |
| Little Earthquakes | Tori Amos |
| Big Calm | Morcheeba |
| Mezzanine | Massive Attack |
| Dirt | Alice In Chains |
| Astro Creep 2000 | White Zombie |
| The Amazing Jeckel Brothers | Insane Clown Posse |
| Flag | Yello |
| Oil and Gold | Shriekback |
| Metallica (the Black Album) | Metallica |
| Cruel, Crazy, Beautiful World | Johnny Clegg & Suvuka |
| Muse Sick-N-Hour Mess Age | Public Enemy |
| Oyster | Heather Nova |
| The Professional Soundtrack | Eric Serra |
| World Gone Strange | Andy Summers |
| Spare Ass Annie and Other Tales | William S. Burroughs |
| Ragin', Full On | Firehose |
| The Cole Porter Songbook | Various |
| Haunted | Poe |
| Power Windows | Rush |
| Ghost in the Machine | The Police |
| spin the singles | go away |
| A Few Songs I Consider Immortal, Nearly Perfect, or Both | |
| Doppelganger | Curve |
| Zero | Smashing Pumpkins |
| Would | Alice in Chains |
| Unreadable Communication | Curve |
| Everlong | Foo Fighters |
| I Want My Shit | Insane Clown Posse |
| Walk Straight Down the Middle | Kate Bush |
| Break Shit | Limp Bizkit |
| Good Pain | Live |
| Meltdown | Live |
| I Alone | Live |
| Lighthouse | Live |
| Rite of Shiva | Machines of Loving Grace |
| Sad But True | Metallica |
| The Sea | Morcheeba |
| Smells Like Teen Spirit | Nirvana |
| Wynona's Big Brown Beaver | Primus |
| Available Light | Rush |
| Middletown Dreams | Rush |
| Nerve | Shriekback |
| Fields of Gold | Sting |
| Self Esteem | The Offspring |
| Forty Six & 2 | Tool |
| A Sorta Fairytale | Tori Amos |
| We Looked Like Giants | Death Cab for Cutie |
| Electric Head: The Ecstasy (Pt. 2) | White Zombie |
| Wild | Poe |
| back to albums | go away |
| An Arbitrary Number of Films You Might Have Overlooked But Perhaps Should Not Have: | |
| Leon (The Professional) | Luc Besson |
| Heat | Michael Mann |
| Reservoir Dogs | Quentin Tarantino |
| Glory | Edward Zwick |
| The Killer | John Woo |
| Hardboiled | John Woo |
| Clerks | Kevin Smith |
| Basquiat | Julian Schnabel |
| Grand Canyon | Lawrence Kasdan |
| L.A. Story | Mick Jackson |
| The People Vs. Larry Flynt | Milos Forman |
| North by Northwest | Alfred Hitchcock |
| Yankee Doodle Dandy | Michael Curtiz |
| The Philadelphia Story | George Cukor |
| The Opposite of Sex | Don Roos |
| Bound | Wachowski Brothers |
| The House of Yes | Mark S. Waters |
| A League of Their Own | Penny Marshall |
| Beautiful Girls | Ted Demme |
| Brotherhood of the Wolf | Christophe Gans |
| The Anniversary Party | J.J.Lee/Allan Cumming |
| Kicking and Screaming | Noah Baumbach |
| Y Tu Mama Tambien | Alfonso Cuaron |
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