Lovecraftian Skeleton in Gnostic Clothes - An Interview With "Stonefish" Author Scott R. Jones on His Mind-Expanding Debut Novel

With a discussion that stretched over two days, we had a rather unusual Otherland book club session last weekend on a rather unusual book - Stonefish by Scott R. Jones. And I'm using unusual in the best sense of the word!

A Lovecraftian skeleton and existential body in gnostic clothes, as described by its author, this great debut centers on Den Secord, a journalist who is set on the mission of finding the eccentric tech guru Gregor Makarios. And that mission is a truly, distressingly, depressingly mind-bending experience which will turn all reality toroidal and poloidal. Stonefish is a very thought-provoking and profoundly interesting work which will grab, occupy and frighten your mind while playing with and yes, even reinventing traditional tropes and notions.

It is a blast to discover new good books, new authors and when those authors turn out to be great people who are genuinely interested in their readers, the whole experience turns into double the fun. This is what happened here: not only is Stonefish one of the most rewarding reads (and one of the most beautiful cover-art) of this cursed year, author Scott R. Jones also proved to be one of the most rewarding writers ever, as he immediately reached out to us and even gave a mini interview for this blog! Enjoy the book and the interview!

Inci: Even if not very widespread, there seems to be a tendency to connect eco horror with the trope of Sasquatch (like in the 2014 movie "Exists" or Max Brooks’ latest novel "Devolution") in fiction, I guess because they represent something earthy and untouched. Now in Stonefish you too make use of both tropes, but in a rather unconventional way. Can you tell us a little about that and why you made that choice? Why was it important that Stonefish House was eco-friendly, for instance?

Scott R. Jones: OK, well, yeah I noticed the eco trend as well but was kinda troubled by a certain obliviousness to it. I've spent most of my life in the PNW and what impresses me about it to this day is the sheer EMENSITY of the environment and its myriad nested ecosystems and all the problems of getting to the core of how truly MONSTROUS it is. This is vis a vis horror writing specifically. So often you'll see forest cryptids of many types used as "avatars of the green" figures in fiction. And as a Former Teenage Sasquatch Hunter myself, I'd long ago come to the conclusion that whatever is going on with the whole sasquatch thing, it is far stranger than "there's an unknown ape in the woods of North America". So I wanted to recenter sasquatch in the Weird. Splicing bigfoot DNA with the dark aspects of Gnostic theology seemed a good route to that. I mean, obviously, your mileage may vary.

Mostly I wanted to center the place itself in an eco philosophy that if trends continue will be dominant, I believe, by c2070. But also, considering the highly malleable and arbitrary reality that Den and Gregor exist in, "the ecology" and concern for it becomes simplistic and even silly, bizarre. These are the hidden terrors of life in the simulation.

I: As you can see above (i.e. the book club chat), we have been musing about the nature of your horror - you just mentioned gnostic theology and Weird. Would you describe Stonefish as "gnostic horror", what Harald described as "existential horror", or what I actually find quite Lovecraftian? Where would you place Stonefish?

SRJ: I mean, I hope its Lovecraftian skeleton is apparent. But Harald's right as Stonefish is primarily that, an existential horror novel. That's the body of it. And then I guess I would say I dressed it in some Gnostic clothes, simple ones, nothing too fancy. Mostly because, god, Gnostic stuff gets pretty twisted the deeper you go in.

I: We've been dying to know: Is Mr. Tusk actually Mr. Musk?

SRJ: Tusk shares the rhyming name with Musk, sure, and in a broad and obvious way that I hoped would trigger a "simulation feel" while reading. I basically wanted to generate this very question but it's also manifests as a statement about the simulation itself, within the simulated reality of the story. A lot of my thinking around Aldo Tusk (who is a vague recurring character in some of my short fiction) bled over into Gregor while writing Stonefish.

I: Speaking about your short fiction... I understand this is your debut novel - congratulations, by the way, it’s a grand debut! Are you involved in other writing projects? What have you been writing before and are there anthologies in which we can find your work?

A: Gosh! Thank you! Honestly, this is pretty much the first true sit-down I've had with anybody about Stonefish, so, again, thank you. Loving it. As to other projects, you can read most of my published short fiction in my collection from Journalstone/Trepidatio, it's called Shout Kill Revel Repeat, I'll drop a link below. And right now I'm working on the new novel in which I'm hoping to out-VanderMeer Jeff VanderMeer. Just powering through the first draft these days. https://www.amazon.com/Shout-Revel-Repeat-Scott-Jones/dp/1950305090/

Other than the collection, the only other things I'm known for are the non-fiction auto-ethnographical work 'When The Stars Are Right: Towards An Authentic R'lyehian Spirituality' and some editing for a couple of presses in the US. The new novel is about the profound distortion of culture and biology that would occur if the ocean became sentient. Think Lem's Solaris crossed with World War Z, but with less interviews and more mass drownings. Also, surreal kaiju.

Harald: About the eco terror -- I find the size of the world and its parts more terrifying than those juvenile assholes running the simulator (thinking of Futurama's "Where No Fan Has Gone Before" here). Did you use something like Frank Landis' Hot Earth Dreams or is the state of the world just extrapolated from primary sources? Or is it not even meant to resemble our own?

SRJ: Yeah, that's something of what I was trying to get across, that a simulation is by its nature something to either harvest from or play with/learn from and either way the unreal nature of the simulation will necessarily INVITE shitty behavior and "games" on the part of the simulation's creators. With respect to the environment, this meant that the complexity of the simulation holds its own destruction. Their world is extremely fragile, which I hope sounds familiar.

As for the ecology of it, I sat down with the climate science department at the University of Victoria and learned some dire stuff. Most of the climate and eco horror of Stonefish derives from those conversations.

H: Another question we discussed was why are people living in crèches in your world? Is there a specific reason? Did you think it was more reasonable in the face of ecological disaster or are you a fan? (It didn't feel like you were especially in favor of that, but still.)

SRJ: I go back and forth in my own mind about the creche concept. I think in the context of Stonefish the thinking was of a family/economic unit with specific traits and spending habits that could be tracked by oversight agencies. Likely tied with noönet security and commerce, too, now that I think of it. I've used it in some short stories but it's a loose concept so I tend to implement it only when I want to say something about a future society.

A million thanks and all the best to Scott R. Jones for taking the time for this interview! And thank you Harald for helping out!