Interviews on the Literary Fiction Network

Round 1: Sean Cameron

Sean_Cameron is the author of Smile for the Coup D'etat, a gritty look into the underground scene of Bangkok where politics, alcohol, drugs, bar fights and crime runs amok, yet is remarkable in its discussion of the deep crises of identity and humanity. His novel was also selected and reviewed on our Featured Reads section two months ago. We're happy to "sit" down with Sean for our Round One questions to kick off our Interview series. Be assured that there are more to come.

In terms of Smile in particular, as that is your primary work, what certain topics, themes, symbols, ideas, do you find coming through? Do you have a particular intention?

Smile for the Coup D'état takes place during the Thai coup of 2014, meaning that there is a backdrop of social unrest to the story. It tracks two backpackers as they descend into a dangerous situation of petty criminality, and eventually arrive at their own different versions of self-reflection. I like to place my characters in extreme mental states, pushing them to their psychological limits with crime, violence, guilt, envy, cravings, intoxication, tiredness and fear. This strips them bare, so to speak, exposing them as primal beings operating on primitive instincts dressed up with a postmodern consumerist gloss. It's this primal element to humanity that I like to try and portray: reactive bodies and ancient drives lurking within polished modernity.

Especially with the drug-and-alcohol-induced states of mind, you break conventional boundaries of modern structure which is an important intention for many of us artists and writers. Other than the character's personal experience, how was the political context like? How did you come up with the title "Smile for the Coup D'état"?

I couldn't tell you exactly how I came up with it. I wanted to convey the hedonistic nihilism of some of the characters, their sense that everything in Thailand, where the story is set, is there to be enjoyed as a sort of tourist spectacle, regardless of the ethical factors involved. More specifically, Thailand is often referred to as the 'Land of Smiles', especially in tourist literature, and when the coup d'état occurred there in 2014 (the book is very loosely structured around that real-world event), the man who dismantled Thai democracy, General Prayuth, claimed his intention was to "return happiness" to the people. So there's a sarcasm to the title 'Smile for the Coup D'état'. I found the Thai junta's mixture of political violence and the pursuit of happiness to be interesting, and thought it would make a good setting for a novel about the sociopathic tendencies of the modern consumer lifestyle, which is essentially what the book is about. Most of all, though, I thought that the line had a nice sense of rhythm to it, and a little mystery too – basically, I thought it sounded cool!

Actually, "Smile for the Coup D'etat" really rolls on the tongue, spoken out loud. Truly interesting how places such as Thailand is known as "Land of Smiles" for foreigners, but there is so much lurking beneath the surface. Behind your writing, there must be some writing influences too. Is there a particular writer who has influenced you more than others?

My favourite writer is Don Delillo. His prose is poetic yet restrained; there is just this incredible poise to the writing that I find immensely satisfying. Whether he's writing about the experience of abstract art or the unfurling of a murder, he imbues each scene with deep psychological complexity.

In terms of Smile for the Coup D'état, a big influence has been Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. I wanted to recreate some of that book's sense of dissolute energy, its tendency to veer towards insanity. Like Hunter S. Thompson's classic, Smile for the Coup D'état is about pursuing pleasure without actually believing in the potential of that pleasure to result in broader happiness. In that respect it is an update of the obvious reference point for any novel about travelling in Thailand, Alex Garland's excellent The Beach, the narrative of which is propelled in the first instance by utopianism: the belief in a deserted beach where an ideal community could be formed. What's changed since The Beach was published in the '90s, I think, is that utopia seems much further off.