Tuesday, October 6, 1998
Francesca Block’s unique prose captures hearts
AUTHOR: Fairies, punks, happy endings endear series to
teenagers, adults alike
By Cheryl Klein
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
She found a dog at a gas station and named him Vincent Van Go-Go
Boots. She threw a party and book-signing at a club called the
Garage, which, in addition to a table displaying her newest novel,
featured flickery lights dancing behind stained glass religious
icons on the wall, a Fellini movie silently spilling Italian
subtitles, and a groovin’ polyester-clad DJ. What she wore: black
dress, black knee-high boots and fairy wings.
That’s fairy wings – white ballerina netting, stretched
delicately and dusted with silver sparkle-in-the-dark glitter.
And anyone who’s read any of Francesca Lia Block’s eight books
knows that that’s totally in character for the creator of some of
adolescent lit’s coolest characters.
For the non-initiated, this includes Weetzie Bat, a spiky-haired
California girl whose wishes have a habit of coming true; Witch
Baby, a soulful adventurer with curly toes and a purple eye for
photography; and, most recently, Mab, a pinky-sized real-life fairy
who gets kids to speak out (and she plays matchmaker in her spare
time).
Think of them as fairy tales with bolder heroines, shiny classic
Cadillacs instead of white stallions, more fast food, more punk
rock, more neon and palm trees and graffiti art.
There are still fabulous-fantastical creatures, though, and
powerful "queens" (Block’s are usually the West Hollywood brand,
however) and – this is the important part – happy endings.
And Block reigns over it all as supreme creative chica. She
sends a message of self-expression and she sets the appropriate
example, like tomorrow night, when she and friend and collaborator
Hillary Carlip sign "Zine Scene: The Do-It-Yourself Guide to Zines"
at Book Soup.
"What fascinates me about zines is anyone can do them," Block
said. "People of all ages, backgrounds, interests."
This ranges from survivors of sexual abuse who find therapy
venting on unedited pages to people who collect those little
Chiquita or Dole stickers that come on bananas. The title tale in
Block’s short story collection, "Girl Goddess #9," centers around
two star-struck teens who devote zine after zine to their favorite
singer, unwittingly letting his poetry bring out their own inner
poet-goddesses.
Like many of Block’s characters, the girls are writers and
artists who find unlikely muses. So maybe Block didn’t have an
androgynous blue creature who emerged from her closet and told her
to put pen to paper (as is the case in another short story, but
that’s another story). But she knows about being born a writer –
about having things inside you that must ooze out or explode out or
sing out.
"Writing for me, as in ‘Blue,’ is the thing that’s made me feel
connected to the world and whole and healed," Block said.
She began writing poems at age six, always encouraged by her
filmmaker and artist father, whose death eventually underscored the
faith in cosmic connection that surges through her novel "Missing
Angel Juan," and her mother, who still peruses each new work before
it hits the presses.
Though Block paid her dues at a clothing store and art gallery
before she became a real live published author, her first book,
"Weetzie Bat," took shape while she was still in college.
"People kind of witnessed me growing up in my writing because I
was published when I was pretty young," Block said. "Sometimes it’s
a little strange to look back and I feel a little exposed in that
way. On the other hand, I’ve been really lucky because I’ve gotten
to grow with the support of an audience and to learn about myself
in my writing, be out in the world. Which is good for a writer
who’s isolated most of the time."
If a stream of confessional fan letters means anything, Block’s
books are doing her audience quite a symbiotic service as well.
Envelopes burst with sketches and stickers and slowly healing
scars-from sexual abuse, homophobia and early deaths.
"One girl wrote to me after her boyfriend had died. She’d been
reading ‘Missing Angel Juan’ and she felt like it totally guided
her and helped her through that experience. Things I could never
imagine," said the very imaginative Block, both awed and
honored.
"I just sit there and cry a lot of times. (Getting letters) is
really the best part of what I do."
Third-year pre-psychology student Jennifer Kellar remembers
stumbling across the Weetzie Bat series when she was a freshman in
high school.
"At the time, I read it like a fairy tale. I liked the books
because they were fast moving, had different characters and that
magical feel that kids enjoy," Kellar said. "A couple of years ago
I re-read ‘Weetzie Bat’ and ‘Cherokee Bat and the Goat Guys’ and I
realized a lot more was being said. That there was social
commentary there."
When Block first entered the ranks of the published in the late
’80s, her subject matter teetered on the brink of controversy. She
wrote about AIDS, drugs and sexual preferences among kids who
supposedly weren’t old enough to think about sex at all.
But then again, she didn’t invent Weetzie and friends with an
age group in mind.
"I was really surprised they wanted to publish it for kids,"
Block said, recalling a librarian who responded to a positive New
York Times review saying, "How could you give a good review to this
book about pathological neurotics?"
The criticism does seem a little hard on the cast of
hopeful-hearted Bohemian Angelenos.
And a decade later this so-called pathological-ness is in very
high demand.
"It’s almost the reverse. If you don’t have something that’s a
little challenging topically, they don’t want to publish it," Block
said.
Could it be that, as much as Block praises her personal editor
and publisher, she has a teeny beef with the business side of the
biz?
Like: "I think there’s a marketing strategy to separate adults
and kids, but I think in reality there aren’t such defined
lines."
And (on why she hasn’t indulged her love of poetry recently):
"I’ve tried to keep in touch with the initial reason I started
writing and the deep reason, but I have to say it is my job too,
and there’s some pressure in that to write a certain kind of
thing."
And: "I just wrote these erotic stories, and I was thinking that
if anyone publishes them, will I have to put a pseudonym or
something?"
But she says this last one with a little laugh. So you know
she’s having fun, loving Los Angeles and her dog and her funky
muses in a way that maybe everyone else does but just hasn’t found
the words for yet.
And that’s what she’s here for. Because if someone hadn’t found
a place on the big metaphorical bookshelf for rock star groupie
teens and grandmotherly ghosts and Cadillacs named Jerry, "I would
never ever have found those people who say they relate to my world
if I hadn’t put out these books that express who I am.
"Because when I’m walking down the street, no one knows that I’m
carrying inside of me all these images and feelings. But we all are
and this is the way to connect."
BOOK: Francesca Lia Block and Hillary Carlip sign "Zine Scene:
The Do-It-Yourself Guide to Zines" Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Book
Soup, 8818 Sunset Blvd. Call (310)659-3110.HarperCollins
Francesca Block introduces even more colorful characters in her
latest novel, "I Was a Teenage Fairy."
Comments, feedback, problems?
© 1998 ASUCLA Communications Board