Home  | Wylie's Introduction |  Questions and Myths | Tales of the Story

The Inscription | The Covers | Bibliography | Submissions | Contact Us
 
Why Do A Site on Gladiator?

 

I guess the subtitle of this page should be: "Questions I wish a real interviewer would ask me about this site instead of a bunch I made up to fill you in."

This "Q & A" basically explains the purpose, goal and reason d'etre for Hugo Danner.com. It also talks about how you can play in the sandbox, too. Upon review, I'm afraid I took the humor a bit too far in this piece. On the other hand, we don't want to take our FAQs too seriously. Especially since we haven't gotten any yet.

 

Q: Why are you dedicating a whole web site to a book that hardly anyone's ever heard of, much less read?

A: That's a brilliantly considered question. Basically, because I'd done all this research and didn't have anywhere else to put it. Who the heck would publish this stuff? I'd read the book five times and purchased every affordable interpretation of the story, -- including the godawful movie adaptation. I guess I wanted my efforts to serve the greater good of Mankind. 
 
Q. Do you like the book that much?

A. No, not really. I mean, it's okay, but there are parts that could really stand a polish. Don't get me wrong, there are some great sections -- the cow dung thing...wow -- but I took an interest in the novel because I write superhero fiction. Love the stuff. Been writing it for years. Yet I'd never heard of Gladiator until I read Alan Moore's Watchmen. I thought Gladiator was something Moore had made up. There was no Internet in those dark days, so that was the end of it.

But on my second reading of Watchmen, years later, I hopped on-line, Googled(TM) Wylie and felt the poles of reality do a flip-flop. In a click, I learned that super-powered prose had indeed proceeded the super hero comic book. Important news for me. My work was no longer derivative! I was part of the origin story! Not just some "writer who couldn't draw." I was validated.
 
Q. That still doesn't explain the hours and hours you've spent building this site, struggling forward despite your lack of technical aptitude, flailing mightily against popular ambivalence to elevate a forgotten work of literature that, while it changed pop culture forever, has been sadly, woefully relegated to the realm of "collectible paperbacks." Nor does it explain why you strive, like a soaring mountain, to return the novel's asterisk to its footnote in the canon of the superpowered heroes?
A. Yes, there was that, AND the fact that no one else was doing it. I thought it'd be neat to put together a site based on Gladiator. I mean, the book rates a tribute site.
 
Q. Is Gladiator in the public domain?
 A. I think it is. I don't know. Is there a web site that posts stuff like that? A list of things in the public domain? There are sites that reprint the text verbatim. I'd think they'd get a pretty stern letter if anyone cared.  I'm not going to do that. To my knowledge everything on this site is in the realm of public domain. If something isn't, I will seek permission to use it on the site.
 
Q. How does the title "Gladiator" fit into the book?
A. You know, I've wondered that myself, and I have no idea. I guess it refers to Hugo's series of struggles in Life. The sequential confirmations that his blessing is a curse. No one ever calls him "Gladiator" or anything. Marvel Comics titled their graphic novel version "Man-God," I guess because they couldn't figure it out either.
 
Q. Where did Wylie come up with the name "Abednego?"
A. That's a real name actually. People used to call their kids that on purpose. It's a Biblical name. Old Testament. I looked it up on line, but I couldn't make a symbolic connection between the OT reference and Gladiator. Don't know why Wylie liked those clunkers.
 
Q What's this about wanting submissions?

A. Yes, I want submissions. Like other sites I've worked on hugodanner.com is a bit of a literary experiment. That is to say, it is an outlet for a micro subculture of writers who will actually put in the work for the sheer hell of it ... and a byline.

<p>Also, I am paying this time.
 
Q. You're paying ... You're kidding?

A. Don't get all excited. It won't be that much. But I can't expect people to trudge through a whole damn novel, write an essay on something like "Pre and Post World-War-I Political Commentary in Hugo Danner's Picaresque Journey Across America" for free. With superhero fiction, the writers would just go off and do it on their own. This site's going to need a carrot.
 
Q. How big a carrot?
A. Either baby carrots or those sliced up ones in a can. Depending on the piece, between $5 and $20. More if you're a famous writer.
 
Q. Five bucks. To read a whole book? A book I wouldn't even care about if you weren't soliciting submission? That's your idea of paying someone to write?
A. No, now, I said it goes up to $20. The $5 would be for a poem or something short.
 

Q. A poem? About Gladiator?
A. I don't know. Maybe. Or just something short.  Or something not that good, but at least actually submitted. Not haiku, though. I hate haiku. I won't consider anything below a limerick.
 
Q.What do you really want?
A. Essays and analysis of the book or some aspect of the book, like a history of one of its publishers or some unique take on Wylie as an author.
 
Q. What don't you want?
A. No fan fiction or comic book scripts. Purely non fiction and critique.
 
Q. Who's going to write this material?
A. I don't know that either. College students who have to do a lit paper anyway, I guess. They could do their paper on Gladiator, turn it in for credit and then get it published on this cool, retro -- although narrow in scope -- literary e-zine. After the paper gets a passing grade, of course.
 
Q. Lame.
A. Well, okay then, writers and lesser folk who've read the book and just want to pipe off about it. They can send their little reviews and criticisms. Yeah! That's what you get the five bucks for, your thoughts. And if the piece is researched and presented in a more academic ("fancy and confusing") format, bigger bucks will be mailed.
 
Q. And you think people are going to do that? "Pipe off" and write literary criticism on a book no one's heard of?
A. How should I know? That's why it's an experiment. I've got a couple of pieces lined up to get things rolling.
 
Q. Ah, yes, the stigma of self publishing. You must be very ashamed.
A. No, it's fun! With the Internet and a little HTML, we're all Gutenburgs! That's how I can get away with a Q & A like this.
 
Q. Five bucks, huh?
A. That's just for thoughts and limericks.