Rachel Reupke

Rachel Reupke What do you imagine a popularly held fantasy of paradise to be like these days?

Sean Ashton If by ‘paradise’ we mean an infinitely extending afterlife, a state of affairs that we’d want to continue forever, then I’m with Julian Barnes. It’s impossible for the secular mind to conceive of paradise as anything other than an infinite continuation of those things we already most enjoy. That comes with a price: boredom. Imagine, as Barnes did in The History of the World in 10.5 Chapters, getting so good at golf that you take only 18 shots to play a round?

RR Do you think the effects of the credit crisis will change the nature of these reveries?

SA It seems that, in retrospect (i.e. post-credit meltdown), we’ve already lived through our popularly held fantasy of paradise. Only now do we acknowledge the last 12 years of prosperity (in the UK) as the reified fantasy that it was. But then, I’m just stating the obvious there.

RR What does your idea of paradise look like?

SA See my story, ‘Heaven’s Anus’, in the book Sunsets and Dogshits… I don’t know what paradise would look like, but it would probably feel like the first few weeks of a new relationship with a woman you really loved, or thought you loved. But then, I’m a sentimental man. There would definitely be a blackbird singing from a TV aerial.

RR Do you think people are too paranoid about food production nowadays to consider eating an egg with legs or drinking from a river of wine?

SA You don’t have to be paranoid to send a bipedal ovum back to the kitchen – only indignant. A river of wine is a different matter.

RR How many times can you listen to your new favourite track before its ruined?

SA It depends on the gaps between each listening. The question doesn’t state whether the listenings would be consecutive or spaced out over time. Also, the phrase ‘your new favourite track’ makes the listener’s favouritism sound cynical, a short-lived infatuation before he moves on to the ‘next’ thing. It reminds me of the Hives’ album Your New Favourite Band.

Land of Cockaigne, 2008 / vídeo