Published Oct. 22, 2005, in the Waukesha Freeman

Story by Matthew Webber

MILWAUKEE - Rick Moody isn't famous in the sense that Tom Cruise and Britney Spears are famous. The novelist and short-story writer can walk down the street in relative anonymity, free from mobs of fans or paparazzi.

Many readers know who Moody is, however, and many of them admire his work. His short stories have appeared in most of the top literary magazines, including The New Yorker and McSweeney's.

Others might recognize his name from the credits of the movie "The Ice Storm," which director Ang Lee ("Hulk," "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon") adapted for the screen. The critically acclaimed 1997 film about 1970s suburbia helped its young stars Tobey Maguire, Christina Ricci and Elijah Wood gain credibility as serious actors.

It also made Moody's career, he admits, which he said is "the sad truth of American literary culture."

Moody's new book, "The Diviners," is very much a book about fame, popular culture and the movie industry, as a cast of characters ranging from a film producer to a cabdriver/cultural consultant plan an epic television miniseries that spans centuries and cultures.

Ironically, Moody labels the book unfilmable, due to its multiple perspectives.

Taking a break from his hectic promotion schedule - the day before his Milwaukee visit, Moody had to battle playoff-baseball traffic in St. Louis - the author chatted with The Freeman about the delusion of fame and the agenda of popular culture. However, before the official interview, the New York native and baseball fan (of the Mets, not the Yankees) happily dissected yet another early playoff exit by the hated Atlanta Braves.

'The light that illuminates the world'

The Freeman: I want to start with the first sentence of the book. Do you really believe that 'The light that illuminates the world begins in Los Angeles'?

Rick Moody: No.

Why start a book with that sentence, then?

Because it's a book about a popular delusion in American culture, and the cost and benefit of that popular delusion. It seems to me that's one of the great delusions, that Los Angeles is somehow inherently important.

Perseveration and perserverance

Moody's answer might betray a New Yorker's bias against Los Angeles, as typified by Woody Allen in "Annie Hall," but it also betrays a bias millions of Americans seem to share toward fame and therefore toward Hollywood.

In the time it takes to read this article, hundreds if not thousands of aspiring actors and musicians will arrive in Los Angeles seeking fame and fortune. Of course, only a small percentage of the young and beautiful will actually live their Hollywood dreams.

Others will seek their 15 minutes of fame as reality TV stars.

Moody, who describes even literary fame as a double-edged sword, claims he doesn't want to be one of the famous people. He quit believing the great delusion, if he ever did.

Because he is a writer, "a lot of people have a lot of mistaken ideas about my personal life and so forth, and they're not at all shy about talking about it at great lengths," he said.

"There are any number of bloggers who perseverate about my work and my personal life. I don't need that stuff. I like anonymity."

But Moody can't complain about the fame accorded him by "The Ice Storm," his most well-known work, because it enabled him to continue pursuing his writing career. In the literary world, anyway, "Rick Moody" became a name, an author whose subsequent works garnered media attention and mostly positive reviews.

Plus, he loved the film.

"It wasn't a total disaster," he joked, adding that the people who worked on the film seemed to respect and appreciate his original material. "I think Ang Lee is a great filmmaker. It's hard not to feel like I was in good hands."

'What they're trying to sell'

People are still trying to get famous. We have reality TV programs that let people do that. It goes to the age-old question: Does entertainment more of reflect culture nowadays, or does it influence culture? Have those lines been completely blurred with reality TV? If you had to go one or the other, reflecting or influencing, what would you say pop culture does anymore?

Really good question, and probably really hard to answer with any certainty. But I think if I was going to say, I would say I think it's more influencing. I think now it always has an agenda. And I could go on trying to delineate that agenda for a long time, but now I think it ratifies certain notions and creates certain kinds of expectations and conceals other ways of thinking and feeling, so it definitely has a rhetorical power and a rhetorical intention.

How harmful is that agenda or that intention?

It depends on what you think about what it is they're trying to sell. I think there are some problems with it.

Werewolves and Krispy Kremes

As a writer, Moody strives to reflect culture rather than influence it. After all, he said, he doesn't have movie aspirations for "The Diviners," even though it is about a movie - although he'd like to see an adaptation of the made-up TV show all his characters watch, "Werewolves of Fairfield County."

Set in the months after the 2000 presidential election, "The Diviners" also tackles contemporary issues like politics and multiculturalism, but Moody is more interested in telling his readers a good story rather than selling his own agenda.

Further, those bloggers who pick up the book will quickly discover it is not autobiographical, even though Moody said he believes any writer's "idea of how psychology woks and how emotional life works comes from us. It's very hard to think otherwise."

However, like any work of fiction, the book is a biography of the characters' hopes and dreams: true love, the miniseries, Krispy Kreme doughnuts.

"I actually set out this time not to really put anything from my own life in there," Moody said, "and part of the challenge was just to use imagination."