Pictured Augusten Burroughs is in town Monday, Oct. 11 at 7 p.m. at Borders, 830 N. Michigan Ave., at Pearson St.
There are days when Augusten Burroughs believes he can control things with this mind.
'I read Shirley MacLaine as a kid. She wrote about how you are the one who controls your destiny, and you know, it's really true,' he says, elaborating on his tongue-in-cheek belief in 'magical thinking' a casual, witchy version of mind-over-matter. The title essay from the author's new book, Magical Thinking: True Stories shows Burroughs using his powers for evil (he wishes someone dead—admittedly they deserve it—and a month later, they die) as well as for good (he convinces his boyfriend Dennis that he has a nice, round derriere, when in fact, he is flat as a surf board).
The Magical Thinking concept makes a weird kind of sense, at least in the Burroughs' universe, where practically anything is possible, where extended family members predict the future by reading human turds, and where writing about it lands you on The New York Times bestseller list.
'Some people refer to Running With Scissors and Dry as funny, but essentially one is about the death of someone important to me, the other is about growing up in a cult. Magical Thinking is a much lighter book—it's less about me as a freak and more about me as a person. Of all the books I've written, I had the most fun writing Magical Thinking,' says Burroughs matter-of-factly, a few nights before launching the coast-to-coast book tour to promote his first collection of essays.
Magical Thinking: True Stories, may feel more squeezably soft than Scissors and Dry, but here soft doesn't mean flaccid; it means funny. It means Dr. Pepper enemas, sex with an undertaker (and three priests), and the epic tale of the 'rat/thing'; it means stories that are every bit as cracked and quirky as you would hope for them to be.
The critical and popular success of Scissors and Dry have made Augusten Burroughs the literary equivalent of a rock star. He has loyal groupies that flock to his readings, who recognize him on the street, fans who give him last-minute reservations at hip New York City restaurants. But it's the fans that feel comfortable expressing their innermost secrets to Burroughs, due to the extremely confessional nature of his memoirs, who are so poignant and slightly painful for the author, and he writes about this in the new book. (So-called 'uninhibited' gay men take note: You're not the only one e-mailing Augusten Burroughs photographs of your penis.)
As with most literary rock stars, Hollywood's taken notice. Sellevision, Burroughs' first book, and Scissors have both been optioned for film. The first draft of the Scissors script has been completed and Julianne Moore has been cast in the pivotal role of Augusten's mother. It's rumored that Cate Blanchett is considering the role of 'Hope' and that filming will probably begin sometime in January.
When asked about his creative input on the Scissors adaptation, Burroughs is, at first, charmingly vague: 'Oh, I think I am an associate producer.'
'Actually, I have become good friends with the director Ryan Murphy (director/writer of Nip/Tuck), and he's involved me a lot more than I ever expected. He will ask me about stuff that happened, stuff that's not in the book, and I know when people see it they will say the movie is much different than the book. But that doesn't mean that the event, the scene didn't actually happen. That being said, a lot of the dialogue in the script was lifted right from the book.'
Readers who have been jonesing for the new Burroughs book over the last year or so (Dry was published in 2003) were treated to a quick fix courtesy of the writer's monthly column in Details magazine. Burroughs enjoys the Details gig, which generates more e-mail reader response than anything else he's ever written. Most of the responses have been positive, some have been critical, and some are just weird—and therefore a natural fit in that Augusten Burroughs universe. Like the note he received from an angry reader in reaction to the author's essay describing his anxiety of Pooping at the Work Place.
'He said I was creating shame and that it was perfectly wholesome to have a bowel movement.'
Who else but Augusten knows from shameless bowel movements?
Speaking of poop, some might think that writing for a men's fashion magazine translates into a lot of cool, free shit, like Jack Spade scarves and bottles of expensive cologne. Not for Burroughs apparently, although there happens to be one very special perk Details slid his way: Anderson Cooper. The charming, attractive host of CNN's 360 Degrees, Cooper also contributes essays to Details magazine. Through their mutual connection with the publication, Burroughs has discovered a side of Cooper not usually seen by the public.
'Anderson is so down to earth. And he's funny! He could be a stand-up comedian! There is not one shred of pretension about him. Not one Shred!' Burroughs said.
The same thing could be said for Burroughs. Even though he's 'writer-famous' (his words) and hanging out with the likes of Anderson Cooper, he still sounds shy and awed by the world around him. He's still the guy whose words can make you laugh and cry and say to your spouse, the person next to you on the bus, the cat curled at your feet—You've GOT to read this!
Not surprisingly, it's that visceral connection between Burroughs and his readers that have publishing houses sniffing after him to blurb and review new titles. In fact, in a twist only Entertainment Weekly could dream up, he reviewed the latest book by that OTHER gay male writer who mines his personal life experiences for literary gold—David Sedaris—earlier this year.
'They asked me to do it, and I said OK. But then I started to panic: What if the book wasn't any good and I had to write about it!? Can you imagine?' Perhaps Entertainment Weekly will return the favor next year by having Sedaris review Burroughs' next project, another collection of stories, tentatively titled Possible Side Effects. (For the record, Burroughs considers Sedaris' latest book, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim his 'best work yet.')
As for those endless comparisons between Burroughs' and Sedaris' work, Burroughs offers this zen-like observation: 'People are always going to make comparisons about ... everything.' But you can tell he really means it, and that maybe it took him awhile to get there, but now he's OK with letting others perceive him and his work however they want to. That might not be mind over matter, but it's definitely a way of thinking that some would call magical.
