Interview with two local authors – Fuerteventura. The creators of the webpage www.fuerteonline.com recently interviewed Andreas Christian-Meyer (A.C. Meyer) and Douglas M. Baumwoll (Baumwoll) in the town of Corralejo, on the Canary Island of Fuerteventura. They have just written a novel (genre: satire, humor) called The Seventh Bush: 2101 A.D. Set in the future, this thriller takes a look at a neocon America run by Negon Rudy Bush, the seventh Bush president of the family dynasty, 100 years from now.

Fuerteonline: How long have you been living on Fuerteventura and how did you end up here?

A.C. Meyer: I first visited Fuerteventura in 1993, returning several times on holiday after that. In 2002, I came here to recuperate from a serious health problem. Over time, the climate and lifestyle treated me very well and I eventually felt much better, choosing to live here permanently.

Baumwoll: I have been visiting Fuerteventura frequently over the last ten years. Back in ’97, I took an unpaid leave of absence from my company – after six years of working in the environmental consulting field as an Environmental Scientest advising the Environmental Protection Agency at the national level, I was comletely burned out. I left everything behind in Seattle, headed to Barcelona and ended up here for the first time two years after that.

Fuerteonline: Andreas, when did you come up with the initial idea of the book, The Seventh Bush?

A.C. Meyer: I began thinking of a science fiction novel that took place a hundred years in the future about 20 years ago, but I never really developed it. Once I got to Fuerteventura, I really got into the project in about 2004. I developed the original idea, which I was going to call StormWorld, into a more political-satire type of novel. I also began writing and recording 30 songs, some of which had also been in my head for many, many years.

Fuerteonline: Who has influenced your work on The Seventh Bush?

A.C. Meyer: When I finished reading Michael Moore’s book, Stupid White Men, I realized I wanted the novel to be more than just a for-fun read of a science fiction story. I wanted it to make a direct comment on today’s Western world. After seeing Fahrenheit 9/11, the documentary, also by Michael Moore, I had another inspiration to make the story more meaningful. I worked with him on a daily basis for half a year in 1986, producing and directing my exam film at the Munich Academy for Television and Film ( HFF ).

Baumwoll: I remember my senior year at the University of Virginia, when Michael Moore came out with the movie Roger & Me. We were so happy back then that someone was finally calling bullshit on the whole corporate scene. Oliver Stone had done Wall Street two years earlier, and Micheal Moore’s film was a welcome, real-life follow up to that line of thinking. When I started in earnest on the project with Andreas, I switched from editing a translated document to actively co-writing the novel we are currently publishing. When I started, I asked Andreas how he would describe the humor in the book, because, more than anything, we want people to have a laugh. We bounced ideas off of each other, and came up with A Fish Called Wanda meets Michael Crichton, Michael Moore and Al Franken.

A.C. Meyer: That’s right. A huge influence was Ian McNaughton, the director of English TV’s Monty Python’s Flying Circus. I worked with him on a daily basis back in 1986. I was extremely lucky to have the opportunity to write a screenplay and shoot a 30-minute film with him. We laughed a hell of a lot and a part of him is still with me. I truly wish he was still around so that he could have a look at our book.

Baumwoll: Yeah, but plenty of Micheal Moore. Just look at him! [Baumwoll slaps Meyer on the shoulder] He put on twenty pounds and grew a beard just to look like the guy! [Laughter.]

Fuerteonline: The cover of the book shows a caricature of Al Gore. How does he figure into the story?

Baumwoll: Careful. That is not a caricature of Al Gore. It is a depiction of Danton Gore, one of the main characters in the book. In the future, he is a descendant of Al Gore. Al Gore the environmentalist is important because way before his recent success with his movie, An Inconvenient Truth, he was known nationally in the States apart from simply being Clinton’s vice president. When his book Earth in the Balance came out in 1993, I had been working in the environmental field at the national level for two years. The whole office was ecstatic that the second man in the White House was addressing our issue: the environment. Sadly, it turns out that the Clinton administration did nothing for the environment at the national level during their entire eight years, actually cutting national budgets to the Environmental Protection Agency every year. Bill will burn for that one. I’m happy that Gore is finally making good on something he has been involved in for 20 years.

A.C. Meyer: I didn’t know so much about the political stuff back then, but I knew that Gore had written Earth in the Balance 15 years ago. We had already named the main character Danton Gore before Gore’s success with An Inconvenient Truth and before he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. So, now I feel like a bit of a prophet, because our character Danton Gore will have a world impact as well! By the way, Danton Gore is named “Danton” in honor of Georges Jacques Danton, one of the main figures in the French Revolution.

Fuerteonline: The motif of a dominatrix and masochism is quite prevalent in The Seventh Bush. Where does this come from?

A.C. Meyer: No one knows if it is real or not, but the photo that went around the Internet about a year ago of George W. Bush showing a note to Condoleeza Rice asking for permission to go to the bathroom during a meeting was hilarious. The fact is, it doesn’t matter if it is true or not, because I think it sums up their relationship perfectly. We all know Bush alone is not responsible for the neoconservative policies in America that insult the spirit of its founding. Moving Rice from a dominatrix in the conference room to one in the bed room is not really such a big step. Besides, the idea of powerful men wanting to be dominated has always interested me. The ideas of wanting to be dominated and have pain inflicted on you to deal with feelings of guilt are very real in today’s Western world and in our world of The Seventh Bush.

Baumwoll: I didn’t know much about this subject at all before the project. The research was interesting and I can understand how some CEO that destroys unseen real lives every day so that company profit-before-tax goes up a few percent while earning millions a year might choose masochism as a means of guilt-release or repentance. Also, we researched feminist lesbianism to create our race of woman-warriors called She-Huns. Very intriguing. I consider it a real option for today’s women, given the percentage of first-class, A-1, male-chauvinist, war-mongering, bottom-line-capitalist idiots around today in America and, to a much greater extent than only 10 years ago, Western Europe.

Fuerteonline: Thanks a lot, Andreas and Doug. There you have it, folks. A brief insight into the minds of the two authors of the satirical thriller called The Seventh Bush: 2101 A.D. They promise you a good laugh and some issues to think about in today’s world. Remember their slogan regarding their novel: “Bush Therapy. Read. Laugh. Think.”