Macromere Press

Macromere: Like King Aegeus (“Aegeus”, the sixth story), Arthur Conley, the title character of the eleventh episode in He Who Shall Remain Shameless, is something of an anomaly. David even says at one point that this singer who made his mark with his one hit “Sweet Soul Music” in the late ’60s is “certainly the most well-off spirit” he’s encountered.

David: Very true. Aegeus is different from the other spirits in the novel because he comes from such an ancient, faraway time, and so nothing David brings to him is familiar. Mr. Conley is different in a way as well because of how recently he died….”well-off” in the novel’s sense means Arthur is not only materially wealthy but mentally wealthy as well. He is, in fact, the only spirit in HWSRS who already has an idea of what the Internet is capable of. He has an advantage because he’s aware.

M: It seems, really, that David is using Arthur Conley here….

D: Definitely. The story itself follows “Leo” in the sense of that narrative arc continuing to sharpen. In David’s mind even Arthur Conley, despite his popular song and his substantial presence on the Internet, could use some help in the social networking department…but the main point of David’s adventure in the Netherlands is to turn the tables on the Meritocrat, who actually supports Mr. Conley.

M: We found that interesting—how the Meritocrat seems to not want to erase the memory of Arthur Conley.

D: Mr. Conley is one who could ultimately survive, but David’s plan involves a twisting of that memory that the Meritocrat cannot tolerate, and so the trap is set.

M: How much research went into “Arthur”?

D: A fair amount. I’ve always liked “Sweet Soul Music”, and over time I began to wonder about the singer. Who had sung this song? I would hear it playing overhead in stores, or on oldies radio, and I eventually decided to look up the artist. I was surprised to find that Arthur Conley had a fascinating and somewhat sad history I felt was worth incorporating into He Who Shall Remain Shameless.

M: “Arthur” currently is the only audio file available on the Audio page of your website….

D: Yes. There used to be plenty of others, pretty much the entire novel really, but as changes were made to the nearly published manuscript I decided to take most of them down—all except for “Arthur”. For anyone who’d like to listen to Matt Gunnison’s great reading of this story, click here. The audio version of the story is somewhat abridged, and the play button does take some time to appear, but it’s worth listening to because of Mr. Gunnison’s singing and his use of Dutch.

M: He sings and speaks Dutch, eh?

D: My wife was a big help with the Dutch, but the parody of “Sweet Soul Music”, “Sweet Arthur Conley”, is all on me. I wrote the first draft of it in an airport lounge. I felt a bit like David there, waiting to travel to his next mission.