Writer vs. Writer: Rory Hughes

When you first read an author’s bio and it starts with “I was on acid, reading Burroughs’s Naked Lunch,” you know you’re not about to meet someone with a tidy, linear path to publication. And that’s exactly the case with Rory Hughes. From chaotic beginnings at 22, fueled by drugs, ego, and the impossible ambition of wanting to “do this writing thing,” to finally holding their debut novel Theseus 34 in 2024, this is a writer who has wrestled with words the way others wrestle with demons.

I caught up with Rory to talk about unhealthy relationships with writing, horror as a mirror, and what happens when you let yourself descend into the labyrinth.

1. Your introduction to writing began in a very unique way. How did that experience shape your initial approach to storytelling, and how has it evolved since then?

A: On the one hand, there was the huge influence of Burroughs. I didn’t know there was literature like that out there. I wasn’t a huge reader, music was my main passion, so, he really turned me onto literature in a huge way; on the other hand, there was the drugs, mostly at that time, ketamine and acid; drugs that gave me this inflated sense of ego, this confidence that I could also conjure up these very surreal narratives with basically no background in creative writing, and a lot of my stories were just mash-ups of dreams, hallucinations, half-baked ideas. Most of it was derivative crap, and I really do thank my friends and partners during those early days for pointing out when it was, because it meant that when they read something I’d written they thought was truly good, I believed them, and it gave me encouragement, so I kept on, I refined my strengths, learnt how to actually tell a story, I read obsessively, wrote obsessively, began working on my debut novel, edited that obsessively, and when I had a finished product, I was relentless, I did not stop until I found someone who was not only willing to publish my work, but who really understood it too, and that was Dave Mitchell at Incunabula Media, who continues to be an inspiration huge inspiration and supporter of my work.

2. You describe your relationship with writing as “unhealthy.” Could you elaborate on what you mean by that and how you navigate those challenges?

A: A lot of my writing is semi-autobiographical; as an alcoholic and an addict, writing about these experiences you find yourself in a vicious cycle, you’re writing about all these negative things, making a narrative out of it, then allowing yourself to continue down this negative path for more inspiration; at some point you find your moral compass is wavering, the book’s now writing you, or at least that’s what you tell yourself; you’re finding yourself in weird places, you’re surrounding yourself with dangerous people, getting into life-threatening situations, but you do nothing to stop it, because it’s material. You’re a willing protagonist, yet ultimately one full of regret, because a lot of that damage can’t be undone. On top of that, a lot of the themes I research and write about often cover extremely negative or depressing topics, and extensive research into the worst sides of humanity can take a toll.

“As an alcoholic and an addict, writing about these experiences you find yourself in a vicious cycle… the book’s now writing you.”

3. What inspired you to tackle the themes of mythology, morality, and human desire in Theseus 34? How did you weave these diverse elements into a cohesive narrative?

Mythology in itself, especially Greek mythology, has long been an interest of mine. The book The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949) by Joseph Campbell was a big influence. This idea of how every narrative, when analyzed and broken up, essentially shares a common structure. The idea of the monomyth. It began to feed into a lot of the other themes of the book: internet culture, the information age, and of course pornography and extreme content, which was central to exploring moral decadence and the wild extents of desire; whether that be for love, sex, death, control…

4. The dark web and human desire are intense subjects. What kind of research or preparation went into creating such a vivid, unsettling world in your debut novel?

A: A lot of the novel follows this kind of, what we call now, a wiki rabbit hole, so there’s the whole thing is full of tangents, non-sequiturs; I was trying to emulate that experience of surfing the web, you know one minute you’re checking social media, 10 minutes later you’re on Wikipedia, reading about Beethoven’s childhood, anther 10 minutes later you're researching serial killers, maybe at some point at you’re watching a videos of Mexican Cartels torture and murder rival cartel members. So obviously a lot of research went into the mythology of Theseus, and the minotaur; the labyrinth being this idea of losing oneself in endless information. So that was the kind of “horizontal influence”, you could say, the “vertical influence”, I owe a lot to Dante Alighieri’s Inferno. This descent into more disturbing scenarios, horror, despair, a fear of the infinite. As for other research, again it was obsessive. I read books on Greek and Indonesian mythology, a lot about internet culture and the dark web, mathematics, economics, advertising psychology, big tech, capitalism, alt-right politics and online echo chambers, British and American politics, serial killers, esoteric Nazism, occultism, Satanism, porn addiction, fetishism, paraphilias, MK Ultra, mind control; again, it became obsessive, and I felt I had to go overboard with it, research anything I felt had any connection to what I was writing about, no matter how tenuous. Snuff is a central theme to the book, and as a product of my generation it’d been something I’d been watching since I was a teenager. You don’t even need to go onto the dark web to find this stuff. Delving into a lot of that again was something I did without much knowledge of what that can do to one’s mind. I exposed myself to a lot of horrifying visual material and it’s not so much that it’s emotionally exhausting, I think we’re quite aware of the facts now, regarding overexposure to this kind of material; desensitisation is something we talk about a lot; I won’t argue with that. I think what’s more dangerous is dissociation. We are not mentally evolved enough for the information age; we’re very far away from the point in human evolution where we’d be able to process this much disturbing media.

5. The nameless protagonist in Theseus 34 experiences a descent into confusion and horror. How did you connect with or distance yourself from this character while writing?

A: I mentioned earlier about how I got kind of lost in this semi-autobiographical role. I did everything to connect with the protagonist, I didn’t think I would be able to write something convincing if I hadn’t. I poured everything I could of myself into that character. I would say that since the book has been released, I’m now in that process of distancing myself.

6. How do you balance the roles of Reviews/Features Editor for Astral Noize and your fiction writing? Do they inform or inspire each other?

I could definitely do a much better job at balancing the two, to be honest. As far as inspiration, I think honing my skills as a music journalist has given me another kind of toolkit so to say, and I think there’s been instances where that kind of critical writing style has dripped into my work. Conversely, creative writing has no doubt had a huge influence on the way I write about music, even in a journalistic setting, and as an editor, I encourage that as much as I can with other writers at the zine. I think a lot of more mainstream music journalistic outlets avoid and even frown upon that kind of creative approach. But most music magazines these days are practically unreadable, so who’s taking tips from them? I like a writer who gets personal, gets literary, maybe even a little gonzo, with a music review. It shows passion. It shows a real love for what they're writing about. Art about art.

7. You mention both delight and horror at having Theseus 34 published. Could you share what this mix of emotions stems from?

When I got that first proof copy, I was delighted. I’d spent years on this thing, and here it was, no longer a Word document, an actual book. I find it difficult to feel a sense of accomplishment a lot of the time, but I did then. The horror came the day before the book was set to be released. I was at work at the time, and I remember suddenly thinking, “what the fuck have I done?” On one hand, there are all these anecdotes about really fucked up things I’d done or had happened, and there was just, the nature of the book itself. You know, in the day, as a whole, it’s a piece of fiction, but it’s a piece of fiction that addresses some really nasty aspects of humanity, and I was worried about what people would think of me, mostly people close to me. I felt like I’d doxxed myself.

8. Your writing draws on mythology and modern technology. How do you see these two contrasting elements shaping contemporary literature?

That’s a really interesting question. I suppose history has always contributed to the mythology of mankind in some way. And again, it’s often technology we refer to when we timestamp human evolution; the stone age, the iron age, the industrial age, the information age. And I can only assume things will continue on that way. So, I know that’s a bit of a reductionist answer, but I think mythology and technology has always and always will be at the core of not only literature but all art.

9. What is the most surprising reaction or interpretation of Theseus 34 that you’ve encountered from readers or reviewers?

So I have three.

1) Positive reaction: One of my favorite writers, Simon Whitechapel, kindly agreed to write a review of Theseus 34, and first of all, I can’t thank him enough. He really put so much work into the review, was so complimentary and deeply analytical and even went as far as to compare it to one of the great/infamous novels of the 20th century which my vanity wants to name, but my desire to be perceived as modest will not allow me to.

2) Negative reaction: I have to be very vague here, but basically a friend read about the first 30 or so pages of the book. I think it had quite a bad effect on them. It turns out this friend advised another one of our friends to avoid meeting me (something we’d already planned) as they were convinced I was going to do something unspeakable to them.

3) Notable mention: I was in Brussels with a friend in around 2015, I’d just written what other people later considered one of the most disturbing scenes in the novel. I showed him the chapter and he reacted with a very loud and troubling cackle, finding it absolutely hilarious. I worry about him. I also love him to bits, potential sociopathy aside.

10. Looking back at your journey from reading Naked Lunch to publishing Theseus 34, what advice would you offer to aspiring writers who are struggling to find their voice or overcome self-doubt?

As for self-doubt, I can’t answer that. It was self-doubt and self-criticism that kept pushing me. I was never happy with the material. I was brutal on myself. It was the constant doubt that made Theseus 34 an almost decade-long undertaking.

As for finding your own voice; there are a few things. You have to read a lot. Read everything you can get your hands on, read outside of your comfort zone. Read seminal literature. Also, might sound like strange advice, read the occasional trash. I’ve sometimes learnt more from how not to write a book, than I have from how to write a book. Beyond literature: music, film, art: indulge in what you love. 

Think about what experiences are unique to you. What are your idiosyncrasies? What are your neuroses? You may not realize what these things are at first. But there are experiences, thoughts, ideas that are yours and no-one else’s. Draw on these, expand on them. Seek out experiences in life that fascinate you. Find your passions. If those passions are strong enough, you might find it hard to hold your voice back. You might find yourself suddenly overwhelmed with ideas, you may find yourself deafened by this voice.

If you're interested to get your hands on Rory's book, click here