Bed Shopping & Self-Loathing With Jonathan Ames

There are only a few careers that can be launched over a campfire in a New Hampshire artist colony. Luckily for Jonathan Ames, storytelling is among them. Though–as the author, storyteller and creator of “Bored to Death” discussed in his Big Think interview–finding inspiration in the New England woods is not nearly as unlikely as the muse for his early novels: evenings in Times Square alternating between bouts in the boxing ring and beers in a transvestite bar.

As Ames goes on to explain, these transient obsessions are nothing new, and from his great-aunt to illusory self-images, they are woven throughout his oeuvre.

Ames also remarked on the seemingly lackluster changes brought about by his recent involvement in television; he’s recognized more, swapped his twelve-year-old bed for a new one, but, alas, life’s problems, a lingering sense of self-loathing and a long-hardened urge toward frugality remain.