Again and again, it is the author's honesty that makes The Butterfly Trap work, what could have been a simple adventure, or a blistering expose, becomes a real quest for meaning, at a very personal level.
- David Kent
The truth is that behind every statistic, every piece of so called news, is a person, a real person with a real story.
- Dennis Jon
This is great writing. There are no moments of over-reaching for linguistic effects, no self-consciousness poetry. There are no moments of false, romanticized truth because the sense of reality is so acutely aware.
- Gar Flack
The Butterfly Trap offers a peek, not only behind Bangkok's glittering lights, but into the mind of a man drawn to those lights, like a hopeful insect.
- Joe Lin
The Butterfly Trap is a rare combination: an intriguing story with real depth and humor. It held me firm from first page to last.
- WIlliam Greenleaf
An Interview with Dennis Jon, Author of The Butterfly Trap, by Joseph P. Lin.
Q: Why did you write The Butterfly Trap?
A: It started as a book I wanted to read. A friend of mine had talked me into going on a trip to Thailand, so I went to the bookstore to find out what it was all about. All the travel guides mentioned the legendary nightlife but none of them actually said what the legend was. I figured that every legend starts with a story, I just wanted the story. I couldn't find it, so I wrote it.
Q: What kind of story were you looking for?
A: I wanted a first person account of actual events; I wanted the truth. I was really hoping that Paul Theroux had written something about it, and indeed he had, a whole six pages in The Great Railway Bazaar.
Q: What else did you find?
A: There was a handicapped guy who took a river raft journey. There was a collection of short stories about various travelers recalling their experiences: staying in a monastery, cycling through the jungle, going to cooking school, and other spine-tingling adventures. I pretty much combed the travel section.
Q: What about fiction or erotica?
A: I was really afraid I might find something in the erotica section, because that's not the kind of book I was interested in.
Q: But there is sexual content in The Butterfly Trap...
A: Yes, but The Butterfly Trap is not about tittilation, it's about examining human nature under unusal circumstances, and what the consequences of that behavior might be. I just didn't see a book out there that was doing that.
Q: What about Bangkok 8?
A: That's a great book, but Bangkok 8 didn't come out until I was already well into my third or fourth draft, and I'll tell you, at first I freaked, thinking that someone had beaten me to the punch. But Bangkok 8 plays out with Bangkok's nightlife as a background to the story, not as the subject. It goes into the same dark corners as The Butterfly Trap, but it isn't about what happens there, who it happens to, or why.
Q: Would readers of Bangkok 8 like The Butterfly Trap?
A: I think most would, The Butterfly Trap isn't a cop story, or even a drama in the normal sense. But for people who were intrigued by the setting of Bangkok 8, my book will take them a step deeper.
Q: Why did you want to write about this subject?
A: Well, first of all because it didn't seem as if anyone else had, and I just couldn't believe I was the only person who found it interesting. Then it seemed to me there were a lot of misperceptions based on the little bits of information out there. Everyone was passing judgment but no one was presenting evidence. I think before anything, or anyone, should be judged, an effort ought to be made to understand them.
Q: I understand that The Butterfly Trap has already come under fire, any comment?
A: I'm not surprised that people are willing to attack a book that they've never read. It's sort of standard operating procedure these days, isn't it? Anything that doesn't support the consensus view of reality, the accepted view of the accepted norms, is sure to meet resistance.
Q: What do you mean by consensus reality?
A: Well, there are certain myths that get perpetuated, well, myths might be a little strong, I'm sure the things represented do happen, somewhere, to someone, but I didn't see any of it, so I didn't write it. I wrote what I actually saw. I didn't go in with a political agenda, only a curiosity to find the truth. I guess some people don't want the truth, they want something that confirms what they already believe, or want to believe. The truth I found, is like a rock in the status quo.
Q: And what truth is that?
A: The truth is that behind every statistic, every piece of so called news, is a person, a real person with a real story, that is often not represented completely, or even truthfully. That in the real world, the difference between villians and victims isn't so clear, and that at times the popular perception is absolutely wrong.
Q: I noticed that The Butterfly Trap is written in the first person present tense, that's an unusual viewpoint. Can you tell me why you chose it?
A: I wanted to demonstrate the difference that point of view can have on meaning. That watching someone do something, and seeing it through their eyes, can be vastly different things. This character goes places and does things that observed from afar, could be interpreted in many different ways, which may or may not be reflect the reality he is experiencing. An external viewpoint would have introduced opinion, interpretation, and or judgment. I didn't want to tell the reader what to think. I wanted them to see the world 'through' someone else's eyes, and then make up their own mind.
Q: But most books are written in the second or third person.
A: True, but I'll tell you, I've always had a hard time reading most fiction because it's not first person. As soon as I read words like, he thought, he wished, it makes me want to ask, how the heck do you know? It lets me know there's an author there, making stuff up. I think the first person adds authenticity, that someone is actually doing something. Deliverance by James Dickey is a good example of that. I can't think of a book that feels more real.
Q: What about the present tense?
A: I wanted to demonstrate that the reality of the moment is different than the reality of recollection. That events that take place in the present have little or no meaning, that meaning is an interpretation applied after the fact. Initially there was some resistance, but most people get used to it after a chapter or two, after all, we're all used to stories told in present tense in a different media.
Q: What's that?
A: Movies. In almost every movie the story takes place in the present tense, even if it's about things that happened the day before or about cave men for that matter, the action on the screen happens at the moment we watch it. I'm just trying to bring that same immediacy to the reading experience, events happen as your eyes move over the words, the words you've already read are in the past, and the words you have yet to read are in the future, the reader is always at now.
Q: Why not in the past tense? After all, the story is not happening now...
A: The story only happens while it is being read, if the reader stops, the story stops. A book on a shelf is just a pile of paper, it's only a story while it is being read, and that story exists only in the mind of the reader.
Q: That's pretty ambitious...
A: Everyone's gotta have a dream (laughs)
Q: But isn't the main character really you?
A: Of course his experience is based on my experience, and his thoughts are based on my thoughts, and aspects of the story are autobiographical, but I still think of him, as him, and not me.
Q: So what is The Butterfly Trap? Is it a travel book, a confession, or a novel?
A: It started as a travelogue, but the story started picking up meaning and plot as I progressed, so I didn't fight it. It became my quest for meaning, much like Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was for Robert Pirsig. They call that book a novel, so if people want to call The Butterfly Trap a novel, that's fine with me.
Q: Was that transformation intentional?
A: Well, somewhere along the way, the people, places, and events started to take on meaning, started turning into a story, and the funny thing is, this was all happening while I was writing. When the real events were occurring I had no idea that they had meaning, that they fit into some kind of story, the meaning didn't happen until after. I intentionally tried to highlight the meaning in events, but didn't construct them intentionally.
Q: Where will The Butterfly Trap be shelved in the bookstore?
A: I have no idea.
Q: Who is the audience for The Butterfly Trap?
A: It'll probably be mostly men as the subject matter promises some sort of titillation factor, but I hope that women will read it too. This book empowers a group of women that have largely been scorned, and gives a larger understanding of a much maligned sub-culture.
Q: Why do you think women will like The Butterfly Trap?
A: Several reasons, for one, it exposes men's frivolous carnal desires for what they are, secondly, the women characters in the book are not the victims some might suppose, though the story is driven by a man, he is very much an anti-hero, it is the women that he encounters along the way who the reader roots for. And finally, women are driven to find deeper understanding. I'm glad they are. Gaining understanding is always a good thing.
Q: Understanding of what?
A: That people are people, individuals worthy of respect, that labels often don't fit actual circumstances.
Q: What kind of labels?
A: The kind of labels that the sort of people in this book might get, if there were no understanding.
Q: Why do you think there hasn't been a book like The Butterfly Trap before?
A: Well, I discovered after the fact that there were some, in fact a whole genre dedicated to the subject.
Q: What makes The Butterfly Trap different?
A: I hope it's the honesty, the deeper look at human nature. Books of this type seem to turn into either a macho pissing match or a political correct judgment; The Butterfly Trap is neither. The Butterfly Trap is a journey, a kind of virtual vacation for anyone who wants to go along for the ride.
Q: I noticed you are credited with taking the cover photo. Is that one of the women in the story?
A: Yes.
Q: Which one?
A: I'm not telling.
Q: So what's next?
A: I've been working on a sequel and have plans for two more books in the series. Once I'm finished promoting The Butterfly Trap, I'll get back to work on those.
Q: Thank you for your time.
A: Thank you.
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