WC: At one point in Bangkok Haunts, you have a character exclaim: “Cultural conflict? You mean between a Western man with his pathetic need for a safe womb to crawl into and a Thai whore looking for a gold mine to exploit?” What is the essential cultural conflict between Thais and farangs? What are the greatest misconceptions of Thailand and her people?

JB: We Westerners have no folk memory of extreme poverty. Generally, we don’t know anything about how it molds peoples’ minds. From the luxury of a high standard of living, we evolve all kinds of romantic notions, often to disguise the fragmentation in our society. In rural Thailand, where the majority of the girls come from, love has little to do with romance or even sex; it has to do with supporting someone and her family unselfishly for life. Sure, there is a lot of cultural conflict between a romantic fifty-something farang and his young Isaan bride. Generally, though, the farang will get everything he dreams of in terms of love, respect, influence, so long as he takes care of her and her dependants. Often, however, the farang will see this attitude as evidence of a mercenary and therefore “impure” love.

WC: The central character, other than Sonchai, is essentially the prostitute Damrong, who is killed at the beginning of the novel in a snuff film—her character subsumes the novel, not as a living person, but on film, in dreams, and as a ghost.

JB: There are many ways to feature a character in narrative. In Macbeth, Banquo influences the action long after his death. A similar technique is used in the case of Hamlet’s father and stepfather. In using the ghost technique, I was able to bring Damrong’s full nature into the story without having too many flashbacks.

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