WC: The novel also features a great conversation in which Sonchai’s boss, the corrupt Colonel Vikorn, “interrogates” the criminal Tanakan using an extended hypothetical analogy. Why do both men speak euphemistically about Tanakan’s culpability in Damrong’s death?

JB: Vikorn is doing his job as he sees it. Certainly, he is blackmailing Tanakan, but that is because Tanakan, as he knows himself, has been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. To Vikorn, this is no different than a traffic cop taking a bribe from a motorist whom he has caught speeding. Tanakan is thus fair game, but remains, as Vikorn well understands, a pillar of the system. He must therefore be treated with great respect, and Vikorn must at all times be careful not to step over the line of “opportunity” which Tanakan’s transgression has created. Vikorn therefore talks in symbolic terms in order to avoid the crassly literal. At the end of the day, if Vikorn does not play the feudal game in accordance with the rules, Tanakan will snuff him.

WC: Describe the differences between the legal systems in Thailand and the United States.

JB: In Thailand, the system can be bent by anyone with money or influence. In the U.S., you need both!

WC: Are there really “invisible men” like Tanakan, wealthy psychos who have no moral values? Can anything be done to limit the exploitation of Thais, Cambodians, and Vietnamese?

JB: Certainly, there are plenty of characters of this kind, not only in Thailand but all over the world. Wealth does not make people moral, and very often it has the opposite effect: people think God has made them rich because they deserve it and have a right to indulge themselves. It is a tradition that goes back to Nero. However, in this instance, I have made use of urban myths rather than restrict myself to any known cases. There is a school of thought to the effect that snuff movies do not really exist, but that does not matter in the realm of fiction, where myth is often more powerful than fact.

I do not want to put myself forward as someone who has a solution to any of these problems, but it does seem to me that a good start would be to abolish agricultural subsidies in the West so that subsistence farmers in the Third World have some kind of level playing field to work from. At the moment, a great many depend on their children participating in the drug and sex trades in order to make ends meet.

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