_____________________
The interviews, some of which were posted at Radio Deleuze were done at different times and places, and were taped on reel to reel and cassette tape. We transcribed these at different dates later.
C.P: where did you travel to? and when, and how does it connect or act as a bridge to your writing?
C.D. From 1970 to near the end of 1972 I went across North America, Mexico and as far south as Guatemala.... I went there because that is where my friend Maurice was from.
During that time I also made one trip to England.
C.P.: And after this where do you travel to.? Or rather did you go to the big cities of North America in those times?
C.D. Oh yes, I went to San Fransico I was 18. I went south to Mexico and saw the murals of Rivera and the temples of the Aztec. I was in Texas, and New Orleans. I was all over the place, like a rambling being.... a snake on the move!
iNTER: And your trip to England?
CD: that was 100 dollars one way I think! Montreal to London! I went there because some guy, who was an asshole, kept bragging to me, about how easy it was to get to Europe. I went, I stayed a while, I'd have to go and look and I saw a poetry reading . A fairly big one,t here was maybe a 1000 people near the Isle of Wight. I went back and stayed and Toronto after that.
Inter: And where else?
C.D. I lived on the road, like the thousands of young people then did. I guess I was hunting the museums too wherever I went. I was hungry to see.
The I read about Ginsberg and others going to India, so I hitch-hiked to the west coast, and a month later I was in
India. It was early December of 1972. I stayed there for about a month, and then some of my friends wanted to go to Tibet. I didn't go. I went to Benares__Varaneshi the holy sites... of Hindu gods and the whole wild multiple scene of goddess and pilgrims, and crazy people looking and searching for the divine... and different shrines, with the idea that I'd get some Buddhist
enlightenment... . After this time I went south.... towards New Zealand, I had no idea where I was going, but it was easy to travel then. Cheap, boats, trains. And because I was under 25 often, there were cheaper fares, and I had kept my registration as a student. I think, I was a student for 25 years! at diferent universities ....
I had this passport which by 73, was stamped with 3 continents, 5 or 6 countries. We went to Thailand once.... me . I went. And yes, I had a partner by then, she was with me . I met her in Canada, and she was the one that had friends in England, and they knew people in India, then we met people eon the road, who knew people in New Zealand... and so it went.. you see?
Interlocouter: How about Australia? didn't you get to going there ?
C.D. I had a friend name of Elizabeth Springer, she was from Melbourne. But she was in Vancouver at the time, I had gone there in April 1970 . That was my first long trip, alone, hitch-hiking. She was the one with friends, and family in Melbourne, and so we stayed there on the way back from New Zealand, and we passed through there. And then we went to Italy and then to France, and Holland, and the other countries Belgium, Denmark and then we took the train to Germany, Western Germany as it was called. That's in the spring of 73 we arrived there. In the summer we stayed there, then went back to England, and it was that time, I went to Ireland for the first time.
Then back to France, and it was sometime in the autumn of 1973, we discovered the philosophers. Until then, I had not paid any concentrated attention to that.
C.D. It's a bit confusing you see because I was in Montreal in the mid seventies for chunks of time, made friends, lived with a woman, and we had many cats! So when she and I went back to Europe that's really the period I was running around listening to these philosophers.. ... I was coming back and forth, and you have to understand I was young and so my sense of time was not the same as it is now... so when we heard Gilles Deleuze lecturing at Paris 8 St. Denis, Vincennes it changed the trajectory. It was like hearing a great poet , but on a regular basis. hahahahha... imagine hearing a great poet read his work every week! Not a chance!
Anyhow, let's come back to this later. I have to go out and do some things.... it's always interesting to talk about these trips... Journeys of the mind and soul.
C.P. Will you talk about your kids?
C.D. My kids! that's a secret! hahhahahah ... tape ends with Clifford Duffy laughter....
_____________________