Jun 6, 2008
Easton native returns, novel in hand
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by Laura Modlin
Correspondent
Bill Folman spent the last four years invested in a scandal that is now finally becoming public. The Easton native began writing his debut novel, The Scandal Plan, while living in Easton, and now he is returning with the newly published book in hand.
Mr. Folman will be speaking about his book at the Easton Library community room at 7 p.m. on Monday, June 9.
The story centers on a straight-laced “too perfect” presidential candidate who is doing poorly in the polls. His campaign workers decide to “humanize” him in order to make the public better able to invest in him.
So they fabricate a sex scandal for the married candidate.
The book is a political satire, poking fun at the way Americans elect politicians.
“First and foremost it’s kind of a silly story,” said Mr. Folman. “It’s mostly about what it is we’re looking for in our elected officials.”
The story conjectures that Americans expect politicians to have life stories they can relate to in the same way they relate to heroes in film and on television.
The premise of the story rests on the idea that the most successful political candidates are the ones who come up with a good story and reveal things which convey that they are the best “protagonist” among the candidates in the race.
Mr. Folman believes certain narratives appeal to voters more than others. He points to stories of redemption as being particularly successful.
Case in point, according to Mr. Folman, was the election of George W. Bush in 2000.
“He’s screwed up, stumbled a bit, as we all have,” said Mr. Folman. “But he overcame all that to become governor. It’s a very cinematic narrative.”
Mr. Folman believes that there are helpful scandals and hurtful scandals.
“A helpful scandal reinforces the narrative the candidate is trying to sell,” said Mr. Folman.
“The Spitzer scandal was a killer. It went against the narrative he was trying to sell,” said Mr. Folman, referring to the former New York governor’s resignation after his involvement with prostitutes was made public. As attorney general, he had busted prostitution rings.
But not so for George W. Bush’s past drunken driving incident which came up in the days leading up to the 2000 vote, according to Mr. Folman.
“It reinforced his narrative of overcoming being a screw-up,” said Mr. Folman.
Mr. Folman classifies himself as “more progressive than conservative” in his political leaning and modeled the lead character in his book after a combination of John Kerry and Al Gore.
“But this is not a left-wing polemic,” he said. “I think it can be enjoyed no matter political leaning.”
Background
Mr. Folman grew up in Easton and graduated from Joel Barlow High School in 1994.
He went on to receive a bachelor’s degree from Brandeis University in 1998 and then spent just over three years living in Boston and acting in local theater.
“Acting was only using one part of my brain,” said Mr. Folman. So he was always exploring new avenues of creative expression.
“I’m fairly creatively schizophrenic,” said Mr. Folman. “I’ve done everything other than poetry and mime. And if I’m being brutally honest, there’s been some incidental mime.”
But he became partial to writing.
“I liked the organic creativity of writing,” he said.
One weekend Robert McKee, famed screen-writing guru, was in town giving his renowned weekend screen-writing workshop.
“I was at a crossroads and thought, ‘what the heck,’” said Mr. Folman.
That weekend inspired Mr. Folman to write screenplays and consequently enroll in Boston University’s graduate film program, where he received a master’s degree of fine arts in film in January 2004.
He left Boston intending to spend some time writing a screenplay back home in Easton with his parents and then head to New York and get back into acting.
“The screenplay turned into a novel and New York turned into L.A.,” said Mr. Folman who added “logic has never been a key thing behind my decisions.”
It took Mr. Folman six months to write the first draft of The Scandal Plan while staying with his parents in Easton.
He moved to L.A. in December of 2004 and after two years of sending letters to agents his book got picked up and published.
Mr. Folman’s parents, Robert and Toby Folman, still live in Easton. His sister, Tricia, is a social worker in New York City and his brother, David, is a student at Skidmore College in upstate New York.
While attending a Boston University alumni mixer in West L.A. shortly after moving to California he met his fiancé, Carin. They plan to get married this August.
“It’s a big year for me,” said Mr. Folman.
© Copyright 2008 by Hersam Acorn Newspapers
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