If you saw John Waters by the side of the road, would you pull over and give him a lift?
As it turns out, enough people did for Waters to write about it. Carsick, the Pink Flamingos director's seventh book, was the subject of today's discussion with Jim Braude and Margery Eagan.
So why did the director choose hitchhiking, of all modes of transportation? "You need an adventure, no matter how old you are. You have to reinvent," he explains. "Really, you ought to try it. You meet new friends, it's better than a dating service. You're in your own little reality show."
It could be said that Waters has achieved his status as a cult favorite because of his subversive (and often hilarious) approach to exposing the hidden depravity of people everywhere. Fundamentally, his work often takes him on a quest for finding counterculture, and in Carsick he gets right to the heart of it along the stretch of America that lies between Baltimore and San Francisco.
Want to hear more from John Waters about his cross country trek, including his take on roadside breakfast rooms around America? ("I never knew they made bread this white," he says. "There wasn't a vitamin left in this bread.") Listen to our full interview with the Pink Flamingos director below.
