Jim Goad: Difference between revisions

Jim Goad (born 1961) is an American author and publisher. Goad co-authored and published the cult zine ANSWER Me! and The Redneck Manifesto. Known for his controversial political and socially charged viewpoints, Goad's work has been described as "compelling", "brutally honest"^[1] and "original" by author Chuck Palahniuk.^[2] Comedian Patton Oswalt cites Goad's writing as an influence.^[3]

Jim Goad may in fact be the bad man his wife, his girlfriend, the State of Oregon and numerous others said he is, but he's also a man of principle. You may disagree with his ethics, they may even repulse you, but you can't deny that he's thought them through, can articulate them with unusual clarity, tries to live by them more faithfully than you live by yours and if you debated him on them he'd probably kick your ass. Figuratively speaking, of course.

-John Strausbaugh, 2002^[4]

James Thaddeus Goad was born June 12, 1961, in Ridley Park, Pennsylvania. When Goad's mother was still pregnant with him, his father, drunk, punched her in the stomach hoping to induce her to abort. Growing up in Clifton Heights, just outside of Philadelphia, Goad described himself as a teenager who was a loner, misanthropic and a weirdo. He attended a Catholic school, and experienced violent treatment by the nuns and his father, eventually learning to fight back. As a teenager he wanted to move to New York City to study acting and was accepted to study at New York University under Stella Adler.^[4]

Goad graduated in 1986 with a B.A. in Journalism from Temple University while living in New Jersey.^[5][6] In the early 1980s Goad met Debbie at a Johnny Thunders concert in New York City. Debbie was 8 years older than Goad, Jewish and lived in Coney Island.^[5][4] The couple lived in New York and Debbie worked at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Goad at a Lower East Side print shop.^[5] The couple left New York suddenly after Goad beat up their Brighton Beach landlord for calling Debbie "stupid". The landlord filed, and then dropped, assault charges, but the Goads would not return to New York, settling in Los Angeles.^[4] The couple married in Las Vegas in 1987. Upon arriving in Los Angeles, Goad started working at the Los Angeles Reader, covering local news, and freelancing for Playboy and Details magazine. Goad was unhappy with the content he was covering, and wishing to cover more fringe subjects the couple began publishing their own work.^[5]

The couple had a highly abusive relationship exacerbated by Goad's temper and Debbie's mental illness. Protesting the description "wife-beater", Goad states that he "...hit her maybe 10 or a dozen times over 10 to a dozen years and would gladly trade being hit as many times as I hit her with being slogged with her neuroses. And you could hook me up to a lie detector test and see if that's true. I know what it's like to be hit–big fucking deal. A lot worse ways to suffer than being hit." Around 1994 the couple moved to Portland, Oregon and Goad devoted his time to writing.^[7] Debbie would be diagnosed with ovarian cancer while Goad was dating^[5] ANSWER Me! groupie Anne "Skye" Ryan.^[1] Goad described Ryan as "Sweet Dracula girl" and as being "...fifteen years younger than me and a thousand times more fucked-up."^[4]

I'll hit anyone who's seriously threatening my life," he tells me, "and that's what happened, and that's what sent me to prison.

-Jim Goad, 2002^[4]

Goad and Ryan would also have a physically abusive relationship, often beating one another up. They fought in public and were arrested and released.^[4] In November 1997, Debbie filed a restraining order against Goad, claiming he was beating her on a daily basis, eventually withdrawing it, stating she was "bullied into" filing it and was mad at Goad for having an affair with Ryan.^[5] Ryan eventually threatened to kill Goad, and he took out a restraining order against her.^[4] Goad and Debbie would divorce in 1997.^[6] In May 1998^[5] the two had another confrontation with a fight in Goad's car outside of Portland. Goad left Ryan by the side of the road, fled to Washington,^[1] and was charged with assault and kidnapping, totaling 25 years in prison. While serving 7.5 months of pretrial prison time, Ryan befriended a dying Debbie. The two heavily publicized their relationships with Goad, who would eventually cop a plea. Ryan would go on to serve a couple of months in prison on her own unrelated assault charges. When asked if he had any remorse or guilt about beating Ryan, Goad said, "Absolutely not. I enjoyed it." Starting in May 1998 he would go on to spend a year in a minimum security prison, after serving in a county jail and eventually moving into a maximum security prison. Goad served 2.5 years, being released in 2000.^[4]

Upon his release from prison in 2002, Goad returned to Portland, writing for Exotic, a free guide to the sex industry of the Northwestern United States and DJ "hard country with a big bass".^[1][4] In 2008 Goad became a father.^[8] He currently maintains his website, JimGoad.net, and writes for Taki's Magazine. Goad currently resides in Stone Mountain, Georgia.^[9]

...he’s really an amazing writer, so I get past all of my own ... I’m the kind of person that if an artist is saying things that I absolutely disagree with, I can still like them. I just don’t have to agree with what they are saying.

-Margaret Cho^[10]

From 1991-1994^[8] Goad self-published four annual issues of the zine ANSWER Me!, with then wife Debbie Goad. With a circulation of 13,000 the magazine sought to upset politically correct thinkers by covering subjects about race and feminism. The publication was banned and seized by customs officials in several countries, and the final Rape Issue, was rejected by some bookstore owners. The zine would also be credited as an inspiration by Francisco Martin Duran, who took 30 shots at the White House,^[7] influencing the suicides of three British Neo-Nazis, and a possible influence on Kurt Cobain's suicide.^[4]

Goad signed a two-book deal with Simon & Schuster for $100,000.^[5] In 1997 The Redneck Manifesto was published. The book explores the idea of poor whites celebrating their heritage similar to poor African Americans. Shit Magnet: One Man's Miraculous Ability to Absorb the World's Guilt, was the second book, declined by major New York publishing houses,^[11] it was published in 2002 by Feral House. The book, written while Goad was in prison, is an autobiography that is described by writer John Strausbaugh as "extremely painful" in detail and comparative in drama to the autobiography of Klaus Kinski.^[4] He wrote a comic called Trucker Fags in Denial and in 2007 released Jim Goad's GIGANTIC BOOK OF SEX.^[8]

In 2002 Goad acted in The Suzy Evans Story, a film about a lieutenant-detective who protects a battered woman named Suzy and proceeds to abuse her himself. Goad acknowledges in that it was typecasting.^[4] The film was never released.^[2]

• Blanchard, Jim & Jim Goad. Trucker Fags in Denial. Seattle: Fantagraphics (2004).
• Goad, Jim. ANSWER Me!: The First Three. Baltimore: Scapegoat Publishing (2006). ISBN 0976403536
• Goad, Jim. Jim Goad's GIGANTIC BOOK OF SEX. Port Townsend: Feral House (2007). ISBN 1932595201
• Goad, Jim. The Redneck Manifesto: How Hillbillies, Hicks, and White Trash Became America's Scapegoats. New York: Simon & Schuster (1998). ISBN 0684838648
• Goad, Jim. Shit Magnet: One Man's Miraculous Ability to Absorb the World's Guilt. Port Townsend: Feral House (2002). ISBN 0922915776

• Truck Drivin' Psycho 1996 (World Serpent)
• "Let's Fight!" with Jim Goad 2001 (Exotic)
• Hatesville, The Boyd Rice Experience, 2009 (Caciocavallo)

Wikiquote has quotations related to Jim Goad.

• Official website
• 2011 interview with Jim Goad from the Voice of Reason

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