Allow the Abysses to Record Themselves: an Interview with Daniil Gor
It's not often that we just know we want to publish a story after reading the first few lines, but Daniil Gor's "But That Is Not the Point, or The Rubber Blue" in our Fall 2026 issue was one of those rare cases. We hope you enjoy this consummately weird interview with the King of Spain wherein he discusses esoteric texts and writing methods, the value in animism, existential crises while watching films, and what it means to create at all.
Why write?
Daniil Gor was born in the middle of nowhere on the southern side northwest of Eastern Europe, assuming you are standing with your left side to the equator. He began his writing journey with poignant inscriptions on rusty garages in endless industrial zones. Most often he simply wrote: Gor Was Here, but occasionally he added profound phrases like: Fuck you! Years passed, Daniil turned his back to the equator, the pale sun blinded him, and streams of words began to flood his consciousness. His hands, without his knowledge, started scribbling these words with pencil stubs in the margins of discarded newspapers found in a landfill. As long as the flow continues, Daniil leaves the garages alone and writes on paper.
Advice on creating you have learned the hard way?
Never leave your text unattended! It might tumble out of the window or drink vinegar. Be more mature. Be more responsible. Keep the text tightly bound, threading and interlocking every single letter to the next, using commas and periods as extra reinforcing fasteners. I came to this realization after growing weary of the crunch beneath my slippers caused by poisoned, vinegar-soaked letters scattered all over the room.
What's your favorite underappreciated novel or short story (a work you rarely hear anyone else talking about)?
Without a doubt, it is the novel The Treatise on Banishment by Lingeano Farungetti. By mistake, it was printed directly on top of the text of some romance novel by a famous author of that era. It’s quite difficult to read, as the sentences merge and layer over one another, but that only makes The Treatise... better, allowing it to penetrate deeper into the subconscious. Highly recommended to everyone.
Best unlikely piece of advice you’ve received that’s helped you continue writing?
One night I woke up to go to the bathroom. I put on my slippers, and they shuffled across the floor. Suddenly, within that shuffling sound, I heard indignant male voices. Whenever I stopped shuffling, the voices vanished. Naturally, I drew the only logical conclusion: my slippers had matured and attained an entity of their own. I took them off and gave them a proper feeding of pelmeni. Then, I built them a warm, soft nest out of a pile of my gear in the absolute best corner of the room (so they wouldn’t catch a cold from the drafts). After that, I finally went to the bathroom. It was the most practical piece of advice from an outside entity: don’t abandon anything, just improve and cherish it, because everything around us is a living entity.
Do you plan on writing a novel, or have you started and/or completed one?
My novelette-play of just over 18,000 words is complete. At the moment, it is my most personal and monumental work. It’s about a courier suffering from schizophrenia and his vicious struggle with an inner voice that wants to strip him of his very last sanctuary—his so-called "phantasm," where the courier is in love with a global Hollywood star. In his imagination, she lives right next door to him (and no, this isn't set in the US). The courier lives parallel lives: one in the real, cold world where nobody gives a shit about him, and another within his phantasm, where he is a successful, happy man building a family nest with his beloved. But the inner voice invades that space and takes everything. It’s a sort of romantic action-thriller with elements designed to melt the reader's brain. I honestly don’t know if anyone will ever publish it, or if I’ll just end up using these pages to catch the peelings next time I skin potatoes … Which is more valuable? Which is more practical? I'll have to think about it.
Is there a genre or style of writing you haven’t tried but want to someday?
To somehow manage to print the information on a grocery receipt in free verse. I want every single line—about the total amount, the company credentials, and the VAT—to be shot through with a twilight abyss and existential dead ends. And why wouldn't they? Have you seen the prices on those receipts lately?
Do you write by hand or at the keyboard?
Usually, I write on magnetic tape using a voice recorder that captures the noise of everyday life. This keeps my own hands free, as I am terminally lazy, so I’m glad that such advanced technologies allow the abysses to record themselves. How THIS becomes a text by morning is still a total mystery to me.
What is a word or phrase you find yourself using too much? Why do you think that is the case?
Yes, there is such a phrase: "JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT!" This happens because the fucking piece of shit constantly refuses to shut the fuck up.
Is cereal soup?
Not if you eat it with a fork.
One sentence soapbox:
Call your mom.
When did you realize you were weird?
When I looked out the window.
What would you tell another weird writer or artist to help them continue the practice?
You can stop writing weird things, but the things themselves won’t stop being weird. You are observing. You are an operator. Just keep looking at the weird things, and your hands will draw them on their own, encoding them into a cipher of letter combinations.
Tell us a secret.
My secret is that I am the King of Spain. Now you know.
What is your favorite museum or gallery?
It is the museum of Advand Noall Karpiysky the Second. A wonderful place where I saw such masterpieces of world art as Novellik by Borja, Scribbles by Louis Flamengo, and, of course, the legendary work Ochi-Chaa-Cha by Acha-Achi-Cho.
Favorite book title?
What is weird?
It’s when 24 frames per second suddenly grind to a halt, and you see the gaps between them, through which glares the dove-grey, blinding light of abstraction. On the frames, all that is left is you and your trivialities. But the gap continues to shine with an unwholesome, sickly glow. And you cannot tear your eyes away from it. And having returned to the frames—no, you don't become any wiser, but you can never remain the same.
Weirdest search query you’ve written while researching a story?
How much do they charge these days for shifting a line to the right and assembling a paragraph? How much is an hour for an on-site crew?
Two truths and a lie, please.
1. I am the King of Spain.
2. I am Not Not the King of Spain.
3. Not you are the King of Spain.
Thoughts about sea cucumbers?
All my thoughts are about Return of the Killer Tomatoes! My apologies.
Unpopular opinion, go:
There’s absolutely no need to wash yourself. The stench of laziness is the diesel engine of progress. It’ll last longer that way.
What’s the point of all this, really?
In selecting the necessary articulatory letters from the catalogs. But if we’re joking, then it’s in contemplation and creation. The truth is, in the end, there will be nothing left to shit with. But you please God by puffing and trying your best, just like a small child mimicking their parents' actions, and creating as the Creator creates, simply repeating after Him, piecing together the mosaics He has already made. To play with this Infinity and to be so detached that you can actually feel its joy.
Daniil Gor is inextricably linked by many hidden threads to Psy-Fiction Recordings—an outsider music label as damp as a grave, as quiet as insanity, and as coarse as a drunken brawl. If you want to understand the essence of things, 90-minute cassette revelations await you. He also constantly wanders and loiters around, eternally getting under the feet of those shod in expensive, polished shoes made of soft genuine leather. And why is he going there anyway? Because out there are deep, black archways swept by icy winds, and dead ends formed by high, windowless walls where the rain never stops—that is where the main thing lies.
