The Daily Cross Hatch comes into 2008 roaring with the first part of an interview with The Blot author Tom Neely:
By the same token, do you ever hear or read interpretations of The Blot that are just completely off the mark?
Well, since the book came out, I’ve enjoyed a lot of the interpretations. I’ve had a few interpretations from people that amuse me, like my mother’s, for instance. I did the first chapter of The Blot as a mini comic, a couple of years ago, and when I did that, my mom thought that the blot represented the smog or global warming. I thought that was kind of amusing. It’s been interesting to hear all of the different reactions and interpretations.
Do you have a very concrete interpretation of the book?
Not really. I have my own ideas of what it means to me, personally, but nothing too concrete. I did kind of mean for it to be open-ended, even to me. There’s definitely a lot of autobiographical elements mixed into the story that have significance to me. I also hate to really clearly define it for anyone, because I really like to keep it open for people to interpret.
