Here are Talbot's initial comments
about Elbod and why he decided to conduct
these interviews. These comments were made
just before the first interview. The
description of Elbod in his trailer is how
Talbot found Elbod for the first
interview. Reading this description will
explain much of Talbot's fascination and
also some of Elbod's peculiarities.
"I had long sought this interview with
a shadowy character, named Kirk Elbod. In
a relatively brief conversation at a
party, I surmised that he had an
encompassing knowledge of painting,
poetry, music, science, history, pop
culture, psychology, technology,
astronomy, and a myriad of other things. I
also discovered that he did his own car
repair, and had run a business for years.
To find such a person in the age of
specialization intrigued me. I vowed to
meet with him again and conduct a series
of interviews, if possible, to plumb the
depths of such a man living in the 20th
Century.
Repeated attempts to contact him
failed. I had almost given up, when he
called and invited me to meet him at what
I thought was his home. On a cold, windy,
sun lit morning about 9 A.M. in early
January, I made my way to meet him. The
appointed spot turned out to be a very old
travel trailer which he had parked on one
of the right-of-ways near a bridge in
Eastern NC, overlooking a large sound. I
could see islands with windswept trees in
the distance, and beyond them a thin strip
of land which I assumed was the Outer
Banks. The wind was blowing hard, stirring
white caps across the water.
When I arrived, he opened the door and
ushered me inside. He motioned me over to
a small table covered with a cloth from
Guatemala. He offered me a cup of
excellent Arabic coffee which I gladly
accepted.
He was in his mid-forties, with sunken
dark eyes. He was neither tall or short,
stocky or thin, but not average either.
His intense glances betrayed an individual
whose mind was always in motion. His wild
hair seemed to have never known a comb or
brush. Nevertheless, he appeared to be a
man of culture who knew the rules of
manners and politeness, yet would at the
same time put his cowboy boots to rest on
the flimsy table.
In my brief encounter with him
before,I realized that his conversation
would take wild leaps, that he would
compare two things that I did not think
could be compared. And that his thinking
was at times abrupt and murky. But I also
knew he lighted on ideas which I had never
heard expressed. So I took the chance.
Even before I could ask the first
question he spoke. It was as if he was
ready for me, or decided after years of
silence that he needed an audience for
what he had to say."
