Why Michael V. Smith invests in his communities
Erin Balser | CBC | Posted: May 5, 2017 7:40 PM | Last Updated: July 9, 2017
Michael V. Smith is a filmmaker, performance artist and writer. His latest work is the poetry collection Bad Ideas, which addresses questions of masculinity, gender norms and sexuality.
Below, Michael V. Smith answers eight questions submitted by eight of his fellow writers in the CBC Books Magic 8 Q&A.
1. Sharon Butala asks, "Do you know how the heck we separate the writer-self from the writer's life, that is, the writing from the writer?"
I'm always telling my students that we need to separate the object from the ego — the writing from the self — so that we can discuss the writing without assuming that we're discussing the person who put the words down on paper. That's a hard stretch for an audience. We think we know who Beyoncé is because we saw her music videos. Until we spend time with her in person, we only know her agency. Similarly, every narrator is a constructed personality, even in memoir. The writer's life is never the writing, even when it's the subject of the writing.
2. Zsuzsi Gartner asks, "What are you so terrified of?"
Doublespeak, particularly from men with administrative power.
3. Pasha Malla asks, "Which would be preferable: a life of relative contentment and comfort, and having your books die alongside you, or being miserable and destitute, and having your books read long after you are dead?"
I think I'm already choosing the former. I'd rather die knowing I lived well and loved well and made mediocre books than realize I'd made great work and nobody cared for me. There is no greater goal than making a healthy community, or a community healthier, via the means you live your life. Books are nothing if they aren't a vehicle towards a greater peace. I try not to live this life investing in my writer's ego. I invest in my communities. My work comes from them.
4. Kim Thúy asks, "Doctors are often the worst patients. Are writers better readers, or worse?"
They aren't worse. If I say more, I'm going to talk about critics and how they seem to read the book they would have written, if they were writing my book. Rather than ask why I'm making the choices I do, they ask why I didn't make other choices. That's a weird kind of critique because it misdirects a reader as to the subject of the book. The best readers don't ask what a book did or should have done. The best readers ask, "What is it the book is asking of us?"
5. Kenneth Oppel asks, "Would you ghostwrite a trashy book if you were offered enough?"
All my books are a little bit trashy. Duh.
6. Tracey Lindberg asks, "What book is on your nightstand right now? How long has it been there?"
This is humiliating. Before I answer, can I just say that I teach creative writing so I'm reading things all the time and when I get home from work the only thing I want to do is curl up with a great TV monitor and watch women in uniform arresting bad men and forget that a sentence exists for a while?
Skeena by Sarah de Leeuw (one year); Light Light by Julie Joosten (eight months); Thou by Aisha Sasha John (eight months). But they're great books. I'm loving them. I'm going to finish them this month as soon as my grading is done.
7. Robert Wiersema asks, "If someone were to create a comic book based on your life, what would your hero name be and what would be your special gift/skill?"
I have a superhero name: Mama Michael. We help a friend with mobility issues, so lately the super power is cheerleading, giving unsolicited advice and making her eat all the food on her plate.
8. George Murray asks, "When is enough enough?"
When you're totally sick of it and just wish it would go away.