Interview with Diet Soap Author Chelsea Martin On the Occassion of the Publication of Her Book

Q: Chelsea Martin, your story “Dream Date” that appeared in Diet Soap was amusing and ironic. Slavoj Zizek, the Slovenian scholar and Lacanian Marxist theorizes that the supposed critical distance, irony, or critique of Stalinism found in Shostakovich’s Symphonies is an example of how ideological art must both contain a commitment to a party line and also a critical distance from the same. Zizek posits that this same ironic distance, this failure to believe, is a central element for successful adherence to today’s primary ideology of liberal multicultural capitalism. Do you feel that your little jokes may make you complicit with the capitalist system of self destruction that dominates us every day?

A: Hmm. Dominates as in ‘dominates’, or dominates as in ‘gently guides’? I think in terms of capitalism and self-destruction, Dream Date is probably a manipulation tool designed by society through me to make people feel more comfortable about the confusion they feel about interactions within sexual relationships and misconceptions about the feelings caused by those interactions. And I guess if one feels comfortable with these types of feelings then it does not feel important to overcome them, which may perpetuate feelings of awkwardness and mental retardation. But I think the ironic distance is just the twelve or fourteen inches of space that two people leave between one another even though physical contact is pleasurable. Also, yeah, ideology. Actually, I don’t know if I understand the question.

Q: What is the “Whatever” in your book’s title?

A: I forget. I think I thought of it while I was walking across the Golden Gate Bridge for leisure and casually contemplating mortality.

Q: Did you create the cool picture on the cover of your book?

A: Yep.

Q: I understand you’ll be in Portland and Seattle on April 6th and April 7th to do readings. Where and when exactly should people show up?

A: Here is the flyer. I haven’t been to either of the two places. I think just show up at the time it says and sit down in stool or whatever and look around and when you finally figure out which one is me, just sit there and look at me. I’ll be there with my thirteen-year-old brother. You can order some alcohol if someone approaches you and asks if you want something, or if you feel like getting up and finding someone who will give it to you. You can pretty much do whatever you want, actually. But remember, it’s the 7th and 8th of April, not the 6th and 7th.

Q: I notice that the girl on the cover of your book is in Neil Armstrong’s spacesuit. Do any of the stories take place in outerspace? Is one of your stories about a girl who sneaks into Neil’s house and steals his memorabilia? Do you think the USA will ever send people to the moon again? Who will we send first do you think?

A: Yeah. Well, no.

Q: Do you believe that the primary cause of today’s economic crisis should be understood to be the deregulation of the financial sector and the decades long transfer of wealth from the poor and middle class to the very rich, or are you under the impression that our economic undoing is more directly connected to real resource depletion? Do you consider yourself a doomer, a neo-liberal apologist, a militant socialist, a fan of Shostakovich, or something else?

A: I’ve been feeling abused by the upper-management at work because they’re all, “If you lose your job you’ll never find another one, you’re pretty scared, huh? We’re decreasing your hours and hiring some new people, are you scared now? Smile harder at the customers and be scared, we have a pile of qualified and charming applicants in the back office near the hand sink that you need to go scrub immediately, do it hard and make it shiny or else.” I consider myself a Diet Soap author.

This sudsy update was written on Saturday, March 14th, 2009 at 2:59 am and is filed under How to Write Stories About Writers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.