Playing an sf tune

An Interview with Karen Michalson

By Joan Kennedy Taylor

Karen Michalson has been an ALF member for several years, and contributed two articles to this newsletter in 1988–89, about her experiences as the ALF representative to a Coalition for Choice in Worcester, Mass. She has a doctorate in English from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst and is the author of Victorian Fantasy Literature: Literary Battles with Church and Empire, published by the Edwin Mellen Press.

She also writes novels and is the bass player and vocalist of a rock group called Point of Ares, whose first album, “Enemy Glory,” and released in July by Cuz Entertainment on its rock label Gargoyle Records. Point of Ares is based in Worcester, Massachusetts, and has performed throughout Massachusetts in person and on television. She can be reached via email at Skylark777@aol.com.

ALF What are your current projects?

Michalson Besides an unpublished fantasy trilogy, I have written a heavily libertarian suspense novel (also unpublished) with strong elements of magical realism and rock ‘n roll, called The Maenad’s God. I am currently working on another novel and starting to write some musical ideas for another album. Although it is now in the very early stages, this album might be of interest to libertarians because it will be structured around individuals in conflict with stronger sinister forces (like government agencies). We might include some songs about the Waco massacre and Randy Weaver. My short story, “Of No Importance,” was published in the January, 1996, issue of Liberty. I recently released a spoken word album on Dark Records, of myself reading this story. The album is also called “Of No Importance.”

ALF It’s not clear whether you are also writing songs? If so, music, lyrics, or both?

Michalson Yes, I am a songwriter. I write all of the lyrics, and I co-write all of the music with my guitarist (who also happens to be my husband). I use my keyboard (as well as my bass) for composing. The songs we wrote together for “Enemy Glory” are our musical interpretation of my trilogy.

ALF And are your readings of your own work, or do they include the works of others?

Michalson My own work.

ALF I assume the title “Of No Importance” is a reference to Wilde’s “A Woman of No Importance.”

Michalson Yes, it is. Thank you for noticing. I love it when perceptive readers notice things like that. And of course, Salome, my main character, who is very much a “woman of no importance” in the story, is a reference to Wilde’s play, “Salome.”

ALF You are a libertarian, a feminist, a fiction writer, and a musician. Which of these aspects of yourself came first, as a way of identifying yourself?

Michalson I really have to think about this one, because I’m usually hesitant to identify myself as any of these things, except libertarian. “Feminist” is a label that has been owned by socialist-oriented feminists for so long that for most people it implies a political agenda I’m not comfortable with, and that certainly does not define me.

Several years ago I got sick of feeling I had to re-define the word every time I used it by starting sentences with. “I’m a feminist, but…” I’m a feminist but I also support the right to bear arms. I’m a feminist but I’m a first amendment absolutist and believe pornography is protected speech, etc. All of which only resulted in people telling me I wasn’t “really” a feminist!

I prefer to identify myself as a “libertarian” because I find that people who know what the word means — understand correctly by it that I am against taxes, for legalizing drugs, etc. They might not agree with me, but at least the meaning is clear. A lot of people, however, don’t know what “libertarian” means, and that often gives me the opportunity to discuss libertarian ideas. But in either case I don’t have to battle anyone telling me I’m not “really” a libertarian.

By the way, “fiction writer” is a socially dangerous thing to call yourself before you achieve some recognizable success (and maybe even after). I used to identify myself as a novelist because I naively thought that a novelist is someone who writes novels. I People got absolutely antsy over this. Some would frantically insist that I must be deceiving myself, that my writing must be a hobby and that surely I have a “real job” hidden in the closet. Others would say the same thing more politely. Otherwise, normal civil people would suddenly say anything to get me to deny I was “really” writing novels. And of course everyone would suddenly have a prodigy child who was a budding great writer, or try to go into some weird competition thing, by telling me about the book they were “going to write someday” so of course they were “writers,” too. Although now that I’m reading in public, I sometimes find myself in situations where it’s all right to tell people I write, in general I’ve learned not to talk about it.

As to “musician,” it’s strange, but before Point of Ares began to take off, everybody was also eager to remind me that I wasn’t a “real musician” yet, either; no matter how many clubs I’d played or hours per day I spent practicing and songwriting. Yet now that I can call myself a “professional” in every sense; we’re under management, releasing an album, planning a tour, working on getting regional airplay, etc. — all of the things people have told me I needed to do to be a “real musician” — I find that people are still disbelieving or dismissive and very quick to let me know that I haven’t reached the next level yet, so I don’t feel comfortable identifying myself as a musician, either.

There’s something about seriously identifying yourself as an artist that seems to encourage put-downs. I never expected that this would be the case until I made a serious commitment to the publishing and entertainment industries and began to use those tags as identifiers. I certainly never experienced anything like it when I was a college professor (except from my own department, which is another story). I’ve learned that it’s all right to be self-denigrating and pretend ones are is merely a hobby but God help any serious artist that has the nerve to define themselves as such without benefit of public success. Nobody believes you, and as a consequence, most people react like they think you need to be set straight concerning your true calling in life. I protect myself by not discussing what I do.

ALF Is there one of them you feel to be more central than the others?

Michalson Right now, no. It depends on what I’m doing. When I’m playing bass, “musician” is more central. When I’m writing, “fiction writer” is more central. When I encounter outrageous situations, “libertarian” and/or “feminist” is more central.

ALF When and how did this first libertarian identification take place? Was it a gradual process, or a dramatically quick one?

Michalson I read Ayn Rand. That was a major conversion experience for me, or if not a true conversion, she articulated things I felt but never clearly defined for myself. I fell in love with Dagny and decided it was better and truer to be a heroine like Dagny than merely worship one. I should also mention Gene Burns, who once ran for US president on the LP ticket. He used to have an afternoon radio talk show in Boston, and I listened to his show while commuting to graduate school at the People’s University of Massachusetts. It helped me make sense of a lot of the Marxist silliness I encountered there. Then I just started reading everything I could find on liberty, individualism, etc.

ALF What was most important about your childhood?

Michalson Reading. Being by myself in my room on a dark rainy day and reading books.

ALF At what age did you know you were a writer?

Michalson Sadly, I think I knew at age three or four, because I remember having a special affinity for words even then. I taught myself to read by listening to adults read stories and looking down at the words that matched the sounds to characters. I wrote a lot of little stories in elementary school, but as I grew older, I buried a lot of my creativity so deeply that by the time I got to graduate school I decided to earn a PhD studying literary criticism, not creative writing. It was only after graduating that I began to write fiction, and it was sad because I felt that was I should have been doing all along, and that at some point I had been taught to kill off the best in myself.

ALF At what age did you become interested in music?

Michalson I was very young, and easily shamed, and my musical inclinations were so thoroughly emotionally beaten out of me that it wasn’t until I started writing fiction that something broke inside and I started studying music. Actually, my second novel, The Maenad’s God, is in part about a musician, and while I was creating and writing this character I discovered a long suppressed need to learn to play. That fictional character changed my life. Profoundly.

ALF Did you study formally?

Michalson No, I’m mostly self taught. But I did take private lessons once I reached a point where I felt I would benefit from someone else’s input.

ALF Who are your favorite writers and musicians?

Michalson Writers — all of the romantic poets, but especially Coleridge and Shelley; John Ruskin; Walter Pater; and Oscar Wilde. For the twentieth century: Thomas Mann; Ayn Rand; John Barth; Edward Abbey; and Roberto Calasso. For musicians, any and all bass players! (Just kidding) Actually I like Jaco Pastorius, Stanley Clarke, Jack Bruce, Geddy Lee, John Myung, and Duff McKagan. For keyboards, Tony Banks.

ALF Is this answer the same as the answer to the question, what writers and musicians influenced you the most?

Michalson As to writers, in general, yes. For example, I've been reading Shelley since I was 12 or 14, and even now when I write there are certain cadences in his poems that definitely influence my sentence structure, and he taught me the trick of seeing images from behind the image as in “darkness to a dying flame”—the flame is dying but you can see it better in the dark, so there is an illusion there that it has more life as it dies.

As to musicians, I don't know. I'm more “influenced” by the fictional musician I created, and the kinds of things I imagine he might play, than by anybody real. You have to remember I didn't think I was open to be influenced when I did take up bass. I was open to learn and develop. When I was first learning to play I would study and memorize bass lines by all of my favorite bass players, so there was certainly that kind of influence, but I never consciously tried to take on the style of another player.

ALF Do you have an articulated philosophy of art?

Michalson No, and I've yet to find a philosophy of art from Aristotle to Gadamer that convinces me or that I find useful in either creating or experiencing someone else's art. But I do have a personal epistemology of art. I know art happens when I feel like I'm in a sacred space, like the reality around me has lengthened out and changed, when I'm not “here” anymore, when I experience the Romantic dictum of thinking with my feelings and feeling with my thoughts. This can happen whether I'm artist or audience, but whenever I have this feeling I know I'm in the presence of art.

ALF What are the connections between your art and the libertarianism and feminism in your life?

Michalson A lot of my characters are individuals in deep conflict with an oppressive state. I don't know about feminism. Mostly I write in first person, from a male character's point of view. One (socialist) feminist chastised me for doing this and accused me of “writing in my own oppression.” Actually, I don't think my fiction is particularly feminist, not consciously so, anyway. As to music, even though there are now more women in visible positions in rock n'roll, there are still situations when I play out and people come to the club thinking that a female base player is a novelty and wondering if I can really play. Although they are actually surprised when they discover that I can, it is almost always a pleasant surprise, not hostility. Or people assume that because I'm female I must be the vocalist (which I am) and think I'm carrying a guitar for someone else. To the extent that I'm crossing what remains of a gender line there, I suppose playing rock bass could be seen as a feminist act. But I don't intend it that way—I didn't become a bass player to make a feminist statement. I just wanted to play rock n'roll and I happen to be female.

ALF How has libertarian feminism shaped your actions and expectations? How do you think it should and will influence society?

Michalson It's given my actions and expectations a neat catch phrase, which is important, a way to think about my own politics. I think it has influenced society under the rubric of libertarianism. People are more conscious of government oppression since Waco, and this consciousness I think pervades all of society, including how women think of themselves and their relation to the state. Although i also think its influence in that respect is an anonymous one.

ALF What experiences have been most formative for you?

Michalson Being alone. Being alone with a good book. (Although I don't know if one is ever alone with a good book.)

ALF What do you expect out of life?

Michalson Opposition. I didn't always expect this; it's something I've come to expect in the last two or three years. I used to believe that if I worked hard at anything I'd succeed—now I know that in the fiction publishing industry that's largely a myth. People who succeed work hard, of course, but not everyone who works hard succeeds.

For example, I work like hell at my art, and other publishing professionals have compared the quality of my writing to some Nobel Prize nominees (in rejection letters I've received) yet my fiction is still essentially unpublished. Why? Well agents have told me my work is “too innovative,” “too imaginative,” “too challenging and sophisticated,” or “too intelligent,” and that readers won't accept a fantasy trilogy that's “written like good literature” or won't accept any kind of trilogy from an unknown author because first-time novelists aren't “supposed” to be able to pull off what I did. In the meantime, I've read my work to real live audiences and people weep and ask when they can buy copies. My last agent sat on my work for 16 months and showed it to no one because, essentially, she had no idea how to deal with a well-written novel intended for intelligent readers—her contacts wanted formula. Exclusively.

It is heartbreaking to have to explain that to people who assume that my novels are unpublished because I'm not any good or not “trying hard enough.” It's one reason I started reading in public.

I am at the point where I send work out hoping that the person on the other end won't notice that I write too well or write too intelligently. So I really think a lot of my hard work at novel writing has been a liability towards success. This is based on what some of my rejection letters say in so many words, and on what my last agent said to me when we parted ways. I'm still trying to sort a lot of that out.

And yet good writers do get published. But it's a knave's game for a relative unknown like me to even get read by anybody in the industry. Most of the time my work gets returned unread and unopened. My trilogy languished for two and a half years at one publishing house whose acquisitions editor called it a “classic” and “loved it” but couldn't get the senior editor to read it (and he was married to the senior editor, by the way). And in exchange for the slender hope of getting read I had to promise exclusivity, so I couldn't show it elsewhere in that time. Publishing is rife with horror stories like that. I have to say that in many ways, despite its reputation for sleaziness, the music industry is a lot cleaner.

On a strictly business level, I'd rather deal with a record label executive than a publishing industry executive, any day of the week. It's unheard of for a record label to extort exclusivity and sit on a demo for two and a half years without playing the tape.

ALF What would you like to accomplish, in the short range and the long range?

Michalson I'd like to see my novels in print and in the hands of readers who will appreciate them—in the short range and the long range.

This interview first appeared in ALFNews. Reprinted with permission.