This week’s interview features Bridget D. Brave. While I don’t know her all that well, I’ve heard nothing but great things about her from other authors and friends. She is a weird horror author living at the edge of the Ozarks in Missouri. When she’s not writing, she is flexing her law degree in her day job as a research ethicist. Her debut book will be dropping soon, so keep your eyes open for that. I, for one, absolutely cannot wait for the opportunity to check it out!
Andrew: So Bridget, first, would you please tell me a little about your background and how that has influenced your own writing?
Bridget: So first off, you have to understand that I grew up in an area known as The Toxic Triangle. We had the Wood River Oil Refinery polluting our soil and drinking water, DOW Chemical dumping whatever into the river that ran through my town, and the Times Beach Dioxin Disaster just across the state line. I feel like my life was a horror show orchestrated by others, so being drawn to the weird and the dark is (probably literally) in my bones.
A: That’s an impressive amount of pollution to be surrounded by, and this is coming from someone in Los Angeles. And so fucking horrifying how the state can shrug shit off like that as normal for those going through it. With that said, can you tell me what political resistance means to you?
B: I was raised in an environment of political resistance. My parents were both union leaders and hippies, so I feel that protest was one of my first languages. There was always a cause to fight for/against in my area, whether it was some large corporation once again trying to make the air, water, and ground unsafe, or our famously corrupt county once again making life more unpleasant for the people who lived there. My mother always told me that it was important to let people know when you disagree with what they’re saying because you might be the first time they’ve heard another perspective. She never shut up and raised me to do the same.
A: I love the idea of protest being a first language. And it’s so cool to see you’re still embodying it. Do you see your own writing as a form of political resistance, or do you view your work as an author and your work as an activist as separate endeavors?
B: I don’t think I can ever completely separate my activism from my writing, nor do I try to. In fact, when I think something I’ve written wasn’t particularly political, I often find that readers find a subtext I didn’t necessarily intend to include.
A: It’s always a pleasant surprise to learn from a reader what subconscious beliefs we didn’t realize we had put into our work until after it has been published. Like, why yes, dear reader, that is indeed what I was trying to say there. Thank you for noticing! How important is it to you to incorporate your politics into your writing, and how do you balance the story as its own standalone creature with the story as a tool of resistance?
B: My politics are who I am. To know me is to definitely know how I feel about any number of current and past issues. While my writing is often humorous, my personal morality creeps in. You’re going to laugh, but you’re also going to think about the absurdity of capitalism and our current societal structure.
A: That’s my favorite mix. Comedic, absurdist dread. And one that suits bizarro so well. Since its inception, the bizarro genre has always been viewed as underground, outsider literature. How do you think its counterculture nature (where just about anything goes) can inspire the genre into being an outlet where books of resistance flourish?
B: Frankly, it’s because the Big Publishers are never going to embrace it. I know I’m not writing for Harper Collins; they wouldn’t give my stuff a second glance. Because we’re not For Them, we don’t have to follow their rules. This is the place to get weird and loud. No one is going to stop you, and someone’s going to publish it. Then it’s out there, living in the world, wild and free, spreading your gospel.
A: Thank you so much for your time, your insights, and your gospel. With those in mind, which bizarro books are your favorite examples of resistance literature? How do these stories act as books of resistance?
B: There are so many, but I think key among them are All I Want is to Take Shrooms and Listen to the Colors of Nazi Screams by John Baltisberger, Backdoor Carnivore by GG Gilt, Negative Space by BR Yeager, and Babble by Douglas Ford. Each is a very different voice, but show that our struggles are shared struggles. I think that is the most important message we can convey in resistance: we are more alike than we know, and that there is empathy in resistance. I can guarantee I have more empathy for the people in my country than anyone who has only ever seen its beauty and destruction from the window of a private jet. When I read these books, I felt a kindred spirit. You recognize the pain and rebirth borne from experience that led to these writings. I wish we were better at seeing that in one another, instead of fighting over useless bullshit that gets us collectively nowhere.
A: Thank you again, Bridget. I so appreciate you sharing your perspectives on political resistance with us. And I cannot wait to get my hands on more of your fiction!
That’s it for this week. Bizarro Books as Resistance interview number six. Bizarro Books as Resistance forever… As always, check back in next week, and if there’s a particular bizarro author you’d like to recommend for a future interview, drop their name in the comments below.
If Andrew J. Stone were a dinosaur, he’d be an Apatosaurus. If he were a superhero, he’d be Marx. If he were to have a cat, her name would be Alice, and he’d be living in a residence that allowed pets. He is the author of the novellas The Mortuary Monster (2016), All Hail the House Gods (2018), and The Ultimate Dinosaur Dance-Off (2020). His short stories have appeared in Hobart, New Dead Families, and DOGZPLOT, among other places. His work has been translated into Spanish by the Colombian publisher Ediciones Vestigio. He lives in Los Angeles, surrounded by beauty and dread.
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