Fictionaut Five: C.B. Murphy

C.B. Murphy is the author of the novel Cute Eats Cute. C.B. is a writer, visual artist, filmmaker and cartoonist. Murphy’s short films have been shown at colleges, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and at the Willis Gallery in Detroit. Murphy’s cartoon series (“CB Murphy”) appeared in the alternative weekly The Chicago Reader. Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art selected one of Murphy’s books-January is Alien Registration Month-for its permanent Artists’ Books collection. Murphy’s illustrations-drawings, paintings and computer-generated photo collages-have appeared in many national magazines. The Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art selected his book, January is Alien Registration Month, for its permanent Artists’ Books collection.

Q (Meg Pokrass) What interests you in writing your character-driven novels?

When people ask me what I am “about” or what I write about, I often end up talking about voice. It’s not particularly new to say voice is important, but I think what’s getting even more difficult is keeping an individual voice with so many voices around us, screaming to be heard. Staying true.

What are the obvious challenges about publishing a book and finding an audience at this time?

There is a great deal of homogenization going on. As an example, “liking or disliking” something implies you may not change your mind tomorrow. I think also that we live in a highly polarized environment in which people want to know what you are about before they read you. It’s harder to be ambivalent about things or in the middle and I think creativity lives in gray areas, not in sunshine that is too bright.

Talk about your creative process. What spins your wheels, and your imagination…

The Jungian idea that stories are “given” to you and “come through you” and your job is to execute them as best you can, attend to your material. I guess this flies in the face of “originality” at times -we keep telling the same stories over and over again but in new voices. There are archetypes. It is about our own way of seeing. Writers and artists digest the culture.

About your art and writing – how do they affect each other, how they help each other ?

I have discovered they are different voices that support each other, nearly cross-training. My visual artist-self is more used to people disliking or not caring about his work, so he is more “pure” in a sense in pursuing his own interests. My writer is still seeking some approval, admittedly. The artist, when criticized, either laughs or says that’s interesting. I once had two people in a short time period walk through my studio. One said my art was satanic and she couldn’t stand being in there. I thought that was great! The other said, “How did a white boy like you come to paint like an African? Africans also paint about death!” she said. I loved that.

What do you enjoy about reading your work for an audience? Do you find it easy? Some writers are a bit shy…

I have occasional stage fright which is probably somewhat common. I have had moments when I’ve read when I try to think about how this sounds to people while I’m reading and then I get confused and panicky. For my recent reading I practice the section a lot, which had been suggested to me, and it surely helped.

A homeless man come to one of my readings and he asked a great question. He asked if my writing and art presented a system of thought. What an amazing question.

I think in many ways I’m lucky because I’m interested in people and how they see things. I’ve been to writing classes where people sit around and wonder what they want to write about and I thought, are you kidding me? Look around… everything’s interesting.

The Fictionaut Five is our ongoing series of interviews with Fictionaut authors. Every Wednesday, Meg Pokrass asks a writer five (or more) questions. Meg is the editor-at-large for BLIP Magazine, and her stories and poems have been published widely. She blogs at http://megpokrass.com.