I interviewed Andrea Coates. I like her because she is so weird.  She is like from another planet, Canada. Andrea coates blogs here.  Go to youtube and put in Andrea Coates and a bunch of her videos will show up, or click the image above to watch one now.

NC. Why did you make the video about Tao Lin? What about Tao Lin angers you so much? Or was it just a spoof, because at times it was really funny.  Feel like it is really funny to say, “What now Tao?” Me and my girlfriend have been saying to each other when we prove the other wrong, “What now Tao?”  Feel like it is a good catch phrase. 

AC:The Movie is a Spoof. It’s Full of Allusions. I think the Movie was a Way to declare that I had arrived as a Writer and to Frame my Career in Terms of what came before me: like Tao Lin, I use OnLine Meme Jacking as a Part of my Literary Persona. The Difference between me and Tao Lin, how Ever, and the Point of the Movie, is that where he is creating a Body of Work Consciously Devoid of Depth, I am creating One that is as Deep as Possible: hence, the Rhymes, the Allusions, the Ritual and the Criticism.

NC: Do you think there should be more than one voice for each generation.  I mean I think Tao Lin speaks for a certain sector of college educated urban people in America that feel alienated. But Scott Mcclanahan speaks for people in small towns, Sam Pink for underemployed college kids who work shitty jobs. Or xTx talking about what it means to be a mom, or Kendra Grant Malone talking about being fucked up in her 20s in a big city. Jordan Castro for kids that just graduated from high school who have lived completely in the computer age.  And there are also unheard voices like the voice of The Iraq or Afghan Veteran, or the voice of the 25% of Americans who don’t graduate high school, or the voice of black people or the voice of Mexicans, which might be Ana Carrete, (Ana Carrete is the voice of the Mexican American.) I feel that the online Alt Lit Movement is actually a bunch of writers obsessed with being the voice of their generation, Sam Pink and Scott Mcclanahan do what you tell to do, they supply geographic writing about what it means to be where they are from. I don’t think Tao Lin thinks he speaks for the 25% of Americans who didn’t graduate high school or Iraq and Afghan Vets.  I feel that if you want to be the voice of the alternative life styles that are being lived in Portland, Santa Fe, Eugene and other places you can be, no one will stop you.  

 AC: Literature would Certainly be Dull if there were Only “One Voice” a Generation. I think the Reason you are asking this is because of my “I am the Greatest Writer of my Generation” Assertions. That’s just my Ego talking. You decide for your Self, Man. My Main Problem with the Alt Lit Scene is that it’s like, Okay, maybe this Writer is of this BackGround and writing about this Place, but what are they saying about that BackGround and that Place? Most Often, I find, it’s Self Pity, Apathy, Cute Jokes. As if Every One’s been shoved through the Same deSensitizing System and now they’re like, my Life means no Thing out Side of how I entertain my Self, so I might as Well write Stories about how my Life means no Thing xcept how I entertain my Self. It gets Repetitive, no Matter how Many Demographics are (Xternally) being represented: Every One is a Cog in the Capitalist System, Regardless of Race, Gender, Education, etc. My Work, then, is not so Much for a People of a Certain Life Style or Region, though I am an Anarkist grounded in British Columbia, but for Any One who’s Ever thought, Man, Modern Life, going to this 8 Hour a Day Job that I don’t give a Fuck about but I need for Money Really Fucking Sucks; I feel Alienated from Every One around me; I feel that I am working my Ass off for Scraps while Kim Kardashian makes Millions off a Fake Wedding; I wish Life were Better. I want to create the Impetuous for All these Dissatisfied People to begin building that Better World: quit their Stupid Jobs, organize their Neighbours, tear up their Lawns and Roads and Parking Lots, build Food Gardens in Stead: Food Sustainably is the Most Important Element of Any Political Movement. Creating Cities where All your Food can be gathered from Gardens would have an Immense Change on People’s Psychology. I imagine People’s Alienation would melt Away along with their Sense of the Meaninglessness of Life. The Only Thing Capitalism does Well Any Way is make “Stuff.” And the Literature in America is Full of Proof Capitalist “Prosperity” Bankrupts Morality. In the Literature of Fitzgerald and the Literature of Bret Easton Ellis we have the Proof Capitalism does not benefit the Elite: it turns them into Monsters. In Alt Lit we have the Proof Capitalism does not benefit the Middle Class: it turns them into Drones. It Certainly doesn’t benefit the Poor. I think it’s Time is up. Made to see our Sustainability as dependent on our Local EcoSystem, as the Imagination breaks free of the Capitalist MonoCulture, then there will be a Real Proliferation of Unique Literary Voices.

NC. What are some of your favorite writers and why? 

 AC: My Speciality is the Classics, Any One you would consider on “the Canon” of Literature and Philosophy. Within that, I like Any One with a Druggy Edge, or who is Especially Dark, like Nietzsche, Bolaño, Rimbaud, the Beats, etc.

  NC: On your site you talk a lot about feminism, I would very much like to see more women get into engineering and the sciences, what do you think schools should do to get more females into the sciences. Because one of the big problems with women making less than men is because they choose professions that make less than men.  How would you change that?

 AC: The Problem is xpressed in the Question. Why are People paid More to work in the Sciences than in Some Thing like Child Care? That’s Sxism. Sxism is saying, the Masculine Intellectual Gifts- Reasoning and Detachment and Objectivity and Mathematics and so on- are More Valuable to Society that the Feminine Intellectual Gifts- Intuition, Empathy, Nurturing, Vulnerability, etc. It doesn’t Matter if you’re a Man or a Lady xpressing Feminine Intellectual Qualities: you will get Less Respect in the Academic Professions. That is what needs to change.

  NC:  You state that you are an anarchist.  I am a Hobbesian and I feel that many writers are in the online lit world.  Could you explain why you think that humans are actually good and would behave if there was no government that had a monopoly on violence? 

 AC: I think there’s Very Little Physical Evidence to support a Hobbesian outLook. There’s Far More Evidence supporting the Idea, our Storically, we lived in Closely Knit Tribes where the Survival of Each Individual was Highly Dependent on the Survival of the Group. This is why, deSpite our Modern, Alienated, Mass Societies, we have this Immense Craving to belong to a “Scene.” I believe that, as a Species, we are Evolving in a Way Similar to an Individual: towards Greater Consciousness. Once Nature gave us Every Thing and we were inSeparable from her, like a Baby with its Mother. Then we began Individuating and realized we could xploit Nature for our Personal Comfort, like a Toddler in the Terrible Twos. This, how Ever, is an un Sustainable, and therefore, imMature, Way to behave: Mommy might refuse to give you Desert because you were Rude to her. I believe this is where we are at as a Species, moving out of 3^rd Chakra Development (the Development of Ego and a Sense of Personal Power) into 4^th Chakra Development (the Development of Social Identity and Empathy). I think Once we realize Most Consumer Luxuries are a Waste of Time, and turn back towards Nature in her Multiplicity for Guidance, we will be Able to see the Self and the Social Group as Part of a Large but Various Whole, and this is supported by the Creation of the InterNet: there will be a Fracturing and deCentralization of Power, and thereby, of Violence, or Better said, Self Defence: we will become More Tribal, More Self Sustaining, More Culturally Diverse as we begin embracing Diversity as the Process of Life and embracing the Idea that acting out of Altruism will bring Altruism back. This Process is Anarky.

 NC: According to the video you believe that we need a new world, a new economic system that does not reduce us to commodities. What would this economic system look like? We have 300 million people living America and there needs to be a mass amount of organization to keep them from killing each other and starving.  How would you do that without having wage labor and an open market for enterprise? What would your banking system look like, what would your constitution look like, would you have democracy or monarchy?  What would your tax code look like? 

 AC:  The “People can’t Organize their Selves” Assertion is an Xample of Poisonous Pedagogy and a Self Fulfilling Prophesy. We live in a Society that scolds, shames and dictates to People (a Very Christian Approach to leaning), and so we learn to loose Trust in our Instincts and our Intuition. We do what we are told to in Order to Please. In this State, we are Easily Manipulated by Power Structures, who want our Money and Labour to push forward their Colonialist Ambitions. Love is the Glue of the Universe. Most People, left to their Own Devices, would go after that, I guarantee you.

NC: Do you plan on publishing soon? Do you consider yourself mainly a short story writer or a poet or a novelist?  What are you working on now?

AC: I am a Writer of Literature and Philosophy Primarily. Right now, my Big Project is a Novel called SIS:. The Tao Lin Essay was a Ploy to get the Attention of Publishers: look, I am like this Guy, Only Better! I think I have written a MasterPiece for the Millennial Generation and a Classic of GirlKor, which needs More Classics.

 NC: What do you mean when you say, “That humanity is still free.”  Personally I agree with Dostoevsky’s assessment of humanity that humans will always find chains, if you take one set of chains, they will just find another. What sociological evidence can you show that the masses of humanity do not prefer chains of some sort? And also at what point in history was humanity free?

AC: I think, what Every Person wants, deep down, is to feel like they are making the Right Choices, and that the Best Way to feel as if they are making the Right Choices is to feel as if their Actions are being directed by the Voice Deep in Side of them. If it’s Mostly Some One Else telling you where you need to be at a Certain Time, how you need to behave while you are there, what you should say to People, who you should pretend to be, etc. (like Most “Work”), then you are not Free. Many of us, as Children, internalize the Directive Voice of our Parents and Teachers, and we become the One telling our Selves to behave in a Way that is Contrary to our Instincts. We become divided against our Selves, and this is no Way to live. This is the Cause of Most inSecurities, this Feeling of being divided against One’s Self, where One’s Consciousness is Always Attacking One’s unConsciousness for being imProper (Also Very Christian). Go with the Deep Inner Voice. Question it, but Always listen to it.

 NC: When you use the word “freedom” What is your definition for that word.

 AC: FreeDom is the Ability to Act on the Advice of One’s Deep Inner Guide: One’s Intuition. We have no FreeDom from our Inner Guide, how Ever: it is the Spark of Consciousness, the Self, the Witness.

 NC: What suggestion would you give alt lit writers online?

 AC:Write your Own Style. Write from the Deep Inner Guide.

Andrea Coates boon female intellect FreeDom hero's journey power sxism