Indie-Lit Pop Quiz, our new weekly interview series, gets the skinny on independent writers, from their creative process and views on pop culture to their must-know cultural and artistic references for your personal arsenal. Check out our pop quiz with the visceral poet and writer Mira Gonzalez below.
Mira Gonzalez exploded onto the poetry scene with her book I will never be beautiful enough to make us beautiful together (Sorry House, 2013) and has been a source of entertainment and inspiration for Internet users everywhere ever since. Her Twitter game is strong — so strong that her new book with Tao Lin, Selected Tweets, uses a bunch of her tweets (along with Tao’s) to form a piece of art that should be hilarious and reflective of our times (the book comes out May 15). In Nylon Magazine, Liza Darwin described Gonzalez’s writing as “clever” and “totally unfiltered,” noting her humor to be “refreshing.” We have to agree with such statements, which is why we asked her to take take our pop quiz. If you haven’t read Mira’s work yet, all I can say is this. Get it together and check out her answers below.
Literature
1. What was the last book you read? Did you like it or nah?
The last book I read was Inferno by Eileen Myles and I loved it
2. Thoughts on David Foster Wallace or Jonathan Franzen?
I’m starting to get really sick of white male writers writing about being white and male.
3. What are your writing habits?
I try to write every day. Usually I start writing writing while I’m drinking my morning coffee. Otherwise I will end up using my coffee high for something less productive, like manically cleaning my house or refreshing Twitter hundreds of times, and then suddenly it’s 4pm and my day is gone and I have no energy left for writing.
4. How do you party? How often?
Like, basically never… Unless smoking pot alone in my room is considered “partying”… In which case I party all the time.
5. Any writer you want to give a shout out to?
Shout out to Stephenie Meyer. She is living the dream.
Music
6. Last show you went to?
I saw my brother play Spanish classical music in an old church that had been turned into a music venue.
7. Band you’re currently obsessed with?
8. Last time you made a mixtape? Who was it for?
I think I’m too young for actual mixtapes, but the last time I remember making a mix CD, it was for my friend Jordan Castro like 2 years ago. I sent it to him in the mail and he sent me one too. The only song I remember my mix CD having on it was “No Children” by the Mountain Goats. I remember thinking his mix CD was better than mine because he put the song “Mean” by Taylor Swift on it and mine didn’t have any Taylor Swift.
9. Unknown band you think everyone should know about?
Everyone should listen to my brother Milo (https://soundcloud.com/milo-gonzalez) and my friends DEBT (https://www.facebook.com/debtlosangeles).
10. As you get older, do you care more or less about discovering new music?
I think my desire to find new music hasn’t changed as I’ve gotten older, but I care less now about seeming “cool” via my taste in music than I used to when I was younger. As a teen I would always put on like, Pavement or some new Pitchfork buzz band when I had other people in my car in hopes of impressing them with my cool taste in music. Now I just unabashedly blast Taylor Swift and it feels so good.
Movies/Pop Culture
11. David Lynch or Charlie Kaufman?
This question is too hard. I love them both. I can’t decide. I’m sorry.
12. If you could have one TV show be put on Netflix, what would it be?
13. Can anyone compete with Kanye West? Can Kanye compete with Kanye?
Um, yes. Bjork can compete with Kanye.
14. Last movie you saw? Did you like it or nah?
The last movie I saw was Salt of the Earth and I liked it a lot. Or… wait, thats a lie. I saw Frozen while high on Xanax on a plane and I also liked it a lot. I sobbed during both movies.
15. Greatest film of all time?
This seems like a loaded question. Decline to state.
Miscellaneous
16. Is it really worth it to be a writer? What would you rather do instead?
This is a tough question for me. On one hand, I feel like writing has really fucked me up in a lot of ways. I now view everything in my life through this terrible lens of “Is this an experience I can write about?” which has put me in a lot of bad situations. On the other hand, I think I would be far more miserable and in much worse situations if I didn’t have writing as an outlet…
Being a writer makes me feel insane, but I also logically know that my life would be much worse if I had never discovered writing.
So, if you are like me, and books are the only thing in the world that make you feel less alone, then do it, be a writer. In fact, if that’s truly how you feel, just drop everything else in your life and write because, frankly, your only other option is to be miserable. Fuck school, fuck relationships, just write your sad little heart out for every single day for the rest of your damn life.
But, if emotional and financial stability are really important to you, I can’t say I recommend becoming a writer.
I don’t think there is anything I would rather do than writing, but being a child psychologist is what I thought I would end up doing for most of my life. I still think about it a lot.
17. Which Internet friend are you most proud of?
I’m proud of all my Internet friends. They are my favorite people in the whole world and I honestly don’t know where I would be without them. Shout out to my Internet friends.
I’m specifically thankful for Spencer Madsen for publishing my first book and being a generally dope friend. You go spen.
18. Any words for the haters?
Dear haters,
I agree with you guys.
19. Should every writer’s goal be, ‘be more like Stephen Dixon?’
Lol jesus christ, no.
20. If the Internet were to shutdown tomorrow, forever, would life go on or would you be in a hopeless state of panic?
I would definitely be in a hopeless state of panic for like, years.
Interview by Trevor L. Sensor.