A conversation with author K.I. Hope about self publishing, the secret government and selling out to Facebook
Despite being off the national radar thus far, author K.I. Hope has already become known in underground circles for her sharp, direct voice. There are few if any trustworthy poles to follow in the everywhereland of propaganda that has become public discourse, and hers is a rare and powerful conviction. The more things change politically and socially in this vortex of unprecedented changes we seem to be touring as a species currently, the more old-fashioned
notions like certainty are revealed as traps ruling out the unexpected. I'm trying to be zetetic about everything, which means skeptical of all belief systems including one's own, to maximize surprise. This allows me a greater enjoyment of my own flawed circumstances from moment to moment, but things like Hurricane Katrina and the more recent Fukushima meltdown (both of which disasters were symptomatic of climate change, whether manmade or not) imply a giant ending of some kind in the wings. How to balance that aforementioned adventurous approach as a creative artist with the cataloging of decay/demise? Humor's my own silver bullet, though it's always a question of aim. I'm no scientist, but I agree with A. Einstein that no problem can be solved on the same level of consciousness that created it. I want my productions to be vital, but feel obligated to recognize the reality of disorder unflinchingly, and reflect it somehow.
Says Hope, author of the self-published Kafkaesque animal abuse allegory hector and its successor, the ironically titled This is not a Flophouse, which lays bare the deeply corrupt, blindly acquisitive foundation of American society, "The forces themselves are balanced; it's us who need to learn how to exist in between. And as long as humans need to learn, I'm going to arrogantly categorize myself on the side of the teacher. Not because I know more or have a better understanding of anything, but because I strive to feel life as an extension of ultimate truth. Our instruments of detection are flawed, however, so no conclusion that I make lasts very long, apart from the one where Vonnegut had all the answers: ‘There's only one rule that I know of, babies - God damn it, you've got to be kind.' None of us knows anything, none of us is very good at anything - except for telling our own versions of the truth. Those that accept that truth is breakable, and can tear down their own and recreate it to adapt to the universe, are the ones that end up teaching, and that lesson is, and must always be, one of pervasive kindness. What I'm actually saying: stop fucking up the planet."
While I consider myself inherently apolitical, I'm encouraged by all the recent uprisings, which seem to agree with my own conviction that humanity is undergoing a shift in consciousness, or at least a rare period of tumult. When it comes to the mainstream media, most representatives of which, with a few exceptions, are dutifully in service to the official public relations, everything is permitted and nothing is true. Given the amplified focus on Libya, while many comparable uprisings--from Tunisia to Wisconsin--are downplayed or barely covered by the press, something fishy is certainly happening backstage. How does it work?
"The uneven coverage of these issues leads to strengthening the idea that civil disobedience doesn't work, so don't bother," says Hope. "But it does. Libya is the focus because politically, it's benign," says Hope. "To concentrate on Tunisia and Wisconsin would actually give power to real movements, and the powers that be can't allow what is indeed a shift in consciousness to continue. The events that precipitated the uprising in Tunisia - unemployment, rising food prices, government corruption, barring freedoms of speech and political activism - are exactly what is occurring all over America right now. The uprising in Tunisia was swift and successful, with former president Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali already having been sentenced to prison time. (Of course, the long-term consequences remain to be seen.) Libya, by contrast, is an uprising where the rebels are not as effective, and there is a strong international presence: a clear message that those oppressed are weak and need leaders. It is still in a state of civil war that global powers deem a necessary fight against ... something? that they then must spend money on. The media is a major problem. The media is dead, dying, gone; journalism ... Tocqueville said something about it but I always fell asleep in college. The only real reporting being done is being done by people who aren't real reporters."
People like us! Hope also mentions the CIA's covert mind control program, MK-ULTRA, in This is Not a Flophouse. Speculation abounds as to whether or not this program was, in fact, discontinued in the mid seventies, as officially stated by those masters of disinformation. Makes me think of the recent rash of newscasters lapsing into gibberish on the air, but twittering bravely on even so, as if steering through ice . . . "I think it was discontinued," she says, "but only because they found better ways to do it. John Nash at RAND got great at figuring out emotional ways to manipulate us, without the need for expensive substances. Wait, we still take substances, but now we buy them willingly. Nash pioneered a game called 'Fuck You, Buddy,' where, in order to win, we must betray each other.* Keying into this type of thinking is what makes the government so unfortunately powerful today. It orients from a position that humans are selfish, cold and ruthless; when most people are actually kind, compassionate and loving. Our whole world is based on the top 1%, who operate on a wholly different level than everyone else. Now, the manipulation is on our image, our health, our differences from one another. We eat shit food that gets money from the government to pollute our bodies and our planet, then we take prescription drugs to mitigate the symptoms of living on such an unnatural diet, and criticize anyone who has found a better way to exist as a ‘vegan fanatic or a ‘freedom hater' or some such other thing, when, in reality, those who don't participate in the system want to break it not because they're deviants, but because they genuinely want to help those afflicted. But, with the ‘fuck you, buddy' mentality, compassion becomes impossible to see on the faces of those who are a tiny bit different."
(*All of this is well-documented in Adam Curtis' brilliant TV series, "The Trap." Watch it now.)
Both of Hope's novels thus far have been self-financed and -promoted. I self-published my first novel with lulu then balked after discovering it was completely automated. Self-publication or publishing with a small press with focus on quality instead of the long wait for mass market success via traditional publishing houses is appealing, opposed to the long, doubtful wait for acceptance by a major publisher and success in the increasingly corporatized mass market. At the same time, I have friends who've achieved that kind of success simply by strength of excellent ability, so the industry doesn't seem impossibly corrupt. K.I. Hope is a perfect example of the exceptional artistic quality abundant beneath the radar of consensus opinion, which is dictated by profit."When I set out to do this, I told myself I was going to do everything myself. That way, if I fail, I failed, and if I succeed, I succeeded. It's been incredibly frustrating at times, especially going through my first novel with lulu, but also exhilarating with each and every success. An email from a person who liked my book is, to me, as awesome as winning an award - or maybe, actually, better. Because I don't have to question it. It's pure. An award, I would question - why me? Was my book better, or did they have too many male winners and felt they needed a female? A judge on the panel wanted to get in my pants? Etc., etc. I can quickly ruin anything with my cynicism; or anything, at least, that is part of a larger construct that is capable of corruption and manipulation. The emotional response of an individual, whether favorable or not, cannot be bought or changed. It is in and of itself, and it is the entire reason I am doing this, pains and all."
A few years ago, I had a job writing daily fictional blog entries for an online TV station called ManiaTV. I could write anything I wanted to as long as I closed with a link to the website. Social networking sites like Facebook are like do-it-yourself databases for anyone who cares to spy on users, all of them potentially subject to the dumbing down process of apps like Farmville, Mafia Wars, Petland, etc. but clumsy traps like these are easily evaded. There are specialized sites like Goodreads, another I recently found and joined called Book Town, and sites like Daniel Pinchbeck's Evolver, but Facebook is equivalent to the central market of ideas since it has so much traffic, and having that much range is appealing. MightyMercury has a fan-page on Facebook, which I've been using as a bulletin board for newsworthy items and advocation of causes like Wikileaks and animal rights. Does the benefit outweigh the danger?
"Absolutely not," says Hope. "Facebook is a corrupt, evil (yeah, I said it) thing that is one of the greatest scams being run on 500 million people today. Like the famous line from the film goes: ‘The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.' Facebook is a data miner's wet dream. All that voluntary information, about associations, work experience, political views, sexual orientation, using credit cards to buy virtual items, thereby attaching a social security number and actual human to an online identity? Is this really just a way for people to ‘connect and share with the people in your life,' or is it a way to connect and share information freely to agencies that would otherwise need illegal and costly means to obtain them?"
These are excellent points, and I've heard former C.I.A. director J. Peabody Somebody quoted on how "advantageous" it would be to have such an all-inclusive database. I can only hope my natural instincts of self preservation combined with a healthy wariness of authority has prevented my release of any particularly sensitive information over that particular site. To be sure, I've never used a credit card there, or consented to the submission of my info to any of the million aps who "need it to work". At the same time, I've heard people whose opinions I won't dismiss offhandedly assert that privacy in the traditional sense has ceased to exist, and I want to accept this kind of boundless approach, but my daily posting of petitions and other items of note on the MightyMerc facebook fanpage prove the continued existence of its opposition. "Before I got rid of my account," continues Hope, "I saw a photo of a friend of mine, sitting on my very own couch, on one of those ‘meet hot local singles in your area' advertisements. Want to delete your account? It isn't easy. They require a two-week waiting period, and you need to find an external (non-Facebook) website to give you the URL to request deletion. Zuckerburg's own page was hacked, and now they've hired the guy that was responsible for the PS3 leak? And their latest security feature is asking you to identify people in photos before you can log in? Identifying people in photographs? Why don't we just start carrying our papers around everywhere with us? ZEIGEN SIE MIR IHRE PAPIERE!" (that's "Show me your papers" auf Deutsch) At the end of the day, though, this, like everything else, rests on personal choice. It depends on what you want. If you want to be known the world over, or at least by a large chunk of people on the internet, the questions about civil liberties may not need be raised. If you want to do something important that you're proud of, there are ways to be an artist and have a following and impact the world in a positive way without resorting to selling out. Those that sell out, generally, don't have a lasting positive presence, anyway."