BCC Shines a Light On: Michelle R. Brady
Name of the piece published by BCC:
When/where was it originally published:
Open to Interpretation, an anthology of fiction and poetry, Bath Spa University Press, 2007
Tell us more about your piece! What is the background of the piece? What led you to write it? What’s your process?
At the time I wrote this, I was very interested in two things:
1. Using other human beings as a means to an end. The idea that people can pay to use the parts they want from others and for the ability to avoid the consequences of those parts. I wanted to consider whose responsibility it is to pay for them. Does paying for services mean you get to avoid even knowing that consequences exist?
I struggled with the role of the person being used. Is that person actually the one in charge--because they're extracting money for artifice? Are they selling something they don't care about? Or is that only what they tell themselves? And either way, is it okay to perpetuate the practice? Is it okay to sell rhino horns, for instance, knowing it facilitates a trade that slaughters a species because it's yours to sell?
2. The slippery slope to desensitization. How we can start something with the best of intentions and then over time our subsequent decisions lead us to a point in which we're doing things we never would have thought we could/would do. That can happen to anyone in a variety of situations, but it really fascinates me.
How did you feel when it was first published and how have your thoughts or feelings on the piece changed from then to now?
I wrote this when I was in college. I am now a mother of a daughter. The significance of the actual dramatic plot points increases when I think about her, of course. Yet, I know that this--in some form, from accepting a drink and staying to chat at a bar, if not the more opaque forms of trade--will be a part of her life. Where does gratitude turn into obligation, to quid pro quo?
Is there a specific message you would like readers to take away from reading this piece?
To carefully weigh the consequences of decisions before making them. When the time comes to pay the price, it's too late to change your mind. And maybe to periodically take stock of the direction your choices are taking you. Seneca said to live each day as a separate life. If you could do that, it would be impossible for you to wake up one day unsure of how you became who you are.
What else would you like to tell readers about your writing? (Doesn’t have to refer only to your BCC
piece)
I write primarily about motherhood and war. To me, those concepts are the bookends of the life I have lived and simultaneously a complete circle. I'm currently querying a literary mystery about life and death in the guise of a connected short story collection. Maybe one day you'll see it somewhere and think of me.
Where can readers find more of your work? (Website/social media, etc)
X: @BradyMichelleR
