Never Talk About Someone's Mother

Asking someone about their mother can be tricky. Reactions can range from effusive devotion to pure hatred, or sometimes general disinterest. Women in the roles of mothers in popular culture and historic literature can be a simple object of affection (Al Jolson's mother in The Jazz Singer, above), dangerous (Medea) or conniving and complex (Lucille Bluth in Arrested Development). Compared to the archetype of the father, mothers have definitely taken the larger role. 

It's this type of emotional and historic spectrum that inspired the Hugo House to put together Mother Knows Best, a program brings together a diverse group of artists - novelist Stacey Levine, actress and playwright Lauren Weedman, cartoonist David Lasky and singer/songerwriter Zoe Muth - to present a modern interpretation of the matriarch. 

Speaking with Weedman, Levine and Lasky last week, I found they each had their own take on motherhood. 

What do you have planned for the show?

Lasky: I plan to read a story about parental control over information. It will also touch on zine history, Jewish immigrants, and Superman.

Levine: The fiction I wrote in response to the prompt is not hugely dark, but I hope it is interesting. It deals partly with a so-called paranormal phenomenon.

Weedman: To not show up and blame it on my mother.

David, though many people can cite famous literary mothers, who are some famous comic mothers?

Lasky: Most comic book characters appear to be orphans.  Has anyone ever seen Charlie Brown's mother? Calvin has a great mom.  And Marge Simpson's beehive is so ubiquitous it now decorates postage stamps. But by and large, cartoonists have left mothers out of the picture.

Are male writers likely to approach their mothers different than female writers?

Lasky: Never having been a mother (or a parent), I wrote my story from the son's point of view. 

Weedman: I think there are elements---yes, men like a nice bosom to be comforted upon.  I don't so much---but I do like comfort. I'm 'pro-comfort.' My mother wasn't a huge nurturer.  If I was crying she'd tell me to 'dry up."

Levine: In my limited observation, mothers and daughters can have friction and fathers and sons can, too. Mothers happen to be women. I mean, if men gave birth and raised the children, they would get a different kind of pushback from the culture and from kids. It’s hypothetical, but something to think about.

Do writers give mother's a bad rap?

Lasky: I think if a writer had a loving and supportive mother, they tend to keep quiet about it. It's the more dysfunctional moms who get all the attention from writers. There's drama, there may be a sense of "payback."

Levine: It’s coming from our culture at large. I guess some writers may have jumped on this bandwagon unthinkingly, just looking for an angle or a loud sensation. Nothing bad can ever come of smart deconstruction.

Lauren, you're a recent mother and a stepmother. Are you nicer to mothers in your writing since becoming one?

Weedman: I wish i could say no, but sadly i have evolved and yes--I am much nicer.  

Is there truth in the idea of mother knows best?

Lasky: There's truth in it. For example, my mother used to give my brother and I this advice when we were in college and going out to parties: "Remember, just have two beers and then drink water!"

Weedman: Depends on who your mother is. I'd give a better answer, but my mother used to back hand me for talking too much. 

Mother Knows Best runs this Friday at 7:30pm at the Richard Hugo House.