[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:05] Speaker B: Welcome to Disability Empowerment now, season four. I'm your host, Keith Mavigensini. Today I'm talking to Eric Fuhrer, PhD, a teacher and poet. Eric, welcome to the show.
[00:00:36] Speaker C: Thank you. Thank you for having me.
[00:00:39] Speaker B: How did you find out about the podcast?
[00:00:46] Speaker C: I had a friend of mine, Liz, had been on your podcast in this season as well.
And then I started checking out the other episodes and your Instagram. So, yeah, that's how I found out about it.
[00:01:03] Speaker B: And what kind of poetry do you write? And what led you to being a teacher, a trauma transformation coach? A memoir? Is there anything you don't do, Eric? Let's start there.
But no, you're obviously a very creative individual.
I can see how you know red now. And so what would the genesis spark that unleash your creativity?
[00:01:58] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, currently, I've been writing a lot about trauma. It's. My poetry has kind of changed. When I first started writing, I feel like. Like there were things I wanted to write about, but I feel like I maybe. I don't know if I was conscious of this, but I think I wanted to have distance from certain things that I wanted to write about. So my poetry started off kind of abstract and kind of a lot of images that were kind of abstract. And then I would say, over the last three years or so, I've started thinking a little bit more about trauma, which I think is kind of why I wanted to always write in the first place, because I had something to say about things that have happened to me. But I feel like that was so difficult to do for very long. But once I started writing, I feel like, yeah, over the last few years, it was strangely right when the pandemic happened.
[00:02:59] Speaker B: Wonderful time to get started in this whole new venture while the world is upside down. Literally.
[00:03:12] Speaker C: Yeah. I felt like I had just gotten out of a stay at the hospital, and I think I was thinking a lot about my mental health at the moment. And I was just.
I just had a lot of time, and it was literally when I got out of the hospital, like Covid, the first wave of COVID like, that's when it really, really hit. And we were all in isolation at that time, and I was currently between jobs, so I just started kind of diving into.
Actually, I started diving into watching a lot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
[00:03:51] Speaker A: Right.
[00:03:51] Speaker C: Which I didn't.
[00:03:52] Speaker B: We'll get into that later. But. Oh, yeah, that.
That came up in episode two of the season. If you go back and listen to that, this is where linked.
That's a wonderful episode. And I. I don't really talk about previous episodes during episode, but since we're gonna be talking about Bubby the Vampire, the second episode is with a wonderful poet from Long island called Liv Morone.
And she does a lot.
She's very involved with Buffy the Vampire and exploring that from disability lens, trauma lens.
She's wonderful poet in person. And so that's the linkage that I was gonna make later on in the episode. But since we are here, I keep hearing about Buffy the Vampire and I open myths fads of fandoms while they're happening. And I did get into the spin off show angel because I really like the lead actor and I liked the more infinite on New Law and loneliness and grittiness where I was.
I mean, had I gotten into Buffy the Vampire Slayer when it was on pardon this, it would be to watch Sarah Michella be eye candy. I hate to see that. But as a teenager, that's exactly where I was, which is why I never got into it as a teenager. But I hear about it more and more now and it's been off the air for quite a while.
Let's go in to that. Why?
Why do you think the fandom of that show in particular, it's so rampant and keeps the show and the universe all. Why?
[00:07:36] Speaker C: Yeah, for me, it was like after I got in the hospital, it was Covid and I was. I was just. I was just trying. I love the show.
[00:07:44] Speaker A: Right.
[00:07:45] Speaker C: So I think I was just trying to watch it and kind of get pleasure from that.
[00:07:51] Speaker A: Right.
[00:07:51] Speaker C: But I.
[00:07:54] Speaker B: At that time, I also would into the vampire supernatural take that came later and angel really helped with that. But go on.
[00:08:12] Speaker C: Yeah, so I think I was just trying to just have, you know, just kind of have distance and just watch a show. But as I was watching it for the first time at that moment, I started noticing a lot of the trauma in it. And I started feeling very different about my relationship with the show. And that kind of started me writing a line towards Buffy. I just wrote something and all of a sudden I started writing about my trauma. And all of a sudden I was able to kind of unlock these things that I never felt comfortable talking about or like was trying to get distance from my whole life. And whenever I tried to write about the trauma head on, it never worked. And then all of a sudden I wrote this line to Buffy after I started noticing kind of connections in some way.
And all of a sudden I was able to talk about this. And then for me, there's.
I'm not exactly sure what it is, but there was. I was surprised because I didn't realize I had that connection with the show and.
But it did open all these floodgates. And then I started watching all of her other work and it continued to open these floodgates and I didn't realize. I knew I liked her work. You know, I had seen it when I was younger and kind of. I grew up with her work a lot. And I know I loved. I know you did last summer. But all of a sudden, I know last summer was starting to feel like my Casablanca kind of. It was like really, really, really affecting me. And I was like crying when I was watching this movie that I know is camp. And I know it was a teenage movie when I watched it when I was younger. I did not. I don't remember having those feelings. But watching it now, if it was all hitting very differently and it was all having me go back to internal things in my life and traumas in my life and in the books I've written, the recent books, I was able to kind of the books interact with her work a little bit. Like in Geller Studies, the poetry book I published last year, it interacts with her work, but it's not about her work really. It's more about my relationship, watching her work. So more about, like how when I watched these characters, somehow they enabled me to both have distance, but then also explore things in my life that kind of resonated in some way with me. So it's almost like my viewing journey a little bit. But they really were like. It was almost able to get me distance from writing about my trauma. So it was almost like Buffy was almost a buffer, I keep saying, for.
For thinking through things that were way too painful to talk about. And then I was able to talk about them in more straightforward ways, but I still needed for myself that kind of displacement a little bit where I was able to look towards her work and talk about her work and then pivot back into mine. And that felt more authentic and comfortable. And I was able to talk about all these things that I was never comfortable talking about before.
[00:11:36] Speaker B: Thank you for the detailed answer. Why do you think the show remains as popular as it is, despite being off the air for I don't know how many years? And there was a not well received movie that I think predated it and.
But that series made the careers of a lot of its cats.
And so why do you think the show still resonates as deeply?
[00:12:39] Speaker C: I remember reading something by Chana Mayeville one time where he said that he. When he watched Buffy, he felt like he was in Buffy and like these people were his friends and he remember. I remember him feeling weird about that.
[00:12:53] Speaker A: Right.
[00:12:54] Speaker C: But I think there is, there's something true to that. There's something about the show that at least for me feels very relatable. And I think one of the reasons, because it's that show, but it's also all of her work for me, but that show in particular, I feel like there's such a close knit friend network in that show and it's.
It just feels like something I didn't have right at that time. And I feel like watching it makes me feel. This is going to sound really weird, but it's basically protected in some way. Right. Because there is like in that world there is such this strong friend network that really sustains her and all of the other characters and then.
[00:13:44] Speaker B: Oh absolutely. She would be nowhere without that network of friends, advisors, frenemies that turn into lovers and then back to frenemies. And the venfic community is massive fandom in general. If you just think about Star Trek, Star Wars, Doctor who, Supernatural, Bubby the Vampire, on and on and on. Fandoms are very impressive, but can be very aggressive as well.
No judgment. It's judge telling it like it is. So let's get more into your work and how you decided to offer trauma transformation coaching kids. That was the first thing on your website that caught my eye because I have never really heard about that in depth and been able to talk to a coach about what they do, the complications, the highs and lows, what they get out of it, what they bring to. To it. And so yeah, talk about that.
[00:15:52] Speaker C: Yeah. So the coaching is something I'm still developing and the read the. And I'm teaching currently in the next quarter a course at UCLA that's on writing trauma. And the impetus between beyond behind me wanting to do it was.
Was my process and how I came to it.
[00:16:13] Speaker A: Right.
[00:16:14] Speaker C: Like that I wanted to write about this for so long and then what it took me over 30 years to finally feel comfortable writing it and. Or I don't want to say comfortable finally having feeling like I had a way to express it.
[00:16:27] Speaker A: Right.
[00:16:28] Speaker C: Because whenever I try to hit it head on and just write pure memoir or just write those moments, it was kind of re. Traumatizing. That wasn't healthy for me and I wasn't able to do it and I got kind of too caught up and everything. And I think, you know, there are so many different ways to. To write trauma so one of the things that really resonates for me is Buffy and Sarah Mitchell Geller and that other pop culture to pop culture, for some reason is. Is something that really helps me process my own life. And I think it's because pop culture often feels like an escape from things, or it can be an escape from things.
[00:17:10] Speaker B: It definitely can.
[00:17:12] Speaker C: And then for me, a lot of pop culture is an escape. But then it also, like, pulls me back in and feels, like I said, like, resonates with me, like. Like Buffy did.
[00:17:22] Speaker A: Right.
[00:17:22] Speaker B: So I think there's also, speaking of pop culture, the nostalgic factor of Buffy and Angel.
I mean, they were filmed and released at a very different time, technology wise and culture wise, than we find ourselves in now.
So. But a show or work can't or shouldn't run on the nostalgic factor alone. And I don't think either Buffy or Angel does that.
That's another hook of the escape system of being transported in and out of those shows and the different motifs and analogies, metaphors, etc. Etc.
[00:18:48] Speaker C: Yeah, I think the nostalgic thing is really important to me. I think it brings me to most of the pop culture that. That influences me and that helps me write is pop culture from when I was like a teen. And I think that's because at that time I needed that.
And I. When I was a child and a teen. And I think I needed that kind of escape. And now when I look back at that stuff that might have been an escape for me back then, now stuff like Buffy or Michelle Goes Work, which were escapes, now hit me differently and feel more like they're speaking to me in different ways and help me process it. So, yeah, there is a lot about the nostalgic factor and especially where I was at that time when I was watching it. And I guess I didn't realize, you know, how important those texts really were to some kind of formative moment for me. And just going back to them now, I start to. And with the coaching, I feel like I want to help people do that.
[00:19:52] Speaker A: Right.
[00:19:52] Speaker C: So it's so hard to know, like, the. The most. Like the kind of. Most kind of. I don't want to say natural way, but the way that I always went when I wanted to write about trauma was to write about the trauma, Right. And that's so difficult to do and to try to help people find their own buffies, right? Or their own Samuel Galleries or their own pop culture, their own ways that will help them write through these moments that might not be writing about Them head on, right. Maybe you're. Maybe they're never going to be. Maybe the way for them to process and the way for them to kind of think through and write through it is to write a novel about robots, right? Is to write something that, you know, is able to somehow express that trauma in metaphor, like you were talking about, like Bucky does. Really well.
And in.
Yeah. In metaphor, in horror movies are all about trauma a lot.
[00:20:53] Speaker A: Right?
[00:20:54] Speaker C: And because they're kind of taking these moments and then making them different. Right. And that, you know, I want to help people do that. I want to help people think about, Okay. I need to process this in some way. I want to write about this. But maybe I don't have to write about that moment, right? Maybe I can take this feeling, this emotion, and write a fantasy novel, write a book of poetry, write a horror novel, write a horror screenplay, write a. Create a superhero.
[00:21:26] Speaker A: Right?
[00:21:27] Speaker C: All super. Not all superheroes, but a lot of superheroes, their manifestation is through trauma, right?
And there is.
I have no idea if the people who created these superheroes were processing trauma on their own, but it certainly is a way that they could have been, Right? Yeah.
[00:21:46] Speaker B: I mean, bad man. Do you need a clear example of superhero through trauma or because of trauma?
[00:22:00] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah.
A lot of them had the. Their.
[00:22:04] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:22:05] Speaker C: Their. Their burgeoning as a hero came from this really, really, like, dramatic or. More.
[00:22:11] Speaker B: Yeah. So talk.
You have a new book coming out next year that I think it's very relatable to the discussion we're having and have been having.
Would you tell us about that?
[00:22:35] Speaker C: Yeah. So it's called My Buffed Up Life.
[00:22:39] Speaker A: Right.
[00:22:39] Speaker C: And this is coming from that. This is coming from the writing that I started, that I was talking about before, like during the pandemic, the first wave of the pandemic.
It's coming from that writing that line I wrote to Buffy. I wrote a line, and all of a sudden I was able to write about things I never could write about before. And writing this book again, using Buffy as kind of a buffer, I was able to write about these moments and then kind of have these fictional asides to Buffy throughout the text in which I kind of correspond with her and think through moments from her life and the show that I see kind of resonances with in my own life, and then I can move back into mine. So the book includes letters to Buffy, like fictionalized letters to Buffy where I write to her and kind of process that way. It includes, you know, moments of just memoir from my life where I'm Talking about traumatic moments from my childhood. And usually when I'm talking about that traumatic moment, there are times when, almost in every time, when I will pull back a second and fictionally kind of speak to Buffy and then pull back in. And it's almost like someone described it, and I think it was a good description as kind of like, she was like, my Virgil through, like, the Inferno, kind of being able to kind of pull me through. And I think that's kind of how she functioned. And I find it interesting. I wasn't even thinking about that at all when I started writing it. But it's interesting how, like, that trope of, like, this guide that, like, brings you through is very present in there and does kind of feel like it's patterned on stuff like Inferno, even though it's not. Even though it wasn't consciously, I guess. Right. So I find that really interesting. But. So the book is. It's written in a screenplay format, and I started writing a book of poems, and then it just didn't feel like it was working. I had a book of poems and then a bunch of little flash fictions, nonfictions, and I didn't really know what to do with it, and it felt kind of messy. And then I decided, since I was writing influenced by Buffy, why not try to make it feel more like a screenplay, something written for the visual? And then when I started doing that, it's not an actual screenplay, because it would be impossible to film, because a lot of it's just really, really visual in ways that just didn't work. But being able to think about in the visual format really, really helped me. And then I have some spells in there as well. And it just really. It's, again, a memoir. But there's a lot of times when I will speak directly to the character of Buffy because that character did function kind of as this, like, guide towards bringing me through this. These traumatic moments.
[00:25:40] Speaker B: So what is it like to be a teacher on writing through trauma and also exploring your own and wanting to become a trauma transformational coach?
How. Where's the different intersections of those three activities and where. Where do they merge and where do they diverge from each other?
[00:26:25] Speaker C: Yeah. So as a teacher, what was always very important to me is helping people not just read. Sorry, I taught English for, you know, not just read text and think about text, but think about their lives and how it relates to the text. Right. And really kind of think about their identities and their.
And why they're reading, what they're reading, what they're getting out of it and how that's, in a way, transforming their life or could transform their life, right? Like, what could I take from this text that is going to help me think more deeply about who I am and what I'm doing in the world?
And so I always wanted for literature for me, I always wanted literature and teaching. I always wanted students to be able to have these moments where they're always becoming more of themselves or differently as themselves, or just discovering more things about themselves through what they're. They're reading. And then. So the writing trauma course that I'm doing, again, was a way to. I want to provide space for people to have the kind of epiphany the word I'm looking for, I'm not sure, but kind of like the epiphanies that I had, right, where there was a moment where I just said, oh, my God, I'm writing about this now. And Buffy took me there. And I was not sure what to do with that, but I went with it. And it was. And then Sarah Michelle's other works that are taking me there. And I went with that. And to try to help other people find what that is for them.
[00:28:02] Speaker A: Right.
[00:28:02] Speaker C: It might not be pop culture at all. It might be, you know, you know, something. It might be the environment, hiking, you know, it might be something completely different. But to find what that is and to find what that is for them to have that buffer, that processing, to be able to talk about it. So that was really important to me. So the class that I'm teaching, it's important. Important to me for each class, for us to have different avenues of coming in. Right. So I'm going to have each class have some memoir, have some interviews, and then we're going to look at some film clips, some songs and music videos. And I want to have some things that are not just straight memoir. Right. So that are, like, one thing I was thinking of. Have you seen the show WandaVision yet?
There's. That show kind of wrecked me when I watched it, but I loved it was beautiful. And it's haunting and it's. It was one of the best shows I've seen recently. And that, you know, that's a way that I think, you know, it's fantasy, it's a superhero.
[00:29:09] Speaker A: Right.
[00:29:10] Speaker C: But. But it delves so deeply into trauma. But not, you know, a personal trauma of anybody who wrote it.
[00:29:17] Speaker A: Right.
[00:29:17] Speaker C: But through a trauma of a character. So again, I don't know whoever wrote that was processing any drama. I have no idea. But I think it's possible, like, if you are through a character like that, to be able to place it from yourself, right. And still with that emotions and still deal with, you know, the content in a way, especially the emotions that are pro. That are like produced by that content and to have it be in this fictional world. But the.
Just the like, again, the emotion just is so real and raw in that. In that show, even though it is this wildly fictional place.
[00:30:00] Speaker B: Right.
[00:30:02] Speaker C: So the class, that's what I want to offer people. Different ways for thinking about. Okay, there's something I want to write about. What are different ways I could kind of try out to see what feels most authentic to me and to see what, you know, pathway would be most authentic and help me to write these things that I want to write. Because I think our. My first impulse and most people first impulse is just to write about the trauma straight on. And that can be dangerous, Right. It can be really re. Traumatizing. It can.
Because all you're thinking of is what happened to you. And that's not always healthy.
[00:30:42] Speaker A: Right.
[00:30:42] Speaker C: But being able to like hold on to some of those things and hold on to some of the emotions and then translate that through something else can be really powerful. So I want to offer people those opportunities and the same thing in the coaching. And that would be more of a individualized experience in which we talk about these things together. We do writing exercises and try to think about what their stories, their emotions, their experiences are. And then what is the best way to express this? Like what is the best. Because writing trauma is also like about the craft of writing too.
[00:31:20] Speaker A: Right?
[00:31:20] Speaker C: Like how do we take these things and move them out? So it is healing in a way too. But it also is about thinking through crafts. Like what how do we produce these things? What does that look like?
[00:31:32] Speaker A: And how can it be safe for.
[00:31:33] Speaker C: Us and also transformative in some way.
[00:31:36] Speaker B: What is it like being a teacher on this subject?
You talked about the class and what you want your students to get out of it. It's a very interesting concept, A very deep, deep concept. And how do you prepare or how are you preparing to go into teaching that?
[00:32:18] Speaker C: That's a great question. Yeah, I mean, it's such.
So this is going to be a larger lecture class, going to be 50 students. This is not. This is through UCLA's creative writing program, but it's going to be a no writing workshops. And I think that's good for a course like this because when you're writing such sensitive things, that might not be something you want to workshop, at least not right now, not right away. So the way I'm thinking about it is we're going to again, look at different types of text so people can try out writing straight memoir if they want to, or they can try out writing something more metaphorical. We'll look at some, you know, ways that horror is able to move through this. We'll look at, you know, we'll look at Wandavision, we'll look at Stranger things. Right. Ways that, you know, the supernatural is able to be a vehicle towards having some distance, but also expressing these emotions and then having time during the class for people to write their own stuff and try these different modes out and then, and then share if they want to.
[00:33:19] Speaker A: Right.
[00:33:21] Speaker C: And then there's also going to be, you know, the opportunity to have me look over some of their work as well. But in class I want people to be writing. We're going to have prompts, but the prompts are going to be choices. So they get to choose kind of the avenue they want to take or the type of, you know, risk. Because it is a risk.
[00:33:41] Speaker A: Right.
[00:33:41] Speaker C: So the type of risk that they want to take, is it going to be something straight on, that they want to create a character and kind of write through that character.
[00:33:49] Speaker A: Right.
[00:33:49] Speaker C: And there's going to be different options so that there can. They can try to start thinking through their comfort and thinking through like balancing comfort and risk.
[00:34:00] Speaker A: Right.
[00:34:01] Speaker C: And then if people want to share, we'll have space for people to share. So it'll be a little bit more like a co writing workshop at times.
[00:34:09] Speaker A: Right.
[00:34:09] Speaker C: In which we're all writing together and that all have space to express and talk about what we wrote and they can talk about what they wrote instead of reading it. So having distance from the traditional writing workshop as well, so that it could be a sharing, it could be a talking about what they wrote instead of sharing that exact piece and just navigating and kind of thinking through. Because it's very vulnerable.
[00:34:37] Speaker A: Right.
[00:34:37] Speaker C: So being able to have diff. Have more kind of low stakes ways for that vulnerability to be shared if the person feels like, like sharing it. Because I want.
[00:34:50] Speaker B: Sorry, no, I didn't mean to get you all. Continue.
[00:34:57] Speaker C: So I, I want people to feel empowered to share and I want people to feel empowered to discover and to take these risks and to start thinking through ways that they can start writing through things that might feel difficult. But I also want to, you know, understand that not everybody, empowerment looks different for every person. Right.
Empowerment is not going to look like sharing to everybody.
[00:35:24] Speaker A: Right.
[00:35:24] Speaker C: For empowerment, just getting that thing down on the page is part of what that some people need, right? So just, again, having the opportunity, but not just making sure that people know that. That it's a safe space where that thing on the page can just stay on the page with them if that's what feels more comfortable for them at that moment.
[00:35:47] Speaker B: So I should have asked that at the beginning of the episode, but what did you get your PhD in in Creative writing?
I knew that I just had to get it in for the episode. I'm gonna add probably the easy question, the easiest layup question of this episode. What got you into creative writing?
And why did you pursue a doctorate? Out of all the subjects you could choose for a doctor to it, why creative writing?
[00:36:42] Speaker C: Ah, I feel like there's a lot of freedom in it, right? And there's a lot of freedom to kind of explore. Because through a creative writing doctor, you're kind of writing your own stuff, and then you're also thinking about what you're writing into in the world you're writing into and the literature you're writing into and, you know, the tradition that you're writing into, right? So before, I talked about how I recognize that my own narrative kind of mimics a trope that started with Dante, right?
So thinking through that, right? So having time to write your own work and then having time to think about, like I said, I like doing my students, right? Like, why am I doing this? Why am I writing this? And how, like. Like, how does this shape me as a person? But how does it shape me as a person in the world with these other things in it? And how do I fit into this world? And, you know, who am I in conversation with even if I didn't know I was in conversation with them, Right? That's the most exciting thing when you start realizing, oh, I'm doing this. And I feel like this, you know, author is really influencing me. Let me look at their work a little bit more. And you start realizing and recognizing these connections, right? Which is something that I started realizing and recognizing when I was writing these two books, right? I started realizing, oh, wow, Sarah Michelle Geller is not just a, you know, actor who I love, but her work somehow really is deeply embedded into my experience of being a person in some way and to having these experiences and her work as a way for me to process this. And that's not something I ever knew before. So that's really exciting for me about creative writing because we're creating these things that are all from our own. All us, right? Like Me, it was all, you know, stuff coming from me, but it's not coming from me only. Right. I'm deeply embedded in all these other experiences and works and histories. And it's exciting to be able to, you know, think about my own work and then also think about those networks. And that's what the PhD in creative writing really enabled me to do, is to do both those things at the same time.
[00:39:05] Speaker B: Have you ever met Sarah Michelle Geller or if you did, what do you imagine that experience would be like?
[00:39:21] Speaker C: Yeah, I haven't.
But, you know, I would want something authentic, right? So, like, I. I never really. I. I don't go to, like, comic cons or anything. I'm sure I would like that. But, like, my relationships with these fandoms of these pop culture kind of is. It's very personal, right? And like, if you read, like, if you read Geller's studies, you know, it's about her work. But you might not recognize, besides me telling you what work I'm talking about, otherwise it's. It might not always be recognizable what work I'm talking about, because it's such a personal connection I have to a character, and it's such a way that that character enables something in my own life for me to think through something. So it's really about how her stuff kind of activated, how her work kind of activated, you know, just narratives of my own and how those connect. So I would. I would love to have like, an actual, like, authentic conversation with her where we just talk about things.
[00:40:31] Speaker A: Right?
[00:40:31] Speaker C: Because it's. And I would want her to know, like, how, you know, how resonant her work was for me and how it was not just an entertainment, but it was a way for me to deeply process and learn a lot more about who I am and these experiences I went through. And for whatever reason, I don't know if I could really put my finger on it, but for whatever reason, her work unlocked that for me.
[00:40:57] Speaker B: I think she would appreciate that. In fact, I think a lot of actors or entertainers would appreciate that to know that they're walked. And by entertainers, I mean actors, musicians, Broadway stars, etc. Etc.
Would like to know that their work transcends judge the typical.
And I hate using the word pop culture fluff. Again, I'm not trying to be smudged any fandom. It's judge that would be the entertainer's dream of hearing that their walk had touched you in not the obsessive fan way, but to add your motif, to unlock parts within yourself.
And.
[00:42:31] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. Because I certainly appreciate and, you know, in many ways I'm part of, like that fandom.
[00:42:38] Speaker A: Right.
[00:42:38] Speaker C: But a lot of it is just.
I feel outside of it a lot too.
[00:42:45] Speaker A: Right.
[00:42:45] Speaker C: Because, like, it wasn't like it was one line to Buffy that I wrote and all of a sudden it resonated with myself. And then I was writing all this, like, stuff that, you know, was locked away inside of me for so long.
And so it was such this. It was again like this, the personal connection that it was really about exploring who I am and things that I wanted to get out for so long and that that work unlocks. So as much as I, like, appreciate and I am in some ways part of that fandom, it's her work is just. It does feel more Virgil to me.
[00:43:26] Speaker A: Right.
[00:43:26] Speaker C: It does feel like. I know you did last summer Buffy and you know, oral intentions. For whatever reason. I love those films. But watching it again, it went beyond that and it went to this place that really started being this life raft for me in some way.
[00:43:45] Speaker B: Yeah. I think. Sorry to interrupt. I think if you take Geville's walk in Buffy and contrasted with her comedic walk in the Crazy Ones with Robin Williams, which rep. But all ip. Sorry, I wish that got another season or two because that was comedy freaking gold right there.
The whole cast felt like they were tailor made for those roles in their careers. And so if you look at the beginning, which is Buffy, to that point in her career, obviously didn't stop or after that rule. But if you should compare and contract those two roles, that's a fascinating comparison right there. But I'm sorry, what were you saying?
[00:45:19] Speaker C: Well, one, I love that you've seen the Crazy Ones. I normally don't meet people who have and I do like that show a lot. And for me, I love all of her work and I love. I think she's a great comedic actor and I think that I love Crazy Ones and I think she does a really good job with that.
[00:45:35] Speaker B: I mean, judge the title and how that weaves throughout all the episodes. I'm like, I compare it to the remake of the Odd Couple with Matthew Perry and I forget the other guy's name, but I love the Oddball. Odd but real life stuff that happens in both of those shows that people might and often do take for granted because it's just life. Characters are living their lives. Going to makeups and breakups, job promotions, job losses, family issues.
People respond to hearing about other people's real everyday lives. They do not respond in such a way to the Glamorance of the fronts we put out in social media and all of that. Again, I'm not trying to batch those things, but in terms of what people were really stacked with people beyond the vantages of Lord of the rings, Star wars, etc. Etc. All the real life stories that really pull people in and that they gravitate towards.
[00:47:56] Speaker C: Yeah. And I think that is probably one of the reasons her work works so well for me is because of her comedic tone and everything. All of her stuff is very campy. Right. She doesn't very often do anything super serious.
[00:48:12] Speaker A: Right.
[00:48:13] Speaker C: It's. There are serious elements. Buffy has serious elements. All of her stuff. A lot of her stuff does. But it's always a little campy, always has some comedy hit through it. And it always feels like it is thinking through a real person.
[00:48:28] Speaker A: Right.
[00:48:29] Speaker C: Or something that. And I think that's why I find such connection to it. And I think because that she's able to portray that so well and because it's never gets too dark, right. And it never gets too.
It's always kind of cut with campiness, cut with some kind of humor. I find that really easy to enter, relate to and then safe to kind of engage with.
[00:48:55] Speaker A: Right.
[00:48:55] Speaker C: To thing through my own work. So I think that's one of the reasons why her work resonates so much to me is like. Is it what you said?
[00:49:03] Speaker B: You know, so in case there are any advocates listening who want to explore traumatic transformational writing, coaching, poetry and really want to begin their path, what would be some advice, some action steps you would give them as they begin or continue on their journey?
[00:49:42] Speaker C: Yeah.
A lot of self care.
[00:49:45] Speaker A: Right.
[00:49:45] Speaker C: So I think again, thinking through why you're thinking about writing this at the moment and, and. And how it's like. Yeah. Like what your motivations are. Because I think the motivations have to be that this is something you need to write.
[00:50:03] Speaker A: Right.
[00:50:03] Speaker C: Because if it's something that you feel like will help you, it might not.
[00:50:09] Speaker A: Right.
[00:50:09] Speaker C: It could be re. Traumatizing. It could be something that's negative.
[00:50:14] Speaker A: Right.
[00:50:15] Speaker C: So it should be something that you feel this need and this drive to. To. To do and to explore. And as long as it's coming from a place like that, a place where this is something you know you need to do and you don't feel like you have to do it the process, but it's something you need to do to process.
Then taking care.
[00:50:35] Speaker A: Right.
[00:50:35] Speaker C: Then realizing that taking space is really important.
[00:50:38] Speaker A: Right.
[00:50:39] Speaker C: I had to put this on hold for 30 years until I was able to write about it, right? And I'm not saying that, you know, it's ever going to take that long for other people. We all have our own time timelines around processes, right. But that, you know, if you're not writing about it directly, that could be good, right? That could be part of writing about it, right. And again, it can manifest in all these other ways. So maybe, you know, to just be starting to be. Start being more intentional about connections, right? So if you're not writing a bigger trauma, but all of a sudden you're writing this character who's going through some traumas, maybe you are writing about your trauma, right? Just writing in a different way. And that's the way you need to process it and that's the way you need to write about it because that's the way that, you know, feels most, you know, authentic and comfortable. And it gives you distance, but also gives you a way to process those emotions. So thinking about not necessarily processing the actual experiences, but to process the kind of auras of those experiences, the emotions of those experiences, you know, how those experiences resonate in your body and outside your body. And that can be really important. So even if you never write about the thing itself, it's still going to be productive, right? So thinking about taking care, taking self care and you know, not writing things that, you know, feel uncomfortable, there's a certain amount of discomfort you need to have, right? But if you, if you feel re traumatized, if you feel like it's taking you to places that you don't want to be in, then stop, right? And start trying to think about, okay, if that's taking me these places and writing about directly is taking these places, what would it look like to create a character and then to have them go through things that are similar or go through things that have similar emotions and to start thinking about different ways to navigate.
[00:52:43] Speaker B: I like to think, I like to think that both ads, again with disabilities and those who have yet to discover and embrace their own disabilities listen and watch this program and groups within those groups are not naive enough to think that each group takes away the same things from every episode. So as my guests, what do you hope that advocates with disabilities take away from this episode? And what do you hope that those who have yet to discover or embrace their own disabilities take away from the.
[00:53:52] Speaker C: Yeah, I think, you know, going back to just the point of taking care and taking time, right? It takes time to process identity. It takes time to process, you know, experiences that have, that you have moved through and that have been and that you have had difficulty moving through, you know, because of your identity. So I think that taking especially, you know, I'm talking about writing these experiences and writing identity and writing trauma and writing, you know, things that you might still be navigating. So again, taking time, taking space and then thinking about ways to process and think through experiences that you might not center you, but still center your experiences and still center your your emotions and your identities. But maybe don't, you know, art memoir and are different.
[00:54:56] Speaker B: So if anyone wants to find out more about you or reach out to you directly, what is the best way to do that?
[00:55:13] Speaker C: Yeah, you could put my contact information, you know, so people can email me. I'm on Instagram too, so you can find me there. Or if you put my website on, people can contact me through my website.
[00:55:24] Speaker B: I love what is the website and what is your Instagram handle?
[00:55:31] Speaker C: Sure. The website is www.my name e r I k and then hyphen f U-H-R-E-R.com and my Instagram is at Eric Eric J. Fuhrer.
[00:55:51] Speaker B: Eric, I want to thank you so much for coming on the show when this episode is. I think your book will either already be out or almost out. So congratulations on that release in advance and I do hope you will keep in touch and come back so we can talk more.
[00:56:23] Speaker C: Yeah. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.
[00:56:26] Speaker B: Thank you. Take care.
[00:56:28] Speaker C: You too.
[00:56:38] Speaker B: You have been listening to Disability Empowerment Now. I would like to thank my guests. You are listener and the Disability Empowerment team that made this episode possible.
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[00:57:38] Speaker A: It.
