Does this interview seem kind of bizarre? Well, Mike James ’07 is a director, writer, graphic design aficionado, and he’s just turned in a senior thesis, completing a WesCeleb interview only hours later! What a troope—e’ll make some Brooklyn orphanage very proud.

Laura: You’re doing a history thesis. Could you tell us what it’s about?

Mike: Well it’s about appeasement before World War II. Appeasement was basically the policy of the British trying to calm Hitler and trying to give Hitler things in order to avert war. Basically it’s a narrative about this guy Lord Halifax who went on this hunting exhibition and expedition, went to Germany, met with Hitler, and my whole thesis is that this one event, which basically set up appeasement as the policy of choice, was based on lies: the invitation to Germany was faked; the way the guy talked about names with Hitler was faked; it’s just a very manipulation-filled drama.

Justin: You said it was a narrative, so is it creative historical fiction?

M: Not at all! There are footnotes on every page. No, it was great to craft something with a kind of historical scientific process, making sure that you’re not saying anything that isn’t actually in the source but to craft it in a way that is interesting to read and that follows a story instead of an idea and lets the idea come out of the story. It was really fun.

L: Now you said you just turned it in?

M: This comes out on Friday, right? I printed it on Wednesday.

L: How are you feeling now?

M: I’m feeling great. I definitely don’t feel any kind of depression or separation from it, I still feel like it’s…a part of me.

J: How long is it?

M: 117 pages with front and back matter.

L: Matter? Like the end notes?

M: Like bibliographies and graphs…

J: …splattered brains.

M: We don’t like to talk about that part. It’s a very funny thesis! What the characters are saying and doing is just sometimes great.

L: Have you been writing a long time?

M: Well I started writing fiction junior year with Paula Sharp and I think I would want to do that as a supplement to whatever else I do. I wouldn’t want to live without writing.

L: You’re also a director.

M: Yes, I love directing.

L: How did you get started?

M: “The Faculty Room” was the first thing I directed. I had always wanted to see what directing was like, and I loved it, and directing “Electra” was even more fun and meaningful.

L: You were in Jess Chayes’ (’07) thesis, “We Can’t Reach You Hartford,” but you weren’t in the performances here.

M: Right. I went to Scotland with Jess and the group to do the circus play, and I just designed the poster for them actually, the one with the burnt edges. That was a fun process.

J: You were also in the senior thesis films, right? Whose were you in?

M: Tim Curtin’s (’07) and Jeni Morrison’s (’07). I’m a tailor in Tim’s film and a group leader in Jeni’s film … cult leader, I play a cult leader. I don’t want to give anything away, though. That was one of my favorite things about this year: seeing how much work people put into their theses and how together all the different components are.

L: You also have a website.

M: It’s a design website.

L: So all the posters on the website are posters you’ve designed?

M: Right.

J: How did you get into graphic design? Have you taken art classes here?

M: Yes, I took Topography and Graphic Design. I begged Jess if I could make a poster for [her play] “Tone Clusters,” and she said yes. I enjoyed making it and she enjoyed that I made it, and I kept making posters for her. I don’t know if I think of it as art more than relaying information visually, which is such a fun exercise. For me it activates the same parts of the brain that get activated in science classes or math classes that I don’t get to exercise that often, and I really love that. I can’t see myself not doing that as well.

J: So you’re going to be a writer and a poster-maker.

M: And an actor. Hopefully next year I’d like to do something meaningful and those three.

J: Combining those three or and those three?

L: Those three and helping orphans or something?

M: Helping orphans … can you get a day job in helping orphans?

J: I think you could work in an orphanage.

M: I shall work in an orphanage.

L: Or make orphanage posters?

M: I shall make orphanage posters.

L: Well you’re from Alaska, let’s talk about that. Have you met any other people from Alaska here?

M: There were a few.

J: I called an admitted student the other night from Alaska…from Anchorage.

M: Anchorage shmanchorage. Oh, I didn’t say that.

L: Is there a city rivalry?

M: Yes. Juneau is the capital, and people want to move the capital away from Juneau. Actually my parents live in Milwaukee so I feel kind of dirty talking about it, but people don’t like [Juneau], because it’s so far south.

J: What’s it like living in Alaska. Do you feel isolated?

M: Well, there are no roads going out of Juneau. Juneau’s actually the second biggest city in the U.S., because it’s enclosed, but as far as the amount of land it encloses.

L: Do you get a lot of un-PC jokes about Alaska?

M: Like about Eskimos, is that what you’re asking? I don’t know, no one really cares. Wesleyan’s very accepting.

J: Do you think you’re going to go back to Alaska after graduation?

M: No, after graduation I’m moving to Brooklyn.

L: Do you already have something set up in Brooklyn?

M: No, no, I have to find the orphanage. This is web-searchable, right? So when I apply for the orphanage, they’ll read this, and they’ll see how ambitious I am about helping children…what kind of children was it?

L: What, you mean orphans?

M: Orphans!

J: We’ll take that hesitation out.