LBC Podcast #3: Edward Falco

Nominator: Scott Esposito

Nominee: Sabbath Night in the Church of the Piranha, Edward Falco

Subjects Discussed: Definitive grit in rural settings, disturbing characters, sex and death, decorum in fiction, what's not talked about in fiction, manhood vs. multicultralism, Catholicism, the influence of personal background, Philip Roth's American Pastoral, World War II, realism vs. postmodernism, hypertext fiction, compulsions, experimental fiction, literary vs. commercial fiction, and writing in longhand vs. writing on computer.

Backup Link:  (MP3)

(A co-production of the LBC and The Bat Segundo Show)

Comments

[Dan Wickett]

Another great interview Ed, I enjoyed the follow up question to that interview from 1992!

[Ed Falco]

Thanks, Scott and Ed, for the good, liquor-fueled discussion of my stories. A couple of things come to mind after reading your back-and-forth on “The Instruments of Peace.” In my understanding of the story, its important that Deegan, the father and central character, comes out of a violent world. His father was a mean drunk, his sister was raped at age sixteen, and not long after that he was beaten half to death by two hooded guys wielding two-by-fours. While he was in the hospital recovering, he tells us that “his heart was full of murder,” and he fell into constant bloody reveries of revenge, and it was because of that attack and his reaction to it that he wound up upstate in the first place, trying to make a decent life, a life where he could escape from that kind of violence. So, for me, this story is about Deegan, about whether its possible for him to escape the violence around him and in his own heart. And I hope it opens up into some bigger questions, too. The title of the story comes from St Francis’s prayer: “Lord, let us be the instruments of thy peace.” The story ends with a view of the peaceful mountains and farm, and Deegan covered in blood. So what exactly does it mean in this world to be the instrument of God’s peace?

At any rate, I know these are some of the questions that engaged me while I was writing this story.

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[uv detector]

I dont have to express a huge reaction on this matter. Everything is explained precisely.