RADIO INTERVIEWS AND AUDIO OF TV INTERVIEWS MAY BE REPLAYED ON FOLLOWING LINKS:
Dr. THOMAS MOORE about "The Progress of Man":
Ben Olson:
He now lives in a small cabin in North Idaho where he divides his time between writing and swatting bugs, taking long and worthless road trips, and drinking in dive bars throughout the West.
This book evolved from years of struggle. Years of gut-wrenching poverty. Years of butting my head against the walls of mediocre art. For too long I’ve seen my society deflating and dumbing down the masses to fools. I wondered if it was still possible to write a great novel, and if so, was there anyone left to read it?
This is not a great novel. It will never be on any best-seller lists. Oprah won’t select it for her book club. I don’t want her to. That would defeat the whole purpose. I didn’t write this for Them. I wrote this for the Others of the world – those who don’t fit into the American version of what’s “good” (i.e. what sells – who cares what it really says, right?) Right? Elitist? Sure.
This is a truthful account of a common man’s struggle in a dirty, shitty, exploding, apathetic world, and that is why it has merit. Sure it’s fiction, but I only write fiction because I have to. I need the protection that it provides. Every writer knows that there is no real fiction, for what we put on the page stems from our experiences.
I believe in something that will never die – the notion that you can still live free in America, and do whatever the fuck you want between the poles. Write obscene words, drink whiskey, sleep with loose women, drive fast on the wrong side of the road, stay up til dawn doing hard drugs, piss on streetcorners, throw rocks through real estate windows, fall in love with ghosts… I live how I want to live, I capture the moments I want to capture, and I know it is Art. I know it is Truth. And I know I can function here in America, as much as I dislike it at times.
I am just like you, perhaps, and I’m so confused. I was born in the wrong era, it seems. I should’ve been a pirate or a rum-runner or a goddamn Roman gladiator. Instead I’m just a dipshit among douche-bags. A bum inside the gates. I’m just a poor bastard who has read too many great novels and copied too many great styles.
I’ve rejected the American Dream… it means nothing to me now. Who the hell wants to raise a family and get a real job and punch a clock 50 weeks a year? Not me. It’s just futile effort and early death. I want the side door… the loophole. I know it’s there.
I know I’m full of shit. I know I have my head three feet up my ass. And I know you do too. So be it. There’s a literary renaissance occurring now – people are waking from the slumber and growing tired of reading and watching and listening to empty confectionary trash. This is my attempt at something real. I may have failed, but I tried, and I’ll damn sure keep doing it. I didn’t write it to make money, or become famous… that’s what people become actors for. No, I wrote it because I had to. I wrote it for you.
“Wanderlost” was written on the go, during a month-long train trip Ben Olson took around America. Max Manchester is a 25-year-old anti-hero languishing in poverty, struggling to make it as a writer and suffering from the disenchantment that characterizes post-collegiate life; searching for the soul and substance he feels lacking in his generation. Surrounded by alcoholic pseudo-intellectuals and other members of the “Non-Generation,” Max’s life is spinning out of control. His nights are spent in a drunken blur of barroom philosophy, half-felt sexual encounters and stunted attempts at art. His days consist of butting against the rampant crass pop culture and the world defined by catch-phrase ideology and morally bankrupt politicians waging pointless wars.
Finally, one desolate north Idaho winter, as Max’s mailbox slowly fills with rejection slips and he nurses yet another hangover, he’s overcome by a feeling of entrapment. Haunted by fears that his life is wasting away and lured by dreams of one day understanding, he decides to break with the comfort of his home and re-discover a sense of meaning.
He escapes.
With an Amtrak USA Rail Pass and a pack on his back, Max sets out to find America again, armed with the bitterness of his past and the yearning to find something pure again. He travels around the country, stopping and going from the train as he pleased, hitchhiking and sharing rides with drug runners, gigolos and other strangers of the American road.
“Wanderlost” captures the essence of that strange period of life after college and before looming adulthood; when idealism is still a good thing, when one must choose to embrace the often mediocre task of mundane existence, or burn free and live according to the principles of our hearts. It is a coming-of-age tale, a humorous road narrative and an acerbically accurate portrayal of modern America Life in all its beauty and futility, written in a personal uninhibited style of journalistic prose.
Brian Caldwell Interviewed:
WE ALL FALL DOWN: The Bible is true, and Armageddon is now. The nature of hatred and forgiveness are highlighted through Jimmy’s confrontation with God, and himself.
The Bible is true, the prophets were right, and Armageddon is now: Brian Caldwell explores the nature of hatred and forgiveness, divinity and damnation through the story of one person's confrontation with the end of the world, God, and, most harrowingly, himself. When you no longer need question the nature of the universe, does it follow you no longer need question the nature of your soul?
BRIAN CALDWELL'S short fiction has appeared in numerous magazines, including, THE THRESHOLD, THE TRANSCRIPT, and THE BROWNSTONE REVIEW. WE ALL FALL DOWN is his first novel. He currently lives in Salem, Massachusetts with his wife and two young sons.
Brian Caldwell- We All Fall Down INTERVIEW:
Q: We All Fall Down is a harsh, adult novel exploring Christianity, a subject that is rarely tackled in that way, why did you want to write a book that did this?
A: At least a bit of it came out of anger. I was raised Catholic and the older I got, the less I liked the way my religion seemed to be playing itself out and presenting itself in the culture. I don’t know when exactly it happened, but somewhere down the line, a certain lifestyle seemed to attach itself to Christianity sort of like a rider on a bill, and it was a lifestyle that, to me, seemed wholly arbitrary and, to me, rather distasteful.
Q: Could you describe the lifestyle your talking about?
A: Yeah, it’s a bit like Father Knows Best, only less controversial and intellectual. At some point in America, really boring, self-righteous, self-satisfied people claimed Christianity for themselves. If you were a Christian, you couldn’t smoke, couldn’t drink, couldn’t swear, couldn’t talk about sex, couldn’t see R rated movies, and, worst of all, couldn’t think anymore. Couldn’t question. A real conservatism took over the religion and I think that a lot of so-called Generation X, my generation got left out in the cold.
It didn’t matter for a while, because we were young and we were going to live forever, so who cares? But I think that now that my generation is in its 30’s and 40’s, we can just start to eyeball death down the road and we’re raising kids and we’re starting to feel the affects of being locked out of our own religion.
I mean, if you look at the books being written about Christianity by Christians, they’re so shockingly boring and insular. You can always tell who the evil person is in Christian fiction because they’re smoking a cigarette. Well, I smoke and I don’t think I’m evil.
I think God and religion are fascinating topics, in some ways, I think they’re the most important subject for us to come to terms with as human beings. It’s certainly making a major impact in world politics, as it always has, be it in Islamist based terrorism or Dubya Bush’s deep Christianity. It’s an important topic and I got sick and tired of it being spoken about and explored in the language of an after-school special. I wanted to write a book that someone who read Fight Club wouldn’t be ashamed to pick up and read.
Q: What do you think about the current infusion of religion in politics?
A: I find it frightening and wish every religion would stay completely clear of politics. The Christian right scares the hell out of me and seems about as un-Christian as anything I’ve ever seen, I mean, does anyone really think that if Jesus came back that he’d be hanging around with Bush and the gang demonizing the homosexuals and the illegal Mexicans? Calling Gas Chambers showers doesn’t change what they really are anymore than throwing the word compassionate in front of conservative makes that true.
But I don’ think the churches should get involved in protesting the war or capital punishment, or anything else, frankly. Yeah, like everyone, I think MLK was great, and what he did for civil rights was amazing, but if we allow for some political involvement, it opens the door to the rest. And I think if you want to change this world, you should get involved in politics, not religion.
Religion is about the soul, not the body.
Q: You don’t think churches should feed to poor or help the needy?
A: I don’t think they should ignore them, but that’s really not what their job is. Look, if I see an old woman being mugged, I should do something about it, but I’m a teacher and a writer, and if I start driving around at night looking for that kind of stuff, I should probably just become a cop.
I don’t think religion should get side-tracked. If there is an afterlife, I think it’s a hell of a lot more important to sort that out for people than the few 70 or 80 years we’re here. Eternity’s a long time
Q: Getting back to your book, there’s an enormous amount of profanity and violence in We All Fall Down. Do you think that was appropriate in a Christian book?
A: Well, it’s not a Christian book. It’s a book about Christianity. So, yeah, it’s totally appropriate. In the world I live in, people don’t say ‘heck’ or ‘fudge’. People talk about the enormous amount of swearing, but they really should walk down the hall of a high school and they’d see I downplayed it.
This is one of the problems of what Christianity’s become. It’s supposed to deal with sin, but it refuses to face up to it. We All Fall Down is about the end of the world, about a world without God, how do you write that with even the smallest amount of realism and not include sex and violence and profanity. You don’t overcome sin without looking at it
And, of course, there is enormous hypocrisy when it comes to this. Christians will moan about the saturation of sex and violence in the media, something that’s a serious problem, but then embrace a movie like The Passion which is pretty much just violent pornography. That was the most violent movie I ever saw, probably the most violent one that was ever produced, but suddenly that’s ok?
Q: Did you like it? It was a more adult exploration of Christianity, which you’ve said you want.
A: It was well made, certainly, but I thought it was kind of stupid. I mean, for starters, if you whip about a third of a person’s flesh off, like in the movie, you bleed out pretty quick. It was overdone. But even more, what was the point? Am I supposed to feel guilty and become a Christian? If a Muslim was tortured twice as bad, should I become a Muslim? Those Heaven’s Gate’s freaks castrated themselves, maybe I need to become one of them.
And this is the real problem, I think which is that, aside from the fact that Christianity demands a white bread, boring lifestyle, it also demands an intellectually stupid one. I don’t want to minimize the idea of how much crucifixion sucked, but what was it someone once said? “Jesus Christ had a really bad day for your sins.” If I knew after I died there would be an eternity of complete and utter bliss, that’s I’d be second in command of Heaven, honestly, a day of torture would not be that bad.
It’s certainly not reason enough to hand your life over to a belief. And the belief itself is really odd. God made us the way we were, knew we were going to sin, then put sin in our face, then punished us for our sins. We couldn’t go to Heaven because of sins that God knew we were going to commit, so he made a son who needed to be horribly tortured and killed. Then we could go to heaven. As long as we believed in that story. If we didn’t believe in it, we’d go to hell. Forever. Because we didn’t believe in a story.
Q: Sounds like you don’t have a lot of respect for the basic Christian beliefs.
A: Not when they equate to that. The thing that always jammed me up was the Jews. I would say that we all agree that the Holocaust was probably the most brutal, horrendous event in human history. So these six million or so people suffer for a few years, are tortured, terrorized, and killed. And after this, our loving God sends each and every one of them to hell? Hitler tortured them for a few measly years, but then God is going to do it forever? Because they don’t believe in the right thing?
I know a lot of people in my generation became atheists or at least agnostics because questions like this couldn’t seem to be answered, or if they were, the answers were so insultingly simplistic, “God moves in mysterious ways,” that they just shut down that part of their life. But we can’t do that forever, and I do think there’s a lot of truth in the Bible, but it’s adult truth, intelligent truth, difficult truth.
I’m always shocked when people give their kids a Noah’s Arc toy. I always want to say, “Yeah, that’s adorable. Does it come with extra stuffed toys of the MILLIONS OF BLOATED CORPSES OF BABIES AND WOMEN AND CHILDREN GOD DROWNED?” It’s not a children’s story and yet the entire religion has become so simplified, that it shouldn’t be a huge surprise that a fun little story about genocide would become children’s entertainment.
