Listen to the October 2006 interview with Robert Olen Butler about his novel, Severance.
What insider information did you glean from the interview? How does listening to the author’s reading of the piece help you imagine the final moments of the Dragon slain by St. George? There are also five more readings on the same web page, including the author’s own imagined “severance”.
Post your thoughts on the contemplation of the incomprehensible – death.
I think that the interview was insightful in showing what the author's intent was for his book. He wasn't writing it to be gross, or to scare people. It wasn't necessarily written about their death, but of important moments in their lives. He wrote about realistic emotions and thoughts of people who were beheaded, each story unique and with its own meaning. Personally, I don't think about death all that often, but I truly can't imagine a death such as decapitation. When I think of that type of murder or death my mind first wanders to the martyrs I have heard about, Christians who have been severely persecuted. That I consider a noble way to die, but some of the "severence" stories are less noble in my opinion, and sort of frightening.
ReplyDeleteBy listening to the author’s reading of the piece helps me gain a better understanding of how St. George may have been saying his final words/ thoughts. From this interview, I found that he had completed his book just before the decapitation of hostages in Iraq and other places in the Middle East had begun. I found it interesting that he chose to go back to his book and write two more pieces as a result to the events in Iraq.
ReplyDeleteI found it incredibly spooky that Robert Olen Butler’s final thoughts of the piece were, “So I stuck my head out to listen”. I find this dreary and wretched and its feels like a punch to the face. During his own severance, it really is incomprehensible of what is going on… we realize he’s in a museum on the job observing a guillotine and it makes us wonder if it was mere fun that turned into an accident. He spoke of signing autographs which made me think that hadn’t been his death and then abruptly the elevator ride declares the end.
I think that the interview showed a little bit of the author's thoughts on death, and how he found it so interesting. However, I think it is also creepy and depressing that he willingly wrote about this event in other's lives, as well as his own. It seems very unusual that a normal person who is happy with their life, would spend so much time imagining death. This interview helped me understand the way the passages were meant to be read, but did little to explain why Butler wrote the stories in the first place.
ReplyDeleteThe interview helped me see Robert Olen Butler's purpose and inspiration for writing Severance. Each of Butler's pieces is connected by common humanity, which Butler explains "really had to do with how they lived, not how they died". Butler was very intact with is creative side to get into the minds of St. George, Marie-Antoinette, Medusa, Anne Boyeln, and the list goes on.... When Butler read St. George, it was easier for me to see the poetic nature of his short story. I think that Butler also managed to have fun with Severance, the chicken piece was well crafted and humorous, proposing that the chicken had crossed the road for loves sake. Also, Robert Olen Butler's own death is in Severance, which shows us that Butler is comfortable in exploring even his own last thoughts.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I just realized that the red line crossing the woman's neck on the book cover, is slicing her head off. Her head appears as though it is sliding and it's no longer aligned with her neck... CREEPY!
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