Giveaway and Some Backstory
TRIGGER WARNING: Mentions of Serial K*lling and PTSD.
Nothing graphic in this post.
OK, so, hey again everyone! And, thank you for joining me in this blogging and promotional journey.
This post covers (in a pretty spoiler-free way) my published work, the short-story entitled "Knight Stalker: A Short Story in Three Parts," and presents a Giveaway from Goodreads! Enter with a Goodreads account between today and the 27th to win a copy out of one hundred I'm offering.
Goodreads Book Giveaway
Knight Stalker
by A.C. Rodríguez
Giveaway ends July 27, 2024.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.
This litfic short story is inspired by the Luis Buñuel film "Simon of the Desert," which I covered in the previous post. As well as a particularly strange case in history of a serial killer saying some alarmingly true things about society's perception of evil.
Stay with me ;) It's got meta elements. Although I don't want to spoon-feed any interpretations, the piece reflects the sadness and the madness of violence on a micro scale as well as a macro one.
It is certainly a choice to introduce myself with a dark piece. But, I won't have it any other way. Because of Dante's Inferno; I got to get this out first, and my other pieces will be much gentler and much easier reads.
STYLE
Please visit my personal site to read a broader list of artists I'm inspired by, as well as how my education shaped my style.
My personal style tends to mimic those of Symbolist authors like Péladan, Baudelaire, Verlaine, and mon petit diable Rimbaud. I read Rimbaud when I was twenty and he blew my mind. I knew I had to channel him in developing my own style. "Knight Stalker" is inspired by Rimbaud's "A Season in Hell", definitely, yes.
I also have a mind for magic realism. Like many good Colombians, I've read everything by Gabriel García Márquez. I love magic realism from all different parts of the world. In literature and poetry as well as in visual media of all sorts (films, theatre, series, drawings and paintings -- obviously I look up to and love The Great Frida and bear resemblances to her in artistic vision as well as in circumstances with chronic pain). I love the Latin American boom of the mid-twentieth century and as an artist soon-to-be-living in So. America (back to NYC, bae! 😍) I want to be a part of the new boom, the revolution in which LatAm discovers and defines its identity.
Another inspiration is Hinduism and Indian culture, which arrived in my life from friends and colleagues in NY as well as from learning about religion. Hindu gods/goddesses and Indian politics are very impressive to me. There are references in "Knight" to Śiva (destroyer god of the Hindu trinity) and śakti (energy behind the universe) and the root of "devil" possibly being from Sanskrit for "god" (deva / devī). Hindu cosmology reminds me of a wonderful balance of the Aristotelianism mentioned in Buñuel's "Simon" and traditional Christianity: the world goes on and on, yes, but at the same time begins and ends definitively (in "yugas" or "epochs.") My next piece, my novel, will delve way more into the beauty and magic I've found in Hinduism. I especially love music and dance from West Bengal, kathak. The rhythms and twirling are like the worldview. I like the female power in Hinduism.
I'm encouraging readers to give my dark short story a chance, a story half of which is written in poetic prose. Especially if you like works of art like Buñuel's "Simon." If you like art in which the Devil plays an alternate role beyond "the villain." The Devil is not looking at God; the Devil is looking at humans, amazed at what we're capable of. That is the moral of "Knight," if we can talk about art having morals.
In "Knight Stalker" I do what Buñuel does as far as revive an actual historical figure. It's got a similar theme, or at least a similar scenario: the Devil interacts with and confuses a man who has been isolated from society and has given her power as though she were God, she taunts him, and then they both time-travel.
JOURNEY
"Knight" is more of a mystic encounter with an archetypal story than an "id" self-insert about my traumas.
Since 2014, I have suffered a lot of personal traumas. In many different aspects in my life. Call it convergence or the onslaught of karmic payment for awakening to a deeper spiritual existence. Grief over deaths of people close to me, betrayal, fracturing my career, losing my house, noise and harassment during COVID-19 while living in the suburbs of New York City (the epicenter) totally isolated. Moving to the urban south. Actually, with fracturing my career: it's the prof that stifled my moving on to a PhD program, while getting my MA in theology, who was actually the one to show me "Simon." There's good material for learning and creating in the things that knock you down.
The trials have made me stronger, though, and I am empathetic to all people everywhere in the world suffering in a myriad of ways. That's fundamental to my art.
THE SILVER LINING...
throughout my life trajectory has been: storytelling and honing the craft of writing meaningful literature that stands the test of time and takes myself out of my own bubble.
BACKGROUND W/O SPOILERS
It was 2020 and I'd been writing a lot. Particularly formulating a litfic novel about two lovers in Los Angeles, a Mexican-Colombian character and a Japanese-Bengali-Welsh character. This novel is actually now finished, despite it being almost entirely different from the original except for the races of the characters, some of their circumstances and the general setting of the novel. [Publishing and promoting this full-length novel is part of the plan as posts continue.]
One of the characters in this novel as it was being written at the time was a megalomaniac great-grandfather. I was toying with the idea of sociopathy for him. I began researching famous sociopaths and psychopaths.
I came across the horrifying famous serial killer of the 80s.
(B u t, w e ' r e n o t g o i n g t o s a y h i s n a m e; i f y o u k n o w, y o u k n o w). A twenty-something Satanist who loved heavy metal music and decided to go on a r*pe/t*rture/theft/m*rder rampage across none other than the Los Angeles I was already writing so much about.
I got freaked out, but I stomached the descriptions.
One of the most impressionable things I found was when the killer was being interviewed and made a whopping statement about the world. It rang so true, and the disappointment gnaws at me that it comes from him. I don’t think he was smart enough to have come up with it himself; nonetheless, he said it and clung to it and it’s part of the misanthropic persona formed around him.
"Serial killers do on a small scale what governments do on a large one. They are a product of the times and these are bloodthirsty times. [...] People in this day and age are brainwashed and programmed like a computer at being nothing more than puppets. This nation, this country, is founded in violence. Violent delights tend to have violent ends. Madness is something rare in individuals, but in groups, people in ages, it is a rule. Killing is killing whether done for duty, profit or fun. Men murdered themselves into this democracy."
A quote that a biographer penned the killer also saying is, "if you go slaughter for a cause, they'll pin a medal on you, but if the only cause is yourself they'll put you in the gas chamber."
True statements shouldn't come from wicked people, but, the world is a strange place.
Back to discovering this killer in 2020, and, I remembered "Simon" with the irony of the Devil not being so much the villain as human beings being villains. The "anti-hero" of Milton's Paradise Lost, of course, and the very many attempts to make Satan a little less scary. In '22, I wrote a piece about this gross man meeting the Devil in the same way Simon meets Satan in the Buñuel film. Changed names. I divided it into three parts, the first's narration being more of a traditional narrative, and the next two being more like prose poetry. Except that while "Simon" has an atheist slant, subtly, mine has a Christian slant. Which may be strange given the kind of language I use and the imagery and themes -- which is why I put an Introductory Note to take care while reading.
This short story was put on the back burner, for the sake of my writing other things, including the novel. But, now seems like the right time to publish it.
I want this piece to introduce my repertoire because it's a strong shot of whiskey before easing in to far calmer pieces. Longer pieces.
Apart from Symbolist // Magic Realism Style // and Buñuel Inspiration, the piece also bears resemblance to C.S. Lewis' "The Screwtape Letters" a meta novella of demons writing elegant letters to each other in WWII England around the challenges of tempting their assigned "patient" (or, individual human person) away from God. "Screwtape," in my opinion, is a piece that's difficult to be interpreted apart from one's own religious beliefs. It remains popular among strict Catholics, Orthodox and Anglicans, and I've heard people from other denominations refer to it fondly too. And, so, you're going to have a particular view on “Screwtape” that I, as an artist, find will lead you into a specific socio-religious abstract dialogue rather than a broader one that demonstrates how pervasive religious-mindedness is in our twenty-first century world (and whether that's a good or bad thing).
"Knight Stalker" is also inspired by the "Death Note" manga, but not enough to make a direct link. Just that, mainly, there are a few similarities to the bond between Light and Ryuk.
IN CONCLUSION
My piece attempts to provoke broad socio-religious and political thought given our times, and also the very spiritual and personal. Also, it draws attention to hermeticism. It's very me. It's my own style and I have trouble with contemporary comparison titles (though I'll say that a voice reminding me of my own today is that of Ocean Vuong; I am a huge fan and I knew before I even heard him say it that he loved Rimbaud like I did).
Back to this piece being more than an "id" project. I'm an artist in the sense that I respect humankind's efforts to make everyone's life better (even if and when these efforts have on a large scale tended to get hacked and controlled by psychopaths). I'm also a Christian.
I don't perceive art as strict therapy sans an elaborate understanding of the human psyche. I see how art therapy and self-inserts are popular in the developed world. People are bubbled and seek simple comfort and/or thrills. I believe art is a lot greater than that! — and that everyone can do it. It’s just that we're not collectively conscious enough of our excellence. The underdeveloped world remembers it. The global south and many underdeveloped countries, as well as cultures that are uniquely different than the developed West, are free enough from hyper-absorption in media that new and interesting things can be given attention to and make people think.
My art is inspired by my being Hispanic, my being raised Hispanic in and around NYC.
It's inspired by artists throughout history who've told the truth through their art at the expense of risking their financial status and their reputation.
So, while I look forward to knowing the piece has offered something good to readers, even just from its prose or something, I'm not afraid of shade. I'm not afraid of my work being ignored. And, I welcome thoughtful critique, from the bottom of my heart.
"Knight Stalker: A Short Story in Three Parts"
is available for purchase on Kindle for $4.99... buuuut...
Please visit my Goodreads account or click the link at the top of this post to participate in the Giveaway with your own Goodreads account and hopefully receive a free copy.
Thank you!
To you, many peace and blessings.
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