Television, and now social media, are exceptionally preoccupied with nostalgia. Today both are replete with commemorations of the events of fourteen years ago—mainly the Twin Towers’ coming down—often in conjunction with some reminiscence about the subsequent invasions (and the “war on terror”) for which the events served pretext.
Elsewhere I have remarked, that those events have provided the defining moments of my (writing) career—at least as I choose to remember it. Publication of my book The Soul’s Refinement was preempted so that I could rush Against Holy War to the press in time for March 11, 2002, the six-month anniversary. (My play War for Peace and book The Condemnation addressed the invasion of Iraq specifically.)
In a promotional interview I did, I mentioned how my “faith-based response” was not appreciated by all readers. Time was short, but I submitted my manuscript to several well-known public figures, hoping to get a blurb for the back cover. None obliged me, with the exception of John Shelby Spong. To this date I feel lucky, honored, and pleased, that Bishop Spong did me that courtesy. The tide has not yet turned, to a preference for peace before war, among my countrymen; though more and more every day fingers are pointed about the motivations and perpetrators of the ill-fated cause.
As an author, I could not have asked for more:
Elsewhere I have remarked, that those events have provided the defining moments of my (writing) career—at least as I choose to remember it. Publication of my book The Soul’s Refinement was preempted so that I could rush Against Holy War to the press in time for March 11, 2002, the six-month anniversary. (My play War for Peace and book The Condemnation addressed the invasion of Iraq specifically.)
In a promotional interview I did, I mentioned how my “faith-based response” was not appreciated by all readers. Time was short, but I submitted my manuscript to several well-known public figures, hoping to get a blurb for the back cover. None obliged me, with the exception of John Shelby Spong. To this date I feel lucky, honored, and pleased, that Bishop Spong did me that courtesy. The tide has not yet turned, to a preference for peace before war, among my countrymen; though more and more every day fingers are pointed about the motivations and perpetrators of the ill-fated cause.
As an author, I could not have asked for more:
David Novak invites his audience to soar beyond hate and division to love and oneness. He shows us a world where even religious convictions that separate us from one another can be set aside. His is a plaintive, even a lonely voice emerging from the rubble of September 11 calling us to abandon revenge for God’s sake and for ours.
I did not realize that I was “calling” for that—but today online I noted several voices lamenting the “cycle of revenge” which seems to have ensued. While sales did not lag—owing perhaps to topicality of theme (though I’ve always considered ampleness of “white space” on the page to be a factor)—a least one reviewer questioned my integrity for choosing such a theme: “Granted, it's hard to write on a religious theme without sounding like a preachy Bible salesman, but lines like "A friend of mine, this past September / Was murdered by / A man depressed, who snuffed life's ember / With wish to die." sound offensive, sound to me like the disgraceful selling out of an American tragedy—did 2800 people die in order to sell David Novak books?”
Against this, in retrospect, I am comforted to have my name, via this one blurb, linked to that of Bishop Spong.
Against this, in retrospect, I am comforted to have my name, via this one blurb, linked to that of Bishop Spong.
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