Author Sean Strnad Reflects on Life, Death, and the Release of His First Novel
With his new novel, Bennett, Michigan-based author Sean Strnad continues the age-old tradition of philosophical reflection in the context of a modern narrative. Bringing to mind the spiritual journeys and intimate dialogues of Hesse’s best works, as told with a casual frankness recalling Bukowski, Bennett is a novel you are likely to put down only in order to take time to ponder the big questions. I spoke with Sean Strnad in lieu of the novel’s September 2014 release.
W.A. Raymond: Can you describe your writing process? To my knowledge, this is your first published work – what got you started and how long did it take you to complete?
Sean Strnad: The writing process itself didn’t take too long. I had been mulling over ideas for a while but didn’t have the discipline or patience to put anything substantial on paper. What motivated me was getting back into reading, which has become a delightful obsession. Then one day I had the theme and the basic arc for the book pop into mind, and I simply began writing, pretty much non-stop, night and day, for three weeks. That was back in February. Since then I’ve read the work dozens of times and have made tons of changes, thankfully with some major help from my friend and editor, Adam Opoka. The editing process took much more time than the actual writing did, and even though that still required a lot of sweat, it came with a lot less internal pressure.
WAR: There are many references in your novel to classic literature, and also to scientific works and even popular music. Would you talk about some of your influences and what they may have meant to you?
SS: I’d have to say the first book I really remember having a significant impact on me, in terms of stoking my interests in reading and writing, was J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher In the Rye. It sounds cliché but to this day I think it stands alone in capturing that sense of teen angst we all feel at one time or another. Other authors and books I’d credit for significantly influencing my approach, especially to this work, include Kurt Vonnegut, specifically Slaughterhouse-Five, Charles Bukwoski‘s Ham on Rye, Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha, and a few novels by John Steinbeck – by the way, in no sense do I mean that anything I’ve written comes anywhere near those. I definitely aimed high but where the target landed is, well, up to the reader to judge. In terms of the scientific literature I’ve been deeply impacted by, I’d have to say The Greatest Show on Earth by Richard Dawkins was a game-changer, and of course, The Selfish Gene. And Darwin’s Dangerous Idea by Daniel Dennett. But especially Dawkins, he opened up a lot of doors for me, in terms of how I’ve come to view and think about the world. Growing up in a fundamentalist Christian home, I was very ignorant to the theory of evolution or how natural selection works. He shattered the false caricatures I was taught and really showed how simple and elegant Darwin’s vision is. He calls it a consciousness-raiser. I agree. Or as Dennett describes it, a “universal acid.”
WAR: Although the story very obviously centers on Bennett, Sara’s character is also very central. Do you feel an affinity towards any character in particular, or with a certain character’s philosophy?
SS: Yeah, all of them because I wrote it! But I identify with Bennett the most, thankfully not yet in terms of age or health, but in realizing that death is staring us down every moment of our lives. Each day I kind of accept the possibility that by the same time next week I could be six feet under or more preferably, in an urn. That really used to scare the piss out of me but once I came to terms with it – at least the best one can, intellectually, I think, and for the time being anyway – like Bennett realizes there’s no point in living with the fear.
WAR: Coming to terms with one’s mortality is arguably the overriding theme of Bennett. What led you to explore this particular theme? Did the process of exploring it within the character of Bennett lead you to any particular insights?
SS: I would say the theme is not simply coming to terms with your own mortality but also coming to grips with the reality that we’re essentially material beings who are alone in a Universe where the cycles of life and death occur at every instant. That is say, the gist of this novel is owning up to the fact that life truly is precious, that every minute is worth embracing, that we don’t have eternity to accomplish what we want to. As far as I’m concerned, there are no ancient deities waiting for us at the end of the dance. And for some, including myself at one point, that’s a truly terrifying realization. But all the more I think that should inspire, rather than defeat. Who we are and what we do with our relatively short time on Earth matters more than anything possibly could. It matters for our children and their children and so on. I’ve talked with many atheists and religious believers who seem most drawn to superstition because they cannot cope with this reality. I think part of the reason they cannot cope with it is because they’ve had their expectations for life and death and what it all means distorted from a young age with superfluous notions of meaning and morality. So to reiterate your earlier question, part of my thought process in writing this was to offer a character that people can hopefully relate to, perhaps find therapeutic if they’re also struggling to accept the reality that is presented to us. And for myself it was helpful in terms of writing down Bennett’s various dream sequences because I often wake up from a dream that just hits me with tons of raw emotion like, “What the fuck? Where did that come from?”
WAR: Dream sequences occur frequently in the novel. Do you take a particular view as to the role of dreams in human consciousness? Bennett often seems to be replaying events from his life, in a convoluted way that suggests a need for closure. Do you think that the unconscious uses dreams as a way to deal with regret or work out problems from the past?
SS: In terms of the physiological or psychological role that dreams play in human consciousness, or perhaps even animal consciousness, that’s a frontier I’d like to explore further in the future. I’m inclined to think they’re an evolutionary byproduct of the brain’s hardware. Obviously, I don’t take the view many ancient thinkers did, that dreams are vehicles to other worlds. I do think that dreams represent our mind’s attempt at problem-solving conflicting emotions or thoughts we’ve acquired, our conscious self even sometimes unaware of them prior to the dream. In my own experience, I’ve had reoccurring dreams of people that were at one time or another very important to my daily routine– people I use to go to school with or close friends and whatnot. It can be frustrating because sometimes I’ll wake up and like I said, I’ll just be feeling tons of raw emotion, like missing someone who I haven’t even thought about in years. So in writing this, using Bennett as my outlet, it was therapeutic in that regard and actually I think I’ve slept better lately too.
WAR: There is a dream in which Bennett cuts his hand, and when his wife finds him she asks whose blood is on his hands. When Bennett awakes, he decides to do something rather uncharacteristic – read the Bible. Care to speak about the influence of guilt that affects individuals – sometimes unconsciously but indefinitely – who have to come to terms with breaking away from a religious history? Do you see this as something that is occurring on a cultural level in the scientific era?
SS: That’s an acute observation. I wish I had thought of that [laughs]. I think it’s rightly said that religion– especially the tradition I was brought up in, Christianity– is more or less analogous to a virus of the mind. There’s nothing that I find more repulsive than the indoctrination of children. That is, when religion is repeatedly forced onto young, developing minds through fear and ignorance. It’s a form of child abuse; then to trick a person into believing that humanity and everything “of the flesh,” i.e. the world, is somehow corrupted or guilty of the crime of “free will,” a notion that is itself largely contentious and/or misunderstood. I say the crime of free will because that’s basically what the Bible teaches. We’re told that God bestowed on us this wonderful gift and yet if we dare use it to accomplish anything that goes against his instructions, such as questioning if there even is a God, then we’re guilty of sin. It saddens me to witness countless individuals throughout history torturing themselves over what is and is not permitted by “God’s laws.” If only they had learned to give up their beliefs, or had even felt the freedom to, I think mankind would have been spared a great deal of psychological damage. Speaking of present times, there definitely seems to be a struggle in our culture to reconcile scientific knowledge with archaic ideas that are only deemed sacred because of their age.
WAR: There’s a scene in the book – Bennett and Sara are speaking about death and meaning while having a picnic – and Bennett states he always wanted to write a book. In this context, do you view the release of your first novel as a kind of Emersonian monument, a project motivated by a desire to transcend death? I found it interesting that even when Bennett knows he has little time to live, he continually considers ideas for his book.
SS: Yeah, Bennett realizes that the only way to overcome his prognosis is creativity, although it doesn’t come easy for him. I definitely think this was a monumental achievement in that sense. To complete a work or have it be recognized brings almost a spiritual fulfillment, especially to see it satisfy others.
WAR: Do you have plans to write anything in the future? If so, would you consider venturing beyond fiction? There is a strong philosophical current throughout Bennett, and it appears that science is also something that interests you…
SS: I have some ideas for a second novel, as well as a short essay or pamphlet I’ve wanted to write for some time. The latter would continue some of the themes I lightly touched upon in Bennett but in a more formal manner. For my second fiction, I won’t say much but this: I currently envision it as a story about a group of friends who live in America during the Gold Rush; also, I’d like to avoid the subjects I wrote about in Bennett as much as possible, though admittedly I do find myself constantly being drawn back to them.
Bennett will be available online and through Michigan retailers September 23, 2014. For further information visit
http://www.facebook.com/bennettbook?ref=br_tf
![[Image: 8d5239_077cca1e469e450e981154a1048c09b6....00_jpg_srz]](https://images.weserv.nl/?url=static.wixstatic.com%2Fmedia%2F8d5239_077cca1e469e450e981154a1048c09b6.jpg_srz_p_956_956_75_22_0.50_1.20_0.00_jpg_srz)
![[Image: 8d5239_2b80b2368121425696b325dce95a6b14....00_jpg_srz]](https://images.weserv.nl/?url=static.wixstatic.com%2Fmedia%2F8d5239_2b80b2368121425696b325dce95a6b14.jpg_srz_p_596_596_75_22_0.50_1.20_0.00_jpg_srz)
![[Image: 8d5239_8b21186126d94410abaeeee9cb63f45e....00_jpg_srz]](https://images.weserv.nl/?url=static.wixstatic.com%2Fmedia%2F8d5239_8b21186126d94410abaeeee9cb63f45e.jpg_srz_p_596_596_75_22_0.50_1.20_0.00_jpg_srz)
![[Image: 8d5239_ac7e4fef222140799ebedda373138864....00_jpg_srz]](https://images.weserv.nl/?url=static.wixstatic.com%2Fmedia%2F8d5239_ac7e4fef222140799ebedda373138864.jpg_srz_p_596_596_75_22_0.50_1.20_0.00_jpg_srz)
)
