The Deception of the Thrush

The Deception of the Thrush

• One of the things I wanted to wrestle with in this novel is the nature of evil. Since college, when I saw what happen in Nazi Germany to Jews and other outsiders, including homosexuals, I’ve been fascinated with the nature of evil. I think that it’s always implicit in any story—the dark side of our nature. In our fantasy stories, the Harry Potter, Star Wars, Hunger Games and Lord of the Rings, the evil characters are conveniently cut out of the same cloth. They are careless people, bent on their own aggrandizement. It’s easy to dismiss them. The caring, good character must fight them, but love will win out, and the evil force will lose. We know that ahead of time. But what if the evil is not outside us, but within us, and something we have to come to terms with or it will destroy us? What if what causes evil is not just bad intentions but a blind need to cover up one’s inadequacies or deny what is one’s own truth? As Gospel of Thomas has Jesus say, “If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.” That’s what I wanted to work through with my main character Jason and the price he pays when he does not bring forth what is within him.