Female Evil: An Interview with Rennie Sparks, author and lyricist

1/ How long have you wanted to write, and which previous authors would you say you’ve been most inspired or affected by? What are some ways you try to replicate these writers’ effect on you the reader in your own writing?

I’ve been writing since I was a teenager so about twenty years. I love William Faulkner, Virginia Woolf and the gothic novels of Joyce Carol Oates. I like long, winding sentences that are filled with hysteria and vivid images.

2/ Chains like Borders or Barnes & Noble are forcing the closure of used bookstores, and combined with popular websites like amazon, are effectively shutting out the independent publisher with prohibitive shipping charges and their seeming monopoly of public attention. Whenever possible, I order directly from the publisher’s website or mailing address. What’s your best suggestion toward the sustenance of independent concerns like Black Hole Press or Carrot Top Records in light of the increasing corporate takeover?

The internet has only been a help to us, but we don’t have a store. We no longer depend on large chains to sell our cds. The internet has freed us up to work on our own. I can’t speak for Carrot Top though. It’s probably a very tough time for them these days.

3/ You said “we’re all killer and victim in this” in an email interview with HERE Magazine I read, in response to the interviewer’s query about the mechanics of evoking beauty and fatalism simultaneously in your writing—implying that in some way, we collectively deserve present social and political conditions in line with some cosmic or celestial principle of retribution. What are your thoughts on destiny?

Right now I’m hoping that the destiny of humanity is extinction. It’s the best thing for this planet and for the myriad forms of life that we abuse, slaughter, enslave and treat as meaningless everyday. I don’t mean that we should all die in a fiery apocalypse. All we have to do is stop breeding. I don’t think there is cosmic retribution. I think that the worst evil on this planet tends to reap the most rewards. My theory is that this is some kind of hell realm in which goodness and compassion is likely to remove you from this place quicker. It may appear to us that all the trees and animals and fish are dying off, but maybe they’re going somewhere better and we’re stuck here.

4/ Handsome Family lyrics avoid dogmatism, remaining conclusively irresolute while implying certain interpretations in passing. The stories in Evil seem unflinchingly literal by comparison. Are your stories written consciously in a different “voice” from your lyrics?

Yes, of course, the lyrics are for Brett to sing for the most part. Plus lyrics are a different art form then fiction writing. Words that are meant to be sung are different then words that are meant to be read. I believe there are unsolvable mysteries all around us and I am very thankful for them.

5/ Who’s your favorite struggling band or writer and where can people find their music or their books?

Our top eight friends on my space are all great artists that are not well known: Trilobite, Rivet Gang, Selsun Blue, Fast Heart Mart, Thax Douglas... Click on their pages to meet them.

6/ The female protagonists in 12 of the 13 stories in Evil uniformly and conclusively defy and disprove the mass-American stereotype of the inherently pleasant, yielding female, while the male protagonist of  “The Dark Tunnel,”  is clearly malevolent and insane but in no way morally or ethically any more or less screwed up than any of his female predecessors. Was there any conscious reason to include only one story from a first person male viewpoint in your collection, and was your choice of this one in any way a conscious reflection of your personal opinions on gender?

Well, I guess enough has been said about men and evil. I was interested in thinking more of female evil.

7/ New Mexico is full of ghost stories, for instance the one about La Llorona, or “weeping woman” who wanders the banks of the Rio Grande each night, mourning and seeking her poor, drowned children, and there are reports from pre-colonial time to the present of UFO’s in the area. What’s your relationship to the spiritual personality of New Mexico, what effects has it had on your thinking and your writing?

I am kept alive everyday here by the breathtaking sunsets, the endless sky, the shining light that springs up in all the crazy, thorny plants here. Yes, I know La Llorona. She’s still weeping, still looking for the children she drowned. She drags chains and wears black. That dark, fatal spirit is here, but also the Santuario de Chimayó where there are piles of crutches laid down next to the magic healing dirt. Lots of glittery virgin de gaudalupe art and lots of skulls and blood. It feels good to see all these things.

8/ What’s coming up for the Handsome Family, and what’s the next step in your literary career besides that venue—do you plan to write another book of stories or a novel?

I’m working on a novel that takes place in the 17th century. It’s a sort of retelling of the Salem witch trials, the Mayflower crossing and the disappearance of the Roanoke colony alll mixed together. Also writing for a new cd now too. It’s going to be all love songs.