Signtology Day Two: Countdown to Signs of Life

Day 2 of the countdown to Signs of Life Release Day March 29!

 

 

So what do I use as the backdrop for Signs of Life? Famously, I used The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in Melt. As you may know, I didn’t choose it. A voice told me to use it. (The details are in my daily meltdown posts from Melt’s pre-release.)

I feature William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying in Signs of Life. I did it consciously, though I feel the die was cast when I read As I Lay Dying in my MFA program years ago.

As I Lay Dying was the book which inspired me to write in dual voices. Faulkner showed me the power in perspectives, that a story was as different as its tellers. What a revelation!

I’ll be discussing the parallel, timeless themes between As I Lay Dying with Signs of Life in my upcoming posts.

Here is one thought I’ll leave you with:

“Themes that critics have highlighted [in As I Lay Dying] include…the nature of heroism, the nature of time or being, isolation, dehumanized humanity, and language.”

— An interpretation of William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying

(Source: As I Lay Dying: Stories out of Stories

by Warwick Wadlington, p. 21)

Maybe you can see why I’m so drawn to it!