Sara St. Kelley
Sara St. Kelley asked Isaac Marion:

Hey Isaac! I to start by telling you just how much I enjoyed The Burning World (a lot; I enjoyed it a lot) and that I'm so excited to read The Living. You are rad. Where did you come up with the title The Burning World? I was reading your old blog and I was struck when I was reminded it's called Burning Building. Does the blog title have anything to do with the book title? Or do you just like the word "burning"?

Isaac Marion They're not directly connected but they come from a similar idea. Fire can mean a lot of different things. It destroys, but it also provides warmth and light. It can mean chaos and ruin, but it also implies passion and fervor. "The Burning World" is meant to evoke both of those things. In a literal sense, R is entering a world that's in chaos. Various forces are vying for power. There's war and mayhem. And it feels like the Fire Church might be right, that God is coming to burn it all down. But in another sense, it's a positive thing. R is stepping out of his dead gray internal life and into a bright, noisy, colorful world of heat and light and that demands a lot more of him. He's engaging with life again, and it's hard. It's his biggest challenge yet. So the title is meant to evoke both of these senses.

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