So hmm, sometimes, when we are not thinking about our dresses or how much we hate pants or where we put our dental floss, we start thinking about, you know, the nature of God, the possibility of an afterlife, etc etc. And that is when we are so glad that we know Scott Korb and his wonderful new book, The Faith Between Us.
We will also say that his co-author, Peter Bebergal, wrote our favorite short story we've ever read. It was about a swan, and it was freaking brilliant.
Anyway. We will have some more book recommendations later this week, because you can never have too many book recommendations. Otherwise, you end up like us, watching Coupling on BBC America on Demand until three in the morning. So now, for some questions, and much more informed answers, to and from Scott. Please ignore the parts that might suggest this interview was conducted, like, before the recent holidays.
Bunnyshop: Why did you decide to co-author a book about faith and religion, when clearly the best way to become successful in this country is to release a sex tape?
Scott Korb: I wish someone would have told me this six years ago when I met Peter and we started talking about working on a book together. We might have just had a crazy fling, taped it, and then have suffered a public shame more lucrative that admitting to believing in God. For what it's worth, though, there's a moment in the book when I write a little about a conversation Peter and I once had about porn. And there's the chapter called "The Virgin," which details my first awkward fumblings, at fourteen, with a girl named Lynn, and, while not as explicit as a sex tape, does contain the phrase "handjobs on floors," which is not hot at all, I realize.
BS: What do you make of the recent spate of attention-grabbing books arguing against religion, like The God Delusion and God Is Not Great? Do you think they engender positive debate, or is it just fashionable to pile on the faithful at this point?
SK: Peter and I wrote an essay about those atheists this summer. It's here if your readers are interested. For what it's worth, we end this way: "As religious moderates, we find nothing more troubling than the belief that 'faith alone' is what ties us to God and makes us believers. In this scenario, God seems needy and jealous, not at all a model for ethical living. This is not to say that we can't believe—only that it doesn't really matter. Emphasizing belief threatens to make religious action irrelevant. Atheists and religious people alike would do well to remember that it's ethics and not belief that has, from the earliest moments of religious life, bound faithful people together. And it's here still today—in stories of faithful friendships, the births of the children, the cycles of life and death, and the moral innovation necessary to make our synagogues and churches more inclusive—that the meaning of God is found."
BS: How, as a believer, do you deal with the unbelievably commercial aspects of the Christmas season [like we said, we are pretending it's about December 20]? How do you participate in it (assuming you do, and I assume thusly) without becoming a cog in the marketing machine?
SK: I've always had a hard time receiving gifts and, more generally, owning things. (Peter notes this this the book in a complaint about how much music I own that I never bought.) Although as I move around the city from apartment to apartment—a little disgusted by my increasing rents—I realize I do own quite a lot of stuff.
It's hard to ignore, much less not participate in, the holiday commercialism. Some of it is gross. Although I don't spend a lot of time in the stores.
And at this point, stacks of gifts to the ceiling are as familiar as the prayers and incense at church. I love Christmas day. My mom has a rustic cabin in the middle of Wisconsin where we wake up, make coffee, and open gifts, one at a time, slowly. It takes all morning.
BS: And then, because who are who we are: Without giving anything away, what present are you most excited to give this year?
SK: Are you serious? There's this new book out called The Faith Between Us that I'll be getting for everyone.
Er, like we said, December 20. Scott, forgive us. We love your book. Isn't January, more than December, when everyone's all thinking about all actually spiritual things, rather than December, when we're all at the mall? We're thinking yes.
by Irene Nemirovsky—one of those books we're pretty sure we're reading about a year behind everybody else. We think we forgot to mention that one of our goals with all this is to read only books written before 1950, just because when we read contemporary fiction, we get all insecure and out of sorts and start wondering why we're not working on our own books, instead of watching South Park.
, $10.17, and 
, $8.95
Who is this Tom person who keeps popping up? Er, just kidding. But find us now at 
Recent Comments