News: More on the price of the dark muse

In an interview with the top-tier literary blog Blookslut, Brian Evenson discusses in brief what the dark muse has cost him.

This is the last post I'm going to make in this style -- the previous one was on Neil LaBute -- because I find this theme too depressing and at the same time reductionist. But it would seem that two of the Mormon writers who have had the most success in the big-time literary world have also struggled with their relationships and their status in the LDS Church as a result of their dark art.

And this is not to say that their art isn't worthwhile for a Mormon audience (perhaps more on that later). All I'm saying is that, perhaps there is a price to following the dark muse. Whether that price is the fault of the muse, the writer or the reactions of those who don't like the results, I don't know for sure. Probably all three.

But I do think that idea that these two writers were simply using the via negativa and that there is a moral even LDS-informed core to their work carried more credibility when they weren't so seemingly consumed by that work.