A short interview/transcript excerpt from a conversation between Chris Collins and ND Stevenson about books that changed Stevenson's life, focusing on identity, feeling like an outsider, religious doubts from childhood, and how DM Cornish's Monster Blood Tattoo influenced them. The speaker reflects on relating to monsters/villains and how those experiences shape storytelling.
This time on books that changed my life.
Ottoman was a boy with a girl's name.
What do you think about that?
Well, now that you mention it. What makes something monstrous? What makes us repulsed by something? Is that a way that we should be feeling? Or is that something that needs to be explored? I always related to villains and monsters because I felt really out of place. Felt out of place in South Carolina, I was like, the only girl with a buzz cut. You know, the first time I broke down crying because in my heart I was. I didn't really believe in Jesus. I was six years old.
Have you ever thought about how that experience affected your storytelling?
That is really central, I. I think, to every story I've ever told.
The big question, how did Monster Blood Tattoo by DM Cornish change your life?
This was the book.
Sam foreign.
This time on books that change my life.
You know, the first time I broke down crying because in my heart I was worried. I didn't really believe in Jesus. I was six years old.
The adults are saying to do this stuff, but they're all miserable, cheating and lying.
And so my great fear was that I was something perverse or something kind of twisted, something wrong.
What they say and what they do is so far apart.
Why are we here? Like, I feel like if God has chosen him to save, he'll do it. But, like, what if he hasn't? Like, do we have a choice at all?
There's no way that God is love if this is how we act.
My youth leader said, well, no, God's decided. And I was like, it's just like the Matrix. And he's like, oh, that's actually a good way of thinking of it. Yeah, it's the Matrix. No matter how much I love someone, if they weren't the right kind of person, there was no chance for them.
When you're young, it's very confusing. Big question. How did Monster Blood Tattoo by DM Cornish change your life?
This was the book Dad.
