It would seem that in fiction, when an author messes with the Bible, she automatically has something, not because whatever fiction she produces is necessarily good fiction, but because that fiction houses a sort of external conflict. In other words, because the altering of a religious text tends to ruffle feathers, the revision of a religious text has something of an instant audience. Probably the most difficult part of my project so far has been to push it beyond this instant-conflict. I know that people will react to it simply because it manipulates scripture, but I want the project to do more than just that. I want it to be more specific in the reactions it causes. Rewriting the gospels is an experiment I began in order to see what kind of creative influence I might have on them. In this respect, it has so far been enjoyable; for whatever reason, it's wildly satisfying to revise scripture, something that I think might relate to my innate urge to agitate. The challenge has been to agitate more particularly in language and content.

This work is inspired partly by a frustration with holy semantics and the religious' desire to keep words from doing things; that is, it seems to me that the stories I'm retelling and reinventing are already very interesting, but this aspect has been stifled. One of my goals with this project, then, is to illuminate these already interesting stories by using an embellished language that forces readers to reconsider stories with which many are likely already familiar. For those who aren't familiar, the language is hopefully engaging enough to encourage a first reading of them.