{"id":86875,"date":"2024-06-20T14:06:07","date_gmt":"2024-06-20T14:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ccmagazine.es\/?p=86875"},"modified":"2025-04-17T14:06:21","modified_gmt":"2025-04-17T14:06:21","slug":"faith-hope-and-carnage-a-must-read-interview-book-by-nick-cave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ccmagazine.es\/en\/faith-hope-and-carnage-a-must-read-interview-book-by-nick-cave\/","title":{"rendered":"“Faith, Hope and Carnage”: A must-read interview book by Nick Cave"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Faith, Hope and Carnage”<\/strong> is Nick Cave<\/em>\u2019s latest book, born from over forty hours of intimate conversations with British journalist Se\u00e1n O’Hagan<\/em>. A truly unmissable epiphany, in which the Australian artist reflects on life, faith, death, music, drugs, art, grief, love, and family.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

These themes emerge naturally as O\u2019Hagan<\/em> weaves a candid, honest and evocative conversation \u2014 through which Cave<\/em> opens up completely and delves into deeply painful and personal experiences, such as the death of his son and the transformation it triggered, his childhood, family, and former heroin addiction, offering deeply intimate reflections and moving insights.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy own story is almost entirely unbearable to me or at least the one that\u2019s constantly being told.\u201d<\/h2>\n

Here are a few of Cave<\/em>\u2019s most powerful thoughts from the book:<\/p>\n

1. <\/strong>As I\u2019ve got older, I\u2019ve come to realise that perhaps the search itself is the religious experience \u2014 the desire to believe, the longing to find meaning, the movement towards the ineffable. Perhaps that\u2019s what matters most, despite the absurdity of it. Or indeed, because of the absurdity of it.<\/p>\n

2. <\/strong>I believe music has the power to penetrate all the bloody ways we\u2019ve learned to cope with the world \u2014 all the biases, affiliations, interests and defences \u2014 which basically amount to a kind of layered suffering, and speak to that thing underneath which is essential, pure, and good for all of us.<\/p>\n

3. <\/strong>Collective grief can bring about extraordinary change \u2014 a kind of spiritual conversion, and with it, great opportunity. We can either embrace that opportunity or let it slip away. I hope it\u2019s the former.<\/p>\n

4. <\/strong>Each of us, at some point in our lives, is devastated by loss. If it hasn\u2019t happened to someone yet, it will \u2014 that\u2019s a fact. And certainly, if you\u2019ve been lucky enough to be deeply loved in this world, you will also cause extraordinary pain to others when you leave it. That\u2019s the contract of life and death \u2014 and the terrible beauty of grief.<\/p>\n

5. <\/strong>In my experience, boredom often borders on epiphany \u2014 the grand idea. That\u2019s the agony of songwriting \u2014 because boredom is boredom until suddenly it\u2019s not! (…) I know I can only reach that state through improvisation \u2014 and certainly through collaboration. The nature of improvisation is the meeting of two people, of love, and a certain dissonance.<\/p>\n

6. <\/strong>Our recent history is like this: we tell and retell an experience so many times that it becomes a kind of fiction. It makes me think that maybe the traumatic events \u2014 those sharp, horrific images that live in our bodies and pounce on us at midnight \u2014 are the only real memories we have. The ones so devastating they refuse to adjust. The rest are fragments of slightly implausible stories we tell to give shape to our lives.<\/p>\n

7. <\/strong>Happiness is a form of insubordination against \u2014 well, life, I suppose. It\u2019s a choice. That\u2019s what happiness is: a choice, a kind of well-earned and conscious agreement with the world. No one can control what happens, but we can choose how we respond. There\u2019s a certain defiance in that \u2014 in the face of the world\u2019s indifference and its apparent casual cruelty.<\/p>\n

8.<\/strong> I have the great advantage of having spent a good part of my life making terrible mistakes. I\u2019ve been hurt many times, I\u2019ve suffered a lot, and I\u2019ve messed things up more than I care to admit. But I\u2019ve also overcome things that would be incomprehensible to younger people. Older people may be broken, but we are also vast storehouses of lived experience, and if we\u2019ve paid attention to the world, we\u2019ve gathered a certain amount of wisdom. That\u2019s meaningful \u2014 and valuable.<\/p>\n

9. <\/strong>The brain loves its patterns and pathways and wants us to stick to what\u2019s familiar. That\u2019s what happens with heroin, it\u2019s the mother of all deceptive ideas!<\/p>\n

10. <\/strong>I feel a compulsion to create. It\u2019s really a force beyond my control. I do what I can to keep my creative project alive; I try to surprise myself constantly. That\u2019s how things stay interesting. Still, given all that, I\u2019d like to think that one day I could set it all aside and simply enjoy what this astonishing world has to offer \u2014 in and of itself.<\/p>\n

11. <\/strong>When I left Twitter, the world suddenly improved. It became a better place, and the quality of my life improved immeasurably. The sun started shining and birds began to sing in the trees. I no longer felt physically unwell, so exhausted and depressed by everything. In my view, social media makes you sick.<\/p>\n

12.<\/strong> I see my work as a clear rejection of cynicism and negativity. I don\u2019t have time for it. I mean that very literally, from a personal standpoint. I have no time for censorship or constant condemnation. I\u2019m not interested in the cycle of perpetual blame \u2014 I leave that to others. I haven\u2019t the stomach for it, nor the time. Life\u2019s far too short, in my view, not to be amazed.<\/p>\n

13. <\/strong>I don\u2019t believe there\u2019s anyone who doesn\u2019t regret something \u2014 unless they live a life utterly devoid of introspection, or are very young, which is often the same thing. So yes, I have regrets. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s necessarily a bad thing. They\u2019re usually signs of a degree of self-reflection, personal growth, or distance travelled.<\/p>\n

14. <\/strong>The Red Hand Files<\/em> show me \u2014 explicitly and consistently \u2014 that we all suffer. They show me that suffering is the defining element of the human story. I know this to be true because I recognise myself in those letters \u2014 my own situation reflected back, my own pain \u2014 and I also know that in engaging with those people, I feel better. Or at least, I hope so. I try to offer the best version of myself to the person asking the question, because they, in their vulnerability and honesty, are offering me the best version of themselves.<\/p>\n

15. <\/strong>Pain can lead some people to dark places from which they simply never return. I\u2019ve seen it happen often. People build their lives around an absence, become hardened and angry, turn against the world \u2014 and never recover. Nothing brings them back from the abyss. (…) So essentially, what I try to put forward is the idea of pain as a gift. Pain as a positive force. A kind of pain that, if allowed full expression, can become a rebellious energy. That energy is what moved me during the In Conversation<\/em> events.<\/p>\n

16. <\/strong>I\u2019ve inherited my mother\u2019s stoicism to the core \u2014 and, believe it or not, I\u2019m still uncomfortable with public displays of emotion! So this sort of empathy or compassion for others \u2014 and for myself \u2014 is something I\u2019ve had to learn.<\/p>\n

17. <\/strong>Young Nick Cave<\/em> could afford to be disdainful of the world because he had no idea what the future held. Now I see that disdain \u2014 that contempt \u2014 as a kind of posturing, or condescension, even a kind of vanity. I didn\u2019t understand the value of life, its fragility. I had no sense of how difficult \u2014 but essential \u2014 it is to love the world and to treat it with mercy. As I said, I had no idea what was coming. I was completely naive to it all.<\/p>\n

18. <\/strong>I don\u2019t think strength has much to do with anything. I think, when you take the next step, you\u2019re simply choosing the least painful option. And strength implies there\u2019s weakness. Is it weakness to stay in bed for days after losing a child? Is it strength to keep your head high and carry on? I don\u2019t think those terms apply. People often ask me: “How do you stay strong?”<\/em> They say the same to Susie<\/em>: “You\u2019re so strong”<\/em>. But we\u2019re not. We survived because we stayed together. It\u2019s that simple. When one of us broke down, the other held them up. That\u2019s what matters.<\/p>\n

19. <\/strong>There is nothing harder than forgiving yourself. I think a reliable way to begin that process is to reach a place where you can genuinely appreciate that your daily actions are making the world a slightly better place \u2014 not worse. That\u2019s something simple, and something we can all do \u2014 and to arrive there with a certain amount of humility.<\/p>\n

20. <\/strong>Hope is optimism with a broken heart.<\/p>\n

21. <\/strong>We go round and round, coming up against the same things again and again \u2014 but within that motion, things happen that change us, devastate us, shift our relationship with the world. It\u2019s this circular, reciprocal movement that becomes more vital, more affirming, more necessary with each turn.<\/p>\n

Highly recommended.<\/p>\n

About Nick Cave<\/h6>\n

Nick Cave<\/em> has been making music for over forty years and is best known as the singer-songwriter and frontman of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds<\/em>, whose penultimate album Ghosteen<\/em> is widely considered one of his finest works. Cave<\/em>\u2019s creative output also spans other forms of expression, including film scores, ceramics, and writing. In recent years, his website The Red Hand Files<\/em><\/a> and his live In Conversation<\/em> events have allowed him to explore a more intimate relationship with his audience.<\/p>\n

In 2024, Cave<\/em> is touring with his new work Wild God<\/em>.<\/p>\n

About Se\u00e1n O\u2019Hagan<\/h6>\n

Se\u00e1n O\u2019Hagan<\/em> has interviewed countless influential artists, writers and musicians over the past four decades. He currently writes for The Observer<\/em> and is the photography critic for The Guardian<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Faith, Hope and Carnage” is Nick Cave\u2019s latest book, born from over forty hours of intimate conversations with British journalist Se\u00e1n O’Hagan. A truly unmissable epiphany, in which the Australian artist reflects on life, faith, death, music, drugs, art, grief, love, and family. 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