Faith, Hope and Carnage

I’ve bought so many goddamn self-help books this year, but the only one I’ve actually read is this book that is actually a series of conversations between Nick Cave and Sean O’Hagan. It’s definitely something one could file under self-help. Cave and his wife have endured such monstrous loss. Both in scope and exacting nature. His music has always had an alkaline effect on my sometimes acidic composition. So here we are closing out another year and to accompany the shifting nature of all things, I’m working out this new website of musings where links, music, art, film, recipes, and all things interesting to me might occasionally saddle up. Here is the video companion to the book, if you are more a visual learner:

‘We are all, at some point in our lives, obliterated by loss. If you haven’t been by now, you will be in time – that’s for sure. And, of course, if you have been fortunate enough to have been truly loved, in this world, you will also cause extraordinary pain to others when you leave it. That’s the covenant of life and death, and the terrible beauty of grief.’ – Nick Cave, Faith, Hope and Carnage 

In the depths of the pandemic of summer 2020 Nick Cave began a series of long conversations with his old friend Seán O’Hagan. The 40 hours of recordings have been distilled into a remarkable bestselling book, Faith, Hope and Carnage. In it Cave, one of the world’s most acclaimed and visionary musicians, talks with radical candour about his past, his loves, his work ethic, his creativity and the agony of losing his 15-year-old son Arthur in 2015. The book addresses all the big questions: What is love? How does faith work? How do we handle grief? As Cave says, ‘Despite how debased or corrupt we are told humanity is, and how degraded the world has become, it just keeps on being beautiful. It can’t help it.’