Podcast of "The Day Jesus Christ Came to Mount Airy"

Dean Sluyter in Cinema Nirvana makes the following observation: "But there are really two Christs in the Gospels: the kind forgiving Good Shepherd, and the vengeful smiter of men' (166). That quote was small part behind the inspiration for "The Day Jesus Christ Came to Mount Airy" from "Who's Your Daddy?" and Other Stories. 


For if this conflict exists in the popular imagination and conflict is the fuel for fiction, then I asked my self, what if the "authentic Enlightened Christ" came back to walk among men and chose Jamaica to stretch his legs? And then to complement the plot to the theme of fatherhood in Who's Your Daddy and Other Stories, I had to ask myself, what would cause this Jamaican Jesus to manifest himself in Westmoreland, Jamaica? Whom would he meet?

In answering these questions, I chose the name Macky (the shortened form of the name of Haile Selassie's father, Ras Makonnen Woldemikael Gudessa ) for the main character. I had to find a new way for a father to be absent (Macky's father is in jail in Florida), and then follow Macky around as he and Jesus met figures from Jamaica's past, Captain McKenzie (slavery, British colonialism, Scottish lineage) and Jamaica's present, Miss Mabel (devalued womanhood, church-going alcoholic) and Garfield Holding (surrogate father, resident don/godfather, and gunman). I didn't know what the reactions to Jesus were going to be nor did I know how the characters were going to react to Jesus and each other. So, I followed Macky around and watched them as they walked through the Jamaican countryside.

It was good to be home again.

Now @ UVU: "The Day Jesus Christ Came to Mount Airy."

***

"The Day Jesus Christ Came to Mount Airy" is part of Who's Your Daddy? and Other Stories.

***