Amory Patrick Blaine is the author of the new book American Renaissance: Missions Dangerous.
Q: What inspired you to write American Renaissance?
A: American Renaissance was inspired by a number of traumatic events and realizations that happened to me in years following my brief stint in combat and military training, my growing curiosity about the art world, and my work on a task force attached to covert activities conducted outside of the scope US diplomatic missions in certain countries.
But the story takes place in Paris, France, because that is where we first meet the central artist in the book, Sean Dorian Knight, and where he was known at the time to have worked and lived.
Q: How was the book’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?
A: Central to the core of the writing of American Renaissance and Book 1: Missions Dangerous is the subject of our capitalist economic system and its overlooking of factors concerning the genetic make-up of artists as an unacknowledged class or workers who produce the cultural capital (textual – visual - and religious) that is the foundational substructure upon which the belief system of all our societal institutions have been erected.
This categorization of artists into a separate, often oppressed group of cultural workers follows from the observations above that there is some inherent, almost intrinsic, sensibility and visionary quality that many great artists possess which makes them more in touch with the spiritual side of human existence.
Touching further on the subject of artistic identity and renaissance, there is often an epiphany or "rebirth" that happens to an artist when he/she/ they awaken to their new identity-calling as an artist and hence it only seems natural for many artists to feel reborn when they come to this realization and to choose to go by a new name.
And so, so many times becoming an artist is not anything someone would wish upon themselves, but the result of a process of rebirth and an artist’s reawakening to what is going on in America.
Q: The book’s format is based on documents - can you describe your writing process?
A: The premise of the book, and the reluctant point of view of the narrator, Amadeo Effscott, is that the late artist and socioeconomic thinker Sean Dorian Knight (and the good news of his economic revolution for creative artists and their place in a capitalist society) was potentially the closest thing to paradigm shift to ever come into the world during the last hundreds of years, which he likened to be of as much historical meaning as the Second Coming of Christ.
None of the outlandish claims, or the metaphysical and religious nature of Effscott’s point of view, was top of mind when it came to penning the first lines of the book, however.
My intention was to focus more on an analytical case-study of the sociological theories of Dorian Knight I found interesting, rather than the mystery of his disappearance or death, which I assumed would have a logical basis that could be used to summarize an original but limited scope his influence might leave on our contemporary postmodern legacy.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I’m quite busy with matters having to do with the continued upkeep with the publishing of this book and the two remaining volumes that are to follow. But also juggling a few other projects in trying to put together a YouTube channel, a video content agency, and a contemporary era art history course in the context of AI and this bold new era.
I do have intentions for having a life outside of writing but it’s a jealous mistress, and quite hard to get away from for very long. It always keeps calling no matter how little time one has.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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