Alfradi Speaks: An exclusive interview on
"In The Eyes of Man"
by Ines caplin
Since the banning of his book, there have been many questions for Edmond Alfradi and his intentions for writing the novela or collection. When sitting down in his home I am greeted by a very happy and humorous young man who is immediately a light. I was at first inclined to inquire if he was the younger brother of the author who wrote such a game changing novel. In an ironic banter he says "Yeah I know, interesting to see that us kids think sometimes too." Alfradi Goes on to talk about
Edmond Alfradi Outside of his home in Brooklyn.
why this is his first and most exclusive interview, and why he had decided to do a written one with our magazine, and not appear on any of the television and or podcasts he was invited too. When asked he said "My face, it is interesting how much we ignore the factor of agism in this
country, because I am as young as I am it is often hard for me to feel as though I am taken seriously." The author continues with:
Edmond Alfradi Outside of his home in Brooklyn.
why this is his first and most exclusive interview, and why he had decided to do a written one with our magazine, and not appear on any of the television and or podcasts he was invited too. When asked he said "My face, it is interesting how much we ignore the factor of agism in this
country, because I am as young as I am it is often hard for me to feel as though I am taken seriously." The author continues with:
"I often find myself in situations where those older than me try and condescend what I know or believe to know because of my age. As if the bags under my eyes have acted as some sort of secondary credentials to the questions that I have always had. Do yours add validity to them?" He says, after noticing my dismissive nodding away at the 23 year old. This in truth made me feel guilty. Here I am becoming unnecessarily impatient with a revolutionary author, and an insult is required to get me out of my high brow 50 year old coma. So what inspired this write?
"I often found myself in question, of what is real and what isn't, and my senior year in high school my teacher had introduced us to Renne Decartes and his theory of Cartesian Dualism. The Ideal of I think therefore I am, and the need to find something which he could not doubt, and I remember, always doubting God, yet wrestling with having faith at the same time." Says Alfradi
"Fast forward two years I am sitting in my world religions class, and we had begun a unit on the crusades, and I remember thinking about how God in the hands of man has often shun like gold and revealed himself in different types of currency, but what would those men fighting for their king and their god have though on their own? Who was god in their eyes? Shoot, who is he in mine?" And where did that lead you?
"Well, I grew up a muslim, my mother wears Hijab everyday and my father had always lead us in Salat, and growing up not only with a different faith but my skin also playing a factor in my day to day living I was always trying to find a way out. I often times resented where I came from because of the looks my mother would get or my sisters." Alfradi says
"When Killing Jesus came out by Bill O'reily who ironically has also called my book a detriment to society I was surprised. After 9/11 there was such a break through that addressed the US with it's use of religion in government and I wanted to take it back to its purest form, to square one where I have been standing, which was ignorance. In the famous phrase that calls it bliss I hope those who say that know it only applies to those who never inquirer further. Otherwise it eats you inside out until you can finally begin to grasp the meaning of something. Anything."
I went on to ask him about the prologue and the contemplation of his book:
"Yes, thats all I intended it to me, but as I said I wanted to see who else felt this stuck, felt the need to break through, using the only thing I know how to, which is write, I wrote until it became what it is now." Alfradi states.
"I am not claiming to know. The entire book is a question. Unlike most I don't fear what I don't understand, and I do not batter those who address the misunderstanding of something or see a new understanding of things even if I don't understand them. I think the smartest people were the ones who asked the most questions. So this is how I asked everyone I could touch, as many questions as possible, and some people simply wanted to burn them."
"I often found myself in question, of what is real and what isn't, and my senior year in high school my teacher had introduced us to Renne Decartes and his theory of Cartesian Dualism. The Ideal of I think therefore I am, and the need to find something which he could not doubt, and I remember, always doubting God, yet wrestling with having faith at the same time." Says Alfradi
"Fast forward two years I am sitting in my world religions class, and we had begun a unit on the crusades, and I remember thinking about how God in the hands of man has often shun like gold and revealed himself in different types of currency, but what would those men fighting for their king and their god have though on their own? Who was god in their eyes? Shoot, who is he in mine?" And where did that lead you?
"Well, I grew up a muslim, my mother wears Hijab everyday and my father had always lead us in Salat, and growing up not only with a different faith but my skin also playing a factor in my day to day living I was always trying to find a way out. I often times resented where I came from because of the looks my mother would get or my sisters." Alfradi says
"When Killing Jesus came out by Bill O'reily who ironically has also called my book a detriment to society I was surprised. After 9/11 there was such a break through that addressed the US with it's use of religion in government and I wanted to take it back to its purest form, to square one where I have been standing, which was ignorance. In the famous phrase that calls it bliss I hope those who say that know it only applies to those who never inquirer further. Otherwise it eats you inside out until you can finally begin to grasp the meaning of something. Anything."
I went on to ask him about the prologue and the contemplation of his book:
"Yes, thats all I intended it to me, but as I said I wanted to see who else felt this stuck, felt the need to break through, using the only thing I know how to, which is write, I wrote until it became what it is now." Alfradi states.
"I am not claiming to know. The entire book is a question. Unlike most I don't fear what I don't understand, and I do not batter those who address the misunderstanding of something or see a new understanding of things even if I don't understand them. I think the smartest people were the ones who asked the most questions. So this is how I asked everyone I could touch, as many questions as possible, and some people simply wanted to burn them."
Light Switch: Excerpt poem from "In the Eyes of Man"
Stand where the water moves child
where the waves break into pieces and you begin to see faces in the ocean
how blue are the faces of strangers?
how cold is the air that bites your neck?
You know well that the sand beneath your feat has never been a well run dry by god
where Adam and Eve drew buckets from the heavens to fill it and give it back to the heavens
But the beginning remains to be seen, it is as dark and grim as the idea of the end.
The life we live as quick as the flick of the lights.
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