J. G. Redfern

Hecatomb J. G. Redfern

HECATOMB is a profane scripture set to eloquent prose; it is a religious allegory played out in a small slaughterhouse town straining to contain the overabundance of its own brutality. HECATOMB tells the tale of the inversion of the sacred with the profane. HECATOMB recounts the reckoning of the offal with the divine, offering up a meditation toward the great singular Oneness that possesses us all. It?s a study in the day-to-day existence of the Universal Soul shackled to the meat puppets of this world and the redemption that comes with the realization that we?re all necessarily connected. HECATOMB speaks of love and disappointment, work, suicide, murder and justice, morality curtailed with acts of survival; it speaks of marriage and isolation, homelessness, addiction, and divine absurdity amid good intention; it speaks of sacrifice and want and try, and above all, it speaks of the glorious brutality and compassion that necessarily connect us all. HECATOMB is a tapestry of stories woven together around the residents of Sanguine Falls: Angus, a slaughterhouse worker; Ferdinand the Bull, a Buddha on his way to slaughter; Jesus the bartender; Gloria, the beautiful, wise schoolteacher; Pastor Johnson, who worships only mammon; the Minister, who becomes enlightened and leaves his congregation; the Minister?s Wife, who leaves the Minister; Socrates, cast as Dr. Jimmy, a burnt-out, homeless junky; Officer Johnson, the sociopathic cop; Stephanie, the sweet-souled waitress; the Undertaker; Aaron, who owns the slaughterhouse; Moe and the Lizards, and all the rest. Hecatomb: the sacrifice of one hundred cattle to the gods during special religious ceremonies. At the abattoir they process over one hundred steers every hour. Such sacrifices used to be reserved for sacred rituals of celebration ? winning a war, liberating a continent, parting a sea. Today, it is a matter of routine, a matter of profit.