Four Horses, Seven Seals: Jacob's Ladder, The Sandman, Violator, and the World of 1990. (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798313787442)

In 1990, while Ben Beard attended a church retreat in Panama City, Florida, Jacob's Ladder appeared in movie theaters. It tells the story of Jacob Singer, a Vietnam soldier besieged by malevolent beings and unstuck in time. Critics didn't know what to make of its apocalyptic tone, its sense of personal disintegration.

Beard, author of The South Never Plays Itself, grew up in the Christ-haunted world of Southern Baptist belief. As a child, he'd accepted Jesus into his heart. He studied the Bible, attended church, and took solace in his faith, knowing his place in Heaven was secure. Then everything changed.

In his latest work, Beard retraces the clash of two worlds-the pious and the perverse. From William Blake, The Sandman, Huey Lewis, Violator, Bruce Joel Rubin, and Elizabeth Peña to Elvis Presley's half-brother, Beard exhumes the past, continuing the pop-culture excavation he began in The Bad Class.

Grappling with the moral and metaphysical implications of a Christian faith run amok, Beard seeks clues, portents, and signposts revealing what went wrong, how he lost his faith, and where to find meaning in a paradise lost.

"Beard spills his heart and brains on the page, and the result feels almost literal: messy and courageous, insightful and flailing, vulnerable and transparent. Like Jacob with the angel, Beard wrestles with his past and the ghosts that haunt him, with ultra-conservative Christianity, the combined oeuvres of Huey Lewis and Adrian Lyne, the narrow chasm between Life and Death keeping the beat. It's a feast of pop-culture references and existential dread, hilarious and heart-breaking from the first page to the last." - Dr. AC, Horror 101

Author: Ben Beard
ISBN-13: 9798313787442
Publisher: Independently Published
Language: English
Published: 03/15/2025
Pages: 228
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.59lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.52d