For all you vampire fans out there
Here is Anne Rice (yes, THAT Anne Rice) talking about her return to Catholicism, and the influences on her writing. Short version: her vampire novels were her lament over her loss of faith.
The link is to an audio file:
http://www2.nationalreview.com/dest/2008/10/28/1a30bfee729efe48f1cfc909b13fd7a1.mp3
The web page is here.
Interviewers frequently ask me how my conversion to Catholicism has influenced my writing. I tell them that writing the books is still pretty much the same, but that, now the I am Catholic, I am not allowed to interpret my own books, nor read them in English, but must have my books interpreted by the magisterium, based on the findings of a general council.
(On the other hand, if I had been a Protestant, I would have been able to interpret my own books howsoever the Spirit led me: but anything I said aloud and did not write down, things I said in interviews and stuff, I could not use.)
I agreed right away, of course, thinking that by the ‘magisterium’ they meant the sinister baddies from Pullman’s GOLDEN COMPASS, who send out Jesuit ninja to kill people and stuff. I could not wait to perform my first intercission on some bratty girl or gypsy streetrat! But no, it was just some dumb teaching authority.
And all it teaches is the love and forgiveness fluffy-nuffy stuff that is so opposed to my cold and savage Romulan nature. What a letdown.
And here I thought the pope was going to be Darkseid seeking the Anti-Life Equation, and he turns out to be this nice old scholarly man of the cloth who does not approve of war, torture, sodomy or aborticide.
No interviewer has ever asked my what it is like being the chief of sinners, however. No one asks me why the Church is so beautiful, like a bride adorned for her wedding, or so frightening as a sharp and shining sword whose scabbard has been tossed away. In other words, they ask me about my religion, but not about my faith, if you see my meaning.
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
