In a Jane Fonda kind of way. Most famous for her vampire chronicles and S&M pornography using a pseudonym, Rice says she has found God and pledges to write now “only for the Lord.” Well, apparently her own version of the Lord. Making stuff up still seems to be her forte. (HT Drudge)
Newsweek offers some hints about her new book “Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt,”
Rice knows “Out of Egypt” and its projected sequels—three, she thinks—could alienate her following; as she writes in the afterword, “I was ready to do violence to my career.” But she sees a continuity with her old books, whose compulsive, conscience-stricken evildoers reflect her long spiritual unease. “I mean, I was in despair.” In that afterword she calls Christ “the ultimate supernatural hero … the ultimate immortal of them all.” …
She can cite scholarly authority for giving her Christ a birth date of 11 B.C., and for making James, his disciple, the son of Joseph by a previous marriage. But she’s also taken liberties where they don’t explicitly conflict with Scripture. No one reports that the young Jesus studied with the historian Philo of Alexandria, as the novel has it—or that Jesus’ family was in Alexandria at all. And she’s used legends of the boy Messiah’s miracles from the noncanonical Apocrypha: bringing clay birds to life, striking a bully dead and resurrecting him.
Hmmm….
Anne Rice can really grind ‘em out. I’ve read some of her books, and the funny thing is I’ve really gotten into some of them, and others have struck me as the worst grade of trash. How can the same person vary so wildly in qualilty? Maybe some are from the heart, and others are just contactual obligations? Of course, partly this is my personal subjective evaluation, but I think there’s some objectivity to the thing as well. I like books that echo symbolically against reality, so I can relate to them. For example, her original “Interview with the Vampire”, which started it all, exuded a lovely, poetic, bittersweet yearning for the life that had been forever lost to the lucky, cursed immortals. And other “good” books were “The Vampire Lestat” and “The Tale of the Body Thief”. On the other hand, “Queen of the Damned” and “The Mummy” struck me as trash; just a meaningless series of events. I took a peek at her infamous porn books, and they were even worse: Seemed as if she wrote a chapter a day describing whatever degeneracy came into her head, without much connection to what went before or after. And now she’s written so much stuff that I’ll never catch up. She can write faster than I can read! Well, I’m actually interested in her upcoming work, because she seems inspired, and perhaps her enthusiasm will lend greatness to the task. Or maybe not. But I’ll take a look. Hey, is there anybody out there who agrees with me about the good/bad division (i.e., who has good taste like me!) and can tell me if I’ve missed any “great” Rice vampire books?
Anne Rice has been wrestling with God through most of her novels. I always thought it was a matter of time before she capitulated. The Newsweek staffer is (typically for MSM) tone-deaf with regard to religion. Her characters are not “conscience-stricken evildoers” but are at war with God. Yet even war is a kind of relationship and is often more productive than mere indifference. If we can take these struggles as autobiographical — and it is difficult not to — this is the kind of war most people are glad to lose in the end.
As to her departures from orthodoxy, I am ambivalent. Her notion that James, the “brother” of the Lord was actually Joseph’s son by a prior marriage, is consistent with the doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary. As an Anglican I don’t buy it, but it is certainly mainstream among both Roman Catholics and Easter Orthodox. The inclusion of the apocrypha is more problematic, but her provision that the accounts not “explicitly conflict with Scripture” seems promising.
I would put her more in the category of Nikos Kazantzakis or Malcolm Muggerige rather than Jane Fonda. If she has not achieve full orthodoxy, well, not everyone does. Nevertheless, it is better to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire…
Yes, you’re right about Rice’s dramatic quest for a transcendental philosophy, and I probably should have commented on that. Her vampire culture seems broadly representative of modern, rational mankind and, like us, they break down roughly into two categories: On one hand, those who are not satisfied with the notion that this life is all there is, and figure there must be more, if only they could find it…and on the other hand, hedonists. Her most sympathetic characters are of the former camp, and I’d say this is why we can relate to them.
Whether or not Anne Rice has “found” God (as if He was lost or hiding from her) is not my call. If she has, good for her. If she hasn’t, she still has time. Either way, I’ll not be reading her writings. I started one of her vampire books once but couldn’t “get in to it”. I’m not interested in porn. And as for her “writings for God”, I prefer the original source.