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Vampire queen returns to the undead
Debunking Christianity quotes an old Catholic maxim: “Given be a child to the age of twelve and I’ll give you a Catholic for life."
Fantastic author and self-proclaimed atheist Anne Rice is justly famed for her Gothic horror novels of supernatural creatures, from Interview with the Vampire to The Witching Hour (Lives of the Mayfair Witches). One would assume that she's never had a problem distinguishing her fictional creations from reality.
Yet that rich imagination seems to have sadly thrown a gear somewhere. Our Anne is now repeating an old tale of – get this – a grim omniscient spirit who sends his son/avatar to our world to die in gruesome blood sacrifice. There's supernatural magic, unnatural births, and bodies rising from the grave. Sounds like classic fiction in the Rice vein – but Anne says that this story is absolutely factual!
Yes, Anne's embracing the undead grasp of Jesus. In Anne Rice comes to Jesus (appropriately posted on Halloween!), CNN reports on the author's new departure from vampire fiction, "Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession". In her own words:
"To be able to take the tools, the apprenticeship, whatever I learned from being a vampire writer, or whatever I was -- to be able to take those tools now and put them in the service of God is a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful opportunity... And I hope I can redeem myself in that way. I hope that the Lord will accept the books I am writing now."
Fans must be feeling some trepidation over what sounds like a turn from delicious, steamy vampire fiction to something supernaturally dull. Their fears may be justified: a New York Times reviewer calls Rice's Confession "a crashing, mind-numbing bore. This is the literary equivalent of waterboarding."
Sigh. It would appear that we've lost one of the greats. Here's the part that's no surprise, though: Anne's decades-long atheism came after a Catholic upbringing. The old maxim was true for her: she may have partially slipped free for a while, but was never truly free from religion's claws. Back to its mind-sucking embrace she goes.
Perhaps the best comment on how sad this is comes from Anne herself. It's this:
"I mean, I've made vampires believable to grown women. Now, if I can do that, I can make our Lord Jesus Christ believable to people who've never believed in him."
Yes, Anne, perhaps you can make Jesus as believable to people as you made vampires believable to them. Which is an amazingly apt comparison, Anne, because the vampires you made so believable still aren't real. Get it?
"Get it?" Pretty sure, the answer is no
It's a pretty good bet that she's not even a visitor here. : ) But I wouldn't be surprised if somewhere, someone points out to her the oddity of making a case for the reality of a deity via a comparison to decidedly non-real creatures!
All that said, and going off on a tangent: I'll note again that Ms Rice's Vampire books are quite good fiction. I read them over a decade ago, and really wasn't able to put them down! She has (and I hope not had) tremendous skill as a writer.
It always pains me to see one stray from the flock.
And through her new books, she'll be trying to increase the number of her own brood.
If readers can stay awake long enough to be converted, that is!
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