Anne Rice finds Jesus. Goths everywhere weep.

[Samwise]

Anne Rice's new novel to be about Jesus, not vampires.

Every time I think of all the angsty teenage goths who will feel utterly betrayed by this turn of events, and then buy the book anyway, I chuckle.

[Merusk]

They weren't paying close attention if they thought she was anti-religion anyway.

Hell, after the very last 'vampire' book you didn't even have to be paying attention.

[Samwise]

Since when do angsty neo-pagan goth kids pay attention to anything farther away than their own bellybuttons?  Not that I'm stereotyping or anything.

[stray]

She's been a devout Catholic for a while now.


"Devout Catholic" is probably still cool in a Goth's mind anyways.

[Llava]

I'm really tired of people saying that someone revealing their Christianity is "daring."

I'm an atheist- give me a medal!

[stray]

I'm really tired of people saying that someone revealing their Christianity is "daring."

By "people" you mean the mean the "media".

And since that's the case, I would hope that you were already tired of them long before this  .

[Llava]

I'm really tired of people saying that someone revealing their Christianity is "daring."

By "people" you mean the mean the "media".

And since that's the case, I would hope that you were already tired of them long before this  .

Yes, and good point.

But I am FURTHER tired of it.

[Sky]

The media is like my avatar. A very dangerous clown.

My favorite religious irony lately is the Rabbi who is denouncing Madonna for using some holy guy's (Yitzak iirc) name in a song: they aren't supposed to be named for profit or summat.

I just want to reach through the tv and say "Dude. Her name is MADONNA."

The media is a waste of time, I only watch it for laughs.

[Roac]

She's been a devout Catholic for a while now.

"[In 2004] she returned to the Roman Catholic Church, which she'd left at 18. "

She spoke out against religion for a while.  Being raised as Catholic, and living in N.O., it certainly figured into her books.  Her writings on God, etc, were hardly reverent however.

[HaemishM]

I wonder if her young Jesus will be a pouty, effete, latent homosexual who still has friends despite treating them all to persecution.

[Roac]

Well, the article mentioned she wanted to use some of the infancy gospels, which are full of all sorts of wild stuff.  Like, Jesus goes around zapping his little friends.  Except, it wasn't so much to persecute, but because he was throwing a tantrum.  Must've been a bitch when he went through puberty.

[voodoolily]

Well, she is a writer of fantasy fiction. Why not write about a different mythical beast?

I'm really tired of people saying that someone revealing their Christianity is "daring."

I'm an atheist- give me a medal!

Sing on, brother.

[Samwise]

I think the problem is that nobody ever got fed to a lion for being an atheist.  If that was a common occurrence, declaring one's atheism would be a really heroic act and nobody would say shit about anyone declaring belief in or affiliation with anything else. 

I smell a new Fox reality TV show!

[Roac]

I think the problem is that nobody ever got fed to a lion for being an atheist.

Nor has a Christian since it was adopted by the Roman Empire.  Although athiests have been sometimes persecuted by Christians for being heretics.  Either way, you're talking old history there.l

Really, it has more to do with the modern climate; and no, declaring your religious affiliation isn't particularly daring on a national level.  It might be within ones family or social circle, and possibly political circles as well.  There is, in general, a stigma against being both intellectual and religious, and being 'born again' late in life may look badly as a result.

[Signe]

Didn't she write a bunch of books that were very pervy?  All about bondage and stuff?  It'll be hard enough to expain the vampires... but how will she explain the pervy sex to God?  He really hates that shit, you know... at least concerning women.

Speaking of pervy sex and God... where's Paelos?  I miss the crazy, little monkey-boy.

[HaemishM]

Didn't she write a bunch of books that were very pervy?  All about bondage and stuff? 

Yes, and even as pr0n, they were dreadful.

[tazelbain]

If Anne Rice is a Catholic, she's a cafeteria Catholic that brings her own lunch.

[Alkiera]

The media is like my avatar. A very dangerous clown.

My favorite religious irony lately is the Rabbi who is denouncing Madonna for using some holy guy's (Yitzak iirc) name in a song: they aren't supposed to be named for profit or summat.

I just want to reach through the tv and say "Dude. Her name is MADONNA."

The media is a waste of time, I only watch it for laughs.

Agreed on the Media.  They're stupid and predictable.

As for the Madonna thing, it was because the guy she named was a Kabbalah guy.  Madonna (the original) was not.  Kabbalah cultists are weird like that.

Alkiera

[stray]

If Anne Rice is a Catholic, she's a cafeteria Catholic that brings her own lunch.

Why? Take a look at her site, for example...What is she doing so wrong? She's probably doing more charitable things at this moment than most people are.

I don't know why I'm defending her here, because I don't even like her books......But that's probably my point. She's just a writer. Of fiction at that.

[HaemishM]

What is she doing so wrong?

If you've Read "Tale of the Body Thief," you wouldn't have to ask that question.

[Roac]

No, not Body Thief.  How about Memnoch, where Lestat gets to drink blood from Jesus after having been thrown back in time, then having everything but the two of them frozen, during Jesus' march with his cross.  Or where both God and Satan offer to give him CEO status in Hell, and after the end of which, Lestat decides he'd rather stay immortal forever because both of them are batshit insane.

[stray]

No, not Body Thief.  How about Memnoch, where Lestat gets to drink blood from Jesus after having been thrown back in time, then having everything but the two of them frozen, during Jesus' march with his cross.  Or where both God and Satan offer to give him CEO status in Hell, and after the end of which, Lestat decides he'd rather stay immortal forever because both of them are batshit insane.

Heh....I've got to ask then: Why did you even read it?  :-D

Seriously though, I'm just asking what "is" she "doing" wrong?

And does "Catholic" mean something a person is born into, or something they've worked towards? Are Catholics born as saints or is it a more of work in progress/discovery thing?

All I know is that after her husband died, she turned into a different person. This wasn't a recent thing. She's been pretty zealous with her religion ever since. Or does some fiction she wrote 20 years ago invalidate it? If so, then we're all doomed.

[Signe]

I read Interview with a Vampire because there was such a fuss about it.  I didn't like it much.  I may or may not have read another... I kind of sort of think maybe I did but I don't remember the name of it.  Or maybe I made that up.  I kind of liked the movie... it was very glamourous.  I don't much care if she's Catholic and I don't know why it matters.  There are millions of people all over the world who are crazy enough to be Catholic.

[Roac]

Heh....I've got to ask then: Why did you even read it?  :-D

I loved Interview, her second was 'ok', and I was hoping she would get better.  After book 5 I quit reading her stuff.  Not because of theolocial issues, but because the plots were just getting way too crazy, and progressively worse.

Seriously though, I'm just asking what "is" she "doing" wrong?

Haemish answered it as a response to your query about taz's comment.  Her past literary views on theology have been fruity.  Her new book(s) sound like it's going to have a DaVinchi Code-esque push for "this is fiction masquerading as nonfiction".  Her inclusion of infancy gospels as well as adding apparently a number of entirely fictional elements will make this book just as fruity.  All of this is being done in the context of "from now on I would write only for the Lord" (and personal profit).  So she's sounding like she's doing this as a mission from God, although she's going to entirely fictionalize God, and then wrap it in a pretense of scholarship, in order to line her pockets. 

Or, what taz said.

[stray]

Well, who knows if it's entirely based on fiction (in her mind, that is). Many people believe some of the infancy gospels to be valid (depending on which one...Not all of them are as outlandish as the one you mentioned). Such a thing wouldn't make her a non-Catholic (or a bad one). Even many of the early church fathers considered "apocryphal" books to not be apocryphal at all.

I didn't know she was trying to be scholarly about it though. Did she say that?

Ever read Joshua? That was a fictional book written by a Catholic priest....No one ever raised a fuss about that. No one questioned his beliefs for making an extrabiblical story about Christ. So why the fuss about this?

[edit] What I mean is, if one is going to write a fictional story with Jesus in it, much, if not all of it, is going to be speculative.....That is, unless they repeat the Gospels word for word (but then, the author wouldn't actually be "writing" anything, would she?"). It's just exploration. Not an attempt to be scholarly. The same thing applies if it was a novel about Abraham Lincoln or the Crusades.

[stray]

Cue someone coming in and preaching that it's all fiction anyways.

/sigh

[Samwise]

blah blah mindless sheep blah blah Nietzsche blah blah inviso-daddy blah blah nutsack blah blah jihad blah blah Bible blah blah I'm better than you are blah.

Glad that's out of the way.

[stray]

Hmm...

"Inviso-daddy"?

[edit] Oh wait. How silly of me to forget.

[edit] I'd be quite happy if someone did a Nietzche though. That I haven't seen yet.

[Cheddar]

All I know is that Anne Rice is like a Goddess to me.  She completely explains why my life is the way it is.  Well I am off to drink 18 year old blood!

They are willing, trust me.  I LOVE GOTH CHICKS!

[Signe]

But she's not goth anymore, she's Catholic.  She only eats the flesh and drinks the blood of You Know Who. 

[Cheddar]

But she's not goth anymore, she's Catholic.  She only eats the flesh and drinks the blood of You Know Who. 

Jesus, the Mexican lawn care extraordinaire!  I hope she gets HIV checks every week, I hear he has kids everywhere.

[Shockeye]

I would like to mention that I told you about this 5 months ago.

[stray]

Hah, I knew I was repeating myself.

[Signe]

Geez, Stray... not only did you read it five months ago but you commented four times.   You really ARE getting old!

[Der Helm]

  Or where both God and Satan offer to give him CEO status in Hell, and after the end of which, Lestat decides he'd rather stay immortal forever because both of them are batshit insane.

Damm you. Now I have to read that shit. *shakes fist*