Anne Rice: Catholic--no, Atheist--no, Christian...

[slingblade]

“My objective is simple: It's to write books about our Lord living on Earth that make him real to people who don't believe in him; or people who have never really tried to believe in him,” she said.

She pressed the point: “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. I hope and pray.”

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/27458912/

I've no idea where to begin with this article, with this influential writer, and with the ideas and the reasoning used to form them.

I will say that at least we have this example of a theist who turned atheist, who then turned theist again. I'm not sure what I make of that. I have to say: I don't think she used much that wasn't emotional in making any of those decisions.

"I've made insecure people believe in one imaginary creature; I can do it again."

 

[Kthulhut Fhtagn]

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/27458912/

I've no idea where to begin with this article, with this influential writer, and with the ideas and the reasoning used to form them.

I will say that at least we have this example of a theist who turned atheist, who then turned theist again. I'm not sure what I make of that. I have to say: I don't think she used much that wasn't emotional in making any of those decisions.

"I've made insecure people believe in one imaginary creature; I can do it again."

"The gay vampire knelt silently beside Jesus" I can see it now.

 

[ImaginalDisc]

Is this the same woman who wrote steamy bondage porn?

Also, is she wearing a wig, or is that hairstyle deliberate?

 

[Hastur]

Now I'm really glad I stopped reading her stuff at Tales of the Body Thief. As if the Amazon rant wasn't bad enough

 

[Morrigan]

I truly loathe this woman.

 

[hgc]

Is this the same woman who wrote steamy bondage porn?

Oh man, I read one of those Sleeping Beauty books long ago. Since then, I can't hear the words "bridal path" and not bring it back to mind.

 

[westprog]

Is this the same woman who wrote steamy bondage porn?

Yes.

Her daughter died of leukemia aged five and she wrote stories about a little girl who lived on as a vampire.

I found her vampire stories increasingly unpleasant. She was writing sympathetically from the point of view of a serial killer. It might have been therapeutic for her but it did nothing for me.

 

[Darat]

I've been reading about her for many a year and the article sums up all that I've ever read about her in one, short phrase: "Always over-the-top and beyond the rational....."

 

[ImaginalDisc]

Yes.

Her daughter died of leukemia aged five and she wrote stories about a little girl who lived on as a vampire.

I found her vampire stories increasingly unpleasant. She was writing sympathetically from the point of view of a serial killer. It might have been therapeutic for her but it did nothing for me.

I meant that question as a rhetorical expression of incredulity at her latest choice of subject matter.

However, explaining that makes me feel like John Kerry.

 

[Scazon]

I will say that at least we have this example of a theist who turned atheist, who then turned theist again.

Dozens of examples of that: Mark Vernon, for example.

In After Atheism, Mark Vernon confronts the lust for certainty found in the dogmatism of conservative religion and militant science. He believes that a committed even passionate agnosticism is vital for the future of our planet and our souls. But how can you be an agnostic and why does it matters?

The key to wisdom, Socrates said, is understanding one's own ignorance. A similar thought lies at the heart of all good theology, since God is nothing if not unknown.

He gave a talk puffing his book at a local bookshop a while back. He says started as an Anglican priest, became an atheist, but found it "unsatisfying" because it didn't "contemplate the transcendent". He's now a self- proclaimed agnostic, but when he talks you realise he's just looking for a god even woolier than the one the Church of England keeps.

 

[Darth Rotor]

Oh man, I read one of those Sleeping Beauty books long ago. Since then, I can't hear the words "bridal path" and not bring it back to mind.

For another look at that topic from a different angle, to include an odd take on bondage and sexual roles, may I suggest Paul Witcover's "Waking Beauty" for a change of pace?

DR

 

[ImaginalDisc]

Dozens of examples of that: Mark Vernon, for example.



He gave a talk puffing his book at a local bookshop a while back. He says started as an Anglican priest, became an atheist, but found it "unsatisfying" because it didn't "contemplate the transcendent". He's now a self- proclaimed agnostic, but when he talks you realise he's just looking for a god even woolier than the one the Church of England keeps.

Oh, Mark Vernon. There's a spirituality quiz on his sight I took, just to see what he presumes to say. I love the analysis of my responses.

Question 1
(c) First, you said that you think the answer to the question of God is a matter of scientific fact. Whether you think science shows God exists or not, science is about the worst basis upon which to hold your position. It is not that science may suggest things about God to you, one way or another. It is that science can never settle the question. As Thomas Aquinas put it: ‘The awareness that God exists is implanted in us by nature in no clear or specific way.’

Whether or not god exists is a scientific question. If god does anything to effect the universe, then it's a detectable, natural phenomenon. If not, then it doesn't exist.

Question 6
(c) Continuing the spiritual exploration of science, you next said that the origin of the universe out of the big bang is the best of the three theories. This is not a bad theory at all. But it does beg that question, what caused the big bang? The best answer is random quantum fluctuations - something sprang out of nothing - which is, of course, to say nothing about why that something sprang.

Failure on four counts. 1) That's not what "begs the question" means. 2) "Cause" is based on linear time and we have no basis for thinking time existed "before" the big bang. 3) Don't speculate on what quantum theory says unless you understand it. 4) If "something from nothing" bothers you so much, where did god come from?

 

[Frozenwolf150]

Anne Rice? Where do I even start?

This is the same author who has legally banned all fanfiction related to her works, and has gone so far as to bitch out someone who gave her a negative review online. I've never been a fan of vampire erotica involving those angsty bishie vampires who constantly bemoan their own fate. Questions aside about how undead creatures with no blood pressure or pulse could have any kind of sexual relationships, why would vampires ever fall in love with or feel attraction to what essentially amounts to the cattle on which they feed? It makes about as much sense as a human character falling in love with a cow (I mean aside from Queen Pasiphaë of Crete).

From what I've heard of her more recent works, she can't resist stuffing them full of stupid religious platitudes that hit you over the head. The irony is that she sold her vampire novels as works of fiction and fantasy. Is she seriously implying that people weren't supposed to be able to separate reality from fantasy when reading about vampires as well?

 

[Darth Rotor]

Anne Rice? Where do I even start?

From your custon avatar title:
Your rice is served

Looks as though the rice flambe was served for this meal.

 

[Frozenwolf150]

From your custon avatar title:
Your rice is served

Looks as though the rice flambe was served for this meal.

The goddess Inari resents your blasphemous comparison of her with a fickle-minded self-important emo-vampire author.

 

[kedo1981]

Use to find her stuff entertaining; Interview was good Lestat was good but others focusing on the back storys of all the other vamps were dull. My fav was the one about the JEN, but the SM books crap totally soured me on her

 

[GreyICE]

Anne Rice belongs to one religion: Insanity.

 

[maxfrost]

I'd read most of Anne Rice's books up to and including Lasher and found them progressively over-written. As an experiment while reading Lasher, I read one out of every five pages for fifty pages and then went back and read those fifty pages again. Hadn't missed a thing. Rice writes by the pound, lots of fat, bone, and gristle, but very little meat.