Vampires, Anne Rice & Emerging Faith
This morning, as I drove back to Winnipeg from visiting family in Ontario, I listened to an interview with Bishop N.T. Wright and Anne Rice on my iPod. It was a great exchange, inspiring me to reread “Christ The Lord”. I was also reminded of something that happened years ago. When I was seventeen and attending my Discipleship Training School (DTS), I approached my leaders with an odd question. I genuinely felt like I was supposed to read “Interview With A Vampire” by Rice. A local Christian theatre company was doing a production of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, exploring the spiritual undercurrents in the story. After checking with my intentions, my school leader gave the thumbs up.
I was immediately swept up into a dark and sensual story, in which a vampire shares with a reporter (and the rest of us “mere mortals”) his tragic story. The novel tells a tale of good and evil, light and darkness, senuality and selfness. Rice manages to create a fascination and even sympathy for the vampire, with readers hoping for some kind of victory- a salvation, if you will. However, there is none to be had. Rice, reflecting her own journey in this story, had discovered no resolution herself, therefore could offer none for her character or, ultimately, her readers.
Perhaps this is why I was caught up in this dark story. As the main character struggled to overcome his own selfness, compromise and hungers, so to did my own hidden demons seem to come to life in identification. In the same way, though I was a genuine follower of Christ (in a missions school, nonetheless) the easy-believism and not-so-easy-legalism of the dominant Evangelical culture I had come out of had not provided a real hope, except perhaps by default, to mimic externally what I so longed for within.
The brilliance of Rice’s writing in this novel was in her capacity to paint vampires- the quintessential fallen humanity- as the paradox of beauty and brokenness. The vivid sensuality of the feedings at once repulsed you with the monstrosity that it was while also reflecting, if only in part, the redemptive intention of God in that very sensuality. It was not an evil so foreign to humanity that we could not identify, but a tainted and familiar twist on what is good and pure. I had not encountered such raw honesty before and I was captured by it.
In the end, I chose to not to read anymore of her Vampire Chronicles, feeling a deep sense of forboding, as though they stood on the brink of hopelessness. Knowing how vulnerable I was to such fatalism in that time, I put her books behind me. Lately, as I reconsider the archetype that the vampire represents to me, I have a deep appreciation for Rice. Now, having returned to Christ in a powerful way, she acknowledges how lost she was when writing the book. However, she is unapologetic, recognizing her a fair reflection of where she was at the time. Her honesty helped my own.
So often, Christians can miss the clear signs of a soul seeking God. Many dismissed Rice’s books as nothing more than unredemptive, demonic, dangerous. If we hope to build a Kingdom of authentic hope, peace and love, then we will need to be able to see with God’s eyes. In part, this will require of us a grace and a generousity that often seem too much, but it will also require us to real and authentic ourselves, acknowledging our weaknesses, doubts and fears so that we can identify and understand it in others.
i know this is in no way helpful, but i’ve always wanted my hair to look like brad pitt’s in the movie. and isn’t it nice to think about a time when kierst dunst wasn’t a hollywood skank. oh how they mess up child stars. let us all keep our fingers crossed for ms. portman.
Jamie,
most of my book group drove down to SF, two hours away, to hear this- yup, I was there live in that audience. My best friend Jennifer, also a part of the book group, was helped in a similar way as you by “Interview”, and even more deeply [-the "brand" of Christianity she would identify with the closest is "Goth Christian"]. I think it was brilliant to have Rice and Wright together. Could have listened to them for another hour at least. I took “Jesus and the Victory of God” for Tom to sign.
Before the talk, we attended the Choral Eucharist at Grace Cathedral. It was Very High Church- like being at a Catholic mass before Vatican II! It was so totally appropriate in that great neo-Gothic structure. Communion with both elements, with the wine -real wine!- from a real chalice. Got my smells & bells fix to last me for a while. And the Rector gave the most marvelous sermon- very “post”, very Jesus-centered, and with just the right amount of humor. He even quoted Brian McLaren, calling him a notable Evangelical author
Afterwards we all went to North Beach for an early Italian dinner and some great conversation. It was a wonderful day, a very memorable Mother’s Day. When I broached the subject earlier of being away for Mother’s Day, my family was great- husband was fine with it, and daughter still at home told me, “Mom, you NEED to do this!” God bless her!
One of the things I like best about Wright, and those with the most thought-through “emerging” sensibilities, is that they are just so unafraid to deal with real questions. May the Spirit of God help us (me!) likewise to meet people where they are.
Dana
Jamie,
Fine thoughts here. Your point about seeing with God’s eyes is so crucial and not rote, but surely a gift from God that we should covet.
Also thanks for giving the link to the interview. Is sounding real good.
Dana,
Wow! What I would have given to be there. Rice wrote me a very kind email after I reviewed “Christ The Lord”. Glad you had a great time!
Peace,
Jamie
Ted,
Glad you like it. I’d love to hear more once you’ve finished listening to it.
Peace,
Jamie
Loved your insights, as I have never read the book nor knew her story behind it. Thank you! So many evangelical Christians are so damn afraid of honesty – they just want everything to be picture-perfect, and if it’s not, then demons are lurking, ready to devour. No matter where a person is at in their life, it’s their own experience and they are the ones walking in the shoes. We need to respect people and their experiences, good, bad and ugly.
EP,
Very true. Being honest is incredibly important, but comes at a high price. Never easy, but well worth it.
Peace,
Jamie
<i>”Many dismissed Rice’s books as nothing more than unredemptive, demonic, dangerous.”</i>
Odd, this, given the fact that it screamed it to me. Even if you managed to miss it in the first two books (hard to do since Lestat is waving a neon sign), Memnoch the Devil is all about this search. She has ALL of her vampires launch themselves into the quest for the truth about God. A hint about what is going on in the author’s head?
Wanderer,
Her books were very autobiographical in a way, which she clearly points out now. Sadly, some still deny there is anything good to be drawn from them.
Peace,
Jamie