Anne Rice goes from vampires to Jesus biographer (New Book Out)

Yahoo ^

[mnehring]

NEW ORLEANS – It's Halloween, and Anne Rice has a new book — a memoir in fact — that's climbing best-seller lists. Everything is normal, then.

Normal if it were 1994 — the height of Rice's megaselling fame as a queen of Southern Gothic pulp.

For those who haven't been paying attention lately to vampire lit, America's most famous chronicler of bloodsuckers doesn't live in New Orleans anymore — and hasn't since before Hurricane Katrina hit — and she's riding new waves of enthusiasm: the memoir and Christian lit.

Her memoir, "Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession," is the latest piece of evidence that Rice is reinventing herself in an attempt to build a reputation as a serious Christian writer.

[mnehring]

Before you scoff- her latest two before this where wonderful. Even my very, very fundamentalist Mother read and enjoyed them and found nothing offensive. Many of the stories come out of Catholic tradition versus the Bible, but they still have been done in a very respectful manner.

[Salamander]

Unintended consequences ping.

[socialismisinsidious]

Yes, but she was a huge Clinton supporter. As a Catholic (as a Christian!) I can not figure out how a "Catholic" can support any candidate who is pro-death, pro-partial birth; how does one reconcile the hypocrisy? I asked Ms Rice and she gave a bunch of liberal linguistics but never answered the question. I also asked her how she can support socialism and she wrote that “isms” went out during WWII and that Americans would never accept socialism. Ha. Boy, I hate being right.

[Zechariah_8_13]

In The New York Times, Christopher Buckley slammed Rice's memoir as "a crashing, mind-numbing bore. This is the literary equivalent of waterboarding."

And the bar is high when it comes to writing about Jesus.

"The best may be Nikos Kazantzakis' 'The Last Temptation of Christ,'" said Jason Berry, a novelist and journalist who has written extensively on the Catholic priest sex abuse scandal.

Right, that's the best of Christian literature.

And they had to get the Catholic priest dig in too.

They're pathetic.

[antiRepublicrat]

Quit the pretentious stuff and just give me more Lestat.

[RGPII]

I wonder if there is a chance she has totally changed her tune. I happened to hear her interviewed on the radio in the past 3 months and it sounded like she was being a faithful Christian and this was on Relevant Radio (Catholic radio). That station doesn’t accept pro-choice types. Of course, I haven’t seen the new book or even her old ones, I just happened to hear the radio program.

[conservative cat]

I believe she has just recently come back to the church. She might still support Clinton, but during his presidency, she was writing vampire books still.

[Boagenes]

I am reading her memoir and it is fantastic, and her two Jesus books, thus far, have been very good. She writes Jesus from the first person, but as many reservations as I had going in to it, she writes Jesus beautifully. Very orthodox, very reverent, very devout stuff, but written in such a deeply personal and moving way.

I highly recommend her memoir and her two books on Jesus (Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt and Christ the Lord: The Road To Cana) to everyone. You'll be pleasantly surprised.

[grellis]

"The best may be Nikos Kazantzakis' 'The Last Temptation of Christ,'" said Jason Berry...

That tells me everything I need to know about some guy I have never heard of.

[mnehring]

There was a thread about a year ago about how she is now pro-life also.. Sometimes it takes time to overcome all the meme’s- at least she is moving in the right direction.

[spetznaz]

I see your point, and I agree on with it. However, let me ask a question that really bothers me. I hate when our side basically relies on the abortion issue as almost the sole issue to vote/not vote for them. Yes, I am pro-life (and believe that life begins at conception, that it is sacred, and that there are no two ways about that), it is just that I am tired of the choice being two liberals, only that one is pro-choice and the other pro-life.

Why can we not have a fiscal conservative, who is pro small government, has all the fiscal aspects of Conservatism ....and also happens to be pro-life!? It is sickening when the choice is fiscal irresponsibility, but with a pro-life candidate, vs fiscal irresponsibility, but with a pro-choice candidate.

That is not a complete choice, unless instead of Conservatism we simply become the anti-abortion party, with that being the only anchor point. However, my understanding of Conservatism is that it embodies a wide umbrella of issues, with abortion being exceedingly key (since we are dealing with actual lives here), but other issues also existing (e.g. adhering to the constitution, FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY ....something that has apparently been completely forgotten, small government, personal responsibility, hard work instead of relying on the national teat, pro-business, pro-national defense, etc etc etc). We are more than one issue.

However, it appears that in some races all you have is 2 liberals, one who happens to be pro-choice, and the other who happens to be pro-life. And each liberal is rallying voters who are pro-choice/pro-life (respectively) to vote for them or to vote against the other guy.

That is not sustainable when it comes to the health of the country. Sure, killing the unborn is murder, but as important as that issue is (again, of PARAMOUNT importance) the candidates need to have more going for them than that.

Otherwise in the future you shall see a rise in the number of independents ...people who do not belong to either party, because each party embodies part of what they believe in, but at the same time encapsulates facets that are anathema to them. In which case people become independent (or strongly third-party). For instance fiscal responsibility, proper immigration and small government have been totally forgotten by the Republican party, with only social conservatism taking the king's seat. If it wasn't for the fact that, for now, there is no other genuine/viable alternative, you would see people who are fiscal conservatives, pro-small government and for better immigration protocol sitting out (for instance, the only thing that has added oomph to McCain is Governor Sarah Palin).

All need to go out and vote for McCain, but once he is safely president the Conservative Base needs to start working hard to clean out the Republican party. Let this be the last time people vote for a person who is a Conservative 35%, but Liberal (in some cases like immigration strongly liberal) the remaining 65%.

[mnehring]

You’ll like this:
http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/guestvoices/2008/03/go_tell_it_on_the_mountain_aga.html

[mnehring]

Found it... it was actually in her Hillary endorsement of all things.

I want to add here that I am Pro-Life. I believe in the sanctity of the life of the unborn. Deeply respecting those who disagree with me, I feel that if we are to find a solution to the horror of abortion, it will be through the Democratic Party. I have heard many anti-abortion statements made by people who are not Democrats, but many of these statements do not strike me as constructive or convincing. I feel we can stop the horror of abortion. But I do not feel it can be done by rolling back Roe vs. Wade, or packing the Supreme Court with judges committed to doing this. As a student of history, I do not think that Americans will give up the legal right to abortion. Should Roe vs Wade be rolled back, Americans will pass other laws to support abortion, or they will find ways to have abortions using new legal and medical terms.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1883153/posts

She sounds sincere- sincerely wrong, but sincere.

[mnehring]

The issue for many, and why it is so important, is that Abortion is a reflection of the respect of the rights, and the life of the individual; without that, nothing else matters. If you don't respect an individuals right to exist, then all other rights are meaningless. If one person can control the life of another, literally, their life, than what are any other individual rights? What is free speech if another owns your right to live or die?

The Abortion issue is far more than just the legality of a ‘medical procedure’ (sic) - it is a foundation of individual rights- does an individual own their life or is another allowed to own it.

I see very little difference in this issue and slavery when it comes to a core foundation of principles.

[spetznaz]

That is true, which is why I say the issue is paramount. It is just that it would be nice to also have some fiscal responsibility, fair and proper immigration protocol, adherence to the constitution, property rights, etc thrown into the mix. Not where you see two candidates running for let's say Congress saying that the other guy is pro-life or pro-choice, yet on everything else they are the same.

For instance, there is a certain race where the two candidates are arguing over who has MORE GUNS!

Come on! There has to be more than that! Why does it have to be pick and choose? Is it mutually exclusive to be both pro-life as well as fiscally conservative? Is it impossible for someone who is strong on immigration to also be strong on the rights of a child? Is it untenable to have a person who is pro-business and small government influence/intervention, but at the same time view a fetus as a full human being?

I don't think so! Thus, as important as life is, it doesn't mean everything else gets thrown under the proverbial bus.

[murron]

I don’t buy it. If you listen to her speak, she still is pro-abortion, and doesn’t seem to have made a true conversion.

[conservative cat]

Well, here’s to hope she is a PUMA at least!

[mnehring]

Wow, just went to her site and of all things, Dr. Dobson has promotions for her... wow..

[RGPII]

I am somewhat satisfied with the book, The greatest story ever told by Fulton Oursler written shortly after WWII for a Jesus bio.

I know there are a few biographies of Christ, I haven't read Pope Benedict's version. That would be next on my list. I'd consider Imitation of Christ as an instructional type book. There is enough out there to read, I'm not going to be looking for this Rice book. I just had to say what I had heard her say on the radio. With her having a background in writing Vampire tales of which I haven't seen much of either, it did not persuade me to go out and find this book. Amazon.com is a good place to research these matters.

[Mogollon]

Good for Anne. She is an excellent writer. C.S. Lewis was a committed atheist before his conversion, but then became one of the greatest Christian writers of the 20th century.