Moreover, anyone here who hasn't read "Twinkle, Twinkle, "Killer" Kane", the reworked novel of "The Ninth Configuration" and the subsequent film adaptation of the latter title, go out and purchase the Region 1 US copy DVD, watch the film, then listen to the entire audio commentary with Blatty and Mark Kermode. Then you will understand why me and others are so obsessed with this film. It touches you, and you never forget it. It also helps that Cutshaw is in direct connection with the astronaut from The Exorcist.

http://darkplanet.basespace.net/nonfict/Blatty.html

It's always seemed to me that The Exorcist, The Ninth Configuration, and Legion formed a sort of "unofficial" trilogy — with The Ninth Configuration serving as a thematic bridge between the more overt horrors in The Exorcist and the intensely introverted struggles of Kinderman in Legion. Do you view the three novels as a trilogy? If so, why? And if not, why?

Yes, they form — at least in my mind — a trilogy. Taken together, they are all about the eternal questions that nag at Woody Allen: why are we here? what are we supposed to be doing? why do we die? is there a God? The Exorcist approached this last question, which is the heart of all the others, by seeking to confirm the existence of "demons" and the power of religious faith to deal with them. The Ninth Configuration approached the problem via what I call "the mystery of goodness": if we are reducible to matter without spirit, to soulless atomic structures, then we ought to be always rushing blindly and irresistibly to sereve our own selfish ends. Yet how is it that there is love in this world — love as a God might love — and that a man will give his life for another. The astronaut Cutshaw's search for irrefutable proof of such pure self-sacrifice forms the underlying plot. But then in Legion, Ivan Karamazov's greatest barrier to religious faith — the suffering of the innocent: the "problem of evil" — is met head-on by Lt. Kinderman.

I can really relate to Kane, the central character (hence the avatar). Oh how I adore this film!

Hey, thanks for those covers! When I launch the William Peter Blatty section of the website, I'll be including a list / images of his earlier works. I didn't know about that "I, Billy Shakespeare!" one.

Incidentally, what is this?

I'll re-label that once the other group of (hopefully) un-watermarked lobby cards are ready to be added.