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Page 164 when Kinderman was reading about the Black Mass desecrations of Catholic churches. How much of that is actually true because after reading that long paragraph….It was so disgusting and revolting I nearly threw up in my mouth. The desecration descriptions were some of the most vile things I have ever read. And the fact that it's done in a CHURCH? That's MORBID!
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Is that stuff all real? I'm afraid to find out….
epicwin123 said:
That part makes me so uncomforable and digusted. I’m sure it’s based on fact. :/
Ugh…. I'm getting queasy just thinking about it….
False, yet realistic in concept of Roman Catholic Church desecrations dating back to the beginning of theological records.
Father B
Most descriptions of “Black Masses” were written by witch hunters and persecuters in the hope of drumming up fear and religious fervour in their audience and so justify their own hideous actions.
Less than reliable accounts I would think and mostly invented on the spot.
Conversely there's no smoke without fire so you can bet some inverted Christians throughout the past and moreso in modern times have got down and dirty and exercised the full range of perversions described in such texts.
I just finished eating when I came across this.There was something about communion hosts made out of flour, feces, semen, and all things that are disgusting.Bearing this in mind, I must leave now and go vomit.Those descriptions of black mass were even more disturbing to me than the crucifix scene..I have to wonder what must have been going through Blatty's mind as he was writing all of this down.
Ken said:
I just finished eating when I came across this.There was something about communion hosts made out of flour, feces, semen, and all things that are disgusting.Bearing this in mind, I must leave now and go vomit.Those descriptions of black mass were even more disturbing to me than the crucifix scene..I have to wonder what must have been going through Blatty's mind as he was writing all of this down.
I was thinking the same thing. This is sick, creepy stuff. If memory serves, in the novel, Karras mentions that “satanism” is a psychiatric disease in which particpants cannot experience sexual pleasure unless accompanied by blasphemous words and acts. Blatty skillfully blends this all-too-human symptomology with the very real possibility that a demon is lurking in a Georgetown bedroom … creepy stuff again.
Late-night scenes of Karras and Kinderman respectively researching this twisted stuff. Actual “black Mass/witchcraft” desecrations in the church … Regan's fingerprints on the blasphemous altar card, her paint on the desecrated Mary statue … real “satanic” practices being carried out by an innocent twelve year old who ought to know nothing about them … except (Blatty's genius at work again), she may have read about them in a book left at the house by the psychic Mary Jo Perrin. Regan – is she a sick, acting-out little pervert or a truly possessed innocent … ? Is the demonic real, or just a series of peculiar mental disorders? Blatty continues this guessing game to the very final pages … what a writer, what a book.
granville1 said:
Ken said:
I just finished eating when I came across this.There was something about communion hosts made out of flour, feces, semen, and all things that are disgusting.Bearing this in mind, I must leave now and go vomit.Those descriptions of black mass were even more disturbing to me than the crucifix scene..I have to wonder what must have been going through Blatty's mind as he was writing all of this down.
I was thinking the same thing. This is sick, creepy stuff. If memory serves, in the novel, Karras mentions that “satanism” is a psychiatric disease in which particpants cannot experience sexual pleasure unless accompanied by blasphemous words and acts. Blatty skillfully blends this all-too-human symptomology with the very real possibility that a demon is lurking in a Georgetown bedroom … creepy stuff again.
Late-night scenes of Karras and Kinderman respectively researching this twisted stuff. Actual “black Mass/witchcraft” desecrations in the church … Regan's fingerprints on the blasphemous altar card, her paint on the desecrated Mary statue … real “satanic” practices being carried out by an innocent twelve year old who ought to know nothing about them … except (Blatty's genius at work again), she may have read about them in a book left at the house by the psychic Mary Jo Perrin. Regan – is she a sick, acting-out little pervert or a truly possessed innocent … ? Is the demonic real, or just a series of peculiar mental disorders? Blatty continues this guessing game to the very final pages … what a writer, what a book.
granville, do you think the very final pages answers the guessing game and, if so, exactly how. I agree that Blatty is brilliant because he added to so many angles to leave readers guessing or making their own final assumptions on so many parts of the novel.
Father Bowdern
I think Blatty resolved the issue in the final pages, slightly on the side of the supernatural explanation.
Had he not done so, he failed miserably at his stated intent of writing a supernatural detective story.
Had anyone or anything but a real demon caused Regan’s possession, then Blatty would have removed the two spiritual pillars of the story: a real supernatural intervention via possession; and a real redemption for Karras.
Removing the supernatural-redemption themes would collapse the novel into the same mess that the Dennings molestation theory results in: a crazy child murders her molester, fakes a possession complete with religious themes utterly foreign to her psychology, rapes herself with a crucifix, stresses Merrin into a heart attack, and drives Karras to such distraction that he himself goes nuts, imagining a non-existent demon whom he thinks he can defeat only by committing suicide. Plainly, that’s just bad writing. as well as a betrayal of Blatty’s own authorial intentions.
Blatty hints that the intervention, and Karras’ redemption, are real. E.g., Dyer tells Chris that Karras was struggling with his faith, but Chris replies, “I’ve never seen such faith”. When Karras takes on the demon, he says to the effect, “You’re good at torturing people … little girls … take me.” Then: “No, I won’t let you hurt them”. These sentences, although only heard by the people downstairs, nevertheless take us indirectly into Regan’s room, and show us the process of Karras’ regaining of faith and willingness to sacrifice his life for Regan.
Immediately after this scene, Blatty underlines this central theme by his description of what Dyer sees in Karras’ eyes at the base of the stairs, eyes in which there is “peace … and a glint of triumph”. This coda serves to gently push the reader into the supernatural/redemptive view of the story.
Blatty explicitly stated that he wrote The Exorcist as a “supernatural detective story”. If, at the end of the tale, we are still left ambivalent, or worse, conclude that Karras “caught” Regan’s “disease”, then Blatty ruined the premise of his own story. If the supernatural intervention/Karras redemption themes are seen as incorrect or delusional, then the whole notion of a supernatural and religious story evaporates, and we are left with a malicious, vicious story which treats its major characters with great cruelty, for no better reason than a rare form of mental illness. But we know that this was not Blatty’s intention:
We know it because in the voluminous remarks Blatty made about The Exorcist, one of the most repeated statements was “I hate the idea that people think that the Devil won”. There we have it: Blatty believed in a real supernatural intervention, and a real victory for Karras. If his writing skills were so inept as to leave the reader ambivalent, or convinced that mental illness was the culprit, then Blatty should have hired a writing coach. But thankfully, as it stands, I think Blatty skillfully completes the story with a real redemption and a real defeat of a real demon.
granville1 said:
Blatty believed in a real supernatural intervention
Of course. But, Blatty's intention was also to leave readers in doubt and suspense as to whether or not Regan was possessed or mentally ill/having a disease with no name, so people can believe what they want to believe. Unlike Audrey Rose novel, in which the author really states that Ivy is the reincarnation of Audrey Rose and doesn't leave any room for doubt. I like Blatty's writing method better than Frank de Felitta because, Blatty, leaves you in suspense right up until the end. It's much more thrilling than stating that Regan is possessed.
I always felt that Blatty's intention was for all doubt to be resolved by the end of the novel, much as it was for Karras.
Whilst he keeps you guessing through the earlier parts I seem to recall everything later in the novel pointing to the conclusion the possession was undoubtedly real.
Maybe time to read it again. I haven't picked it up for over a year 😉
No, he left that door open for interpretation.
“It was now six weeks since the shock… still there were no answers. Only haunting speculation and frequent awakenings from sleep in tears.”
Sofia said:
No, he left that door open for interpretation.
“It was now six weeks since the shock… still there were no answers. Only haunting speculation and frequent awakenings from sleep in tears.”
No answers for the characters certainly, none of whom were party to the complete picture. But for the reader I felt Blatty made things clear.
No answers for the characters certainly, none of whom were party to the complete picture. But for the reader I felt Blatty made things clear.
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I tend to agree with that. As a reader, my shock was overcome, and I was not awaking in tears, because Blatty invested Karras’ sacrifice and the end of Regan’s captivity with undeniable meaning and sanctity. As you said, if some of the characters are left somewhat clueless, we as readers are not. Blatty repeatedly said, “I don’t want people to think that the Devil won” – thus delivering a crystal-clear announcement to his audience: the possession was real, and Karras really overcame the real demon by his real self-sacrifice. Without this final certainty, the story decays into a pointless tale of a crazy child, self-molested by an unnamed disease, and an equally crazy priest who bought into the illusion and stupidly and uselessly destroyed his own life, for the sake of superstition. Definitely not the story that Blatty intended and wrote.
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