In a CT article by Cindy Crosby published just over two years ago, novelist Anne Rice–famous for her dark stories about vampires–spoke of her return to her Catholic faith and said she would from now on write about Christ. While she did not repudiate her earlier work, saying it was a record of her spiritual journey, she said she was through with vampires:
I would never go back, not even if they say, ‘You will be financially ruined; you’ve got to write another vampire book.’ I would say no. I have no choice. I would be a fool for all eternity to turn my back on God like that.
And for a while, she was true to her word, writing the first two works in a series about the life of Christ. The second, Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana, is due out on March 4. After a planned third installment on Jesus, Rice plans to return to her vampire chronicling. But isn’t that going back on her word? Rice answers Time this way: “I don’t see it as a violation of my promise, because I won’t be writing about vampires in the same way.” And indeed, her new promise–to put the stories in a Christian framework with an accent on redemption–sounds interesting. But Time isn’t buying, commenting: “Still, it is difficult to see it as anything but a change of heart.”
I cannot pretend to see into Anne Rice’s soul, but to me this is a troubling turn of events. Whatever the merits and drawbacks of writing one final vampire novel, her vow was all-encompassing, seemingly linking her eternal destiny to keeping it. I am reminded of the following verses:
When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you vow. It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay. Let not your mouth lead you into sin, and do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice and destroy the work of your hands?
UPDATE: For Anne Rice’s explanation of her decision, see her official website.
Anne Rice responded to this blog post today:
Thank you for your gentle write-up of my casual remark in a Time interview regarding Christ the Lord, the Road to Cana. My vow to the Lord was that I would write for Him, and for Him alone from then on (2002). I will keep that vow. If this new vampire book, which is no more than an idea, cannot be entirely Christian and redemptive in content, if it cannot be for the Lord, I assure you, it will not be written.
My vocation is to continue the story of Our Lord’s life on Earth and I am doing it. –- it’s amazing how this small remark to Time’s interviewers became something I never imagined. –- I’ve been flooded with emails for three years about having left my old characters, and more than once it has been suggested to me that they could be revisited in a redemptive or Christian framework. That was the idea.
And by the way, the book is no more than a dream. The consecration to Christ that I made in 2002 is rock solid, thank Heaven, and I pray for the faith and strength to maintain it.
– Anne Rice
