William Peter Blatty’s Universalism

AndreLinoge · March 9, 2018, 3:19am

This year marks the 45th anniversary of William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist, the novel that completely altered his literary career and catapulted him into his place as the dean of philosophical horror novelists. There are novelists who undoubtedly write more genre novels and are better known, but there are few/none of them that write with the depth that Blatty does. There are occasional horror novelists that write with more depth (Gene Wolfe occasionally writes horror novels and he takes a back seat to no one in that regard), but they aren’t nearly as well known.

Prior to writing The Exorcist Blatty was known as a writer of comedy, from the absurdist Which Way to Mecca, Jack? (1959) to the blackly comic Twinkle, Twinkle, Killer Kane! (1966, which would be rewritten as a surrealist horror novel and screenplay as The Ninth Configuration a decade or so later). But that all changed in 1971 when The Exorcist arrived in bookstores to horrify readers. I am going to use this opportunity to discuss Blatty’s notions of heaven, hell, and purgatory as the concepts are understood in those books that represent his universalist vision of Catholicism.

altarandthrone.com/throwback … versalism/

JasonPratt · March 9, 2018, 3:19am

Hi, Andre! Long time no see!

(Well, I haven’t been reading the “Out of work” thread. )

AndreLinoge · March 9, 2018, 3:19am

Don’t read it; its depressing.

stellar_renegade · March 9, 2018, 3:19am

Hey, that’s my website!* Well, I co-founded it. Just saw that it was referred to by this thread, haha. Thanks very much for the share!

*In fact, I usually do the Throwback Thursdays, but allowed one of the authors to take it over for the second time with that article.