Piers Read has been busy with his tour, but we have arrived a a good stopping point in our email exchange about The Death of a Pope. Here is Part One of our correspondence; and here is Part Two. Further comments welcome.
FW: My final question has to do with the effect on suffering of Christ's redemptive act and the effect this must in turn have on a Catholic writer. But let me get into the question in a roundabout way. There have been - starting, I guess, with The Exorcist - a lot of films (and books, too) in which, despite the best efforts of the good people, evil always either wins out or is not totally defeated. I have always found this aesthetically unsatisfactory. I wonder if this is because of my Catholic sensibility. Christ has defeated evil. Everything bad subsequent to the redemptive act - however awful, however widespread - must amount, in the end, to mere pockets of resistance. So it would seem to me that the Catholic writer must have a fictional world in which this is implicit. This doesn't mean a novel by a Catholic must necessarily have a happy ending or a Pollyannish outlook - the resolution at the end of The Death of a Pope can hardly be called "happy" - but does it not necessarily mean that in a novel written by a believing Catholic evil must always, as it were, be at a disadvantage? God's creation, as Dante put it, is a Commedia.
PPR: Certainly Evil in the last analysis is at a disadvantage but surely the Devil remains Prince of this World and continues to roam it for the ruin of souls? The analogy I sometimes make is that of France during World War II with the forces of evil (the Germans) in control; collaborators in the Vichy government (atheists, Catholic modernists?), those who avoid taking sides and keep their heads down, and of course the Resistance (orthodox Catholics) who, though harried and hunted, are confident in their ultimate salvation from the United States. The analogy is far from perfect: the Soviets, after all, were also the victors and hardly a force for good.
Dante is right, of course: God's creation is a commedia though it may not seem funny to those who suffer. The philosopher Roger Scruton recently wrote that the core values of Western civilisation are Forgiveness and Irony; and certainly in my fiction I have attempted an ironic depiction of those who live by worldly values - less in The Death of a Pope, perhaps - though there is some irony in my depiction of Cardinal Doornik - than in other of my novels.
I would say that The Death of a Pope does have a happy ending in that Kate comes to a proper understanding of right and wrong. I don't want to say more for fear of giving away the denouement to any of your readers who may be reading the novel and have yet to reach the end.
FW: My final question has to do with the effect on suffering of Christ's redemptive act and the effect this must in turn have on a Catholic writer. But let me get into the question in a roundabout way. There have been - starting, I guess, with The Exorcist - a lot of films (and books, too) in which, despite the best efforts of the good people, evil always either wins out or is not totally defeated. I have always found this aesthetically unsatisfactory. I wonder if this is because of my Catholic sensibility. Christ has defeated evil. Everything bad subsequent to the redemptive act - however awful, however widespread - must amount, in the end, to mere pockets of resistance. So it would seem to me that the Catholic writer must have a fictional world in which this is implicit. This doesn't mean a novel by a Catholic must necessarily have a happy ending or a Pollyannish outlook - the resolution at the end of The Death of a Pope can hardly be called "happy" - but does it not necessarily mean that in a novel written by a believing Catholic evil must always, as it were, be at a disadvantage? God's creation, as Dante put it, is a Commedia.
PPR: Certainly Evil in the last analysis is at a disadvantage but surely the Devil remains Prince of this World and continues to roam it for the ruin of souls? The analogy I sometimes make is that of France during World War II with the forces of evil (the Germans) in control; collaborators in the Vichy government (atheists, Catholic modernists?), those who avoid taking sides and keep their heads down, and of course the Resistance (orthodox Catholics) who, though harried and hunted, are confident in their ultimate salvation from the United States. The analogy is far from perfect: the Soviets, after all, were also the victors and hardly a force for good.
Dante is right, of course: God's creation is a commedia though it may not seem funny to those who suffer. The philosopher Roger Scruton recently wrote that the core values of Western civilisation are Forgiveness and Irony; and certainly in my fiction I have attempted an ironic depiction of those who live by worldly values - less in The Death of a Pope, perhaps - though there is some irony in my depiction of Cardinal Doornik - than in other of my novels.
I would say that The Death of a Pope does have a happy ending in that Kate comes to a proper understanding of right and wrong. I don't want to say more for fear of giving away the denouement to any of your readers who may be reading the novel and have yet to reach the end.
You say, "Christ has defeated evil. Everything bad subsequent to the redemptive act - however awful, however widespread - must amount, in the end, to mere pockets of resistance." I would suggest instead that these "mere pockets of resistance" remain and may become even more powerful in this temporal existence. The "redemptive act" you point to was prologue. What remains as the ultimate elimination of Evil is something even more redemptive and conclusive, which is suggested in doctrines of eschatology. Perhaps my understanding of eschatology is wrong. I am neither spiritual nor wise enough to imagine what that will be like, but I am (I think) comfortable with saying "something is coming, and it is going to be awesome and absolute." Then we can say, "Well, that takes care of Evil!" In the meantime, though, we can merely speculate and wait.
ReplyDeletePostscript: I would also add that I am remain fascinated by so-called "Catholic novelists and poets" which is perhaps peculiar since I am not Catholic; there is a spirituality and confidence (usually) in their works that I find buoyant (if that is not too common of a word) and exhilarating. I'd be open to hearing from you about "recommended reading" in addition to Read, Graham Greene, Mauriac, Powers, Walker Percy, and O'Connor (the latter being someone I have already fully embraced).
ReplyDeleteHi R.T. - I may not have been as clear as I ought to have been. The point I was trying to make is this: Evil continues - one need only look around - and may even strengthen, but its ultimate defeat is assured. So for the Christian tragedy is no longer a possibility.
ReplyDelete