Update and Review: The Exorcist: 40th Anniversary Edition by William Peter Blatty
Hey fellow bloggers what is going on? How's it hanging? I hope everyone has been doing better than I have. I've been feeling bad lately and under a lot of stress lately with everything in my personal life and at work. But it is mainly the office that has me stressed. The environment here is so unprofessional it makes no sense. The drama is worse than a high school and a bad soap opera combined. I don't even want to get into it right now so I am going to move on to something more important. My writing has been suffering as a result of the job. My mind isn't clear enough to focus on my writing and everything that needs to happen now. But I can feel Alexios and Tara and all my other characters trying to push me and tell me to write. Telling me to finish what I started because they are ready for the world but every damn time I sit down with a pen or at the computer I cannot find my flow. I can't focus on my writing because I am focused on what is going on at the office or at home. I no longer know how to get to my happy place. I am lost and to be honest I have been for a while. But I have faith that everything is working out for me and soon I will be back to my old self. Tonight if I'm not too tired from cleaning (if I don't get distracted by other things) and washing clothes I will try and write. I know I have to push everything to the side and focus. Because believe me when I say that I do not plan on staying in this office, job, whatever you want to call it for the rest of my life. I refuse to be stuck at a bullshit ass job that offers no true growth and that isn't even in my field of interest. I refuse to be one of those people that get stuck and lose sight of their talent and dreams. No I cannot, it is not in my genetic make up to sit and take shit from others all my life and depend on them for my lively hood. I will not just become souly focused on making money because I am afraid of not having any. I wont be afraid that I wont be able to pay my bill or anything like that. I wont get stuck in this place for the rest of my life. Or be left behind and watch as other pass me by....
But anyway now that my rant is over lets move on to this review. I almost ended up wanting to write a 10pg paper on the differences between the movie and the book and how both add a different element to the story and that to get the full scope of what is going on one has to read both. It gives the movie greater impact and fills in gaps, while the movie provides a visual for the events going on (and in my mind the creepy music)...Soo here we go...
Review: The Exorcist: 40th Anniversary Edition by William Peter Blatty
I first picked this book up to see how closely related the movie was. I am pleased to say that I was no disappointed. In fact this was one of the rare times that I didn't find the movie better than the book but found them on equal footing, yet quite different in many areas. I also felt as if the movie (which is probably the case with all movie adaptations) was really a basic outline of the book. The movie touches briefly on the background of the characters, such as Regan and her mother, Chris being Atheist, the priest Damien who suffers over the guilt he feels about his mother's death and questions his faith. However in the book Blatty does an excellent job of showing these characters and struggles more closely. The reader gets a chance to see Chris's gradual fall into depression as her daughter's possession grows worse. Though her struggle is obvious in the movie, in the book however its more tangible. The reader is allowed inside the mother's head while she deals with Regan's possession. Her thoughts and reasoning are closely examined within the story.
Also with the priest with his questioning of faith and the need from him to prove that what he see's in Regan's possession is real. Again the reader is granted another inside look into one of the character's that in a way was a dark space in the movie. We are granted a look into the priest's mind and a look into his inner demons. The weight of his quilt over abandoning his mother and her dying alone is felt thoroughly throughout the pages of the novel. Throughout the entire book you watch the priest struggle with his doubt of faith and the fact that he cannot "see" God. By the conclusion of the novel it can be assumed that his faith is restored and he reaches a point of acceptance in his final moments. Another character that is not thoroughly explored in the movie but is seen much more in the book is the detective. His character adds the element of the law and we watch him struggle with knowing that it was Regan that committed the murder. His relationship to the other characters and his involvement within the possession is more that what it has been portrayed in the movie.
In actuality I have to say the novel, though the possession and the exorcism of Regan is the driving factor of the novel, is actually more involved with the people and events surrounding the possession that the actual possession. It's about how Chris, Damien, and everyone else involved with Regan deal with their own fears, sins, doubts, and faith. By the end of the story the question still remains: Why? Why Regan and her mother? Is it because of everyone's lack of faith and belief, of some guilt these characters hid deep within themselves that motivated these events? Needless to say that this book was much more than I expected it to be. It encourages the reader to seriously consider what faith is and our true belief. This is definitely a thought provoking novel.
Rating: 4/5
Would I recommend it to a friend? Yes, but to the ones I know will seriously thinking about it in the end.
But anyway now that my rant is over lets move on to this review. I almost ended up wanting to write a 10pg paper on the differences between the movie and the book and how both add a different element to the story and that to get the full scope of what is going on one has to read both. It gives the movie greater impact and fills in gaps, while the movie provides a visual for the events going on (and in my mind the creepy music)...Soo here we go...
I first picked this book up to see how closely related the movie was. I am pleased to say that I was no disappointed. In fact this was one of the rare times that I didn't find the movie better than the book but found them on equal footing, yet quite different in many areas. I also felt as if the movie (which is probably the case with all movie adaptations) was really a basic outline of the book. The movie touches briefly on the background of the characters, such as Regan and her mother, Chris being Atheist, the priest Damien who suffers over the guilt he feels about his mother's death and questions his faith. However in the book Blatty does an excellent job of showing these characters and struggles more closely. The reader gets a chance to see Chris's gradual fall into depression as her daughter's possession grows worse. Though her struggle is obvious in the movie, in the book however its more tangible. The reader is allowed inside the mother's head while she deals with Regan's possession. Her thoughts and reasoning are closely examined within the story.
Also with the priest with his questioning of faith and the need from him to prove that what he see's in Regan's possession is real. Again the reader is granted another inside look into one of the character's that in a way was a dark space in the movie. We are granted a look into the priest's mind and a look into his inner demons. The weight of his quilt over abandoning his mother and her dying alone is felt thoroughly throughout the pages of the novel. Throughout the entire book you watch the priest struggle with his doubt of faith and the fact that he cannot "see" God. By the conclusion of the novel it can be assumed that his faith is restored and he reaches a point of acceptance in his final moments. Another character that is not thoroughly explored in the movie but is seen much more in the book is the detective. His character adds the element of the law and we watch him struggle with knowing that it was Regan that committed the murder. His relationship to the other characters and his involvement within the possession is more that what it has been portrayed in the movie.
In actuality I have to say the novel, though the possession and the exorcism of Regan is the driving factor of the novel, is actually more involved with the people and events surrounding the possession that the actual possession. It's about how Chris, Damien, and everyone else involved with Regan deal with their own fears, sins, doubts, and faith. By the end of the story the question still remains: Why? Why Regan and her mother? Is it because of everyone's lack of faith and belief, of some guilt these characters hid deep within themselves that motivated these events? Needless to say that this book was much more than I expected it to be. It encourages the reader to seriously consider what faith is and our true belief. This is definitely a thought provoking novel.
Rating: 4/5
Would I recommend it to a friend? Yes, but to the ones I know will seriously thinking about it in the end.
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