Like the optical effect, this glance askance of Claude's Jules and Jim also tells a story that reverses, like a is also repeated later. Muriel has sent Claude a portion photo negative, the plot of Two English Girls. In this of her diary in which she confesses to an episode of way Truffaut reminds us that the experience recollected lesbianism and masturbation earlier in her life; and as here was an artistic experience to begin with, his own. Claude finishes reading her words, he turns to the cam- When he made Bed and Board a few years ago, era with a guilty look. Even the diary is a device cal- Truffaut finally brought to a conclusion the cycle of culated to remind us that it is only a re-creation, a Antoine Doinel films that had begun with his first work, recollection of experience rather than the experience The 400 Blows from a new point of view more sym- itself, which we are witnessing. Muriel's diary is one of pathetic to the adult than the child. The English Girls several such narr~itions that are part of Truffaut's nar- might be said to remake Jules and Jim with a compar- rative. Two others---one spoken by Truffaut himself and able change of heart. In 1962 Truffaut's sympathies another originating in Claude's letters to his mother-- lay with the Jeanne Moreau character, who is the freest are also voice-over contributions to the plot. But a spirit in Yules and Jim. In Two English Girls, however, fourth narration that figures in the film, a moot one of it is with Claude, the sanest, most stable corner of the sorts, is perhaps the most significant. It is a novel that triangle, that Truffaut's sympathies lie. It is a remark- Claude ultimately writes and publishes about his twenty- able thing for a director to have begun his own career year affair with his two English girls. all over again with such brilliance and vitality as Truffaut Claude's novel reverses the situation in his life: it is has shown in these last two films. Unlike sculpture, film about two men in love with the same woman. This of doesn't lend itself readily to the sort of stylization of course inserts yet another layer in the awareness of art gross reality that Truffaut has attempted in Two English that is here altering our perception of the story. The Girls. It is a remarkable thing at any point in a director's novel on which Two English Girls is based was written career to have performed so difficult a feat of art so by Henri-Pierre Roche, whose only other work, Jules well. and Jim, was made into a film by Truffaut ten years ago. COLIN L. WESTERBECK, JR.

an exchange ol views 'Exorcising the Exorcist'

Rochester, N.Y. have three main objections to The ence that Blatty, the novelist, and Perhaps I will be judged insufficient- Exorcist: first, that it deals in pre- Schroth, the priest, are both trying to ly objective to counter Raymond Conciliar preoccupations and thought- reach. I think Blatty has read that Schroth's somewhat arch dismissal of patterns; second, that the events of audience better than Schroth has. The Exorcist [Commonweal, Nov. 3, the novel have nothing to do with the Surely, even at post-Conciliar Ford- 1972]. I am, truth to be told, in the evils of today; third, that the novel ham there are, even now, a few film version of the novel (Harper & does not offer a definite explanation priests who "still say Mass in Latin." Row, $6.95; Bantam, $1.25) and may for Karras' death. I live in a community of only 20 therefore be construed as blindly de- Father Schroth asserts that Blatty Jesuits and at least three of the 18 fending the star I've hitched my deals with a church purportedly in the say Mass in Latin--and every day at rickety wagon to. However, both Bill '70s but actually the church of the '40s that. Surely, even in the circles Father Blatty and Ray Schroth are my friends which, he presumes, no longer exists. Schroth frequents, there are still more and, s~nce they are bothmperhaps with- The actions and reactions of the than a few priests who swap "clerical out realizing--on the same side, it's novel's characters manifest a mind-set banter at . . . cocktail parties." God possible I might be a mediator. There which is unaffected by Vatican II. forgive me, I do. Finally, I realize that are few enough Christians who take This assertion, which I think is true of I come from the boonies outside The to the stump for what they believe, the characters, says less about Bill Big Apple, which encompasses 99 per and it would be a shame if they Blatty than it says of Father Sehroth's cent of the U.S., but I still "surprise wasted time hurling snide brickbats at apparent unfamiliarity with the mind- otherwise sophisticated people when one another when they could be off set of what may be a majority of to- (I) wear informal clothes." Since the on the quest for listeners to the Good day's Catholics. It is an error far summer, I've been to L.A., N.Y. and News. greater than misjudging the novel. It D.C., and in each place film stars, in- Father Schroth's article seems to is, sadly, a misjudgment of the audi- terviewers and just ordinary old sophis.

15 December 1972:252 ticated folk express surprise--pleased the susceptibilities of the faithful than I fear that Father Schroth may be surprise, I admit--when I turn up in his article demonstrates, but I don't cloaking himself in a Vatican II tri- turtleneck and sport coat. (Turtleneck? see much evidence of it. So, if Wil- umphalism as sterile as post-Tridentine Okay. Tie? Well .... ) Surely there are liam Peter Blatty uses "cheap sensa- triumphalism. Contrary to his supposi- even a , few becassocked Jesuits in tionalism" to hook such an audience tions, Vatican II has only touched the Father Schroth's own recreation room into considering the possibility of some surface of the People of God. One who put their heads together and tut- transcendent dimension to human life, cannot legislate a change in "presup. tut at the garb of their younger he may have found a "way in." Father positions and thought-patterns." Alas. brethren. "They're killing the Society Schroth may deride it, but the fact Many people come to God, as Augus- and the Church!" is that Blatty has made people think of tine did, through sin. As Merrin states To nit-pick these details seems silly, impalpable realities. This is no negligi- in the novel, "Perhaps evil is the cru- but I do so to demonstrate that Father ble achievement, even if it was reached cible of goodness .... And perhaps Schroth iust may be guilty of three by the cellar door. When all is said even Satan---Satan, in spite of himself repertorial sins--if that word is still and done, I suspect more people have --somehow serves to work out the will relevant: inadequate sampling of the read The Exorcist this year than have of God." Any door may serve. But feelings of the audience he serves, not ever read Commonweal. I weep for the one has to get people at least to con- keeping his ears open to opposing fact, but I don't ignore it. sider the ultimate option before they views, and thus, misjudging the recep- Father Schroth further suggests his can even apprehend the meaning of tivities of the audience he purports to aloofness from the majority of believ- what Father Schroth rightly calls the know. The People of God are by no ers (and unbelievers) when he laments core of Christianity: "the Lord and means identical to the college campus Blatty's failure to produce a work with Father revealed to us in the self-empty- or theological circles or the City of the subtlety of Henry James' The Turn ing love of Jesus." One must have New York. Obvious, but I wonder if o/ the Screw. Perhaps Father Schroth some suspicion of transcendent reality Father Schroth realizes that. does not watch television or go to the and theism before he can understand The majority of Christians I have movies or skim the best-seller lists, but that Jesus purported to be something met do not read Commonweal or The he can't possibly have failed to under- more than a social reformer. Critic. At best they read the diocesan stand that any novelist or screen- On another tack, Father Schroth says paper and perhaps the columns in writer today is writing for an audience that the prefaced allusions to Dachau, Time or Newsweek. They do not have far different from Henry James' or Wil- Communist torture and the Mafia much connection with the activities of liam Shakespeare's. When news com- "have no real connection with the rest their parishes other than Sunday Mass mentators have to get on the air im- of the novel." He then concludes by mwhich they still don't call "the mediately after a Presidential speech saying that The Exorcist reader Liturgy." And they mourn--very pri- and tell the people what it said, sub- "finishes as reassured as any good vately-the death of any sense of mys- tlety is not the avenue to any large citizen of seventeenth century Salem tery in the present homogenized lan- audience. that the ultimate source of evil is not guage of the Mass. They don't want Even further, he states that "the the malice and selfishness of the hu- Latin back, really, but they do want tales of Faust, Frankenstein, Dracula man will but an Outside Agitator who some sense of a transcendent cere- draw our attention to larger themes comes in and takes over." mony. I know a handful at best who --man's lust and pride and the power True, anyone who skimmed the novel have read even one of the documents of evil (like Original Sin)." Why can as cursorily as Father Schroth must of Vatican II, and fewer who could Dracula draw a reader to a more pro- have, probably could be left with this identify Cardinal Suenens or Dora found consideration of evil and The impression. If so, he missed the three Helder Camara or Hans Kiing. I Exorcist cannot? Is it because Dracula pages (Bantam, 368-370) in which weep for the fact, but I don't ignore it. is hallowed by time and our boyhood Blatty, through Merrin, confronts the I say all this not to gain points-- nostalgia for Bela and the Boys? I don't question of human vs. diabolic respon- much less to deride--but I think know whether Brain Stoker had an sibility for evil: Father Schroth ought to know what apostolic purpose in writing Dracula, Yet I think the demon's target is the job is for the lovely-footed mes- but even Father Schroth admits that not the possessed; it is us . . . senger who brings the Good News over Bill Blatty did. every person in this house. And I the mountain to today's grassroots Can anyone read The Exorcist, think--I think the point is to make church. One can say true things with- whether he believes in devils or not, us despair; to reject our own hu- out true things being heard. The lan- without asking the question: if evil manity, Damien; to see ourselves guage of the Vatican II-ers is as opaque doesn't come from devils, where does as ultimately bestial; as ultimately to many Christians as the language of it come from? If nothing else, The vile and putrescent; without dig- the catechism was. Perhaps Father Exorcist did make Father Schroth ask nity; ugly; unworthy. And there Schroth has a greater realization of the question[ lies the heart of it, perhaps: in

Commonweal: 253 unworthiness. For I think belief in sonalized Hatted. Nor can I slough off recoveries any more? For the last two God is . . . a matter.., of ac- the Gospel passages which put into years even the carnage in the Vietnam cepting the possibility that God the mouth of Jesus references to such news could stir only a few to say, "Oh, could love us .... a Personage. I'd like very much to con- my God!" We have a tolerance, almost There is no need for a devil to run sider them mere primitive myths, but an immunity, to awe. When one has our wars or our prison camps or our it is not that easy to do without pull- witnessed an atomic explosion, very organized crime. He (or "It") need ing the plug on the rest of what Christ little can capture the susceptibilities of only convince us that we don't have reputedly said. Moreover, I find it odd the American public and make them what we should have--and then we'll that Father Schroth dumps devils feel humbled by power. Certainly not reach out and grab it, no matter what which do have some Scriptural men- the power of an unseen God. Even for the cost. Perhaps Blatty does not di- the Architect of the Universe, Hiro- rectly connect the source of Evil in shima is a tough act to follow. Regan to the evil in Munich or Chi- And yet, as Father Schroth says, in cago; he gives us credit or the ability such a vacuum "people will turn to to make connections for ourselves. pseudo-religious substitutes-drugs, ap- This was perhaps too subtle to be paritions, violent ideologies." The noticed; not as subtle as Henry James, Exorcist, for one thing, shows the re- but nonetheless not as blaringly ob- tion, yet still clings to terms like sults of such substitutes. And it was vious as the more bizarre elements of "Original sin" which doesn't. It scen~s successful to a great extent precisely the novel. If Father Schroth missed it, like rather selective reading. because the occult is one thing that the reason might be that he was look- Just as his does, my hard-wrought can still catch a jaded audience and ing for less in the novel than was sophistication convinces me that devils open them to awe. If one can use this actually there. are mere superstition, but there is just very fascination with the bizarre to A final objection Father Schroth enough contrary evidence that I am lure an apathetic audience to consider raises is that the novel does not offer hesitant to risk Father Schroth's en- the very Reality for which it substi- a definite explanation of Karras' death. viable certitude. tutes . . . bravo! Does he crack under the strain? Is it Where does superstition end and an Even Father Schroth can't deny that a sacrificial suicide? Is it an echo of honest sense of mystery begin? I fear this novel has drawn many readers the Gadarene swine plunging over the we won't get the answer from people at least to consider the possibility of a cliff? And he fears that the movie who use the word "pious" as cava- personal reality transcending our will take the same ambivalent point of lierly as Father Schroth does. senses. If one can make an audience, view. It is true that our more susceptible jaded by immensity, do that, he de- Of course he is right. The novel forebears saw dryads in every tree serves better treatmentmand deeper poses an option, not an answer. As and a god in every waterfall. We our- study--than Ray Schroth gave Bill Socrates discovered, a question is more selves were led to believe that Adam Blatty. WILLIAM J. O'MALLEY, $.J. likely to provoke thought in the gen- conversed with a snake and Moses saw eral public than a pronunciamento. a bush burning in the desert without Far better that the ordinary reader ask, being consumed. It is reported further Beplg "What do you think happened in the than an itinerant Jewish rabbi turned end?" than to have a definite state- water into wine and wine into his own Father O'Malley is right on one ment by the author or film-maker which blood. point: other than the news, I watch closes the question and precludes They were more gullible souls then, very little television. Meanwhile he has further probing. and our generation is one which sees made a deeply-felt defense of his own As a result of The Exorcist, I'm gullibility as the cardinal sin. To be collaboration in the film, while still constantly asked by students and their taken in, to be suckered, is unforgiv- misunderstanding my article, the book elders, "Do you really think there's a able. To stand open-mouthed before and--I suspect--the real needs of the devil?" My answer is that I don't anything is to blow one's cool. To church.' His letter, which covers a lot know. But I do believe most heartily have faith without certain proof is of ground, seems to stress two points: in an objective, personalized, non- naive. We live in a generation with- that I write from the point of view visible Good. In fact, both Father out awe. of a New York liberal university pro- Schroth and I have wagered not only The White House and the Vatican fessor and am thus out of contact with our lives but our possible families on are subject to so much criticism that the real people whom Father O'Malley that belief. I don't like to believe there they can inspire no gut loyalty in a meets on movie sets or while teaching is a personalized Evil, but in accept- people for whom even a landing on high school in Rochester; that I under- ing a personalized Love, I've opened the moon has become commonplace. estimate his friend Bill Blatty's apos- the door to the possibility of a per- Who even bothers to watch capsule tolic motive and the effectiveness of

15 December 1972: 254r The Exorcist in bringing people to to film a desecration scene in Holy questions about what it means. And if God. Trinity Church, especially after the Father O'Malley thinks that to con- This is no place to argue which of other Jesuits had given him so much sider Satan in a mythological context us lives in the larger world--although cooperation. He was also worried is to "pull the plug" on the rest of I make no apologies for my own about the fact that a 12-year-old girl the Gospels, he should stop teaching which, in recent years, has included in Washington had developed symptoms religion and literature and go back to people of all kinds and classes and of "diabolical possession" after reading studying Scripture. three happy years teaching at that his book. Finally, I suggest that the sense of same high school in Rochester. I don't I'm afraid that the attempt to solicit "awe" brought on by the sight of hu- know how we're ever going to deter- priestly blessings for The Exorcist man suffering is a poor gimmick to mine how much Christian love has book and film reminds me too much inspire faith. Faith is increased, I be- been increased by the novel. Accord- of the early days of Playboy when lieve, when we see Christians struggle ing to an article by Dan Morrissey Mr. Hefner sought priests and min- for justice and show concern for one in the Georgetown Law Weekly [Nov. isters to baptise his little cultural pack- another. The experience of this love 8] on the impact of The Exorcist and age into respectability by submitting lifts our imaginations to consider trans- the film crew on location on the cam- articles and friendly letters. I think we cendent reality. Blatty's "devil" in pus, "the film's heavy theme isn't all shouM take risks and put our- Regan did not increase the faith of sparking much discussion among the selves in potentially compromising any character in the novel. It killed undergrads on the problem of evil or situations with the hope that some good two priests and got Regan's mother to the question of free will." It quotes will result. That's why priests some- believe in Satan, not in God. Nor has Georgetown senior Mike Blatty, the times find it necessary to join sit-ins, it increased Father O'Malley's already author's son, "There's really none of write controversial articles, associate strong belief in God nor helped him that around here now. Right now it's with notorious people, go to political make up his mind on whether there all Show Biz." According to the Wash. conventions and run for office. So, I'm are devils. That's not religion. That's ington Post [Nov. 6], Bill Blatty is glad Bill O'Malley has a part in the not awe. That's Show Biz. peeved that the crew was not allowed film. But I wish he would ask harder RAYMOND A. sCHROTH, S.J.

]BOOKS 0000OO000000000 OOO The perils o] being papa

mlaehberry Winter: many women don't know who is the Mead's was a perfectly adequate hus- MM Earlier Years father of their child, and still today, as band and father, a respected university MARGARET MEAD in the time of Moses to be a Jew, the professor, whose lapses were mostly Morrow, $8.95 mother, not the father, must be Jewish. from taste, though "there were oc- Margaret Mead is one of the greatest casionally very different women in his Father Figure: A# women alive. A pioneer in her field, life" and "when he threatened to leave Uncensored AatobiographM an immensely creative scientist, a gift- my mother" his own mother an- BEVERLEY NICHOLS ed writer, the author of almost two nounced she would stay with her Simon & Schuster, $6.95 dozen books on anthropology, a con- daughter-in-law and the children. Bev- cerned human being, she is one of the erley Nichols' father was a patholog- ANNE FREMANTLE most valuable of our citizens. Beverley ical monster, an alcoholic who savagely Nichols is, beside her, a lightweight. ill-treated his wife and three sons, The Oedipus plays, the sorry saga Yet some of his 43 books have made whose bouts of drinking are described of the House of Atreus, the play of their mark in England; he is a success- in horrifying detail. Beverley tried three Hamlet, all concern themselves with ful playwright, a musician, a creative times to murder him--the third time the death of a father. Possibly the gardener; and his Cry Havoc showed succeeding in breaking his leg. (Ques- greatest novel ever written, Dostoev- him to be politically aware. Both these tions were asked in the British House sky's The Brothers ,Karamazov, is autobiographies emphasize their par- of Commons when Father Figure ap- about patricide. Yet fatherhood is per- ents' role: both writers had early hos- peared in England, as to whether Mr. haps the most elusive aI relationships; tility towards their fathers. Yet how Nichols should not now be arrested many are fathers without knowing it; different their male parents! Margaret and tried for attempted murder). Mar-

Commonweal: 255