I was a young man living in a small town in Northern California when the book, "The Exorcist" was published. I was going to college, living in a group household, and had permission to practice on an old upright piano in the meeting hall of a Lutheran Church near where I lived which I did at odd hours. One morning I was there playing the …
I was a young man living in a small town in Northern California when the book, "The Exorcist" was published. I was going to college, living in a group household, and had permission to practice on an old upright piano in the meeting hall of a Lutheran Church near where I lived which I did at odd hours. One morning I was there playing the piano when the minister's wife came in. I didn't know her very well at that point. She wanted me to do her a favor, which I was more than happy to oblige. There was a woman parishioner who had started to read The Exorcist but partway through became so fearful of it that she threw the book out on her front porch. Now she was stuck in her apartment unable to leave unless someone came and removed the book. The woman's husband was stationed at the nearby Naval base and unavailable. I am not making this up. The minister's wife wanted to know if I would go remove the book from her porch. She herself had her own three children across the street at the parsonage and her husband had their car. So I walked home then drove to the address she had given me and picked up this paperback book sitting their on the porch. Took it home and read it out of curiosity. Not bad but not at all a style I was interested in. Kind of predictable.
I was about 15 when the movie came out. Scared the poop out of me and I realized horror flicks are not my thing. Alien scared me too but I love good sci-fi.
I have never liked the horror genre - nor do I like anything with excessive gore. It fills my head with imagery I have a hard time getting rid of. But I did like the movie "Carrie" and I suppose that's technically horror, so I guess I have a few exceptions. The Shining I liked. And Alien which is more like a Moby Dick story than horror - just like Jaws was a Moby Dick update. I watched Aliens but didn't care for it. I can't think of any others. Rocky Horror Picture Show surely does not count.
I had the same reaction to the Exorcism of Emily Rose when I took my daughter and her friends to see it. I also don't fool with vampires and voodoo when I go to NOLA.
May I offer a slightly different POV? Did she specifically say that she was afraid of the book because of her religion? The Exorcist the movie really did terrify a lot of people religious or not when it came out, and did so for a long time. Could it be possible that the story/book itself was just too freaky for her to touch?
I ask this because I'm a huge horror fan. And full disclosure yes I'm also a Christian, converted as a adult. But I'm not bringing this up because of my religion. I've been a huge horror fan since I was a kid. I must've read every Stephen King book when I was in high school. I still listen to horror podcasts today. (Podcasts opened a new world of horror fiction to me which has been a total thrill ride and i can recommend some great one for anyone interested). But getting back to the point. When a horror story is really really good, I can get spooked. When I read Salem's Lot back in high school, I was afraid to look outside my window when I went to bed, and pulled down the curtain every night (something I never did before). Now it didn't mean I really believed there were vampires, and I wasn't even a Christian yet back them but a staunch atheist. But the story spooked me. Though unlike this pastor's wife you talked about, for me maybe the spookiness is part of the fun. A few weeks ago I was listening to a horror podcast episode while driving through a side road cutting through the dark woods one night, and it spooked me so much I literally wanted to stop the car and turn it off. But I had Google Map running and couldn't just press stop. And there was no spot on the narrow road where I could stop, and part of me didn't really want to stop anyway but just to get the hell out of there. None of this have anything to do with my religion. I wasn't afraid because the story is going against my faith or whatever. I know the story is fiction and it's just silly to give even give it weight in terms of religious faith. I was just spooked because they story gave me the creeps.
So could it be that the pastor's wife might have been spooked by the horror story The Exorcist? As opposed to I can't touch that thing, it's anti-Christ!!!
I ask this because it just occurred to me someone might interpret me that way.
No one explained to me exactly why the woman was trapped inside her apartment by this book sitting outside her front door. I never spoke to or even saw her. I was just doing a favor for the Pastor's wife who this woman had called. After I read the book I had a conversation about it with the Pastor's wife - she was curious about my impressions of it, but didn't express any particular fear of it herself. I think she was just too busy that day to go move the book. She told me that woman had a "vivid imagination" as I recall.
I was a young man living in a small town in Northern California when the book, "The Exorcist" was published. I was going to college, living in a group household, and had permission to practice on an old upright piano in the meeting hall of a Lutheran Church near where I lived which I did at odd hours. One morning I was there playing the piano when the minister's wife came in. I didn't know her very well at that point. She wanted me to do her a favor, which I was more than happy to oblige. There was a woman parishioner who had started to read The Exorcist but partway through became so fearful of it that she threw the book out on her front porch. Now she was stuck in her apartment unable to leave unless someone came and removed the book. The woman's husband was stationed at the nearby Naval base and unavailable. I am not making this up. The minister's wife wanted to know if I would go remove the book from her porch. She herself had her own three children across the street at the parsonage and her husband had their car. So I walked home then drove to the address she had given me and picked up this paperback book sitting their on the porch. Took it home and read it out of curiosity. Not bad but not at all a style I was interested in. Kind of predictable.
I was about 15 when the movie came out. Scared the poop out of me and I realized horror flicks are not my thing. Alien scared me too but I love good sci-fi.
Yes I watched it when I was 12 with my mom (completely not religious). Scared the hell out of both of us.
I have never liked the horror genre - nor do I like anything with excessive gore. It fills my head with imagery I have a hard time getting rid of. But I did like the movie "Carrie" and I suppose that's technically horror, so I guess I have a few exceptions. The Shining I liked. And Alien which is more like a Moby Dick story than horror - just like Jaws was a Moby Dick update. I watched Aliens but didn't care for it. I can't think of any others. Rocky Horror Picture Show surely does not count.
I had the same reaction to the Exorcism of Emily Rose when I took my daughter and her friends to see it. I also don't fool with vampires and voodoo when I go to NOLA.
May I offer a slightly different POV? Did she specifically say that she was afraid of the book because of her religion? The Exorcist the movie really did terrify a lot of people religious or not when it came out, and did so for a long time. Could it be possible that the story/book itself was just too freaky for her to touch?
I ask this because I'm a huge horror fan. And full disclosure yes I'm also a Christian, converted as a adult. But I'm not bringing this up because of my religion. I've been a huge horror fan since I was a kid. I must've read every Stephen King book when I was in high school. I still listen to horror podcasts today. (Podcasts opened a new world of horror fiction to me which has been a total thrill ride and i can recommend some great one for anyone interested). But getting back to the point. When a horror story is really really good, I can get spooked. When I read Salem's Lot back in high school, I was afraid to look outside my window when I went to bed, and pulled down the curtain every night (something I never did before). Now it didn't mean I really believed there were vampires, and I wasn't even a Christian yet back them but a staunch atheist. But the story spooked me. Though unlike this pastor's wife you talked about, for me maybe the spookiness is part of the fun. A few weeks ago I was listening to a horror podcast episode while driving through a side road cutting through the dark woods one night, and it spooked me so much I literally wanted to stop the car and turn it off. But I had Google Map running and couldn't just press stop. And there was no spot on the narrow road where I could stop, and part of me didn't really want to stop anyway but just to get the hell out of there. None of this have anything to do with my religion. I wasn't afraid because the story is going against my faith or whatever. I know the story is fiction and it's just silly to give even give it weight in terms of religious faith. I was just spooked because they story gave me the creeps.
So could it be that the pastor's wife might have been spooked by the horror story The Exorcist? As opposed to I can't touch that thing, it's anti-Christ!!!
I ask this because it just occurred to me someone might interpret me that way.
No one explained to me exactly why the woman was trapped inside her apartment by this book sitting outside her front door. I never spoke to or even saw her. I was just doing a favor for the Pastor's wife who this woman had called. After I read the book I had a conversation about it with the Pastor's wife - she was curious about my impressions of it, but didn't express any particular fear of it herself. I think she was just too busy that day to go move the book. She told me that woman had a "vivid imagination" as I recall.