Author Interpretation
John C. Wright on interpretation.
Interviewers frequently ask me how my conversion to Catholicism has influenced my writing. I tell them that writing the books is still pretty much the same, but that, now the I am Catholic, I am not allowed to interpret my own books, nor read them in English, but must have my books interpreted by the magisterium, based on the findings of a general council.
(On the other hand, if I had been a Protestant, I would have been able to interpret my own books howsoever the Spirit led me: but anything I said aloud and did not write down, things I said in interviews and stuff, I could not use.)
I agreed right away, of course, thinking that by the 'magisterium' they meant the sinister baddies from Pullman's GOLDEN COMPASS, who send out Jesuit ninja to kill people and stuff. I could not wait to perform my first intercission on some bratty girl or gypsy streetrat! But no, it was just some dumb teaching authority.
And all it teaches is the love and forgiveness fluffy-nuffy stuff that is so opposed to my cold and savage Romulan nature. What a letdown.
And here I thought the pope was going to be Darkseid seeking the Anti-Life Equation, and he turns out to be this nice old scholarly man of the cloth who does not approve of war, torture, sodomy or aborticide.
No interviewer has ever asked my what it is like being the chief of sinners, however. No one asks me why the Church is so beautiful, like a bride adorned for her wedding, or so frightening as a sharp and shining sword whose scabbard has been tossed away. In other words, they ask me about my religion, but not about my faith, if you see my meaning.
Known as 
beautiful.
Sounds like another Chesterton:
When people ask me, or indeed anybody else, "Why did you join the Church of Rome?" the first essential answer, if it is partly an elliptical answer, is, "To get rid of my sins." For there is no other religious system that does really profess to get rid of people's sins.
[GKC Autobiography CW16:319]
Welcome home, John.
Nice... but if only people knew the actual definition of "religion"!
looks to me like Anne Rice quoted by John Wright . . . .
rh,
No that is John C. Wright responding to the Anne Rice interview. This is classic Wright which I can easily identify by his writing and of course "Jesuit ninja" is a dead giveaway. Plus Anne Rice who is still on the progressive side is not going to mention "sodomy or aborticide."