The Ninth Configuration approached the problem via what I call “the mystery of goodness”: if we are reducible to matter without spirit, to soulless atomic structures, then we ought to be always rushing blindly and irresistibly to sereve our own selfish ends. Taken together, they are all about the eternal questions that nag at Woody Allen: why are we here? what are we supposed to be doing? why do we die? is there a God? The Exorcist approached this last question, which is the heart of all the others, by seeking to confirm the existence of “demons” and the power of religious faith to deal with them. Do you view the three novels as a trilogy? If so, why? And if not, why?Ī: Yes, they form - at least in my mind - a trilogy. Q: It’s always seemed to me that The Exorcist, The Ninth Configuration, and Legion formed a sort of “unofficial” trilogy - with The Ninth Configuration serving as a thematic bridge between the more overt horrors in The Exorcist and the intensely introverted struggles of Kinderman in Legion. Was the character of Joan Freeboard in any way inspired by your mother?Ī: Not by my mother, but by my childhood, which I once described as “comfortably destitute.” I wanted in a stroke to let the reader know that Joan - the ferocity of her will, her obsessive drive for money and material things - were formed by an impoverished childhood. Q: At one point early on in Elsewhere, you describe the main character Joan Freeboard’s voice in the following manner: “…in her accent one heard organ grinders strolling through the tenements, the flapping of a wash hung out to dry upon a roof.” That particular passage is reminiscent of the way you described your mother in I’ll Tell Them I Remember You. So when Sarrantonio’s letter arrived, it seemed happily providential. Q: How did you become involved with the 999 anthology?Ī: My best recollection is that I received a letter from Al Sarrantonio, the editor who was putting the book together, asking whether I had anything in my “trunk.” I had recently completed Elsewhere, which I had begun with the intention it be a full-blown novel, but, as these things so often happen, the story had a mind of its own and it came out to just 100 pages, too short for publication on its own, but I felt that expanding it would simply destroy the pace and eventual impact of the ending. I conducted this interview with him when his short novel, Elsewhere, appeared in the 999 anthology.
He also directed the film versions of Legion (aka “Exorcist III”) and The Ninth Configuration. An accomplished screenwriter and novelist, he authored novels such as The Ninth Configuration, Legion, and Demons Five, Exorcists Nothing. William Peter Blatty was perhaps best known as the author of The Exorcist and the writer/producer of the 1973 film based on that novel (he won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay).
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