The Exorcist

by William Peter Blatty

“Now what would you say,” he proposed as an instance, “if you were my internist, God forbid, and I told you I had headaches, recurring nightmares, nausea, insomnia and blurring of the vision; and also that I generally felt unglued and was worried to death about my job? Would you say I was neurotic?” “I’m a bad one to ask, Marc; I know you’re neurotic.” “Those symptoms I gave you are the same as for brain tumor, Chris. Check the body. That’s first. Then we’ll see.”

fascinating - based on most women's experience in Healthcare, they would be told it was anxiety and the tumor left to grow until multiple specialists had been consulted.

“Do you think I should take her to see a psychiatrist, Doc?” “Oh, no. I’d wait and see what happens with the Ritalin. I really think that’s the answer. Let’s wait two or three weeks.”

I may not have a medical degree but none of this sounds medically sound

“Well, it isn’t unusual, Mrs. MacNeil, and I really wouldn’t worry about it at all. As I said, it’s just a part of the syndrome.”

????? what syndrome, bro? Y'all should be checking to see if she's been SAed or something

“You know it as epilepsy.” “Oh, good Christ!” “Now, let’s hold it,” soothed Klein. “I can see that like most of the general public your impression of epilepsy is exaggerated and probably largely mythical.”

crazy how much the general perception of epilepsy has changed from the writing of this book to now

Chris moved to the window, tightened the latch and then stared down below. Facing out from the side of the house, the window directly overlooked the precipitous public staircase that plunged down to M Street far below. Boy, I’d better call a locksmith right away!

Chekov's window

“Sweet lady,” said Chris.

Mary Jo: enjoy this book about demons! (also your daughter is possessed) Chris: aw how sweet and thoughtful :)

The psychiatrist seemed to be choosing his words as carefully as flat, round stones to skim over a pond.

—no one gets to take a bath on account of my mother has the carp in the bathtub,

There's a short film I absolutely love about intergenerational gefilte fish making and it's absolutely HILARIOUS but only if you're Jewish. Everyone else I've shown it to was like 🤔🤔

every priest has the power to exorcise,

Someone who knows more about Catholicism than I do - is this true? I thought you had to be trained in it?

For a hesitant moment the priest stood unmoving; then slowly and deliberately, as if he had made a decision to do so, he went forward, stepping into the house with an odd sense of ending.

As you know, I’ve spent much of my time in Rome and I’m accustomed to gesturing, Karras.

Demons say 🤌👋🫲🫱👐

After all, I’m a prince! ‘The Prince of This World,’ as some very strange person said of me once. Can’t quite remember who.”

If it comes after Ketuvim, I have to Google it 'cause I don't know your references lol. I should really prioritize getting a Jewish Annotated New Testament one of these days if I'm going to keep reading and watching possession horror.

“I much prefer persuasion, Karras; togetherness; community involvement.

Demons love mutual aid? /j

Moreover, if I loosen the straps myself, I deny you the opportunity of perfor...

Why Pazuzu got the jokes tho?

“There are much better ways! I will show you! I will read your mind!” the Regan creature seethed furiously. “Think of a number between one and one hundred!”

Pazuzu would be a hit on the children's birthday party circuit

“Maybe so, but we’d hardly need a devil to explain them.” “So explain them!” “Well, psychokinesis, maybe.”

Genuine comedy noooo it's not a demon just paranormal mind powers! That's totally different.

“The best explanation for any phenomenon,” Karras gently cut in, “is always the simplest one available that accommodates all the facts.”

And that simple explanation is psychokinesis???

I’d just know it, I’d know it in my gut, and I’m telling you that thing upstairs is not my daughter!

If I go to the Chancery Office, or wherever it is I have to go to get permission for an exorcism, the first thing I’d have to have is a pretty substantial indication that your daughter’s condition isn’t a purely psychiatric problem, plus evidence that the Church would accept as signs of possession.” “Like what?” “I don’t know. I’ll have to go and look it up.” “Are you kidding? I thought you were supposed to be an expert.” “There aren’t any experts.

I've seen that (very fake) exorcism documentary. I know that super old priest was def around and learning all about exorcisms contemporary to this book.

He had Oesterreich’s Possession; Huxley’s The Devils of Loudun; Parapraxis in the Haizman Case of Sigmund Freud; McCasland’s Demon Possession and Exorcism in Early Christianity in the Light of Modern Views of Mental Illness; and extracts from psychiatric journals of Freud’s “A Neurosis of Demoniacal Possession in the 17th Century,” and “The Demonology of Modern Psychiatry.”

If i had read this when I was sixteen and 3 edgy 5 you I so would have made this into a reading list

Allegedly possessed, they had “confessed” to their exorcists that while helpless in the state of possession, they had regularly attended Satanic orgies at which they had varied their erotic fare: Mondays and Tuesdays, heterosexual copulation; Thursdays, sodomy, fellatio and cunnilingus with homosexual partners; Saturday, bestiality with domestic animals and dragons.

They really got that shit on a tight schedule

infernal engines.

I'm not sure i understand what this means in context

After that there’s clairvoyance, although nowadays it might be ruled out as just telepathy or ESP.” “You believe in that stuff?” Karras studied her, the grimace of disbelief, the frown. She was serious, he decided. “It’s undeniable these days,” he told her, “although, as I said, it isn’t at all supernatural.”

Noooo not supernatural at aaalll. Totally real and scientific.

“But it, too, could be a natural phenomenon.” “Where? In Transylvania?” Chris erupted again, incredulous.

I'm with the lady

“I’m not the one who sets the rules.” “Well, you’ve sure got your heart into enforcing them.”

“The Church—not me; the Church—once published a warning to would-be exorcists. I read it last night. What it said was that most of the people who think they’re possessed or are thought to be possessed—and now I’m quoting word for word—‘are far more in need of a doctor than of a priest.’ Now can you guess when that warning was issued?” “No, when?” “The year fifteen eighty-three.”

John Wayne, Othello,

A white guy as Othello?????

Then Regan did pick the Latin from my brain! Staring bleakly, he lowered his brow into his hand and into doubt: Telepathy more common in states of great tension

Because THAT is MORE natural than a demon???? broooooo

At 9:00 that morning, Karras went to the president of Georgetown University and asked for permission to seek an exorcism. He received it, and immediately afterward went to the Bishop of the diocese,

Page 309/379 (in this Kindle edition) we finally get our exorcism!

How’s his health?” “Well, it must be all right or he wouldn’t still be running around digging up tombs, don’t you think?”

Chekov's heart condition

the philosopher-paleontologist!

if he is a PALENTOLOGIST why was he at an ARCHEOLOGICAL EXCAVATION?

From a pocket of his trousers, he slipped out a tin marked Bayer Aspirin, opened it, extracted a nitroglycerin pill and placed it carefully under his tongue.

*dun dun DUN*

“Especially, do not listen to anything he says. The demon is a liar. He will lie to confuse us; but he will also mix lies with the truth to attack us. The attack is psychological, Damien. And powerful. Do not listen. Remember that. Do not listen.”

when he turned his head and looked at the door to Regan’s bedroom, Chris again felt that tension, that thickening of coiled darkness behind it. In the bedroom. Beyond that door. Merrin nodded. “All right,” he said softly.

there are 45 pages left and the exorcism JUST started. impressive tension building