The Mystery of Things

Ever since I began writing The Mystery of Things, I’ve had a fascination for Shakespeare’s villains in general and Iago in particular. It’s the “why?” question, as Dan Donohue, one of our favorite actors, points out in a lively and revealing interview on the Oregon Shakespeare Festival website called “Playing Iago.”

My favorite quote, besides “You’ll never get it right,” is this:: “The character Iago is a better actor than I am.” Still, I think we can expect some pretty damned decent acting when Dan’s run as the greatest villain in English literature begins on the OSF Elizabethan stage in June…we can’t wait!

The interview is 27 minutes long. Click on the Othello link here.

Tags: Iago, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Othello, Shakespeare, The Mystery of Things

As many Idyllist readers know, Our Lady of Guadalupe figures prominently in my novel, The Mystery of Things. Well, here’s a little factoid from the Catholic news agency, Zenit, which made even my jaw drop:

MEXICO CITY, DEC. 11, 2007 - Leaders at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, which houses St. Juan Diego’s tilma with the image of the Virgin, say that by Wednesday, some 7 million pilgrims will have visited the church in the last four days.

That goes in the category of “Wow”. Read the rest of the article here.

And here’s wishing you all a blessed Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe!

Tags: Catholicism, our lady of guadalupe

here’s an article in today’s Catholic World News reporting that an Italian archeologist believes that the cup Christ used at the Last Supper may be buried beneath the walls of one of the seven great Roman Italian basilicas, St. Lawrence Outside the Walls.

Dan and I visited there as part of our pilgrimage to Rome in 1981, and part of the traditional pilgrimage to the seven churches–if memory serves, a plenary indulgence is attached, under the usual circumstances. (I can attest that plenty of sacrifice is involved in the undertaking, as well as pleasure—at least if you’re walking those Roman cobblestones in an ill-fitting pair of shoes, as I was!)

Anyhow, click here for the entire story about the Grail.

Tags: eucharist, Holy Grail

A friend of mine from our local mythopoeic book group just put me on to this “social networking” sight for bibliophiles: Goodreads.com. It’s a great place to list the books you read and recommend books to others.

I just signed on and my profile is here. If you join up, I would enjoy being added as your “friend”.

Tags: author, books, goodreads.com, the author

A good friend of my son’s is across the pond, as they say, studying abroad in London. As a theater major, she’s doing some exhaustive “homework” taking in a whole slew of London stage productions. Naked Harry Potter, for one (Daniel Radcliffe in Peter Shaffer’s Equus) to which Rachael reports that “he’s definitely growing up.”

A naked Harry Potter is not quite my cup of tea. The production she recently took in that made me seethe with jealousy, frothing at the mouth and nearly requiring medical attention, was Ian Mckellen’s King Lear. Some people say as a matter of speech that they’d “give their right arm” to see such-and-such a production. I would literally give my right pinkie finger, or at least half of it, to see Mckellen as Lear at the Royal Shakespeare Company. He’s that good.

So – one of this century’s foremost interpreters of Shakespeare is currently on stage in London in a career-crowning performance as Lear, the Mt. Everest of acting challenges, and I’m over here in Oregon. That’s great.

ACHHH!!! Somebody put money in my purse! (And I’ll send you half my pinkie finger.)

Note that John’s friend is ALSO seeing (just to add insult to injury), Ian Mckellen in Chekhov’s The Seagull.

Tags: ian mckellen, king lear, Shakespeare

Christian sci-fi writer Simon Morden gave a talk at the 2005 Greenbelt Arts Festival entitled “Sex, Death and Christian Fiction” in which he (quite cogently, I believe) critiques “Christian fiction, its theology and its shortcomings” as it is presently being published, particularly by US publishers adhering to Christian Booksellers Association (CBA) guidelines.

Here’s a sample:

Discovering the actual guidelines for publishing with the CBA is actually quite hard work. Some publishers are upfront about what they do and don’t accept. Others are much more reticent. But for most there are a set of criteria involving content, plot and characters that include:

• A protagonist who is either Christian, or comes to faith as a result of their experiences in the book.
• A strand of spiritual development that has greater or equal weight to the other plot developments.
• The primary conflict in the book is resolved by spiritual, not earthly power.
• There is an bar on bad language, out-of-marriage sexual situations, the consumption of alcohol and other recreational drugs.
• Violence must be treated very carefully – they would rather it happens off-page than on.

Take a moment to think about those guidelines. Think about the type of books that would be possible to write, about those books that it would be impossible to write. If you’re a writer, think about the story you’re writing at the moment. Would it pass, or fail? Think about books and stories by your favourite authors. How would they fair? Think about fiction written by Christians in the past: books like Lord of the Rings, CS Lewis’ novels. Chesterton, Dorothy Sayers, Dostoevsky. Tolstoy.

Thanks to my colleagues at Catholic Writers Online for bringing this article to my attention. I highly recommend it to every Catholic fiction writer.

Tags: catholic fiction, theology of the body, writing

Stratford Caldecott, author of many books and editor of Second Spring: A Journal of Faith and Culture,  has written a brief but alarmingly gratifying review of The Mystery of Things in the most recent issue (number eight):

"Labeled ‘Book One of The Ashland Grail Cycle’, this is a stunning debut novel in the modern thriller genre, complete with sex and violence. It is hard to imagine that an orthodox Catholic could have achieved such a thing without disgracing herself, but Debra Murphy seems to have pulled it off. Not since Flannery O’Connor have the workings of grace in a fallen world been so well and realistically reflected.

"Set in modern Milwaukee (which may seem strange to some, given the hint of a Grail connection on the cover), the story concerns a gifted young Shakespeare scholar who becomes the suspect in a series of horrible murders. Once started, it is hard to put down, but you finish the book uplifted rather than depressed. Leonie Caldecott describes it as ‘a true metaphysical thriller, covering every aspect of the culture of death.’ "

Part of the mission statement at Idylls Press is to contribute to a new Catholic literary renaissance. There’s a great deal of work to be done toward that end, especially in the often overlooked area of writing, publishing and promoting quality Catholic fiction; but nothing will be accomplished without the wisdom and grace of God. To that end, Idylls Press is asking our readers to join with us in praying this prayer as a novena (once a day for nine days, or once an hour for nine hours in a day) to the Divine Word, Eternal Beauty, to beg God for a new springtime in the Catholic arts, particularly literature.

God bless you all, and thank you for your prayers and support.

Pray for a Catholic Literary Revival

O, Jesus, Who said, “heaven and earth shall pass away, but my Word shall not pass,” You are the Living and Eternal Word through Whom all that exists was made and is sustained. You delighted in proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom by means of stories.

Through the intercession of Mary Most Holy, St. Joseph (Your guardian , Mary’s chaste spouse, and protector of Christ’s faithful), St. Francis de Sales (patron of Catholic writers), Cardinal John Henry Newman (patron of Catholic essayists and novelists), Pope John Paul II the Great (patron of Catholic poets, artists, playwrights, and personalists), and all the holy men and women throughout the ages who have spread the Kingdom of Goodness, Truth and Beauty by means of words and images, we ask You humbly but confidently for the graces we need to contribute to a renewed culture of beauty (in service of love and life), including a Catholic literary revival, for our times.

1. Our Father

2. Hail Mary

3. Glory Be

Jesus, Eternal Beauty, we trust in You.

Most Holy Trinity, have mercy on us and on the whole world.

Amen.

Tags: beauty, Catholic literary revival, prayer

Stratford Caldecott has written a brief but alarmingly gratifying review of The Mystery of Things in the most recent issue (number eight) of Second Spring: A Journal of Faith and Culture:

“Labelled ‘Book One of the Ashland Grail Cycle’, this is a stunning debut novel in the modern thriller genre, complete with sex and violence. It is hard to imagine that an orthodox Catholic could have achieved such a thing without disgracing herself, but Debra Murphy seems to have pulled it off. Not since Flannery O’Connor have the workings of grace in a fallen world been so well and realistically reflected.

“Set in modern Milwaukee (which may seem strange to some, given the hint of a Grail connection on the cover), the story concerns a gifted young Shakespeare scholar who becomes the suspect in a series of horrible murders. Once started, it is hard to put down, but you finish the book uplifted rather than depressed. Leonie Caldecott describes it as ‘a true metaphysical thriller, covering every aspect of the culture of death.’ “

Tags: book review, Second Spring, Stratford Caldecott, The Mystery of Things

…in a sauna.

I’m not kidding.

This is a perfectly outrageous clip from Dame Edna’s show, filmed around the time of the release of Mel’s Hamlet, and posted on Mel’s MySpace page:
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog&friendID=98949622

And in case you missed it, here’s our bardolatry review of Mel’s Hamlet, directed by Franco Zeffirelli, which I wrote back in 2002 or thereabouts.

And if you can’t get enough of Dame Edna waxing Shakespearean, check out her wonderfully hammy turn as Mrs. Crummles in the Nicholas Nickleby directed by Douglas McGrath—one of Clan Murphy’s to-pack-for-a-desert-island movies.

Tags: hamlet, Mel Gibson, Shakespeare