408
PARTISAN REVIEW
MT:
I agree completely, but I didn't make the analogy; however, I
think that you have the right-completely-to do it. At the mo–
ment, I have just submitted to Mercure de France [a French
publisher] an anthology of literary studies with a preface about
reading. It will come ou t at the end of the year and will be entitled
Le Vol du Vampire.
1
I think that it would interest you because it is
literature once removed . For the same reason it won't interest
many people. You will see that I defend the idea of a reading as an
act of possession, so the reader is also the author, a coauthor.
There is still something that I would like to say about the Magi .
There are two things that I like about them. The first is that they
are foreigners: they are people who came from far away who are
not part of the "family"; I like that very much; they are travelers
who arrive , who learn things that they didn't know; who make
grotesque errors, for example, as does the one who arrives with
his
rahat loukoum
[a pistachio-flavored dessert found in Arabic
countries that is the
raison d'etre
of the quest of the fourth wise
man]. The second thing is wealth, because the wise men are rich .
In Christianity there is a sort of heretical idealization of poverty
that I detest because Jesus always defended himself against mis–
conceptions concerning 'poverty; for example, when Mary
Magdalene poured out avery, very expensive perfume on his
feet, the disciples were indignant and said, "But that's idiotic, with
all that money we could have done ..." etcetera, and He said,
"So then, I have no right to precious ointment? I like nard! " Then ,
there is the parable of the talents which is a banking parable .. ..
There is also the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor where Christ's
beauty was resplendent-a divine beauty. It was not a humble
beauty; it was shattering, awe-inspiring: He very much resembl–
ed the sun. That is how I conceive of Christianity; I envision a
solar Christ, not a mendicant Christ .
MD:
Why then does Christ appear only in an oblique fashion in
The
Four Wise Men?
Was it a political question?
MT:
No .
It
was simply a matter of my inability as a novelist. You
know that depicting Christ is overwhelming.
It
is terribly difficult.
.. . Who can allow himself to do it? First of all, I have a model–
Flaubert's
Herodiade-
Christ is in it too ... but He is far off-on
1.
Michel Tournier,
Le vol du vampire
(Paris: Mercure de France, 1981).
