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The Priest

Eb — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 07:34:21 GMT

the Weekly World News for April 7, 1992

The Priest/Editions

Eb — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 01:46:09 GMT

The Priest

Eb — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 01:37:19 GMT

Cathars, or Albigensians, or Waldensians

Thomas M. Disch

Eb — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 01:24:49 GMT

The Priest

Eb — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 01:07:19 GMT

Home

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The Priest

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The Priest/Editions

Eb — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 23:46:07 GMT

File:Priest-cover-es-2008.jpg

Eb — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 23:44:15 GMT

Eb uploaded File:Priest-cover-es-2008.jpg Cover art (uncredited) for a 2008 Spanish-language edition of ''The Priest''.

New page

== Summary ==
Cover art (uncredited) for a 2008 Spanish-language edition of ''[[The Priest]]''.

File:Priest-cover-it.jpg

Eb — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 23:40:58 GMT

Eb uploaded File:Priest-cover-it.jpg Cover art (uncredited) for an Italian edition of ''The Priest''.

New page

== Summary ==
Cover art (uncredited) for an Italian edition of ''[[The Priest]]''.

File:Priest-cover-es.jpg

Eb — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 23:38:53 GMT

Eb uploaded File:Priest-cover-es.jpg Cover art (uncredited) for a Spanish edition of ''The Priest''.

New page

== Summary ==
Cover art (uncredited) for a Spanish edition of ''[[The Priest]]''.

Template:Disch Index Translationum

Eb — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 23:34:50 GMT

File:Priest-cover-nl.jpg

Eb — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 23:32:48 GMT

Eb uploaded File:Priest-cover-nl.jpg Cover art for a Dutch translation of ''The Priest''.

New page

== Summary ==
Cover art for a Dutch translation of ''[[The Priest]]''.

The Priest/Editions

Eb — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 23:12:18 GMT

File:Priest-cover-orion.jpg

Eb — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 23:12:01 GMT

Eb uploaded File:Priest-cover-orion.jpg Cover art (uncredited) for ''The Priest'', 1994 Orion edition.

New page

== Summary ==
Cover art (uncredited) for ''[[The Priest]]'', 1994 Orion edition.

File:Priest-cover-millennium.jpg

Eb — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 23:08:42 GMT

Eb uploaded File:Priest-cover-millennium.jpg Cover art (uncredited) for ''The Priest'', 1994 Millennium edition.

New page

== Summary ==
Cover art (uncredited) for ''[[The Priest]]'', 1994 Millennium edition.

File:Priest-cover-knopf.jpg

Eb — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 23:05:08 GMT

Eb uploaded a new version of File:Priest-cover-knopf.jpg

New page

== Summary ==
Cover art by Archie Ferguson for ''[[The Priest]]'', Alfred A. Knopf edition.

The Priest.css

Eb — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 23:03:55 GMT

The Priest/Editions

Eb — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 23:03:17 GMT

File:Priest-cover-knopf.jpg

Eb — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 23:02:16 GMT

Eb uploaded File:Priest-cover-knopf.jpg Cover art by Archie Ferguson for ''The Priest'', Alfred A. Knopf edition.

New page

== Summary ==
Cover art by Archie Ferguson for ''[[The Priest]]'', Alfred A. Knopf edition.

File:Priest-cover-uminn.jpg

Eb — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 23:00:05 GMT

Eb uploaded File:Priest-cover-uminn.jpg Cover art by Percolator for ''The Priest'', U. of Minnesota edition.

New page

== Summary ==
Cover art by Percolator for ''[[The Priest]]'', U. of Minnesota edition.

The Priest/Editions

Eb — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 22:58:28 GMT

Created page with "{{#addbodyclass: horiz-toc}}{{#css:The Priest.css}} Sources include {{ISFDB title|3384219}}, {{WorldCat editions|617508644}}, and {{Disch Index Translationum}}. == US == <di..."

New page

{{#addbodyclass: horiz-toc}}{{#css:The Priest.css}}
Sources include {{ISFDB title|3384219}}, {{WorldCat editions|617508644}}, and {{Disch Index Translationum}}.

== US ==

<div class="edition-tiles">
{{Edition tile|image=|desc=Alfred A. Knopf, 1995. Hardcover.|isbn=0-679-41880-6}}
{{Edition tile|image=|desc=University of Minnesota Press, 2010. Trade paperback. Foreword by Gregory Feeley.|isbn=978-0-8166-7213-4}}
</div>

== UK ==

<div class="edition-tiles">
{{Edition tile|image=|desc=Millennium, 1994. Hardcover.|isbn=1-85798-090-5}}
{{Edition tile|image=|desc=Orion, 1995. Paperback.|isbn=0-7528-0009-4}}
</div>

== Translations ==

<div class="edition-tiles">

</div>

<references/>

The Priest

Eb — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 22:51:08 GMT

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The Priest.css

Eb — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 19:05:05 GMT

The Priest

Eb — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 18:53:42 GMT

The Priest.css

Eb — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 18:52:58 GMT

Created page with " body.page-The_Priest { background: #968888; #mw-page-base, #mw-head-base, .navbox-title { background: #968888; } #content { background: #c0bbbb; } .toc,..."

New page

body.page-The_Priest {
background: #968888;

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background: #968888;
}
#content {
background: #c0bbbb;
}
.toc, .navbox {
background: #d0cccc !important;
}
}

Home

Eb — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 18:49:01 GMT

Thomas M. Disch

Eb — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 18:48:21 GMT

The Priest

Eb — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 18:40:31 GMT

Saint Bernardine of Siena

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Camp Concentration/Book Two

Eb — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 17:12:56 GMT

First section: PKD

Template:Cite Disch Francavilla

Eb — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 17:07:41 GMT

Template:Ref Disch Redfern

Eb — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 16:57:27 GMT

Created page with "<ref>{{cite book|author=Redfern, Nick|title=Science Fiction Secrets: From Government Files and the Paranormal|date=2009|publisher=Anomalist Books|ISBN=1933665408}} Excerpted i..."

New page

<ref>{{cite book|author=Redfern, Nick|title=Science Fiction Secrets: From Government Files and the Paranormal|date=2009|publisher=Anomalist Books|ISBN=1933665408}} Excerpted in: {{cite article|author=Redfern, Nick|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100416080053/http://www.forteantimes.com/features/articles/2860/the_strange_tale_of_solarcon6.html|title=The Strange Tale of Solarcon-6|date=February 2010|publication=Fortean Times}}</ref>

The M.D.

Eb — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 19:46:56 GMT

dangers from father, brother, and son

@@ Line 60: / Line 60: @@
 While Disch might not have expected that readers would one day be able to easily access a huge [https://books.google.com/books?id=b-8DAAAAMBAJ archive of that publication], this is such a specific reference that it certainly invites them to look it up—and anyone who did so would find no such cover, nor anything about a Satanic eruption in that issue.
-However, it was certainly a type of thing they did. Other ''Weekly World News'' covers about huge Satan faces appearing over various locations, both before and after ''The Priest'', include [https://books.google.com/books?id=tO0DAAAAMBAJ&source=gbs_all_issues_r&cad=1 May 25, 1993] (the Branch Davidians fire); [https://books.google.com/books?id=K_IDAAAAMBAJ&source=gbs_all_issues_r&cad=1 Feb. 1, 1994] (West Texas); [https://books.google.com/books?id=NPIDAAAAMBAJ&source=gbs_all_issues_r&cad=1 Oct. 18, 1994] (Port-au-Prince); [https://books.google.com/books?id=RfADAAAAMBAJ&source=gbs_all_issues_r&cad=1 Jan. 4, 2000] (US Capitol); [https://www.depop.com/products/greasabilly-may-2005-issue-of-weekly/ May 30, 2000] (oil well in Mexico); [https://books.google.com/books?id=evADAAAAMBAJ&source=gbs_all_issues_r&cad=1 April 3, 2001] (miscellaneous disasters)... not including any other Satan stories that may have appeared inside. The artwork for these covers was never quite as vivid as what Disch describes; it was usually more "smoky snarling monster face" than a cleary identifiable Satan caricature.
+However, it was certainly a type of thing they did. Other ''Weekly World News'' covers about huge Satan faces appearing over various locations, both before and after ''The Priest'', include [https://books.google.com/books?id=tO0DAAAAMBAJ&source=gbs_all_issues_r&cad=1 May 25, 1993] (the Branch Davidians fire); [https://books.google.com/books?id=K_IDAAAAMBAJ&source=gbs_all_issues_r&cad=1 Feb. 1, 1994] (West Texas); [https://books.google.com/books?id=NPIDAAAAMBAJ&source=gbs_all_issues_r&cad=1 Oct. 18, 1994] (Port-au-Prince); [https://books.google.com/books?id=RfADAAAAMBAJ&source=gbs_all_issues_r&cad=1 Jan. 4, 2000] (US Capitol); [https://www.depop.com/products/greasabilly-may-2005-issue-of-weekly/ May 30, 2000] (oil well in Mexico); [https://books.google.com/books?id=evADAAAAMBAJ&source=gbs_all_issues_r&cad=1 April 3, 2001] (miscellaneous disasters)... not including any other Satan stories that may have appeared inside. The artwork for these covers was never quite as vivid as what Disch describes; it was usually more "smoky snarling monster face" than a clearly identifiable Satan caricature.
 === Knightriders, which is not because of the movie ===
@@ Line 103: / Line 103: @@
 === blocked all my teenage memories of abduction ===
-The UFO aspect of Receptivism is not really elaborated on, since the "transmentation" idea is more important to the plot, but it serves to bring in another target of Disch's satire: {{wp|Whitley Strieber}}. Originally a horror writer (e.g. ''The Hunger'', which [https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2556194026 I liked a little bit of]), Strieber is now better known for the bestselling UFO abduction "memoir" ''{{wp|Communion (book)|Communion}}'' and its sequel ''Transformation''. Strieber's books repeated many details from the earlier story of Barney and Betty Hill, but were more influential in some ways: for instance, the "anal probing" theme did not really capture the public imagination until ''Communion'',<ref>{{cite article|author=Reddit user "sunagainstgold"|date=July 22, 2016|title=How did anal probing become associated with alien abductions?|url=https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/4u3wqe/how_did_anal_probing_become_associated_with_alien/|publication=Reddit: r/AskHistorians|accessed=July 28, 2026}}</ref> and the most popular version of the common "grey" alien design is now the one from the book cover.
+The UFO aspect of Receptivism is not really elaborated on, since the "transmentation" idea is more important to the plot, but it serves to bring in another target of Disch's satire: {{wp|Whitley Strieber}}. Originally a horror writer (e.g. ''The Hunger'', which [https://www.librarything.com/work/51547/reviews/207077299 I liked a little bit of]), Strieber is now better known for the bestselling UFO abduction "memoir" ''{{wp|Communion (book)|Communion}}'' and its sequel ''Transformation''. Strieber's books repeated many details from the earlier story of Barney and Betty Hill, but were more influential in some ways: for instance, the "anal probing" theme did not really capture the public imagination until ''Communion'',<ref>{{cite article|author=Reddit user "sunagainstgold"|date=July 22, 2016|title=How did anal probing become associated with alien abductions?|url=https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/4u3wqe/how_did_anal_probing_become_associated_with_alien/|publication=Reddit: r/AskHistorians|accessed=July 28, 2026}}</ref> and the most popular version of the common "grey" alien design is now the one from the book cover.
 Disch covered Strieber in ''The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made Of'' more briefly than Hubbard but no less harshly, concluding that there was evidence of a deliberate strategy of adapting previous fictional works, making Strieber a con artist rather than sincerely in distress. A specific characteristic of Strieber, as opposed to Hubbard, that will become relevant in ''The Priest'' is that he repeatedly [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/retcon retconned] previous false statements by claiming they were false memories created as part of the alien conspiracy (even when they had no apparent connection to aliens).

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 {{#addbodyclass: horiz-toc}}{{#css:The Priest.css}}
-Sources include {{ISFDB title|3384219}} and {{WorldCat editions|617508644}}.
+Sources include {{ISFDB title|3384219}}, {{WorldCat editions|617508644}}, and Matthew Davis.
 == US ==
@@ Line 12: / Line 12: @@
 <div class="edition-tiles">
-{{Edition tile|image=Priest-cover-millennium.jpg|desc=Millennium, 1994. Hardcover.|isbn=1-85798-090-5}}
+{{Edition tile|image=Priest-cover-millennium.jpg|desc=Millennium, 1994. Hardcover.|cover-by=Les Edwards|isbn=1-85798-090-5}}
 {{Edition tile|image=Priest-cover-orion.jpg|desc=Orion, 1995. Paperback.|isbn=0-7528-0009-4}}
 </div>
@@ Line 19: / Line 19: @@
 <div class="edition-tiles">
-{{Edition tile|language=Dutch|translator=|alt-title=De duivelspriester|image=Priest-cover-nl.jpg|desc=Meulenhoff, 1995. Trade paperback.|cover-by=Nico Keulers|isbn=90-290-4365-2}}
+{{Edition tile|language=Dutch|translator=|alt-title=De duivelspriester|image=Priest-cover-nl.jpg|desc=Meulenhoff-M, 1995. Trade paperback.|cover-by=Nico Keulers|isbn=90-290-4365-2}}
-{{Edition tile|language=Italian|translator=|alt-title=Il prete|image=Priest-cover-it.jpg|desc=Fanucci, 2001. Trade paperback.|cover-by=|isbn=    9788834707999}}
+{{Edition tile|language=Italian|translator=Umberto Rossi|alt-title=Il prete|image=Priest-cover-it.jpg|desc=Fanucci, 2001. Trade paperback.|cover-by=|isbn=9788834707999}}
-{{Edition tile|language=Spanish|translator=|alt-title=El cura|image=Priest-cover-es.jpg|desc=Editorial Berenice, 2007. Trade paperback.|cover-by=|isbn=9788496756052}}
+{{Edition tile|language=Spanish|translator=David Cruz|alt-title=El cura|image=Priest-cover-es.jpg|desc=Editorial Berenice, 2007. Trade paperback.|cover-by=|isbn=9788496756052}}
-{{Edition tile|language=Spanish|translator=|alt-title=El cura|image=Priest-cover-es-2008.jpg|desc=Books4pocket, 2008. Trade paperback.|cover-by=|isbn=9788496829855}}
+{{Edition tile|language=Spanish|translator=David Cruz|alt-title=El cura|image=Priest-cover-es-2008.jpg|desc=Books4pocket, 2008. Trade paperback.|cover-by=|isbn=9788496829855}}
 </div>
 <references/>

@@ Line 70: / Line 70: @@
 === Cathars, or Albigensians, or Waldensians ===
-Albigensians were another name for Cathars, based on the city of Albi where the sect had many followers. Waldensians were an unrelated group who were declared heretics not so much for theological reasons as for their views on clerical authority.
+Albigensians were another name for Cathars, based on the city of Albi where the sect had many followers. {{wp|Waldensians}} were an unrelated group who were declared heretics not so much for theological reasons as for their views on clerical authority.
 === the cavalry in their armor and the ''routiers'' in their rags ===
@@ Line 115: / Line 115: @@
 === he's a lot like Philip K. Dick ===
-With the previous references to Hubbard and Strieber, Disch left it to the reader to make the connections; he did the same with the earlier {{wp|Philip K. Dick}} references, but here he just openly drops Dick's name. Dick was the only one of the three that Disch had a personal connection with, of sorts: they met only briefly, but after Dick tried and failed to convince Disch of his alleged religious experiences, he integrated Disch into his paranoid belief system and accused Disch (in letters to the FBI) of being part of an elaborate Nazi conspiracy.{{ref Disch Redfern}} Like Hubbard, Dick wrote a voluminous explanation of his mystical ideas, but his ''Exegesis'' (which Disch described as an act of {{wp|hypergraphia}}) was published only posthumously, and was too long and disorganized to appeal to a wide audience.
+With the previous references to Hubbard and Strieber, Disch left it to the reader to make the connections; he did the same with the earlier {{wp|Philip K. Dick}} references, but here he just openly drops Dick's name. Dick was the only one of the three that Disch had a personal connection with, of sorts: they met only briefly, but after Dick tried and failed to convince Disch of his alleged religious experiences, he integrated Disch into his paranoid belief system and accused Disch (in letters to the FBI) of being part of an elaborate Nazi conspiracy.{{ref Disch Redfern}} Like Hubbard, Dick wrote a voluminous explanation of his mystical ideas, but his ''{{wp|The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick|Exegesis}}'' (which Disch described as an act of {{wp|hypergraphia}}) was published only posthumously, and was too long and disorganized to appeal to a wide audience.
 Disch admired much of Dick's writing, including some of the later works that increasingly focused on those mystical experiences. But, as expressed in ''The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made Of'', he firmly believed that none of the material Dick was presenting as nonfiction was genuine—except in terms of having genuinely experienced some hallucinations—and that Dick was on some level consciously lying, playing with ideas as a storyteller without admitting it. Still, unlike Hubbard, who persisted in his con and gained power from turning it into an actual cult, Dick was ultimately content to be seen mainly as a writer:
@@ Line 123: / Line 123: @@
 Of course, like many of Disch's strongly-expressed critical opinions in ''The Dreams'', this is speculative and contentious—and the relatively sympathetic side of his opinions on Dick there is hard to reconcile with the vitriolic parody in his final novel ''The Word of God''.<ref>{{cite book|author=Disch, Thomas M.|title=The Word of God|date=2008|publisher=Tachyon Publications|isbn=9781892391773}} Briefly, in this novel, Dick is in hell (in a miserable relationship with Joycelin Shrager, a recurring Disch character who was a parody of a certain type of bad poet) and accepts a satanic time-travel mission to erase Thomas M. Disch from existence.</ref><ref>{{cite article|author=Mckee, Gabriel|title=Disching religion: ''The Word of God''|date=July 12, 2009|url=https://sfgospel.typepad.com/sf_gospel/2009/07/disching-religion-the-word-of-god.html|publication=SF Gospel blog}} While this is an interesting piece, and Mckee's guesses as to Dick's state of mind are no less valid than Disch's, I believe Mckee mischaracterizes some specific statements that Disch made in ''The Dreams''.</ref>
 Anyway, in this scene, Peter's description of Boscage is similar to the mix of sympathy and cynicism toward Dick in ''The Dreams'': "He certainly was a bullshit artist whose bull got out of control, but I'm inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt as to his being sincere." Later material about Boscage will both support and complicate that judgment.
 == Chapter 10 ==

@@ Line 16: / Line 16: @@
 * [https://web.archive.org/web/20180714223436/http://www.ukjarry1.talktalk.net/tmd.htm Schrödinger's Cake] - archive of a fan site by Matthew Davis with many interview excerpts and a comprehensive bibliography. {{InternetArchive|date=July 4, 2018}} I'm heavily indebted in general to Davis's commentary in discussions of science fiction over multiple decades, and his research which is much more diligent than mine. His [https://ukjarry.wordpress.com/ more recent web page], also called ''Schrödinger's Cake'', contains a large collection of nonfiction material by Disch: essays, reviews, etc. Accessed on January 26, 2025.
 * {{Cite Disch Crowley}}
 * {{cite article|author=Auerbach, David|date=April 2, 2010|url=http://www.themillions.com/2010/04/the-prescient-science-fiction-of-thomas-m-disch.html|title=The Prescient Science Fiction of Thomas M. Disch|publication=The Millions|accessed=January 24, 2025}}
 * {{cite article|author=Yezzi, David|date=2008|url=https://www.cprw.com/Yezzi/disch.htm|title=Thomas M., Meet Tom|publication=Contemporary Poetry Review|accessed=January 24, 2025}}

@@ Line 65: / Line 65: @@
 A {{wp|Knightriders|1991 film}} by George Romero, about biker gangs in Pittsburgh.
-== Chapter 4 (IV) ==
+== Chapter IV ==
 This is one of a handful of chapters in the book that use Roman numerals, because they're in the medieval storyline. The others are XVI, XVIII, XXIII, XXIX, XXXIII, and XXXIX.
@@ Line 157: / Line 157: @@
 A reference to ''Hamlet'', in which the unfortunate Polonius hides behind a curtain to eavesdrop, and ends up being stabbed through it.
-== Chapter 16 (XVI) ==
+== Chapter XVI ==
 === not Latin, not Italian, not French, but with a flavor of each ===
@@ Line 186: / Line 186: @@
 Hal Lindsey's {{wp|The Late Great Planet Earth|1970 book}} was a bestseller well into the 1990s (even though Lindsey had claimed the world would probably end in the 80s), and popularized a particular interpretation of the {{wp|Book of Revelation}} and other Biblical texts among American right-wing evangelicals.
-== Chapter 23 (XXIII) ==
+== Chapter XXIII ==
 === I made it up, I have a good imagination ===
@@ Line 211: / Line 211: @@
 Hedwig here claims that O'Toole received a piece of the Shroud in 1949 as a gift from the Pope, but this is impossible since the Vatican didn't possess it until 1983—and wouldn't have removed a piece of it to donate to a church in Minneapolis if they did (throughout the 20th century the Church avoided taking a position on whether it was real, but referred to it as an important relic in any case). All of the things that Disch chooses to tell us about the history of O'Toole, and his Shrine of Blessed Konrad, are so blatantly inconsistent with actual history that they may be seen as winks to the reader; O'Toole seems to embody a kind of self-mythologizing confabulation that Disch associates with the religious right.
-== Chapter 33 (XXXIII) ==
+== Chapter XXXIII ==
 === the crown of thorns that had been prepared for him ===

@@ Line 10: / Line 10: @@
 : ''[[The Businessman]]''
 : ''[[The M.D.]]''
-: ''[[The Priest]]'' (under construction)
+: ''[[The Priest]]''
 [[Russell Hoban]]

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 {{#css:The Priest.css}}{{#addbodyclass:tiled-toc}}
 '''''The Priest: A Gothic Romance''''' (1994) is [[Thomas M. Disch]]'s third ''Supernatural Minnesota'' novel. It depicts the destruction of its main character, Catholic priest Pat Bryce, by a bizarre revenge scheme due to his molestation of teenage boys, and also by a mysterious force psychically connecting him with a 13th-century bishop in the Inquisition.
@@ Line 137: / Line 136: @@
 === Konrad Martin, the Bishop of Paderborn ===
-This is the name and title of an {{wp|Konrad Martin|actual bishop}}, but not the same one. The real Martin lived 500 years later than the one described here, and was not connected to any event like this (which seems to be a fictional one combining features of other medieval pogroms), although he did publish a work of antisemitic propaganda in 1848. In a book that also includes many accurate references to Church history, this use of very specific and easily-debunked false details may be seen as a hint that there's something wrong with the medieval storyline.
+This is the name and title of an {{wp|Konrad Martin|actual bishop}}, but not the same one. The real Martin lived 500 years later than the one described here, and was not connected to any event like this (a real pogrom that {{wp|Host desecration#Medieval_accusations_against_Jews|happened in 1337}} at Deggendorf, as described), although he did publish a work of antisemitic propaganda in 1848. In a book that also includes many accurate references to Church history, this use of very specific and easily-debunked false details may be seen as a hint that there's something wrong with the medieval storyline.
 === Monsignor O'Toole's television program ===
@@ Line 165: / Line 164: @@
 === You wish to bathe? This soon before Easter? ===
 The common belief that bathing was very rare in the Middle Ages is mostly a myth (and also a symptom of confusion between centuries within this long period of time: the mention of Easter here probably refers to the 6th-century story of {{wp|Fintan of Clonenagh}}, who supposedly bathed only once a year before Easter). By the 13th century bathing was common, and even if average people might not have had easy access to a ''hot'' bath, a prominent Church official like Silvanus would have.<ref>{{cite article|url=https://www.medievalists.net/2023/11/people-middle-ages-baths/|title=Did people in the Middle Ages take baths?|publication=Medievalists.net|date=November 2023|accessed=July 28, 2026}}</ref>
 == Chapter 17 ==
@@ Line 209: / Line 211: @@
 Hedwig here claims that O'Toole received a piece of the Shroud in 1949 as a gift from the Pope, but this is impossible since the Vatican didn't possess it until 1983—and wouldn't have removed a piece of it to donate to a church in Minneapolis if they did (throughout the 20th century the Church avoided taking a position on whether it was real, but referred to it as an important relic in any case). All of the things that Disch chooses to tell us about the history of O'Toole, and his Shrine of Blessed Konrad, are so blatantly inconsistent with actual history that they may be seen as winks to the reader; O'Toole seems to embody a kind of self-mythologizing confabulation that Disch associates with the religious right.
-== Chapter 33 (XXXIII) ===
+== Chapter 33 (XXXIII) ==
 === the crown of thorns that had been prepared for him ===

← Older revision		Revision as of 23:34, 28 July 2026
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-{{Edition tile|image=|desc=Alfred A. Knopf, 1995. Hardcover.|isbn=0-679-41880-6}}
+{{Edition tile|image=Priest-cover-knopf.jpg|desc=Alfred A. Knopf, 1995. Hardcover.|cover-by=Archie Ferguson|isbn=0-679-41880-6}}
-{{Edition tile|image=|desc=University of Minnesota Press, 2010. Trade paperback. Foreword by Gregory Feeley.|isbn=978-0-8166-7213-4}}
+{{Edition tile|image=Priest-cover-uminn.jpg|desc=University of Minnesota Press, 2010. Trade paperback. Foreword by Gregory Feeley.|cover-by=Percolator|isbn=978-0-8166-7213-4}}
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 * '''''[[The Businessman]]''''' (1984)
 * '''''[[The M.D.]]''''' (1991)
 == Other reading ==

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	The citation of "the second part of ''The Romance of the Rose''" as an "alchemic text" deserves some explanation. This 13th-century French poem, describing courtly love and its associated virtues and vices, begins as a fairly straightforward allegory of the lover and the object of his desire; but its much longer second book, contributed by a different author, wanders somewhat from this subject and adds a large cast of characters personifying various intangible forces. This has led some scholars to look for deeper symbolic content in the second book—including, inevitably, assertions that it is an alchemical allegory either in the standard sense (that the author was referring to acts of physical magic, but being very indirect to hide this from uninitiated readers), or in the broader sense [[wikipedia:Psychology and Alchemy\|proposed by Carl Jung]] (that "alchemy" was really an early attempt to understand psychological archetypes).<ref>For instance: {{cite article\|author=Todey, Amy Kincaid\|title=Self, Psyche and Symbolism in the Roman de la Rose.\|url=http://psyartjournal.com/article/show/todey-self_psyche_and_symbolism_in_the_roman_d\|publication=PsyArt\|date=May 1, 2012\|accessed=February 2, 2017}}</ref>		The citation of "the second part of ''The Romance of the Rose''" as an "alchemic text" deserves some explanation. This 13th-century French poem, describing courtly love and its associated virtues and vices, begins as a fairly straightforward allegory of the lover and the object of his desire; but its much longer second book, contributed by a different author, wanders somewhat from this subject and adds a large cast of characters personifying various intangible forces. This has led some scholars to look for deeper symbolic content in the second book—including, inevitably, assertions that it is an alchemical allegory either in the standard sense (that the author was referring to acts of physical magic, but being very indirect to hide this from uninitiated readers), or in the broader sense [[wikipedia:Psychology and Alchemy\|proposed by Carl Jung]] (that "alchemy" was really an early attempt to understand psychological archetypes).<ref>For instance: {{cite article\|author=Todey, Amy Kincaid\|title=Self, Psyche and Symbolism in the Roman de la Rose.\|url=http://psyartjournal.com/article/show/todey-self_psyche_and_symbolism_in_the_roman_d\|publication=PsyArt\|date=May 1, 2012\|accessed=February 2, 2017}}</ref>
		+
		+	It's possible that the deliberate semi-opacity of this section in particular is what attracted the paranoid attention of a person Disch knew slightly and admired: Philip K. Dick. In 1972, Dick—not yet in the full throes of the breakdown he fictionalized in ''Valis'', but already unstable and well acquainted with amphetamines—wrote to the FBI to claim that ''Camp Concentration'' contained coded messages for agents of an "anti-American organization" that had employed or coerced Disch for this purpose; that the organization claimed to have something like Pallidine for real ("an alleged new strain of syphilis sweeping the US, kept top secret by the US authorities; it can’t be cured, destroys the brain, and is swift-acting ... [it] is being brought in deliberately from Asia by agents of the enemy"), but that Dick knew it was just a hoax (an "imaginary paresis"); and that they had tried unsuccessfully to make Dick use this plot element in his own novels.{{ref Disch Redfern}} Disch did not find out about this at the time, but later he directed some cutting personal satire at the late Dick in both ''[[The Priest]]'' (1994) and ''The Word of God'' (2008).

	=== doleful voices and rushings to and fro ===		=== doleful voices and rushings to and fro ===

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−	{{cite article\|author=Francavilla, Joseph\|date=March 1983\|title=Disching It Out\|url=https://www.depauw.edu/sfs/interviews/disch29interview.htm\|publication=Science Fiction Studies\|pub-date=#29, Vol. 10, Part 1\|accessed=January 24, 2025}}	+	{{cite article\|author=Francavilla, Joseph\|date=March 1983\|title=Disching It Out\|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060912123501/http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/interviews/disch29interview.htm\|publication=Science Fiction Studies\|pub-date=#29, Vol. 10, Part 1\|accessed=January 24, 2025}}

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 === What rhymed with "now"? ===
-Since we never see the words of the curse Billy eventually writes for this purpose, Disch seems to be inviting the reader to guess what this rhyme is from context. Based on the events of chapter 19 when the curse takes effect, a logical conclusion would be that Billy attached the curse to Madge's fifth of vodka in the freezer—although if so, either he didn't do it till later or else it had a long delay, since Madge was able to have a drink with no problem in chapter 18. In any case, I can't think what the rhyme would be.
+Since we never see the words of the curse Billy eventually writes for this purpose, Disch seems to be inviting the reader to guess what this rhyme is from context. Based on the events of chapter 19 when the curse takes effect, a logical conclusion would be that Billy attached the curse to Madge's fifth of vodka in the freezer—although if so, either he didn't do it till later or else it had a long delay, since Madge is able to have a drink with no problem in chapter 18. In any case, I can't think what the rhyme would be.
 == Chapter 21 ==
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 === strikes down anyone it takes a fancy to ===
-Lyman is referring to the reason ARVIDS is named as it is: "acute random-vector immune dysfunction syndrome" (see chapter 73). A vector is an organism or substance that carries the disease-causing agent, so this is simply saying that unlike AIDS, there's no known pattern of who gets the new plague, or how.
+Lyman is referring to the reason ARVIDS is named as it is: "acute random-vector immune dysfunction syndrome" (see chapter 73). A vector is an organism that transmits whatever the actual disease-causing agent is, so this is basically saying that the syndrome resembles AIDS but that there's no apparent pattern or mechanism for how it's acquired.
 == Chapter 58 ==
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 === Oliver North ===
-Former Marine Lieutenant Colonel {{wp|Oliver North}} was best known for participating in the Reagan administration's illegal arms sales to Iran, covert support of the Nicaraguan Contras, and cover-ups of these actions. His convictions on three related crimes in 1989 were later reversed, and he became a hero to right-wingers who supported Reagan's Central American policies. Disch's idea that North would end up in the US Senate was only a slight exaggeration: North ran for the Senate in 1994, but lost by a three-percent margin.
+Former Marine Lieutenant Colonel {{wp|Oliver North}} was best known for participating in the Reagan administration's illegal arms sales to Iran, covert support of the Nicaraguan Contras, and cover-ups of these actions. His convictions on related crimes in 1989 were later reversed, and he became a hero to right-wingers who supported Reagan's Central American policies. Disch's idea that North would end up in the US Senate was only a slight exaggeration: North ran for the Senate in 1994, but lost by a three-percent margin.
 == Chapter 59 ==
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 === dangers from father, brother, and son ===
-Disch quoted this in an interview as "father, brother, ''or'' son"{{ref Disch SF Eye}}, which makes the pun of "Brother Orson" more explicit. (In the same interview, Disch responded to a suggestion that Brother Orson might also have been named for a fellow SF author, such as the notably right-wing Orson Scott Card, by drily stating, "I can't think of any science fiction figure by that name.") Still, the word is "and" in the first edition of the novel<ref>Thanks to John Stick for confirming this.</ref> as well as the most recent one.
+Disch quoted this in an interview as "father, brother, ''or'' son"{{ref Disch SF Eye}}, which makes the pun of "Brother Orson" more explicit. (In the same interview, Disch responded to a suggestion that Brother Orson might have been named for a fellow SF author—the unspoken implication being  that it was the notably right-wing Orson Scott Card—by drily stating, "I can't think of any science fiction figure by that name.") Still, the word is "and" in the first edition of the novel<ref>Thanks to John Stick for confirming this.</ref> as well as the most recent one.
 In any case, William does in fact face dangers from ''all'' of those: his son Judge and his stepbrother Ned will become significant figures in his downfall, and his dead father Henry contributed supernaturally to Judge's conception (chapter 51) as well as providing an important genetic factor.