ADRIAN PLASS, author of The Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass Aged 37 1/2 and Ghosts, has sold more than a million books in England. He specializes in "gentle satire" of the evangelical Christian subculture. He is touring Canada this month. The following interview was conducted by The Door Magazine.
DOOR: When people tell you why they love that book, what do they say?
PLASS: I think mainly it's that people know they're useless, really. Most of us know we're a load of old rubbish. And we come up against the challenges of scripture and teaching and preaching and all those things, and a lot of people are really, really troubled that they don't match up to what's expected of them. And I think the revelation that that is a common experience is a very relaxing one. When you read that someone says, for instance, "I tried to move a paper clip by faith," maybe you haven't done exactly that, but you've probably done something like that. And you felt a complete idiot. And to read that someone else does it, something about it being in print, gives it a validity that it wouldn't otherwise have. I know some people who have said they just breathed a sigh of relief and thought, "It's all right, I'm all right, I can be me! I don't have to worry about being a wonderful, wonderful Christian." So perhaps it's that. And I think that God rejoices in that, too. I think Gods says "That's good, let's just relax a bit, take it easy."
DOOR: Your recent novel Ghosts is your first to be published in America. Why do you think that is, since you're so ragingly popular in England?
PLASS: I don't quite know. There are pockets in America that really enjoy what I write. I get quite a lot of mail from America about my books. But they are small pockets. On one day I had two letters from America about Ghosts. One described it as "lust-provoking trash." Which I suggested to the publishers they should put on a little flyer and stick to the front of each book. And the other was from a man saying how much it had helped his faith and restored his faith. That probably sums it up.
The first one, the "lust-provoking trash" letter, represents one whole body of people in America, who really do not want the lid taken off anything. The other whole body of people are those who really want to get real with it. They want to challenge their own thinking and their own feeling about what they believe, and what it really does and who Jesus is, and how real is prayer, does prayer get answered, and all those questions which in narrow churches you're kind of pushed into such a tiny corner that you don't have the freedom to ask or answer them. I think that's part of it.
People always say of course that Americans don't understand irony. I don't think that's really true, when you look at the comedy coming out of America. But I do think American Christians, or one whole bunch of them, are troubled by humor, by humor in Christian literature, and troubled by reality. I don't know if this person who described Ghosts as "lust-provoking trash" was referring to this, but there is a scene where this man is severely tempted by somebody who comes to his room at night. Well, he doesn't give in, for goodness sake! I mean, I feel very sorry for these weaker brethren who are inspired to lust by it.
A friend of mine was telling me that in America recently he was at a seminar for 300 Christian men. They were asked how many of them watch porn on the Internet. All of them did. Every single one. Every single one.
DOOR: !!!
PLASS: Now, I don't know what they've been taught and what kind of churchmanship they've had in the past, but whatever it is, it doesn't work, does it? I do truly believe that Jesus has to get back among the people, where they are. And so for me, writing a book like Ghosts, I hope I'm going in to where people are and saying "Let's really be honest about this." There's a woman in there who talks about occasionally wanting to screw everybody she sees. And it's a bit vulgar, but when you're single and you have been for a long time and you want to be faithful and obedient, that's how you feel sometimes. And you don't want to dwell on it or make a virtue of it, but you want to say, "Come on, let's be where we are, good and bad." I think the lust-provoking trash lady will probably never see it from my point of view. That may be why I've had problems in America.
But when I speak in America, it works, it's exactly the same as it is in England. I think that has something to do with personal communication, earning your way into people's trust, and you can do that when you speak to a group of people, in a way you can't when they're only going to open a book, or they'll only read a little bit, because they've heard that it's bad, or whatever.
DOOR: Is there anything you want to add?
PLASS: Only that I really do hope American readers will excavate their own thinking and feeling about their faith. I'd love them to join me in exploring some of those things; that's what I've been doing for years. And if any do, I'd love to hear from them. That would be wonderful.
Courtesy: The Door Magazine
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