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May 29, 2006
On the Magdalen, or is it Mary Magdalene?
Dear reader, are you following the craze about the Magdalen and her progeny? Elizabeth Cunningham’s Passion of Mary Magdalen is the newest book on the subject. Her Maeve is a big, strapping, sexy, redheaded Celt sold to a Roman madam. The Booklist calls the Passion a visionary fantasy, colorful enough to make the reader wince and blush in one breath.
Is this blasphemy? Do we connect a person like that with the holy person of Christ?
Let’s all wake up. It’s entertainment called fiction in quest of fame and wealth. Margaret Starbird’s Bride in Exile and Margaret George’s Mary called Magdalene are only two of a zillion new titles of books, articles, and editorial columns on the Magdalen as the new celebrity, as a goddess, and an apostle and follower of Christ.
There is a biography by Bruce Chilton and a story beyond the myth by Esther de Boer. Suddenly, a woman, once an outcast of the community, a poor, possessed woman from Magdala, has become a bright star, much more than a symbol in her own right.
Jim Hougan's espionage-secret-society novel The Maddalene Cipher takes a sharp detour from Angela Hunt’s Magdalene. Isn't the entire world searching for a new persona, having resurrected the legendary saint far beyond the myth in word, art, and literature? Some authors reveal the secrets of the Magdalene scrolls, others unveil the woman, the prostitute, and the soldier of Christ supported by a centuries-long image. The mystery surrounding Mary Magdalene's life and times, the woman as a symbol, her wisdom and symbolic crucifixion as the first apostle, her myth simply befuddles us.
So the biblical saint is riding the crest of popular devotion, but why? Doesn't everyone dream of writing a new, never-heard-of story for the headlines?
Will the real Magdalene stand up, Barbara Reid asks in her article. What a challenging question, I say, because the Magdalene has become a kind of a Lotto ticket in the publishing industry.
So, where does my Maddalena fit in all of this? After all, it was conceived long before, but published after, The Da Vinci Code.
Was it quest for fame? Greed for wealth? I wave my arms in protest while promising to tell a story that simply didn’t fit into accademia. Do read about it in the next entry, my devoted reader. Or you could just read it after you finish Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code.
Posted by Eva Siroka at May 29, 2006 01:16 PM