On Oct. 7, the Lewis & Clark English department welcomed its first guest as part of its annual Visiting Writers Series, Marlena Williams ’14. Williams is an LC alum and recently published her first book, “Night Mother: A Personal and Cultural History of The Exorcist.” This book is a collection of essays about the film “The Exorcist,” connecting themes from and research on the film to her own life, specifically to her relationship with her mother.
Williams detailed her educational and career history, starting with LC.
“I graduated from (LC) in 2014, majored in English and History, then I got my MFA at the Vermont College of Fine Arts, and now I’m actually at law school at Tulane,” Williams said. “My career has been a little random and winding. I worked at Powell’s Books for three years after I graduated, then I was a copywriter for a few years — which I hated. After that, I worked at a foundation for a few years that does work in the criminal justice reform space.”
“Night Mother: A Personal and Cultural History of The Exorcist” is a very personal work that draws from research Williams has done on the film, the cast and the crew and uses those stories and pieces of information to explore her relationship with her mother growing up.
“It’s an essay collection about ‘The Exorcist,’ and about my relationship with my mom,” Williams said. “It’s also exploring my grief after her death and my relationship to Catholicism- I grew up very Catholic. Also about illness, because my mom died of cancer. Reckoning with all of those things through the lens of ‘The Exorcist.’”
Williams did not originally intend for the work to become a full book. She started this project with the idea of writing an essay connecting the film to her mother, but the more research she did, the more connections she found between the film’s themes and her own life. From there, she started to write a memoir. However, she changed course again and reverted the book back to a collection of shorter essays on various topics surrounding the film.
“I’ve probably seen (the film) twelve times. It seems like maybe I should have watched it more, but I would watch it very intensely, taking notes. Only twelve, but it feels like I’ve seen it more,” Williams said.
Outside of “The Exorcist,” Williams has experienced a growing love for the horror genre through her research to put her focus on this film into perspective.
“I didn’t really like (horror movies) when I started out writing the book. I think they scared me, I had a lot of negative experiences with them,” said Williams. “When I was in high school, the trending horror was torture porn, like the ‘Saw’ movies. I really hated that. Once I started writing this book, I had to situate ‘The Exorcist’ in the history of horror films and do research about horror to better understand the movie. Now I am a big fan — I’ve intellectualized horror movies enough that they don’t really scare me.”
Nowadays, Williams is finishing up her final year at Tulane University.
“I still do some freelance writing, but (my time) is mostly law school. Going to class, working in the clinic,” said Williams. “I’m not even sure if I’d like to be a practicing attorney — part of me would just like to write about the law, from a journalistic position.”
Williams is now starting work on her second book.
“I am in the early stages of writing another nonfiction book, kind of about the animal rights movement,” said Williams. “It’s a big jump away from literary essays, but I’m very interested in that history.”
“Night Mother: A Personal and Cultural History of The Exorcist” is available on Amazon, at Powells, and can even be found on used book websites like Thriftbooks. Get your copy and support an LC alum!
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