I haven’t read the novel, but I have seen the movie — and, perhaps more importantly, I’ve seen the DVD extras. In one of the making-of pieces, he explains that he wrote the story as a piece of pro-Catholic propaganda! My jaw dropped. But I guess I wasn’t his target audience.
He knew a thing or two about propaganda, by the way. Earlier in his career he had worked his way up to become head of the Policy Branch of the USAF Psychological Warfare Division.
He also got divorced three times (and married four).
Oh, I almost forgot, the original true story that the novel was based on wasn’t quite true.
Let’s see. Main character has doubts, falls from grace. Must go on somehow, despite being tribeless. In a crux moment, acknowledges Gnon, is welcomed back in without rancor and aspersions, returns to fight with all his will, and although is physically destroyed in the process, he saves those around him, and his eternal soul.
Almost sounds like the elevator pitch for Mencius Moldbug’s coming of age story.