I am a collector of stories. They are my secret treasures, the flowers in my heart's garden. I enjoy fiction coming from a wide variety of cultural and religious points of view. My bookshelves contain anthologies from the Islamic world, Zen stories, Chinese folk tales, Native American myths, etc. I even am in love with Ursula le Guin, which is saying something because she's a secular humanist and secularism is the hardest POV for me to relate to.
Let me also say that I'm a long time lover of Christian fiction. JRR Tolkien's LORD OF THE RINGS is carefully enshrined, just below my Jewish books. I call it "my OTHER bible."
The LOTR is clear evidence that christians are certainly capable of writing the best possible literature.
Now let's contrast this with the movie I just watched: TIME CHANGER. As a teacher, I give it a D-. The only reason it doesn't get an F is because it does raise the intriguing question: can the moral values of a religion be taught apart from the religion? A story can be incredible (sci fi, fantasy, etc) but it must be believable or it's trash. In the TIME CHANGER, thee characters are canned. The scenes feel contrived -- they are written to an obvious agenda. This movie is so devoid of depth that I would be embarrassed if I were a Christian.
And I have to say that all the recent stuff I've seen written by christians is just as hokey -- consider THIS PRESENT DARKNESS and its series of "tell all the scary last days stories you ever heard from a pulpit." In one word, christian fiction in the 21st century is TRIPE. Come on! Story telling is an art. You can't just throw together a plot that addresses the trendiest issues of the evangelical world and think it's automatically going to WORK as a story.
I would like to ask the Christians in the room, why does your faith community allow this SLOP to be published? I realize there are plenty of really awful aspiring authors in every group--but no where else do I see the publishers taking them seriously. The only thing I can think of is that they publish it because YOU BUY IT. I have a theory, and I want to run it by the Christians here, especially the Evangelicals (where the dearth of imagination seems to be the worst). In the TIME CHANGER, the main character twice makes the statement that good scientists should make sure their science agrees with the Christian Bible, as if THAT is what makes for good science -- which is nonsense. In an analogous idea, do you Christians think that any writing that has an altar call and a warning about the imminent return of Jesus is what MAKES good literature? And what would happen if a Christian just wanted to write stories for stories' sake? Would they be seen as valued assets to the Christian community, or would they be considered odd? Is imagination no longer valued unless it's used in the service of evangelism? And do you even realize that when your community produces literary garbage that it comes back against you in the long run, with no one taking you seriously?
I hope everyone realizes this is not an anti-christian thread, but an anti-bad-writing thread.
Let me also say that I'm a long time lover of Christian fiction. JRR Tolkien's LORD OF THE RINGS is carefully enshrined, just below my Jewish books. I call it "my OTHER bible."
The LOTR is clear evidence that christians are certainly capable of writing the best possible literature.Now let's contrast this with the movie I just watched: TIME CHANGER. As a teacher, I give it a D-. The only reason it doesn't get an F is because it does raise the intriguing question: can the moral values of a religion be taught apart from the religion? A story can be incredible (sci fi, fantasy, etc) but it must be believable or it's trash. In the TIME CHANGER, thee characters are canned. The scenes feel contrived -- they are written to an obvious agenda. This movie is so devoid of depth that I would be embarrassed if I were a Christian.
And I have to say that all the recent stuff I've seen written by christians is just as hokey -- consider THIS PRESENT DARKNESS and its series of "tell all the scary last days stories you ever heard from a pulpit." In one word, christian fiction in the 21st century is TRIPE. Come on! Story telling is an art. You can't just throw together a plot that addresses the trendiest issues of the evangelical world and think it's automatically going to WORK as a story.
I would like to ask the Christians in the room, why does your faith community allow this SLOP to be published? I realize there are plenty of really awful aspiring authors in every group--but no where else do I see the publishers taking them seriously. The only thing I can think of is that they publish it because YOU BUY IT. I have a theory, and I want to run it by the Christians here, especially the Evangelicals (where the dearth of imagination seems to be the worst). In the TIME CHANGER, the main character twice makes the statement that good scientists should make sure their science agrees with the Christian Bible, as if THAT is what makes for good science -- which is nonsense. In an analogous idea, do you Christians think that any writing that has an altar call and a warning about the imminent return of Jesus is what MAKES good literature? And what would happen if a Christian just wanted to write stories for stories' sake? Would they be seen as valued assets to the Christian community, or would they be considered odd? Is imagination no longer valued unless it's used in the service of evangelism? And do you even realize that when your community produces literary garbage that it comes back against you in the long run, with no one taking you seriously?
I hope everyone realizes this is not an anti-christian thread, but an anti-bad-writing thread.
Last edited:
Unfortunately, all genres have some authors that get trapped in the completely non-inventive rut. Like the whole vampires thing. It was great at first, I admit. But after the first hundred (maybe a bit exaggerated) vampire books, they got incredibly old and boring. Seriously, if you've read two, you've read them all. Especially the fairy trap we are falling into now!
