Over on The Master’s Artist, Mark Bertrand discusses the responsibilities of the artist, or anyone with a platform. He leans toward letting it all hang out, writing with passion rather than allowing yourself to be self-censored. Of course, he doesn’t say we have to publish our wild-child manuscripts. Just says we should write ‘em and evaluate later to see if it would be safe to drive them on public roadways.
On A Christian Worldview of Fiction, Rebecca LuElla Miller, has been working for several days at defining Christian fiction. She’s heading toward purposefully weaving theme into a story to make a point. Now she’s not saying we should write fables and give a moral at the end of every story, but I think she’ll say that we need to have a purpose for writing the story and that purpose will have something to do with communicating some bit of truth to the audience.
On Novel Journey, Gina wrapped up today a two part interview with Walter Wangerin Jr. and he also has something to say about message in fiction. He says, “It is our obligation to embrace truth and to allow it to be the experience of the reader.” But he wants us to refrain from driving home a point or quizzing our readers to see if they got the message. That kind of moralizing, he thinks, vitiates the power of the story.
And in the New York Times, last week, Naomi Wolf talked about the Gossip Girl books, which were the topic of my very first post ever on this blog.
First Wolf tells us about the sex in the books–oral sex, sex with multiple partners, sex in public places–and then she says:
But teenagers, or their parents, do buy the bad-girls books the “Clique,” “Gossip Girl” and “A-List” series have all sold more than a million copies. And while the tacky sex scenes in them are annoying, they aren’t really the problem. The problem is a value system in which meanness rules, parents check out, conformity is everything and stressed-out adult values are presumed to be meaningful to teenagers. The books have a kitsch quality they package corruption with a cute overlay.
Well, then.
How can Christians take back some ground in the culture that is so foreign to them? If I’ve read the Christian bloggers correctly today then I agree with Wangerin that we shouldn’t tack on morals or beat our readers over the head. We should write powerful stories that make our readers experience truth. I agree with Rebecca that we should write purposefully with a theme in mind. And I agree with Mark that we should write what we want but we should critique the work before we put it out for public consumption.
But what I think we need, and we may be missing, is a burning desire to see our agenda pushed forward. I do think that the Brokeback Mountain people wrote with influence in mind. I think the guys who are writing all the young homosexual coming out books are writing with influence in mind. I think that Katherine Paterson, as much as she denies it, is writing with influence in mind (maybe in her subconscious mind—she’s trying to influence herself as she writes, but she manages to influence everyone else while she’s at it).
I think we Christians in the US have had it too easy. We’ve not been persecuted for our beliefs. In fact it’s often hard to tell the difference between a Christian and a nonChristian these days. We have all the same things the world has. We have the cars, the houses, the electronics, all the toys. We have the divorces, we have the out-of-wedlock pregnancies. Far from wanting desperately to have the world accept us and hear our message, the church chases after the worldlings, feeling a bit put out that they get all the fun. They have rock music, we want it too, by golly. They have novels, we want our own novels. They have fortune cookies and then we should have Testamints.
I agree with Mr. Wangerin, we do need to learn the craft, but I begin to think that that is not the real problem. I begin to think that the real problem is that we aren’t hungry enough. We aren’t hurting enough. We aren’t desperate enough. We aren’t driven to influence the world for Christ—to strengthen the church, to save the oppressed. We don’t want to press back the evil, we’re too busy dancing with it.
No I don’t think we should write preachy novels. I think we should write novels that shake our readers up. Novels that pierce hard hearts and pour balm on those who are already injured and waiting to be healed. We should write with an intent to influence.
Letting it all hang out? Me? In actual fact, my thoughts on influence correspond to the prayer I quoted in the post: the desire is to make hearts wise, minds sound and wills righteous. I will pray this for you, and I hope you will do the same for me. My point about separating the creative and the critical isn’t that we should write evil, Christ-defiling stuff to see what happens, then tone it down after the fact if it’s just too much. Rather, I think the AMBITION to influence the world with one’s words should be set aside during the creative process for the humbler motivation of a craftsman. Once the work is done, we’re in a better position to see what themes we’ve managed to pull off and how to strengthen and sharpen them in revision. There’s nothing wrong with having a perspective or even pushing an agenda, but I think we agree there is more to art than that. You’re more likely to strike a blow in the culture wars by focusing on the work itself, and not the thought of how many millions of minds it might shape.
LOL sorry. I guess you really aren’t the “letting it all hang out” type.
It’s a always a problem trying to summarize what someone says. Sorry for misunderstanding you.
I still think I disagree with some of what you are saying:
I think the AMBITION to influence the world with ones words should be set aside during the creative process for the humbler motivation of a craftsman.
I think I disagree with this. I don’t think that this kind of ambition is arrogant. Humility means that we long to serve our brothers for one thing. Humility, as seen in Christ and reported in the second chapter of Philippians, is that you stoop down to raise someone else up.
so it can’t be arrogant to want to help others–to want to snatch them from the flames–by preaching the gospel to them or by plowing the ground so it might be receptive to the gospel or by watering a tender plant.
I agree that art is more than the agenda and that we are more likely to change culture by focusing on the work and not the minds that will be changed. But I wonder if the ones who write the most moving books don’t focus on at least one person as they write.
I believe that the homosexual authors who are popular YA market today are focusing on themselves when they were teens. I believe they have one boy in mind when they write. And because their pain is universal, even though the cause of it is not, their writing appeals to a large audience.
I believe that Katherine Paterson was writing for her son and for herself when she wrote Bridge to Terabithia. I think this because she said it. She said she works through life’s difficulties by writing and when her son’s friend died she had to work through it.
But Christians seem to think they have to do so much more than have a agenda or they have to really hide their agenda somehow because the Christian message is not attractive to the world.
Homosexual writers come through their pain and end up with an “if it feels good, do it” message, and Katherine Paterson works through her pain and comes up with an “all children go to heaven” message, but the Christian writer, if he speaks truthfully to cultural issues, has to show a wrathful God at some point.
Hmmm. maybe, you’re right and we shouldn’t have an audience in mind that we are trying to influence. Maybe that would free us up to write honestly and our books would be hated by the world but loved by the church.
I don’t really have any answers. I’m mostly just heartbroken when I look at the trash that is being published for kids today and then I look at the CBA and there is almost nothing. There are so few choices for kids and much of what is there is shallow and poorly written. I’d love to remedy that by offering some deep work of beauty but I have not the skill. So I’m desperately trying to figure out what the problem is. Is it that I need to fire up my desire to change the world or do I need to forget the world and just write a good story?
I’ve tried the latter and it hasn’t worked. My stories are just as shallow as the next guy’s.
Ambition isn’t always a bad thing, and I’m not saying the desire to influence is wrong. I can only approach it from my perspective, though, and I have a tendency toward arrogance and Luciferian pride. So for me, it’s important to set that kind of drive aside, otherwise I’d be focused on what I needed to do to “build a platform” and “get the message out” so that I could be influential. You’re talking about something different, which is the desire to help others. I don’t think we disagree — we’re just talking about slightly different things.
You know, ever since the Mars Hill Audio Journal piece on children’s books last year, I’ve been amazed at just how ideological that market seems to be. Would you say there is a zeal for indoctrination there? My comments on influence weren’t taking that kind of context into consideration. It seems to me that, sadly enough, children’s lit has become a front line in the culture war. I’m not sure that what I say about literature in general applies equally to children’s lit in particular. You’ve given me plenty to think about.
Would you say there is a zeal for indoctrination there?
Anyone in the children’s publishing industry will tell you that you can’t preach to children–they won’t tolerate it. And right after they tell you that, they turn around and preach to children. They preach about how we should all accept homosexuality, how kids should have sex with whomever, whenever, and wherever, how humans are bad and animals are good, how we need to recycle, how abortion is the right thing to do, and how we should live for the moment and please ourselves because there is no God. Some of the preaching is blatant (think Pulman) and some is subtle.
I remember reading articles in homosexual magazines twenty years ago where they laid out their plan to flood the schools with teaching on the acceptability of homosexuality. They took the twenty-year approach and they’ve been hugely successful.
And from some of the articles I’ve read and from some of the ALA awards given out, I get the idea that the ALA is rabid about protecting childrens right to access porn on the internet and in books. Why? I don’t know. How does it benefit them or the children? I can’t begin to figure it out.
Awesome post, Sally. I think fiction can be a powerful tool in portraying truths, sometimes moreso than nonfiction. I just finished reading Robin Jones Gunn’s Sisterchicks in Gondolas — the title sounds silly, but these women characters are living out their faith, showing readers how it can be done.
In contrast, I was curious about the GossipGirl books, and I checked one out from the library about a year ago. I was horrifed. These books are everywhere, and their influence on tween morality has got to be huge. I noticed in my Pottery Barn Teens catalog that just came in the mail there were some GossipGirl books on the shelves in the pictures. Letting young girls read these books is like giving them dynomite and saying, “Be careful.”
If “they” have an agenda, we should too.
Sally,
You may (or may not) remember me from the World/Westbow contest. I was pleased to discover your site a few months ago, since you often echo my feelings with words like:
“Im mostly just heartbroken when I look at the trash that is being published for kids today and then I look at the CBA and there is almost nothing. There are so few choices for kids and much of what is there is shallow and poorly written.”
I’m a part-time children’s librarian, and that “trash” surrounds me. Some days I almost despair, checking out books like GG to ten and eleven year olds. Other days I rally and work on a list of suggestions for the head to buy.
Teddy Roosevelt said “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” It seems small … far too small. But I think we need to remember the parable of the talents and be faithful over our few things.
Hey, Heather, thanks for commenting. Robin Jones Gunn also writes teen books. The Christy Miller series. I’m going to have to check them out. Thanks for bringing her up.
Wow, Noel, thanks for speaking up. I’m so happy to hear that you are children’s librarian. Good for you. I wish we had more like you.
Remind me that you’re here every so often so I’ll remember to pray for you. I used to work in a bookstore and I hated selling porn and occult material. I finally quit because of that. But I think today I’d not quit. I think today I’d try to influence people within that sphere.
Remind me about your World/Westbow story. I read so many I’m sure I’ve not kept them straight in my mind.
I actually didn’t sub a story in the contest … just dove into all the discussion. You recommended FIF to me. We probably “know” several of the same people … I’m a member of the critique group that Gina and Mike D. belong to.
Thank you for your prayers.
Ah . . . that explains why I couldn’t place a story with you.
Do you ever go to FiF? I don’t recall seeing you there.
And, WOW, your critique group sounds like a great one. Is Ane in that group, too? I met her several weeks ago.
Yes, Ane is a member, too.
I do go to FiF, but seldem comment … I think the last time was when Dave was blasting Narnia (at least, the film). What children’s lit fanatic can resist that topic?