Hi again! Just got back from Destin, FL and Panama City Beach, FL for Spring Break '05! I had an absolutely awesome time and met tons of awesome people. But, here's the result of it all:
As this drag kills my last cigarette-
another inch of my life goes with it.
(Where's the measuring tape?...
I thought you had it....Liar.)
The night has put on her prettiest dress
(her favorite shade of red)
She asks me to dance.
But I'm all about the looks she's getting...
gets...
harder to feel anything but like a miscued curtain call.
(WRONG PLACE. WRONG TIME)
Meanwhile...she..
throws the moon around my shoulders-
Yet I shrug it off with my own brand of style.
(I'd love to call it GRACE... but i'd probably mispell it.)
And would you look at the way she smiles when she's with me?!!
(someone take a picture...I wanna have it when she's gone.)
I feel like the last word in a long goodbye...
waiting for the period I...
Love
Loved...haha.
Lied.
When I turn this last page- keep your jaws off the floor...
Cause I've had it coming for a while.
Don't hate the sunset...
I've had this coming for a while.
Sounds like fun huh?
Good Providence
Saturday, March 26, 2005
Thursday, March 17, 2005
Drumroll Please...
That's Right Folks, It's My Senior Theis!
IT's been a long process, but it's finally done. Here's all 15 pages of the proof that the Classical Christian School I attend has done a good job. Hope it gets me to college! Enjoy! Please read or skim, and comment! I would really appreciate it! GOOD PROVIDENCE!
Exordium
"Some of my best friends are hardback books. They have given me many hours of
enjoyment, as many when they were closed as when open. They have pleasing spines.
They are worn and frayed across the top and bottom edges. Light gleams dully from
their cloth skins, and in places the gold lettering is only half visible, partially erased
by usage and affectionate caressing. They are tired, some of them, but upright,
sober, and joyful in the execution of their duties. They take their jobs seriously.
I do own paperbacks, but they do not have my affection. They are casual, uncon-
cerned with ceremony. They lean for support on the disciplined hardbacks near
them. They laugh lightly, but my eyes do not rest on them. They do not under-
stand that the importance of their ideas is trivialized by the t-shirts they wear.
If they are so important, why do they not dress for the occasion?" (Callihan par. 1-2)
Between the covers of a paperback book and those of the same book in hardback, the book is essentially the same and there is no real difference between the two. This is the wrong assumption. If the content of the book is important, why clothe it in something cheap? A cheap cover conveys that the content is not worth a better cover.
This illustration can be carried on into the realm of literature. Why, if there is Truth in a work, do we need to dress it up by using fancy words and implementing symbolism? Why not just say the Truths? Why make it complex and confusing? When these questions are asked by Christian authors and readers something is wrong. If a Christian artist cannot see the wrong in not taking the time to dress Truth in the royal purple it deserves, then there is a problem. God in His infinite grace and mercy chose to make us, His children, in His own image. Inside we are filled with the Holy Spirit. He values our being so much and thought us so important that He chose to clothe us in His image. In our own creations of worship to Him, could we not take the time to make them beautiful to behold and truthful to hear?
Narration
The 1950s was a very important decade to the history of modern Christian Fiction. It was in this span of ten years that both the Chronicles of Narnia series and The Lord of the Rings trilogy were written by Clive Staples Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien respectively. Both are works of fantasy, enjoyed by people of all ages for over 50 years now. Many who first read the books as children continue to read them over and over again as adults. Though they know how the stories end, each time they read them, they feel the same feelings they did the very first time they read them. The same excitement; the same suspense; the same joy. The late 1980s would bring us another Christian fiction icon by the name of Frank Peretti. His novel This Present Darkness gained him wide recognition. Though we could still find good Christian truth in a decent story, much had changed about Christian Fiction. The genre had becomne "novelistic". A less than formidable protagonist against an unthinkably powerful enemy, who must trust God through losing most of the way through, to win a predictable battle. The Truths were spelled out right there on the page. No thought was required to find the author’s meaning behind the work. After one read, the work is fully understood and there is no need to read it again. The late 1990s brought us the most popular and best-selling series of Christian fiction of all time by two men named Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. Trumping the sales of Lewis and Tolkien, the Left Behind series took both the Christian and secular markets by storm landing a comfy #1 spot on the New York Times’ Bestseller List on numerable occasions. By then, the stories had become cliche. The new stories were only obvious knock-offs of the old ones and had grown trite and stagnant. In 50 years, Christian fiction had come from classic works to big money makers. Christian fiction was not about learning and bettering one’s self through reading an author’s work and finding God’s Truth. It was about finding out what happened next to your favorite character in the next of 18 or so books and feeling all warm inside because, "Hey! He’s a Christian just like me!" From books that will live on forever and be read millions of times, to books that will be read once and sold in garage sales or given to church libraries (which would be better off without them) and eventually fade away and find itself in a garbage can alongside a W.W.J.D. bracelet somewhere.
The type of reading that this current generation of Christian Fiction generates is referred to by C.S. Lewis as a reading of the "Many". (Lewis, Abolition, 2) The "Many" read to be entertained or get away from reality. Perhaps a book before bed to put them to sleep. Or instead of watching TV "expanding themselves" and reading a book to kill time. There is another group of readers that Lewis calls the "Few". The "Few" are those who read because they must. Without the strict diet of truth and beauty they are fed through literary works they would starve to death. Nothing else makes them happier than reading a story and being taken somewhere they have never seen before and walking away from it a new person, seeing the world around them in a completely different way than before the journey. Now, don’t take this as criticism into the walk of those within the "Few" and the "Many". Those in the "Many" are not lower or stupid or in an extreme sense, lesser Christians than the "Few". The simple fact of the matter is that there are people in the "Many" that are, in many respects, smarter and more faithful Christians than those in the "Few". Coincidently, the "Few" cannot pride themselves over the "Many" by stating that they, have been blessed with a miraculous shortage of ignorance. But, the current generation of Christian literature does lack noticeably in regards to quality compared to that of Lewis and Tolkien. This is a fact that needn’t be so.
C.S. Lewis’ thoughts on the overall aesthetic quality or goodness of literature were very much shaped by the relationships he had with authors like J.R.R. Tolkien and Owen Barfield. He agreed with Tolkien’s thought that while we are fallen creatures, we still retain the image and likeness of our Maker. We reveal that we are made in our Creator’s image and likeness when we write stories which reflect the eternal Beauty and Wisdom of creation. (Song 5) C.S. Lewis called this type of art-making "Sub-Creation". We create because the Father created. But in our ever-feeble mockery there are good imitations and bad imitations. The bad imitations are products of our blurred view of creation. It is our want for familiarity and the same old thing that blurs this view. Today’s authors have been caught in this very trap. The result of this trap is an identity crisis. We have lost the reason why we create, and when we create, why we make it good. As time goes by the situation only worsens. People become more and more comfortable with the mediocre one-read books that are flying off of Christian bookstore shelves. So how do we call an end to this identity crisis as "Sub-creators"?
Division
I have pondered on this question and since I find that Lewis’ work stands head and shoulders above today’s work in fiction, I researched some of his works on literary theory and criticism to find the answer. I have found it to be this. To create aesthetically good literature we should follow the same principles that C.S. Lewis operated under in his criticism and fictional writing. I plan to prove that we need to follow these principles in order to honor and obey God regarding the cultural mandate. Further I plan to state each principle and prove their necessity to good literature. The first principle regards creating a surrender in the reader. The second deals with infusing the works with God’s Truth. The third deals with making that Truth real and concrete to the reader through symbolism and representation.
Confirmation
Our "sub-creation" is not only a revelation of our being made in the Father’s image. It is also an act of obedience. In Genesis 1:28, we find the cultural mandate. After creating nature and man, God gave man dominion over nature. He called man to "fill the earth and subdue it" as well as "rule over every living creature that moves on the ground (NIV). " In His commandment that we subdue creation, He has made it possible for us to take part in creating. He has given us the elements of creation, which are in Nature, and the ability to make new creations by rearranging these elements in new ways. (Williams 4) Examples of this are throughout Scripture. God called David to write his songs of worship in the Psalms. He blessed Mary with Heavenly poetry upon the news that she would bear the Son of God in Luke 1. He generated an outpouring of joyful song from the early church in Luke 2:29-32; Acts 14:26,16:25; Revelation 4:11, etc. (Atwood par. 2)
But, in our calling to create, we are also called to create faithfully. By creating faithfully I mean that we are called to create good works of art. In the course of His creation of the natural world in Genesis 1, time and time again the scriptures quote the Father as saying His work was "good". What we draw from this is that He took delight in the work of His hands. I say delight, but a more accurate term would be extreme joy. God did not set out to create something that he thought was "okay" or "would do". He set out to create something that was perfect in every right. When He invites us to take part in this experience of creating, we should be grateful, and operate accordingly. We are to create "all for the glory of God" (1 Cor.10:31) and "in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him." (Col. 3:17)
But how do we create faithfully? I am convinced that by following the creative principles implemented by C.S. Lewis that are to follow, we can create good works of art that are glorifying and obedient to God. The first principle is the foundation of my thesis. When creating a work of literature, you must cause the reader to surrender to the work. "But, doesn’t the fact that he’s reading the book mean he has already surrendered?" No. You must get the reader to throw themselves into the "being" of the work and toss out any preconceptions, preferences, or prejudices that the fads or fashions of the day may hold. The job of a good writer, to quote Lewis, is to continue the readers "...education as a seeing, listening, smelling, receptive creature." The reader must be willing to get himself out of the way, and throw himself in to the "being", or "thingness" of a thing (Song 1). While reading the work, the reader must be able to over look the fact that the language is old and they don’t like the characters’ personality or any other dislike or disinterest they may have, and appreciate the work in and of itself. One story in particular that is a great example of this has characters that aren’t anything special. They are struggling creatures. They aren’t heroic and they’re not extremely brave. They’re just normal. Their homes are normal and quiet little places too. Nothing much ever happens and life is basically peaceful, for the most part. The time period is before that of cars and airplanes. Before cell phones and e-mail. Before machine guns and missiles and all the other common armaments of modern warfare. What are a few words that come to mind? Boring? Irrelevant? Old? Who wants to read about someone just like themselves only who lived 200 years ago? But this story is one of the most gripping and encapsulating stories of heroism and war of the past 100 years. For decades, readers have shrugged off the fads and prejudices of their day to let themselves be taken to Middle-Earth to see first hand one of the most famous battles between good and evil in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
The proof of this principle’s necessity to good literature can be found in another, and perhaps the best, example: The Bible. For over 2000 years Christians have looked to the Scriptures to find the direction and will of God for their lives. In Exodus 3:14 God speaks His name to Moses: " I Am who I Am." or "I Will be who I Will be." This unchanging nature has caused surrender among His people for thousands of years. Literary surrender in the Christian life is important because it represents how we surrender spiritually. In Romans 12:1 Paul writes. "Therefore, I urge you brothers, in view of God’s mercy to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship." God is not open for compromise. He is who He was in the beginning and will remain that way forever. The same goes for His Word. It will never change, and as time has shown through the handing down of the Scriptures from generation to generation, not even man can tamper with the message He wishes to give to His people. God has written His Scriptures without compromise and so it should be in regards to Christian writers and their stories. Like many Christian writers today, Moses was concerned about how those who did not depend upon God would receive Him. But God tells Moses:
"Who gave Man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight
or makes him blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and teach
you what to say." (Exodus 4:11, NIV)
The next two principles are the how to creating surrender without compromise. The first I will discuss has to do with the work’s Truth. To create a good work of Christian fiction, the author must infuse the work with un-dying truths. As a faithful Christian creator, you must acknowledge the truths that God has made known to you in His creation by communicating them through your creation. This does not mean stating God’s name every other sentence or paragraph. Or throwing in a good "Jesus loves you" in every once in a while. This is communicating all truths in creation. God is Love. Man is weak and fallen. Sin does feel good as it tears you to pieces. Many Christian authors shy away from including in their own books, many of the Truths that make all Christians feel uneasy when they read them in Scripture. We should instead meet these Truths head on. One book that does this extremely well is C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters. Though it is a work of fiction it is one of the best criticisms on Christian living I have ever read. In it, Lewis’ characters are two demons by the names of Wormwood and his uncle Screwtape. The work is a compilation of Screwtape’s letters to his nephew on earth on how to weaken and take the soul of the man he has been assigned. Though we never hear from Wormwood we see his progress thorough Screwtape’s rants. As Wormwood meets new situations Screwtape informs him of more weaknesses that Christians have and targets for Wormwood to gnaw at. These weaknesses are not surprising: lust, gluttony, jealousy, pride and so on. But the thing that makes this work so convicting is that the man is meeting these in regards to his Christian life. He lusts after another Christian girl. The gluttony of church hopping is addressed. The man fights being jealous of other Christian’s walks and fights making a big deal out of His own. Lewis recognizes sin, but not by condemning the world as most Christian works of fiction. He recognizes what’s going wrong within the Christian walls. He makes the sin relevant instead of foreign to Christians. This relevance is why we should strive to produce works of Truth. We must create a pattern for the readers to exert their senses and imagination according to. These patterns can either be received or used. Lewis writes:
"When we ‘use’ it we treat it as assistance for our own activities. The one, to use
an old-fashioned image, is like being taken for a bicycle ride by a man who may
know the roads we have never yet explored. The other is like adding one of those
little motor attachments to our own bicycle and then going for one of our familiar
rides. These rides may in themselves be good, bad, or indifferent. The ‘uses’
which the many make of the arts may or may not be intrinsically vulgar, depraved
or morbid. That’s as may be. ‘Using’ is inferior to ‘reception’ because art, if
used rather than received, merely facilitates, brightens, relieves or palliates our
life, and does not add anything to it."
Basically literature that is created to be "used", is created for the reader to manipulate it to their own ends. It entertains, distracts, creates joy or sadness or creates thrills. But it leaves the reader where they are. When "receivable" literature is created, the reader is able to open themselves up to what it has to offer and find themselves transformed. (Song 3) This transformation is addressed by Paul following his urge to surrender in Romans 12:2:
"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed
by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what
God’s will is – his good, pleasing, and perfect will. [...] Do not think of
yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with
sober judgement, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you."(NIV) This address concerns literature as well. As authors we must strive to help our brethren "renew" and "transform".
The last principle is to communicate the Truth fully and make the relevance concrete. This is the aspect of Beauty within a work. Beauty has everything to do with the senses. How does the reader physically understand what is being communicated? To the principle .As Christian authors, strive not to reproduce something exactly thorough saying its real name or describing its actual appearance. But create a representation through the elements given to us by God in creation, that enables others to see the reality of that which is represented for the first time. We must make the Truth in the world real. We can do this by telling stories full of representation. When we turn to exercise our responsibility concerning the creation mandate we should see our roles as that of exercising covenantal authority in the world. We aren’t on Adam’s level, but our work is like his. (Wilson par. 3) In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter we can find countless examples of this principle. Within this spectacular work of fiction, we find the themes of Young vs. Old, an Artist in the Community, and Nature as archetypes. These are all communicated by concrete images in the book. For example, the woods of the story are the archetype of evil and all that is shady (pun seriously not intended) takes place here. Evil is represented by the darkness of the wood and separation of the area from a "holy" community. By looking at the symbols and connecting their natures and personalities with definitions of Truths, we can see the author’s meaning behind the story.
But why not just say things out right? Why not just say the devil’s name or name a character Love? Because it’s not that we have a shortage of these things, it’s that we have a shortage of an understanding of them. The world is full of God’s Truth. But it lacks an understanding of them. When we create stories with these Truths represented as characters through their personality, or elements of nature through their appearance, or animals through their natural instincts, we make the Truths more real. We make them tangible to the reader. The Truths were always there, but are now cast in a new light so the reader can finally see them. Lewis wrote:
"Imagination affords us a view of reality from many angles. For example, a fairy
tale arouses in a child ‘The dim sense of something beyond his reach and, far from
dulling or emptying the actual world, gives it a new dimension and depth. He
doesn’t despise real woods because he has read of enchanted woods: the reading
makes all real woods a little enchanted.’" When the reader is made to make connections from characters, events, animals, or elements of creation in the story to God’s truth, they cannot help but come out of the experience better informed and therefore "renewed" and "transformed".
Refutation
Many will say to this that there is no need for good Christian fiction to be complex to be good. Truth can be expressed in simple fashion. The simple fact is, it can not. To quote Lewis, "Real things are not simple. They look simple, but they are not. The table I am
sitting at looks simple: but ask a scientist to tell you what it is really made of
– all about the atoms and how the light waves rebound off from them and hit
my eye and what they do to the optic nerve and what it does to my brain –
and, of course, you find that what we call ‘seeing a table’ lands you in mysteries
and complications which you can hardly get to the end of (Lewis, Mere 40)."
God’s Truth is the foundation of his creation. He created to demonstrate and represent His love, grace, and wrath though His creation. When we look at creation, we find that it is incredibly complex. The human body, for instance, is one of the most intricate systems on this earth. Humans have existed for thousands of years and even today we do not know of all its mysteries. Flowers bloom and fade with the seasons. The weather follows patterns and climates. In accepting the invitation to create, we must honor the necessary complexities of the creation process.
Others will say that making complex Christian Fiction will only make a hard evangelical sell. First, this is the wrong argument to make because as of now, the secular community embraces the ideas of beauty such as eloquence, imagery, and symbolism and implement them in many of their own literary works. But what they lack is the Truth we Christians possess. We do not need to dumb down Christianity to evangelize. Secondly, this argument’s priorities are mixed up. Many authors in their want to evangelize and appeal to skeptics will write a fast paced action-thriller with a Christian hero named Chris, rather than a beautiful love story representing the union of Christ and His Church. The focus is on man instead of God. Evangelism is fine. But when we stop worrying about whether God delights in the actual medium of evangelism, something is wrong.
The final argument I will contend to is that C.S. Lewis and Tolkien were one of a kind. The reason current literature isn’t like theirs is because it can’t be. They were superiorly gifted men and we can never expect better works. I believe that Lewis and Tolkien would both object to these flatteries. Before them were giants like Wordsworth and Eliot. Before them were Spenser and Shakespeare. Before them were Homer and Dante. If these men would have looked to the men they recognized as genius and decided there is no sense in trying to write at that level, there would be a void in literary culture as we know it that cannot be filled. What if Michael Jordan wouldn’t have practiced because he thought that it didn’t get any better than Dr. J? What if Denzel Washington had decided not to act as well as he could because it would never touch the work of Sidney Portier? What happens when we, as Christians, decide to give up at our lives because whatever we do will never amount to what Christ’s life did? In the same way, we, as "Sub-creators" cannot look to ourselves for our identity and ability as creators. We must look to the Creator, as have the other great "Sub-creators", for our potential. There is a commercial on T.V. that depicts the director Spike Jonze reading out of a large story book about the career of Michael Jordan. Near the end, he says something to the effect that the story doesn’t end with Jordan’s retirement from basketball. There are others who will be as great or better than "his airness" who are practicing and bettering their game. It ends with the phrase: "Will it be you?". God’s kingdom is an expanding kingdom. Christian Fiction should not be in the state it’s in now. The Christian Fiction of today should be volumes better than those of fifty years ago. We should look at the great works of Lewis, Tolkien, Wordsworth, and Eliot, and not let it stop there. We should expand upon them. They should be our foundation in regards as how to build upon our inspiration.
Conclusion
With the principles I have presented in mind we must consider two things: their ultimate illustration and application. God, at the beginning of time desired to share the creating process. He created man to do so with and filled him with His Spirit, gave him His Holy Word, and blessed him with the elements of all creation around him. He instructed him to take dominion over all of it and create things that were good for the soul and pleasing to the eye. Man is God’s most beautiful and prized creation. There is nothing on this earth he thinks more beautiful, for He created him in His own image. One problem. Man is incapable of obedience. He falls from perfection and is now in debt to God. Out of love God comes to earth as a man by the name of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the perfect illustration of goodness. He was the ultimate truth, which was God’s being, within the ultimate creation of beauty that is man’s body. He was the perfect creation. It is from Him that we get our Christian Aesthetic which has been the backbone of this paper. A truly good work is only good if it contains truth and beauty. Without truth, beauty is a lovely face with an ugly agenda. Without beauty, we would never know the color of Truth’s eyes.
Though this paper has been centered on the application of this Christian Aesthetic in regards to literature, I pray that you will see the ways that it can be applied to all of the realms of art. Not all Christian artists are called to be writers. Some are called to be painters, others, architects, and still others, musicians. But these Christian painters should strive to improve and find a voice in their technique and style that makes the message they are trying to communicate through a silent canvas loud and clear. The Christian architects should strive not to "Just design how a building will look." Christian architects are some of the luckiest artists because their work will stand for years and years to come. They should find the message of truth that the purpose of the building will stand for, and make it obvious not only through the outside of the bulding but from the inside as well. When creating plans for a building, the Christian architect should have on his mind what people will think not only the first time they step foot into the building , but every time they enter it. The Christian musician should strive to be poets who know a thing or two about a particular instrument. They lyrically communicate truth through imagination and representation through story or poetry. Then, after they are through with the literary portion of the work, turn and stress these truths by making the listener feel it through the music. No matter what the art, the Christian Aesthetic can and should be applied to create a quality work. But, we can also implement it to rate the quality of other works. Now that we are instructed as "Sub- creators", we can look at the works of other "Sub-creators". When you have evaluated their creations and taken them in, how have the works transformed you? If the work is of pagan mind, what evils and untruths have your eyes been opened to in a whole new way? If it is of Christian mind, what truth was represented that you now understand better now that you have seen it through the author’s eyes? As "Sub-creators" and partakers of art it is our Christian duty to follow this aesthetic if we are to create and partake in truly good art that is glorifying to God.
As I have stated, we have strayed away from the application of this aesthetic over the past fifty or so years. The result of this has been Christians, in considerable numbers, who care about the application of an aesthetic, straying away from any art that has the Christian label on it. It saddens me that we have gotten to the point that if Christians want good art, we have to look to secular outlets to find it. Right now, the Christian label, is a sure sign that the work will be unimaginative, cliche, and overall, sub-par. Not only is our art laughable to the world, but it’s laughable to other Christians. In the realm of Christian Literature, Lamentations 2:15 has come true: " Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth?( NIV )". If Christian authors will apply this aesthetic model to their own creations, we won’t have to look to two different realms to find our dose of goodness. We will be able to look to our own culture to find not only Truth, but Truth and Beauty. Sounds Good.
IT's been a long process, but it's finally done. Here's all 15 pages of the proof that the Classical Christian School I attend has done a good job. Hope it gets me to college! Enjoy! Please read or skim, and comment! I would really appreciate it! GOOD PROVIDENCE!
Exordium
"Some of my best friends are hardback books. They have given me many hours of
enjoyment, as many when they were closed as when open. They have pleasing spines.
They are worn and frayed across the top and bottom edges. Light gleams dully from
their cloth skins, and in places the gold lettering is only half visible, partially erased
by usage and affectionate caressing. They are tired, some of them, but upright,
sober, and joyful in the execution of their duties. They take their jobs seriously.
I do own paperbacks, but they do not have my affection. They are casual, uncon-
cerned with ceremony. They lean for support on the disciplined hardbacks near
them. They laugh lightly, but my eyes do not rest on them. They do not under-
stand that the importance of their ideas is trivialized by the t-shirts they wear.
If they are so important, why do they not dress for the occasion?" (Callihan par. 1-2)
Between the covers of a paperback book and those of the same book in hardback, the book is essentially the same and there is no real difference between the two. This is the wrong assumption. If the content of the book is important, why clothe it in something cheap? A cheap cover conveys that the content is not worth a better cover.
This illustration can be carried on into the realm of literature. Why, if there is Truth in a work, do we need to dress it up by using fancy words and implementing symbolism? Why not just say the Truths? Why make it complex and confusing? When these questions are asked by Christian authors and readers something is wrong. If a Christian artist cannot see the wrong in not taking the time to dress Truth in the royal purple it deserves, then there is a problem. God in His infinite grace and mercy chose to make us, His children, in His own image. Inside we are filled with the Holy Spirit. He values our being so much and thought us so important that He chose to clothe us in His image. In our own creations of worship to Him, could we not take the time to make them beautiful to behold and truthful to hear?
Narration
The 1950s was a very important decade to the history of modern Christian Fiction. It was in this span of ten years that both the Chronicles of Narnia series and The Lord of the Rings trilogy were written by Clive Staples Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien respectively. Both are works of fantasy, enjoyed by people of all ages for over 50 years now. Many who first read the books as children continue to read them over and over again as adults. Though they know how the stories end, each time they read them, they feel the same feelings they did the very first time they read them. The same excitement; the same suspense; the same joy. The late 1980s would bring us another Christian fiction icon by the name of Frank Peretti. His novel This Present Darkness gained him wide recognition. Though we could still find good Christian truth in a decent story, much had changed about Christian Fiction. The genre had becomne "novelistic". A less than formidable protagonist against an unthinkably powerful enemy, who must trust God through losing most of the way through, to win a predictable battle. The Truths were spelled out right there on the page. No thought was required to find the author’s meaning behind the work. After one read, the work is fully understood and there is no need to read it again. The late 1990s brought us the most popular and best-selling series of Christian fiction of all time by two men named Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. Trumping the sales of Lewis and Tolkien, the Left Behind series took both the Christian and secular markets by storm landing a comfy #1 spot on the New York Times’ Bestseller List on numerable occasions. By then, the stories had become cliche. The new stories were only obvious knock-offs of the old ones and had grown trite and stagnant. In 50 years, Christian fiction had come from classic works to big money makers. Christian fiction was not about learning and bettering one’s self through reading an author’s work and finding God’s Truth. It was about finding out what happened next to your favorite character in the next of 18 or so books and feeling all warm inside because, "Hey! He’s a Christian just like me!" From books that will live on forever and be read millions of times, to books that will be read once and sold in garage sales or given to church libraries (which would be better off without them) and eventually fade away and find itself in a garbage can alongside a W.W.J.D. bracelet somewhere.
The type of reading that this current generation of Christian Fiction generates is referred to by C.S. Lewis as a reading of the "Many". (Lewis, Abolition, 2) The "Many" read to be entertained or get away from reality. Perhaps a book before bed to put them to sleep. Or instead of watching TV "expanding themselves" and reading a book to kill time. There is another group of readers that Lewis calls the "Few". The "Few" are those who read because they must. Without the strict diet of truth and beauty they are fed through literary works they would starve to death. Nothing else makes them happier than reading a story and being taken somewhere they have never seen before and walking away from it a new person, seeing the world around them in a completely different way than before the journey. Now, don’t take this as criticism into the walk of those within the "Few" and the "Many". Those in the "Many" are not lower or stupid or in an extreme sense, lesser Christians than the "Few". The simple fact of the matter is that there are people in the "Many" that are, in many respects, smarter and more faithful Christians than those in the "Few". Coincidently, the "Few" cannot pride themselves over the "Many" by stating that they, have been blessed with a miraculous shortage of ignorance. But, the current generation of Christian literature does lack noticeably in regards to quality compared to that of Lewis and Tolkien. This is a fact that needn’t be so.
C.S. Lewis’ thoughts on the overall aesthetic quality or goodness of literature were very much shaped by the relationships he had with authors like J.R.R. Tolkien and Owen Barfield. He agreed with Tolkien’s thought that while we are fallen creatures, we still retain the image and likeness of our Maker. We reveal that we are made in our Creator’s image and likeness when we write stories which reflect the eternal Beauty and Wisdom of creation. (Song 5) C.S. Lewis called this type of art-making "Sub-Creation". We create because the Father created. But in our ever-feeble mockery there are good imitations and bad imitations. The bad imitations are products of our blurred view of creation. It is our want for familiarity and the same old thing that blurs this view. Today’s authors have been caught in this very trap. The result of this trap is an identity crisis. We have lost the reason why we create, and when we create, why we make it good. As time goes by the situation only worsens. People become more and more comfortable with the mediocre one-read books that are flying off of Christian bookstore shelves. So how do we call an end to this identity crisis as "Sub-creators"?
Division
I have pondered on this question and since I find that Lewis’ work stands head and shoulders above today’s work in fiction, I researched some of his works on literary theory and criticism to find the answer. I have found it to be this. To create aesthetically good literature we should follow the same principles that C.S. Lewis operated under in his criticism and fictional writing. I plan to prove that we need to follow these principles in order to honor and obey God regarding the cultural mandate. Further I plan to state each principle and prove their necessity to good literature. The first principle regards creating a surrender in the reader. The second deals with infusing the works with God’s Truth. The third deals with making that Truth real and concrete to the reader through symbolism and representation.
Confirmation
Our "sub-creation" is not only a revelation of our being made in the Father’s image. It is also an act of obedience. In Genesis 1:28, we find the cultural mandate. After creating nature and man, God gave man dominion over nature. He called man to "fill the earth and subdue it" as well as "rule over every living creature that moves on the ground (NIV). " In His commandment that we subdue creation, He has made it possible for us to take part in creating. He has given us the elements of creation, which are in Nature, and the ability to make new creations by rearranging these elements in new ways. (Williams 4) Examples of this are throughout Scripture. God called David to write his songs of worship in the Psalms. He blessed Mary with Heavenly poetry upon the news that she would bear the Son of God in Luke 1. He generated an outpouring of joyful song from the early church in Luke 2:29-32; Acts 14:26,16:25; Revelation 4:11, etc. (Atwood par. 2)
But, in our calling to create, we are also called to create faithfully. By creating faithfully I mean that we are called to create good works of art. In the course of His creation of the natural world in Genesis 1, time and time again the scriptures quote the Father as saying His work was "good". What we draw from this is that He took delight in the work of His hands. I say delight, but a more accurate term would be extreme joy. God did not set out to create something that he thought was "okay" or "would do". He set out to create something that was perfect in every right. When He invites us to take part in this experience of creating, we should be grateful, and operate accordingly. We are to create "all for the glory of God" (1 Cor.10:31) and "in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him." (Col. 3:17)
But how do we create faithfully? I am convinced that by following the creative principles implemented by C.S. Lewis that are to follow, we can create good works of art that are glorifying and obedient to God. The first principle is the foundation of my thesis. When creating a work of literature, you must cause the reader to surrender to the work. "But, doesn’t the fact that he’s reading the book mean he has already surrendered?" No. You must get the reader to throw themselves into the "being" of the work and toss out any preconceptions, preferences, or prejudices that the fads or fashions of the day may hold. The job of a good writer, to quote Lewis, is to continue the readers "...education as a seeing, listening, smelling, receptive creature." The reader must be willing to get himself out of the way, and throw himself in to the "being", or "thingness" of a thing (Song 1). While reading the work, the reader must be able to over look the fact that the language is old and they don’t like the characters’ personality or any other dislike or disinterest they may have, and appreciate the work in and of itself. One story in particular that is a great example of this has characters that aren’t anything special. They are struggling creatures. They aren’t heroic and they’re not extremely brave. They’re just normal. Their homes are normal and quiet little places too. Nothing much ever happens and life is basically peaceful, for the most part. The time period is before that of cars and airplanes. Before cell phones and e-mail. Before machine guns and missiles and all the other common armaments of modern warfare. What are a few words that come to mind? Boring? Irrelevant? Old? Who wants to read about someone just like themselves only who lived 200 years ago? But this story is one of the most gripping and encapsulating stories of heroism and war of the past 100 years. For decades, readers have shrugged off the fads and prejudices of their day to let themselves be taken to Middle-Earth to see first hand one of the most famous battles between good and evil in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
The proof of this principle’s necessity to good literature can be found in another, and perhaps the best, example: The Bible. For over 2000 years Christians have looked to the Scriptures to find the direction and will of God for their lives. In Exodus 3:14 God speaks His name to Moses: " I Am who I Am." or "I Will be who I Will be." This unchanging nature has caused surrender among His people for thousands of years. Literary surrender in the Christian life is important because it represents how we surrender spiritually. In Romans 12:1 Paul writes. "Therefore, I urge you brothers, in view of God’s mercy to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship." God is not open for compromise. He is who He was in the beginning and will remain that way forever. The same goes for His Word. It will never change, and as time has shown through the handing down of the Scriptures from generation to generation, not even man can tamper with the message He wishes to give to His people. God has written His Scriptures without compromise and so it should be in regards to Christian writers and their stories. Like many Christian writers today, Moses was concerned about how those who did not depend upon God would receive Him. But God tells Moses:
"Who gave Man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight
or makes him blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and teach
you what to say." (Exodus 4:11, NIV)
The next two principles are the how to creating surrender without compromise. The first I will discuss has to do with the work’s Truth. To create a good work of Christian fiction, the author must infuse the work with un-dying truths. As a faithful Christian creator, you must acknowledge the truths that God has made known to you in His creation by communicating them through your creation. This does not mean stating God’s name every other sentence or paragraph. Or throwing in a good "Jesus loves you" in every once in a while. This is communicating all truths in creation. God is Love. Man is weak and fallen. Sin does feel good as it tears you to pieces. Many Christian authors shy away from including in their own books, many of the Truths that make all Christians feel uneasy when they read them in Scripture. We should instead meet these Truths head on. One book that does this extremely well is C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters. Though it is a work of fiction it is one of the best criticisms on Christian living I have ever read. In it, Lewis’ characters are two demons by the names of Wormwood and his uncle Screwtape. The work is a compilation of Screwtape’s letters to his nephew on earth on how to weaken and take the soul of the man he has been assigned. Though we never hear from Wormwood we see his progress thorough Screwtape’s rants. As Wormwood meets new situations Screwtape informs him of more weaknesses that Christians have and targets for Wormwood to gnaw at. These weaknesses are not surprising: lust, gluttony, jealousy, pride and so on. But the thing that makes this work so convicting is that the man is meeting these in regards to his Christian life. He lusts after another Christian girl. The gluttony of church hopping is addressed. The man fights being jealous of other Christian’s walks and fights making a big deal out of His own. Lewis recognizes sin, but not by condemning the world as most Christian works of fiction. He recognizes what’s going wrong within the Christian walls. He makes the sin relevant instead of foreign to Christians. This relevance is why we should strive to produce works of Truth. We must create a pattern for the readers to exert their senses and imagination according to. These patterns can either be received or used. Lewis writes:
"When we ‘use’ it we treat it as assistance for our own activities. The one, to use
an old-fashioned image, is like being taken for a bicycle ride by a man who may
know the roads we have never yet explored. The other is like adding one of those
little motor attachments to our own bicycle and then going for one of our familiar
rides. These rides may in themselves be good, bad, or indifferent. The ‘uses’
which the many make of the arts may or may not be intrinsically vulgar, depraved
or morbid. That’s as may be. ‘Using’ is inferior to ‘reception’ because art, if
used rather than received, merely facilitates, brightens, relieves or palliates our
life, and does not add anything to it."
Basically literature that is created to be "used", is created for the reader to manipulate it to their own ends. It entertains, distracts, creates joy or sadness or creates thrills. But it leaves the reader where they are. When "receivable" literature is created, the reader is able to open themselves up to what it has to offer and find themselves transformed. (Song 3) This transformation is addressed by Paul following his urge to surrender in Romans 12:2:
"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed
by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what
God’s will is – his good, pleasing, and perfect will. [...] Do not think of
yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with
sober judgement, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you."(NIV) This address concerns literature as well. As authors we must strive to help our brethren "renew" and "transform".
The last principle is to communicate the Truth fully and make the relevance concrete. This is the aspect of Beauty within a work. Beauty has everything to do with the senses. How does the reader physically understand what is being communicated? To the principle .As Christian authors, strive not to reproduce something exactly thorough saying its real name or describing its actual appearance. But create a representation through the elements given to us by God in creation, that enables others to see the reality of that which is represented for the first time. We must make the Truth in the world real. We can do this by telling stories full of representation. When we turn to exercise our responsibility concerning the creation mandate we should see our roles as that of exercising covenantal authority in the world. We aren’t on Adam’s level, but our work is like his. (Wilson par. 3) In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter we can find countless examples of this principle. Within this spectacular work of fiction, we find the themes of Young vs. Old, an Artist in the Community, and Nature as archetypes. These are all communicated by concrete images in the book. For example, the woods of the story are the archetype of evil and all that is shady (pun seriously not intended) takes place here. Evil is represented by the darkness of the wood and separation of the area from a "holy" community. By looking at the symbols and connecting their natures and personalities with definitions of Truths, we can see the author’s meaning behind the story.
But why not just say things out right? Why not just say the devil’s name or name a character Love? Because it’s not that we have a shortage of these things, it’s that we have a shortage of an understanding of them. The world is full of God’s Truth. But it lacks an understanding of them. When we create stories with these Truths represented as characters through their personality, or elements of nature through their appearance, or animals through their natural instincts, we make the Truths more real. We make them tangible to the reader. The Truths were always there, but are now cast in a new light so the reader can finally see them. Lewis wrote:
"Imagination affords us a view of reality from many angles. For example, a fairy
tale arouses in a child ‘The dim sense of something beyond his reach and, far from
dulling or emptying the actual world, gives it a new dimension and depth. He
doesn’t despise real woods because he has read of enchanted woods: the reading
makes all real woods a little enchanted.’" When the reader is made to make connections from characters, events, animals, or elements of creation in the story to God’s truth, they cannot help but come out of the experience better informed and therefore "renewed" and "transformed".
Refutation
Many will say to this that there is no need for good Christian fiction to be complex to be good. Truth can be expressed in simple fashion. The simple fact is, it can not. To quote Lewis, "Real things are not simple. They look simple, but they are not. The table I am
sitting at looks simple: but ask a scientist to tell you what it is really made of
– all about the atoms and how the light waves rebound off from them and hit
my eye and what they do to the optic nerve and what it does to my brain –
and, of course, you find that what we call ‘seeing a table’ lands you in mysteries
and complications which you can hardly get to the end of (Lewis, Mere 40)."
God’s Truth is the foundation of his creation. He created to demonstrate and represent His love, grace, and wrath though His creation. When we look at creation, we find that it is incredibly complex. The human body, for instance, is one of the most intricate systems on this earth. Humans have existed for thousands of years and even today we do not know of all its mysteries. Flowers bloom and fade with the seasons. The weather follows patterns and climates. In accepting the invitation to create, we must honor the necessary complexities of the creation process.
Others will say that making complex Christian Fiction will only make a hard evangelical sell. First, this is the wrong argument to make because as of now, the secular community embraces the ideas of beauty such as eloquence, imagery, and symbolism and implement them in many of their own literary works. But what they lack is the Truth we Christians possess. We do not need to dumb down Christianity to evangelize. Secondly, this argument’s priorities are mixed up. Many authors in their want to evangelize and appeal to skeptics will write a fast paced action-thriller with a Christian hero named Chris, rather than a beautiful love story representing the union of Christ and His Church. The focus is on man instead of God. Evangelism is fine. But when we stop worrying about whether God delights in the actual medium of evangelism, something is wrong.
The final argument I will contend to is that C.S. Lewis and Tolkien were one of a kind. The reason current literature isn’t like theirs is because it can’t be. They were superiorly gifted men and we can never expect better works. I believe that Lewis and Tolkien would both object to these flatteries. Before them were giants like Wordsworth and Eliot. Before them were Spenser and Shakespeare. Before them were Homer and Dante. If these men would have looked to the men they recognized as genius and decided there is no sense in trying to write at that level, there would be a void in literary culture as we know it that cannot be filled. What if Michael Jordan wouldn’t have practiced because he thought that it didn’t get any better than Dr. J? What if Denzel Washington had decided not to act as well as he could because it would never touch the work of Sidney Portier? What happens when we, as Christians, decide to give up at our lives because whatever we do will never amount to what Christ’s life did? In the same way, we, as "Sub-creators" cannot look to ourselves for our identity and ability as creators. We must look to the Creator, as have the other great "Sub-creators", for our potential. There is a commercial on T.V. that depicts the director Spike Jonze reading out of a large story book about the career of Michael Jordan. Near the end, he says something to the effect that the story doesn’t end with Jordan’s retirement from basketball. There are others who will be as great or better than "his airness" who are practicing and bettering their game. It ends with the phrase: "Will it be you?". God’s kingdom is an expanding kingdom. Christian Fiction should not be in the state it’s in now. The Christian Fiction of today should be volumes better than those of fifty years ago. We should look at the great works of Lewis, Tolkien, Wordsworth, and Eliot, and not let it stop there. We should expand upon them. They should be our foundation in regards as how to build upon our inspiration.
Conclusion
With the principles I have presented in mind we must consider two things: their ultimate illustration and application. God, at the beginning of time desired to share the creating process. He created man to do so with and filled him with His Spirit, gave him His Holy Word, and blessed him with the elements of all creation around him. He instructed him to take dominion over all of it and create things that were good for the soul and pleasing to the eye. Man is God’s most beautiful and prized creation. There is nothing on this earth he thinks more beautiful, for He created him in His own image. One problem. Man is incapable of obedience. He falls from perfection and is now in debt to God. Out of love God comes to earth as a man by the name of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the perfect illustration of goodness. He was the ultimate truth, which was God’s being, within the ultimate creation of beauty that is man’s body. He was the perfect creation. It is from Him that we get our Christian Aesthetic which has been the backbone of this paper. A truly good work is only good if it contains truth and beauty. Without truth, beauty is a lovely face with an ugly agenda. Without beauty, we would never know the color of Truth’s eyes.
Though this paper has been centered on the application of this Christian Aesthetic in regards to literature, I pray that you will see the ways that it can be applied to all of the realms of art. Not all Christian artists are called to be writers. Some are called to be painters, others, architects, and still others, musicians. But these Christian painters should strive to improve and find a voice in their technique and style that makes the message they are trying to communicate through a silent canvas loud and clear. The Christian architects should strive not to "Just design how a building will look." Christian architects are some of the luckiest artists because their work will stand for years and years to come. They should find the message of truth that the purpose of the building will stand for, and make it obvious not only through the outside of the bulding but from the inside as well. When creating plans for a building, the Christian architect should have on his mind what people will think not only the first time they step foot into the building , but every time they enter it. The Christian musician should strive to be poets who know a thing or two about a particular instrument. They lyrically communicate truth through imagination and representation through story or poetry. Then, after they are through with the literary portion of the work, turn and stress these truths by making the listener feel it through the music. No matter what the art, the Christian Aesthetic can and should be applied to create a quality work. But, we can also implement it to rate the quality of other works. Now that we are instructed as "Sub- creators", we can look at the works of other "Sub-creators". When you have evaluated their creations and taken them in, how have the works transformed you? If the work is of pagan mind, what evils and untruths have your eyes been opened to in a whole new way? If it is of Christian mind, what truth was represented that you now understand better now that you have seen it through the author’s eyes? As "Sub-creators" and partakers of art it is our Christian duty to follow this aesthetic if we are to create and partake in truly good art that is glorifying to God.
As I have stated, we have strayed away from the application of this aesthetic over the past fifty or so years. The result of this has been Christians, in considerable numbers, who care about the application of an aesthetic, straying away from any art that has the Christian label on it. It saddens me that we have gotten to the point that if Christians want good art, we have to look to secular outlets to find it. Right now, the Christian label, is a sure sign that the work will be unimaginative, cliche, and overall, sub-par. Not only is our art laughable to the world, but it’s laughable to other Christians. In the realm of Christian Literature, Lamentations 2:15 has come true: " Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth?( NIV )". If Christian authors will apply this aesthetic model to their own creations, we won’t have to look to two different realms to find our dose of goodness. We will be able to look to our own culture to find not only Truth, but Truth and Beauty. Sounds Good.
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Everything is Illuminated
Hi all! No, I haven't died or forgotten that I started a blog site. I've just been really busy with school life these past weeks. I've had play practice almost every night til like 9. (We're doing Fiddler on the Roof.) I've had soccer practice as well, and on top of all that the finishing touches to put on my senior thesis at Provy High. It wound up being about 16 pages. Like I promised before, I hope to have it up here soon. All of you C.S. Lewis fans should get a kick out of it.
Anyway, enough excuses....Recently, I purchased a book titled Everything is Illuminated. I just got it in the mail yesterday, and began reading it last night. It is by a young author by the name of Jonathan Safran Foer. I heard about him through the New York Times' supplement magazine. In short he is an artist through and through. He paints pictures with words. After reading a bit of the book, I can only describe him as a poetic novelist. I highly reccomend him as a breath of fresh air to the other works of fiction our culture has sadly become full of. No truth, no beauty, no goodness. Warning! It's not a Christian work! So read discerningly. He's very good, but I doubt you'll see him in church next Sunday. (Well, the fact that he's Jewish doesn't help that.) It's sad that it's gotten to the point where, if Christian readers who want a non-cliche book have to look to the secular genre to find it....So pick up the book. But, have a pencil ready. You'll be filling up the margins with themes that you find nearly every other paragraph. So far...I'M LOVING ME SOME EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED.
Oh yeah, picked up a new cd yesterday. It's by the band Bright Eyes and is called I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning. I listened to it nearly four times yesterday. One word. BEAUTIFUL. One more word. RAW. Pick it up. I doubt you'll be dissapointed.
Til Tomorrow,
Good Providence
Anyway, enough excuses....Recently, I purchased a book titled Everything is Illuminated. I just got it in the mail yesterday, and began reading it last night. It is by a young author by the name of Jonathan Safran Foer. I heard about him through the New York Times' supplement magazine. In short he is an artist through and through. He paints pictures with words. After reading a bit of the book, I can only describe him as a poetic novelist. I highly reccomend him as a breath of fresh air to the other works of fiction our culture has sadly become full of. No truth, no beauty, no goodness. Warning! It's not a Christian work! So read discerningly. He's very good, but I doubt you'll see him in church next Sunday. (Well, the fact that he's Jewish doesn't help that.) It's sad that it's gotten to the point where, if Christian readers who want a non-cliche book have to look to the secular genre to find it....So pick up the book. But, have a pencil ready. You'll be filling up the margins with themes that you find nearly every other paragraph. So far...I'M LOVING ME SOME EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED.
Oh yeah, picked up a new cd yesterday. It's by the band Bright Eyes and is called I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning. I listened to it nearly four times yesterday. One word. BEAUTIFUL. One more word. RAW. Pick it up. I doubt you'll be dissapointed.
Til Tomorrow,
Good Providence
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