Fiction Isn’t Lying . . . Until It Is

Some Christians, apparently, don’t think it’s OK to read fiction because fiction is all about made up characters, places, and events. In other words, it’s all lies.

I had never heard that point of view until I got on the Internet, and then mostly other writers said they’d been confronted by others who chastised them for their lies. I did read a post once by someone who took that extreme position, but it was new to me.

For one thing, appealing to the definition of lie explodes that view, the key being the intention of deception. No one who writes fiction pretends their story is factual. No one who reads fiction is unaware that the story is pretend. So no one is deceiving or being deceived. So fiction isn’t lying.

In addition, authors of fiction use the pretend to make statements about reality. In all my literature classes throughout college, we analyzed stories to determine, among other things, what the author was saying, what he wanted readers to take away or to believe about humankind or the world or God. Thomas Hardy, for example, wrote stories to show that humankind is pushed and pulled by fate. On the other hand, Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol which showed that a person can change his ways and isn’t locked into beliefs by chance circumstances.

Those two views which are in opposition to one another can hardly both be true. One might be truthful or they both might be false, but they both can’t be true.

It’s still probably incorrect to say that one which is not truthful is therefore a lie. I’m certain Thomas Hardy believed he was truthfully showing readers the way the world worked, but he was wrong. In his made up stories Hardy revealed his own belief system, one that replaced God with the ‘unconscious will of the Universe’ (see Wikipedia).

My question is this: ought not a Christian writer who knows the truth, reflect truth in any story he or she writes? I want to be clear: I do not think any story can tell ALL truth. For one thing, we don’t have all truth. The Bible, though complete, doesn’t show us all there is to know about God. It is our view of the world through that dark mirror I Corinthians 13 mentions. Second, ALL truth would not fit into one story, even one the size of The Grapes of Wrath or Gone With The Wind.

So what “truth” is a novelist supposed to show in his or her story?

That’s the beauty of writing. An author can open the door for readers regarding all kinds of important truths.

I’m thinking of one novel, for instance, a fantasy, in which the God of that world was worshiped by both factions in an owner/slave society. Both believe this God figure provides for them. Which brings up all kinds of interesting questions: does God provide for the wicked as well as for the victimized? Are those enslaved believing in this God in vain? Is the ruling class worshiping in hypocrisy? Is there anything similar going on in our world?

I could go on to discuss ways in which a novelist can show truth by developing their theme, but the point I want to make is this: a Christian writer, while not burdened to show all truth (an impossibility, but an attempt at such would clearly necessitate the entire plan of salvation), should show truth.

Of course it’s possible to leave out any direct reference to God and still show truth. J. R. R. Tolkien did that. He had Christ figures, but not a direct reference to God or to Jesus.

What Tolkien did not do was mislead people about those Christ figures. He did not have Gandalf decide to take the One Ring for himself. He did not have Aragon desert the forces of Gondor. The one who would sacrifice himself for the fellowship did not turn evil. The returning king did not forsake those who trusted him.

Thus, what an author chooses to show about truth is really up to him, but he must do so faithfully. He would be lying to portray God or a God figure in his world to be selfish or greedy or blood-thirsty or immoral or weak. Any of those would be a lie. A Christian who knows God must portray some truth about Him if He or a representative figure shows up in the story.

Non-Christians who turn God into an it with an unconscious will or who make Him out to be evil, as I understand Phillip Pullman did in his fantasy series, aren’t lying about God in the same way a Christian who knows the truth would be. Rather, they have rejected God and are trying to make sense of the world without Him. They are more to be pitied, though readers must beware so they see the ways their views deviate from the truth.

In short, the Christian is really the only one who can lie in fiction. We know the truth. If we purposely misrepresent God, how can that be thought of as anything but a lie?

God, Sound Bites And Slogans

Authors are encouraged to “brand” themselves so that readers identify their name with a type of story. James Patterson, well-known for his fast-pace thrillers, says “A brand is just a connection between something and a lot of people who use or try that product.”

Some writers go so far as to develop taglines to identify their writing. One memorable tagline is Brandilyn Collins’s “Don’t forget to breathe” Seatbelt Suspense.

Then there are quotable lines such as the one above or like this one:

Christianity isn’t about being good enough; it’s about being forgiven completely.

I don’t know about other writers, but I think having quotable lines, especially in fiction, would be fantastic—something like C. S. Lewis’s Aslan-isn’t-tame-but-he’s-good line. It cements a truth in our minds but also makes a story memorable.

All this seems to fit our contemporary culture. As far back as the nineteenth century, political campaigns used slogans. “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too,” for example, was the much repeated slogan in the 1840 Presidential election that helped bring the Whig Party to the presidency for the first time. With the coming of radio, then TV, and now the Internet and Twitter, we have become a society formed by sound bites.

TV commercials have raised sloganeering to a fine art! “It’s the real thing,” “Just do it,” “You’re in good hands with Allstate,” “Melts in your mouth, not in your hands,” “Finger lickin’ good” evoke a product name in the minds of many long after the commercials have ceased to air.

Which, of course, is the point. We want people to remember. But here’s the question. Should thoughts about God be reduced to sound bites and slogans?

They are memorable, and people are apt to quote them. If they contain truth, then that seems like a good thing. Off the top of my head, I can think of two related to Christmas: Jesus is the reason for the season and Wisemen still seek Him (I even used the latter for a title of one of my Christmas bulletin boards when I was teaching).

But here’s the trap with sound bites in declaring something about God—inevitably they say far less than what is true, but people latch onto them as if the nugget said it all.

For example, Jesus is the Answer is another one of these Christian slogans. Well, yes, Jesus is the answer. But does that mean people shouldn’t work to discover how He is the answer to their particular question? Hardly, but some folks seem to think no other questions are necessary since we have the Answer.

I think the slogan might actually rob us of discovering more about Jesus—His character and plan and work that make Him the answer for me as much as for a first century Jew, an eighteenth century English slave trader, a twentieth century Auca Indian or middle-aged Dutch watchmaker.

In short, it seems to me God is too big for sound bites and slogans. Perhaps rather than campaigning for Christ, or advertising Him as if He’s a buy-now option that we’re selling, we should look into Scripture to discover deeper, more meaningful truths. We won’t come up with catchy slogans like, “It’s a God thing,” that people will repeat, but when we mediate on His word day and night, our relationship with God will grow. That’s far better than a drive-by slogan.

This article, minus some minor changes and additions, first appeared here in December 2009.

CSFF Blog Tour – Storm by Evan Angler, Day 2

I like blog tours that give me lots to think about–such as the current one for Storm by Evan Angler. The downside, of course, is that I have to decide between a variety of topics, and today, I’m having a hard time choosing.

I thought I’d delve a little more into the political intrigue that plays a significant part of the Swipe series, but instead I want to talk a little about the author, or the character, Evan Angler.

One reviewer remarked about how unusual this book was that the author was a character in the book. Ah, I realized, it may be unusual, but it’s not unique. It has been done before.

Most famously, the middle grade books known as A Series of Unfortunate Events (Book one, The Bad Beginning) were written by Lemony Snicket, a pen name for American novelist Daniel Handler, as well as the name of the character in the books who narrates the story.

To my knowledge, this technique has not been copied widely, if at all.

I do know of another short series that used a similar device, though I don’t know if the Lemony Snicket books were influential at all. I’m referring to Matt Mikalatos’s two Christian speculative humor novels–My Imaginary Jesus and Night of the Living Dead Christian (see my reviews here and here). In both books Matt appears as a central character–either as the protagonist or a secondary-character narrator.

What does all this have to do with Storm and the Swipe series and Evan Angler? The author has used the same device, though I suspect there is an intentional borrowing or overt influence from the Lemony Snicket books.

Part of me thinks, it’s about time. I mean, The Bad Beginning first appeared back in 1999. And no one else has used this author/character device in all this time?

Another part of me wonders if readers familiar with the Lemony Snicket books will think the Swipe books are derivative. It’s hard to think so, though, because the tone of the two series is vastly different as is the subject matter. The only commonality I can detect is this author/character device.

The question, then, is whether or not the device works. I think there’s a lot of intrigue created with the use of this kind of pen name. The pretend writer has his own persona and history and interaction with the story events. But in the case of the Swipe books, it appears that the real author is determined to remain behind the curtain. At least I have yet to locate any information about the person behind the pen name.

So yes, I’d say, for me, the device worked to spike my interest. There’s an accompanying tactic that I think may have backfired, however, but I’ll address that in my review tomorrow.

For now I suggest you check out the various posts from blog tour participants discussing and reviewing the Swipe books.

Shannon McDermott posted a review of book one, Swipe yesterday, and book two, Sneak, today. Chawna Schroeder has a two-part review of the series as a whole (see Part 1 and Part 2). Emma and Audrey Engel have a giveaway for Storm over on their blog. And don’t forget to check out the ever delightful Tuesday Tunes put together by Steve Trower.

You can find the entire list of participants at the end of my Day 1 post, and I suggest you take a few moments to check out a couple of these articles. Why not leave a comment as well? Tell them Becky sent you. 😉

A Tool Of The Devil: Christian Fiction Or Christian Fiction Bashing?

In “Tearing Down The Church: A Tool Of The Devil” I established that the devil is the Christian’s adversary, that believers are commanded to be on the alert, that Satan’s schemes include lies because he is the Father of lies. The Church, then, has become a target of Satan’s lies in the twenty-first century with it’s postmodern mentality, in part because contemporary thought still respects community. A loving, caring Church is one way to reach this generation for Christ.

Another element postmodernism responds to is Story.

As an aside, I have to say, I marvel at how God has provided for each culture, implanting in His Word and by His plan something that will speak to disparate groups of people down through the ages.

The greatest Story, of course, is the Bible, but rationalism and higher criticism discredited the Bible in the eyes of many so that even a good number of people who identify as Christian don’t believe the claims of the Bible.

Jesus Himself taught in parables, and these, postmoderns seem to embrace, but in some ways that’s not good since a number want to take Jesus (a distorted or “re-imaged” version of Him) and pit Him against the “wrathful, vengeful” God of the Old Testament.

Which brings us to extra-Biblical stories, ones created by believers. I’m thinking primarily of Christian fiction, though a growing number of believers are publishing stories in the general market without any attempt to “reach the lost.”

In the Christian writing community there continues to be conversation about the place of Christian fiction in the culture. Some label it as preachy, and worse, “preaching to the choir.” Many decry its inability to reach the culture at large because it’s shut up in the ghetto of Christian bookstores or on shelves reserved for Christian fiction.

Others lambaste Christian fiction because of its artlessness. First it was poorly written, then shallow. Now it is lacking in ambiguity–apparently an element of true art.

The critics of Christian fiction might take the position that it is a tool of the devil because it deceives. It first packages the gospel message as a story–so that’s deceptive. But it also gives the impression that every problem has an answer and ever conflict has a happy ending. The truth is that godly people die of cancer before they turn fifteen, become quadriplegics at seventeen, have their spouse kidnapped and (presumably) murdered in their first year of marriage, and more, so much more. Real life doesn’t turn out the same as the sugar-coated lives of the protagonists in Christian fiction. And all the squeaky-clean stories isolate Christian fiction from the very culture the authors say they want to reach. Or so the argument goes.

The proponents for Christian fiction, however, point to the inclusion of stories with a wide range of culturally relevant scenarios and themes. Novels have addressed abuse, sex trafficking, infidelity, and any number of other topics (I just recently read a book in which the protagonist dealt with alcoholism). Others decry the demand for ambiguity as a whitewash of the heart of Christianity–hope and redemption. An extrapolation of this position would seem to say, pretending that there are no answers is a lie from Satan.

So which is it–Christian fiction is a tool of Satan’s or Christian fiction bashing is a tool of Satan’s?

The thing is, Christian authors published by traditional Evangelical publishing houses have letters from readers telling how their lives have been changed by the stories they read–the Christian fiction stories written by these “CBA” authors. If God is using these stories, I wonder, then, at the validity of the criticism.

Can Christian fiction do better? Undoubtedly, but I think it’s growing and changing to meet the changing times, particularly as publishing goes through the technological revolution it’s presently experiencing.

Bashing brothers and sisters in Christ who are having an impact on others certainly seems like a counter productive move. That such bashing reinforces a false stereotype about Christian fiction is potentially harmful–certainly something Satan can use. Remember, he is a liar and the Father of lies. He’d love people to run screaming away from any title labeled “Christian fiction.” If, on the other hand, it was a tool he could use, it would seem he would love just the opposite.

Blog Tours In The Age Of Social Media

When a group of us speculative writers started the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy Blog Tour, social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google Plus, Tumblr and the like did not exist. Blogging itself was fairly new. The concept of a blog tour seemed like the perfect way to create a community of like-minded people willing to talk about the books we wanted to see in bookstores.

When we first approached Donita Paul, *our first author, about touring one of her books, she asked, What is a blog tour? For some time we answered that question fairly regularly, but before long, the concept caught on. Now there are sites dedicated to setting up and running blog tours.

As late as three years ago, however, I had an industry insider note the lack of immediate book sales from a particular tour, then say, “It seems that the main body of people reading the blog tour reviews consisted of other reviewers on the tour.”

At the time I thought that comment was short-sighted. No one other than the blogger knows the traffic his or her site receives unless there’s a visible stats counter. No one else knows how many subscribers are receiving the blog in their email in-box or in a reader. The fact that people who had read the book in question were carrying on an intelligent discussion about it should have been appealing to other visitors. And why would those who had not read the book jump into the conversation? That they were silent doesn’t mean they weren’t listening.

Add to that the marketing idea that a buyer needs to hear about a product X number of times (I think it’s 7) before buying. Here CSFF voluntarily puts the name of these various books out over the Internet for any number of people to get their first nudge, or third, or sixth.

Clearly, I believe blog tours, from the beginning, have helped books sell though their impact may not be immediately felt.

But today we have another whole layer to our blog tours–social media. In the past, if someone wrote a particularly good review, the author might link to it or excerpt it for his blog or website. That may or may not have attracted more readers.

With the growth of social media, however, authors can link to posts on their author Facebook page or Tweet to their followers. In turn, those fans can read and share posts to their social media contacts. So, not only are visitors to my site finding out about the tour reviews and the books we’re featuring, but in essence, the author’s loyal followers are now sharing the reviews with their friends and followers as well. People I don’t know and can’t reach are getting the word.

But the author could do that without the tour, some say. Not really. The author can’t say, Go look at this post, if there is no post to go look at. The tour, operating independently of the author, gives him something to point to.

Interestingly, the tour works best when there is either controversy or positive accord. The books that garner tepid posts won’t stir up a great deal of conversation or receive outside notice. Those that create some passion in the tour participants, however, end up having memorable posts, discussions, and reviews to which the author can point.

In short, blog tours seem to me to be more effective than ever, as long as they do more than regurgitate the back cover copy of the book they are featuring and as long as the book is well written. Somehow, it still comes down to that point, doesn’t it.

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* For the record, CSFF opened in May 2006 by featuring a Christian fiction reviewer’s website, specifically a page he called “Focus on Christian Fantasy.” We highlighted Donita Paul the next month as our first author. If you check out that inaugural post, you’ll see a few names you may recognize as current active tour participants.

Raising The Next Generation

Every singer out there with songs on the radio is raising the next generation – Taylor Swift.

A couple weeks ago 60 Minutes, CBS’s news magazine, aired a broadcast from last November which included a segment about popular singer Taylor Swift. During the conversation with Lesley Stahl, she made the above statement.

The most remarkable thing might have been what she said next: “so make your words count.”

How about that! A 21 year old singer understands what writers twice her age don’t seem to get. Sure, she was talking about music, not books. But I don’t think the difference is so great. Screenplay writers, novelists, lyricists, singers, actors–it seems the arts have arrived, and the influence of the arts on culture. Or perhaps, more accurately, entertainment has arrived.

Any idea that books are being kicked to the curb as an influence should have been erased by Harry Potter. Or Twilight. Or Hunger Games.

Kids dressed up like Harry, chose up teams for Twilight. I shudder to think what is out there in conjunction with Hunger Games.

In spite of all this book attention and the widening influence of those developed into movies, some Christian writers still parrot the party line that Christian fiction should not be about “a message.” Perish the thought that fiction should actually have something to say. The main goal–the highest goal–they claim, is for a writer to entertain.

I think Taylor Swift would think that odd. She gets that the words she sings have impact on those kids absorbing them.

Why wouldn’t characters we live with for seven books, or three? Don’t their values become ours for those hours when we inhabit their world? Aren’t we feeling their fear or love or hope? Aren’t we reasoning and planning the next step, as they are?

And yet they have no impact on us?

I dare say, the majority of the writers who hold this view first decided they wanted to pen a story because of something they read.

But horrors if the writer of that book actually intended to communicate the message that storytelling is a desirable thing. Messages can’t be intentional, only accidental, or so the thinking goes of this group of Christian writers. Anything intentional is nothing short of propaganda.

I doubt that’s what Taylor Swift thinks. I suspect she is responding to the fact that a generation of plugged in kids is vulnerable, easily influenced by the entertainment media, wide open to believe whatever their idols say.

Why is it that Christian writers can’t embrace this fact, too? Why is it that if we say, “so make your words count,” we’re advocating turning fiction into propaganda?

Could it be that a story with something to say actually has more depth, not less? Could it be that the difference between an excellent story and propaganda is in the execution not the existence of a message?

I don’t know, maybe most parents are content to have the current singers who are on the radio raising their kids. Maybe they’re fine with the characters in books like Twilight serving as role models.

But wouldn’t it be cool if the writers of those words–the song lyrics and the stories–paid attention to what Taylor said and made their words count in such a way that young girls learned more than to be obsessed with a bad boy? Or that war is as bad as the soldiers say, and to top it off, everyone involved is corrupt.

Personally, Harry is looking better and better. In his story friends matter, so much that they’re worth dying for, and in the end that kind of sacrificial love is invincible. Those words just might count for something worthwhile.

Celebrity Christians?

A few years ago when I was leaving a noted Christian writers’ conference, I was sitting with others in a van, waiting to head off to the airport. As I gazed out the window, I saw our conference speaker exit the hotel and step to the curb where a limousine awaited. After the bags, the speaker piled in and was whisked away.

Mind you, this individual’s name is well-known by Christians, but nothing I observed during the conference made me think I was listening to someone who felt entitled or stuck on themselves. Rather the opposite. But the limo created a divide.

On another occasion I watched writers flock to a speaker like groupies to a ball player. One editor noted that at conferences he was treated like a rock star. Not so long ago two friends, commenting on different occasions, mentioned a writer who paraded about very much like a rock star.

And we’re talking about Christians.

Some years ago after a church service, I had something I wanted to discuss with my (now former) pastor. The problem was, I had to wait in a fairly long line, not because people wanted to shake his hand but because they wanted him to autograph their bulletins.

What’s more, a few years ago I wrote a short piece that was printed on the back of our weekly, and a friend asked me to autograph it.

We live in a celebrity culture, as PR pro Rebeca Seitz (Glass Road Public Relations and Reclaim Management) pointed out in her 2010 Mount Hermon workshops. We can wish things were different, but this is the time and the culture in which God has placed us — a culture preoccupation with celebrities.

So what’s a Christian to do, embrace the way the world works? Should Christians become groupies, flocking to the name-author as if being in his shadow makes us Somebody, too? Should name authors take full advantage of their status and accept perks or adulation, or even expect such?

My inclination is to see what Scripture says that might give an answer to these questions. Nowhere do I see instructions for how to treat celebrities. I see instructions for how to treat neighbors and enemies and fellow Christians and parents and spouses and children and God and rulers and false teachers, but nothing about celebrities. Could it be, then, that we are not to put celebrity Christians in their own category or treat them any differently than we treat other Christians?

And what about Mr. or Ms. Well-know Christian Author?

I don’t see in Scripture that Jesus said, If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet — except for you celebrities.

In the book of Philippians Paul used Jesus, probably the person in Scripture who received the kind of treatment closest to that given to today’s celebrities, as an example of humility. The qualities he highlighted were Christ’s willingness to give up status, to take the role of a servant, and to sacrifice Himself.

Those are very un-celebrity-like traits.

Paul and Barnabas received celebrity treatment once. After healing a lame man in Lystra, the crowds wanted to worship them. Literally. They were ready to crown them with garlands and to offer sacrifices to them.

Groupies today don’t go that far, do they?

The truth is, the way we express adulation has changed. Animal sacrifice isn’t the accepted method, but we still give those few famous the kind of recognition once given to self-proclaimed gods — people like the Egyptian Pharaohs and the Roman Caesars.

Paul and Barnabas wouldn’t put up with it.

But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their robes and rushed out into the crowd, crying out and saying, “Men, why are you doing these things? We are also men of the same nature as you (Act 14:14-15a)

So what am I saying? Should well-known authors not give autographs or pose for pictures? Should they wear a button saying, “I’m just like you”? Hardly. In fact, that kind of behavior, though well intentioned, could actually come across as elitist, as if the Name Author is too good to have his picture taken with a lowly No Name.

I guess the bottom line, for the famous and the not so famous is this: what matters most is our heart attitude. Our behavior should be its reflection.

If we are following Christ’s example of humility, we shouldn’t have a problem treating others with respect.

The famous aren’t idols and they aren’t property. They are people. And the not so famous aren’t unimportant, nor are they something to avoid stepping in. They, too, are people.

Finally, in a celebrity culture, it’s probably inevitable that well-known Christians will be marked as Somebody Famous. Wisdom would seem to say, however, that Average Christian shouldn’t jump on that bandwagon. And Celebrity Christian shouldn’t either — no one says a celebrity has to act like a celebrity.

Learning Plateaus

We often hear about the “learning curve” but infrequently about the learning plateau. Educators understand that these leveling off places exist, and curriculum is often created with the plateaus of the “average” student in mind.

What I’m thinking about though, has to do with writers and our learning plateaus. It seems to me that some writers continue to grow from book to book. The characters are more realistic, the plot more engaging, the theme stronger even as it is more subtle.

Then there are writers who … well, frankly, they seem to be in ruts. One book is so very much like the novel before it. The characters seem interchangeable, the plot void of anything surprising. Why, I wonder, do these authors seem to climb hard, reach a plateau, and stop growing in their writing?

Here are my best guesses.

1) A schedule that doesn’t allow the person to spend time studying the craft or reading fiction as they once did. So many writers now seem to spend their time flying from rough draft to marketing event to edits to interviews and back to the next rough draft.

2) Adequate sales. I imagine it’s hard to think writing should improve when 50,000 people are buying an author’s books, less so if the sales top 100,000. Or more.

3) Fan mail. If readers are emailing an author to gush over their latest and greatest book, why would that writer think, “I have to do better”?

But here’s what I’m thinking. If a novel has a delightful character, a textured setting, an engaging plot with unpredictable twists, a timeless but subtle message, why wouldn’t that author “break out” and become a best seller?

Could it be that something is missing? That the author only thinks all those parts are in place?

Or maybe the author isn’t aiming for the best seller list. Maybe the author knows the message isn’t subtle or isn’t timeless. Maybe a predictable plot is just fine because the target audience keeps coming back for more.

But my question is, How will an author know how far he could reach if he settles on the plateau? How will he know how high his audience is willing to go with him unless he continues to climb?

Has the perfect book ever been written? I don’t think so. Name a book, and before long, someone will stand up and say why they didn’t particularly like it, though a majority of readers might say it was The Best Novel every.

I think, for example of The Book of the Dun Cow by Walter Wangerin, a book one blogger has recently raved about, a book so many at Faith in Fiction loved. I tried to read it. Started about three times. And the last time, I made it probably half way before putting it down. I don’t love it. Rather the book feels painful to me to read. It is not something I will ever finish, I think.

Is it because it’s about barnyard animals, a rooster in particular? I don’t think so. One of my all time favorites is about rabbits (Watership Down by Richard Adams).

The Book of the Dun Cow has appeal to some, obviously. For me, something is wrong. It’s too dark, too hopeless, too distancing, too … something.

But what if the author could write that story in a way that widened its appeal without watering down its existing strengths? Is that possible? And shouldn’t an author try?

Until the perfect novel has been written, shouldn’t we authors always be striving instead of settling?