Superficiality or THX-1138
I watched the movie THX-1138 the other night. I'd never seen it. It's hard to believe it was made in the 1970's. It looks thoroughly modern. There are definitely the early elements of Lucas' style. Some of the techniques he would incorporate into Star Wars, made several years later.
That got me thinking about why the Christian fiction community is mired in this perpetual lackluster. End-of-times novels (a la Left Behind) and "inspirational" romance account for the vast majority of the market. There are maybe three or four contemporary novels that would be worth talking about among your literary friends. The rest is, well, pretty much a waste of time. Authors convinced of their own worth. People who have been lied to by an establishment that is forced to sell what busy, boring American Protestants want to nibble on.
But it's not all the fault of Christians refusing to graduate from their choclate milk spiritual diet and search out something challenging. No one's life is slow enough for them to actively try to get some kind of meaningful entertainment. Running from job to job, then kids, then practice, then swim team, then dinner, then movie, then bed, then start it over again, and oh I forgot to take my medication this morning. Everyone's sleep deprived, stunned into shock by the pace of technology, and just like that scene in THX-1138, everyone's stampeding down the freeway with no ability to turn right or left or stop but only try and keep up and keep from getting run over.
Sometimes I consider becoming a Mennonite—or Amish. But I don't. I just keep pace with all the other "units" around me.
Pass the Soma, please.
"That got me thinking about why the Christian fiction community is mired in this perpetual lackluster. End-of-times novels (a la Left Behind) and “inspirational†romance account for the vast majority of the market. There are maybe three or four contemporary novels that would be worth talking about among your literary friends. The rest is, well, pretty much a waste of time. Authors convinced of their own worth. People who have been lied to by an establishment that is forced to sell what busy, boring American Protestants want to nibble on."
Oh, tell me about it! The Christian young adult fiction market is even worse--- little more than moral-ridden soap operas. "My best friend is pregnant and my boyfriend isn't godly enough and I can't decide whether to go on a mission trip this summer or visit that Christian college I'm thinking about going to next year [so I can find a godly spouse and dump my boyfriend] . . ." Ugh! If someone doesn't give us something to read soon, we're going to start writing our own stuff and push the adults out of the market. The trick is writing something so strong and powerful that it rips people out of their busy lives and holds them spellbound from start to finish, then changes them forever. Please, Lord, please . . .
Sounds to me like the birth of a great idea. If the 3 of us feel that way, then perhaps the time has come for realstic and good fiction in the christian novel genre.