“Popular culture believes that the function of the artist is to entertain. Artists are told that to be political or the challenge authority is an abuse of their gift. How fortunate for our common humanity that so many through history have refused to acquiesce! I believe that art is a prime facilitator of truth, and those who have come to embrace this have always enhanced our humanity.”
Harry Belafonte
“One either serves the whole of man or does not serve him at all. And if man needs bread and justice, and if what has to be done must be done to serve this need, he also needs pure beauty which is in the bread of his heart…[We need] courage in one’s life and talent in one’s work.”
Albert Camus“The church has a prophetic role to speak the truth when no one else dares to.”
Archbishop Pius Ncube
“When the one who gazes upon [sic] myth suddenly, in dreadful recognition, cries out, ‘There I am! That is me!’ then the marvelous translation has occurred: he is lifted out of himself to see himself wholly."
Walter Wangerin, Jr.
A
good book is first and foremost a good story. I am not suggesting that
we offer up our writing on silver platters of platitudes.* On the other
hand, what makes a good story, aside from personal preferences of it
makes me cry, it makes me laugh, or it makes me think, it makes me
forget? Perhaps a story is good because it contains the truth (or
Truth, I might even say). This does not mean that it is chalked full of
the four laws, the Romans road, or Christian conversions (although it
will probably have a conversion, if we are to follow Joseph Campbell’s
understanding of a hero), but it will reveal something about this world
and humanity, both of which are beautiful and revolting and in need of
redemption and reconciliation. Again, I draw you to Campbell’s
understanding, which includes a “resurrection” and a “return with the
boon.” (Take, for example, the show Lost and its character
development. Narrow down to Charlie [who, sadly, is no longer with us]
and his development from a party-hardy rock star to a husband and
father figure who willingly sacrifices his own life to save in
specific, Desmond, Claire, and Aaron, and in whole, the crash
survivors.) Inherent in every story is the possibility for truth.
Why
do I write? I have a whole slew of reason, and perhaps someday I will
share them with you, but first and foremost, I write to serve the
Kingdom of God.
With fiction? some may ask. (None of you
would ask this because if you are reading this blog, you are most
likely interested in fiction from a Christian point of view, but, hey,
it’s fun preaching to the choir sometimes.)
Of course. What better
way than with story? Stories give us our identity. If my identity is
with Christ (and I assure you it is), then my stories will reflect
someone who is commanded to love the Lord her God and to love her
neighbor as herself. So what if I mix sarcasm with trust issues and
quirky characters with fighting a sweatshop factory? (Double, double,
toil and trouble.) So what if at times I don’t even mention God’s name
(like Esther) or other times have a communion scene (I’m referring to
an actual communion scene with wafers and wine)?
How about Dickens,
who, through humor and intricate story, wrote about poverty and the
work-houses and the foibles of the “respectable” nobility, turning
upside down the understanding of what it means to be charitable?
Or Poisonwood Bible or Beloved or To Kill a Mockingbird or The Count of Monte Cristo or Quaker Summer or Uncle Tom’s Cabin
or any book that resonates in us more than amusement. What it comes
down to is this: whether a literary, Pulitzer Prize contender** or a
vacation beach book, our writing matters and has the power to change
the world.
*Which makes me think of platypuses
**On the Waterfront, anyone? (I could’ve been a contendah.)
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