I have occasionally had the thought that modern Christian fiction has not so much departed from mainstream publishing as stayed where everyone used to be. The idea was first prompted by the Clayton Standard, which promised clean stories and “intelligent censorship” to the people – more than two million a month – who read the…
Category: Literature
Spotlight: Dreams and Devotion
Some dreams will be dashed, and their devotion will be tested. Dara’s life is full of farm work and worries, especially now that her older brother is a priest in a faroff city. Yet she still has time to dream of the life she hopes will someday be. She dreams of marrying…
Review: Heart of the Winterland
Princess Calisandra is two hundred years old, and you would never know it, because she still possesses the body, mind, experiences, and maturity of a very young woman. That is what happens when you pass your whole life in a kingdom locked by magic into winter, timelessness, and an inescapable sameness. But finally something is…
Good Character(s)
This summer I made my first foray into Jane Austen, reading Mansfield Park. I found the novel more thought-provoking than enjoyable, and one of the issues it raised for me was the relationship between moral goodness and good characters. Fanny Price, the novel’s heroine, is probably the most emphatically good (in the moral sense) character…
Arresting Attention
The topic of the hour is superheroes, so I am going add my two cents, or less, to the conversation swirling around this cultural and cinematic phenomenon. I was never that into superheroes. On to a new topic. Good openings, endlessly emphasized in modern fiction, are defined by being evocative, and it doesn’t really matter…
Review: The Napoleon of Notting Hill
In a drear future – or, we may say, a drear past that never was – democracy in England died. England sank into a dull despotism. Its army and police almost vanished; its King was chosen out of alphabetical lists. “No one cared how: no one cared who. He was merely a universal secretary.” In…
Review: Power Elements of Character Development
What is it that makes a sympathetic hero, a compelling villain, a persuasive and realistic character? I can sum it up for you in one golden word. But you really should read the book for yourself. Power Elements of Character Development is the second book in the Power Elements of Fiction series, written by Rebecca…
Honors Villainy 312
(Because, coming off the election, we could all use a laugh.) Good morning. Or bad morning – whichever is most applicable to your day, and as you all know, I don’t care. First order of business, your tests. Observe, class, the newly empty seats. These belong to your former classmates, who have been dropped…
A Notable Lack
A notable lack in speculative fiction, and one that cuts across the divide between Christian and secular, is that of genuine, fully-realized religion. There may be religious belief and religious feeling; in Christian speculative fiction, there usually is. There may be scraps of religion – vague expressions of faith, a benevolent priest, a fanatic, a…
Fame is Fugacious
Not long ago, I took a vocabulary quiz. In the process of it, I learned two new words, avulse and fugacious. It struck me as unfortunate that I would have to look long and hard for an opportunity to use avulse, and I would probably never get a chance to use fugacious at all. They’re…