Ok, I admit it. I read fantasy books. I also read other book
genres, too, though. I enjoy stories in different formats as well: movies,
musicals, and opera to name a few. I was recently asked by a young man in our
church how I select books to read and books to not read. In other words, what’s
my philosophy on narratives?
To begin with, we need to take a step back. There is only
one real story—His Story (sometimes we call it history). If you know history,
then you know that there are five key parts that can be represented by the five
following words: God, Man, Jesus, Cross, Resurrection.[1]
History starts as every story starts, with a beginning and a problem. God
existed timelessly and chose to create the universe, which included us. Our
many-great grandparents messed everything up. This crisis needed to be fixed.
God sent Himself (God the Son, specifically) to be victorious over our problem,
sin. He did this on the cross. In doing so, He secured for us an ultimate happy
ending with Him, enjoying Him forever.
It is my contention that all fictional stories beg, borrow,
and steal from the real story. (Ok, nearly all stories, but I’ll explain that
in a bit.) Think of the common story lines of love, self-sacrifice, heroic
victory, powers used for good, good over coming evil, cleverly defeating your
enemy, and on and on. All of these themes are rooted in our common shared
story—history. It’s no wonder that all of the best selling stories revolve
around one of these themes. When stories go against this grain, we often don’t
enjoy them. Sure, they are sometimes lauded with “artistic acclaim”, but they
leave the common man feeling empty inside (think Matrix sequels or some nihilist
Oscar winning film). Even our “dark” stories are rooted in the story—just highlighting the other side of the tale. I believe
that we love stories that align with reality, follow the pattern of the story, and present as virtuous God’s
attributes.
So for example, I really enjoyed the Eragon series. When
reading, I am transported to this alternate world. My favorite book in the
series was Eldest, in which Eragon begins his journey of fine tuning his
magical abilities. He is able to sense the presence of any living thing and
even take their life energy if necessary. He can project his mind into the
minds of others and listen to their thoughts. His mind is so forceful and
powerful that when he returns from training, the other folks with magic do not
recognize his mind and go on the defensive. Why do I tell you all of this? I
tell you this for a couple of reasons. Most of us (myself included) love
“becoming” the hero as we read a book. I loved imagining that I had these
powers. As I reflected on this, I began to realize something else as well. Do
these powers remind you of anyone? I’d say that Eragon’s attributes tend toward
those of God. I realized that I loved becoming “God” by way of reading a
book. I was shocked at first. I was
concerned that I wanted to be like God. As I further reflected, I realized that
within all of us is this desire to be as powerful, as knowledgeable, and as good as
God is. When we recognize this fact and keep it properly checked and grounded,
I think reading these books is fine. But what constitutes “properly checked
and grounded”?
To me, we never want to tend towards the devil’s attitude of
wanting to replace God or thinking that we can become just like Him. On the
other hand, we need to realize that God, as the greatest possible being, has a
lot of desirable characteristics—so much so that we are commanded to conform to
His image. Finally, the Bible lets us know that we (Christ followers) are to receive
resurrection bodies. What information do we have about these bodies? We know
that our very nature will be transformed so that we no longer sin or desire sin
once we receive our new bodies. We know that our new bodies will be “sown imperishable”—basically
we will be unable to die. We know that Jesus was the first man to receive His
resurrection body. Think about that. Jesus already has His resurrection body.
What do we know about Him and His body post resurrection? We know that He could
materialize and dematerialize anywhere that He wanted. We know that He could
eat or not eat. We know that He could ascend up into the air. Now Jesus, being
dual natured (God and man), is unique among all beings. Some of these abilities
may be in light of Him simply being God. My hope and belief, however, is that
what I’ve listed above are abilities that all resurrection bodies will have. If
that is true, then most of the abilities that I enjoyed “having” while reading
Eragon are abilities that I will someday have.
I believe that this transportation to a world where the hero
has God-like abilities is the draw to fantasy based stories. Gandalf, Harry,
Superman, Luke, Optimus Prime, Eragon, Cuffs Alister, and many more exhibit some
God-like characteristics. Of course, fantasy stories have to be more than just folks
with supernatural abilities. There has to be a beginning, a crisis, a hero to
save the day, and a resolution. This basic pattern repeats itself in every
story that we enjoy. That crisis can be one of love, power, natural disaster, or
whatever the author thinks up. Good wins. Good decisions pay off (at least in
the long run). Evil loses. Evil decisions cost (at least in the long run).
These are the qualities of a story that we enjoy. Sure, we enjoy new and interesting
twists, but the story itself needs to follow this basic tried and true outline.
So, when should we (Christ followers) stay clear from a book
or story? As mentioned above, some books tend to highlight and revel in the
darker side of the story. Books that
take up this side and cast it as good are to be avoided. One such set of books
are the Golden Compass series by Philip Pullman. For an atheist humanist, he
sure took a lot of trouble to wage war against God via his characters. I
stopped reading the third book. Up to
that point, the reader wasn’t sure which direction the books would go or how
grounded they were in the story. But, when the characters begin their journey
to overthrow God and God is given the name Jehovah, it became pretty clear.
Another version of highlighting the dark side can come into play when too much
detail or emphasis is given to the darker side even if that dark side is cast in
the antagonistic role. All stories that are interesting have to have a bad guy.
A story of magic will have a magical bad guy. BUT, when excessive emphasis is
placed on this bad guy and the bad guys seem to align with our real world devil
and crew, I think wisdom dictates that we find other material to read.
I would also stay clear of any book that goes against
reality in more subtle ways. One small example is how Harry Potter is rewarded
for disobedience throughout the Harry Potter series. This disobedience is
characterized as courage. To be sure, disobedience often takes courage (or
foolishness), and disobedience can be a good thing if done for the right
reasons (e.g., The American Revolution). But plain disobedience should not be
regularly rewarded. Harry should have confided in trusted adults and sought
after the knowledge or trinket with adult supervision and permission, but this
didn’t fit in with the flavor of this book. This detail wasn’t enough to scare
me away from the Harry Potter series. Nor was Hagrid’s excessive drinking as he
normally received ill consequences because of it. But in general, if a story
seems to allow its characters to consistently make bad choices and yet profit
from them, I’d say steer clear.
Finally, I’d skip out on any story that sets my mind on
things that I shouldn’t be thinking about. In this regard, each person will be
different. A book that had some folks addicted to drugs would not bother me (as
long as their addiction had the requisite consequences) as I’ve never been
tempted to use mind altering substances. For others, this constant reminder may
set their minds on an old addiction. Any book that is sexually explicit should
be avoided for this reason. We are all sexual beings by God’s design, but that
sexuality is to be expressed with a real person (not someone in a book), who is
of the opposite gender, and who is your spouse.
So, are there any books left? Even the Bible tells of David
and Bathsheba (adultery), lets us know a lot of the dark ways (Saul conjuring
Samuel), and has folks who sometimes seemingly get rewarded for doing evil. The truth is
that any story that is true to life will have bad characters in it that exhibit
undesirable traits. It is how these characters and their choices are treated in
general that makes or breaks a book. Each person is going to have different
thresholds of tolerance. Know yourself and to what you are susceptible before
settling down with a book.
What of youths? Parents have to know their children and what
they are capable of handling. With fantasy stories in particular, our minds are
swept away to a different world with a different set of rules. I can attest that I’ve been
so engrossed in a fantasy book that the real world seems boring and dismal. The
worldview of a child is still impressionable. I would want to be sure that my
child was well grounded in a Biblical worldview before allowing them to get too
deep into fantasy literature. If your child seems to love reading this genre, I
would want to emphasize those books like The Lord of the Rings and The
Chronicles of Narnia that well align with the
story even though they are set in alternate realities.
Parents can also use these books as a means to talk about what is true,
virtuous, real, etc. Why not read a book at the same time your child is reading
it and discuss it together? What choices did the characters make that were bad?
What were the consequences? What attributes of the hero are God-like? These and
many other questions can help your child both enjoy the available literature
while also keeping them grounded in the story.
[1]
Any of you who follow Greg Koukl of Stand to Reason will immediately recognize
this as being from his Credo talks. Greg put into five easy to remember words
something that I’ve tried to describe to others.
No comments:
Post a Comment