News and Views on Fantasy
This entry was posted on Monday, May 26. 2008 and is filed under Posts by Rebecca Luella Miller,Fantasy,news.
Mike Duran at Novel Journey gave his selection of Ten Best Book Covers. Interesting to note that George Bryan Polivka's The Legend of the Firefish made the list. Wayne Thomas Batson's Isle of the Sword was a runner up, as was R. K. Mortenson's Landon Snow and the Actor's Riddle.
Speaking of George Bryan Polivka, Sally Stuart reports at Christian Writers' Marketplace that Bryan's acquiring editor at Harvest House, Nick Harrison, is a finalist for the Golden Scroll Award for editor of the year!
A friend of mine clipped an article from the January issue of Christian Institute Journal entitled "The Trouble with Harry: Authors Weigh in on the Potter Debate and Alternative Stories." While not drawing a conclusion, the news item explored the diverse views among Christians regarding Harry Potter in particular, and fantasy in general. The article quoted at some length from Sharon Hinck (The Sword of Lyric, NavPrsss) and Bryan Davis (Dragons in Our Midst, AmG; Beyond Reflection's Edge, Zondervan) in support of fantasy.
Sharon refused to side one way or the other when asked about Harry Potter. Bryan did not condemn the books for their fantasy elements but took a hard line regarding the sinful actions of the main characters
Interestingly, the article itself led me to one of the best anecdotal supports for speculative fiction I've read, a piece entitled "Fantasy and Faith" by Sally Thomas at First Things: A Journal of Religion, Culture, and Public Life.
Here's a quote or two to whet your appetite:
I devoured those novels [A Wrinkle in Time and its first sequel, A Wind in the Door] even as I devoured the Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings, not because they satisfied my inchoate yearning for something beyond the world I knew, but because they stoked it.
And this:
As a child, raised on a relatively secular diet of mainstream Protestantism and utterly unaware of the existence of any theological problem beyond being mean to somebody on the playground, I was captivated by the notion that there was such a thing as evil and, conversely, that there was such a thing as good. The idea, further, that even the weak and the flawed were called to the battle—that there even was a battle—roused something in my imagination that years of Sunday School had somehow failed to touch.
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Monday, May 26. 2008
Donna Swanson wrote:
I really enjoyed this post. Especially the comments by Sally Thomas. I, too was raised in a legalistic household. However, my saving grace was a family who devoured books and a father who, though never having had a college education, was an intellectual with a thirst for knowledge.
I was also privileged to know a pastor with an extensive library who put me in touch with D.Elton Trueblood's "Philosphy of Religion", as well as Philip Yancey's works and mavericks like Malcolm Muggerige, Thielike, and others. They may not have been on our denomination's reading list, but they expanded my horizons immeasurably. At the same time I was reading, Tolkein, Lewis, Bradbury, Azimov, Andre Norton, and Anne Mcaffrey to name a few.
Therefore, although I began the Windfally Chronicles as the rewrite of a average fairytale, the influences of my reading background soon came into play, combining fantasy and theology as naturally as breathing.
Just as the mind becomes like that on which it feeds (Trueblood), so the author produces the flavor of what he or she has injested throughout life.
Thanks for a great meal!
Please excuse typos. There's a storm coming!
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Monday, May 26. 2008
Donna Swanson wrote:
Yikes! That's WindFALLOW, not Windfally!
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Monday, May 26. 2008
Rebecca LuElla Miller wrote:
I love the combination of fiction and theology, too, Donna. It's hard for me to realize that not everyone sees this. I know God didn't make us all the same, but some things just seem so obvious! LOL
Interestingly, I didn't grow up with fantasy, per se. Not unless you count fairytales, nursery rhymes, and stories like those told by Uncle Remus. After those early years, I didn't meet fantasy again until shortly after college. But it was a lot like coming home.
Becky
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Monday, May 26. 2008
Donna Swanson wrote:
Know what you mean, Becky. I also grew up with those. Plus, my mother was a great storyteller. My twin brother and I when we were small, would lie one on each side of her while our older sisters did the dishes after supper and she would tell us three stories; the first had to be a Bible story, so I grew up with a working knowledge of the chronological and patriarchal periods of the Bible. Then she would tell a horse story for me and a fire-engine story for my twin.
I also read the King James Bible to my blind grandmother from age 10 to 12. I credit my love of language and poetry to that.
I guess we are very much the adult of our childhood. There were some not so nice times as well, but it all goes into the hopper of experience.
Hope you had a great Memorial Day!
Donna
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Tuesday, May 27. 2008
Rebecca LuElla Miller wrote:
I guess we are very much the adult of our childhood. Great line! Yes, it does all go in the hopper. Which is why we are all so unique. The different (but similar) experiences added with our unique DNA and it's clear there should be no "canned" characters, in real life or in fiction.
Becky
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