Comments on: What’s the Point of Fiction? http://splinteredlight.com/2008/05/17/whats-the-point-of-fiction/ Thu, 17 Nov 2011 02:03:17 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Devon Spacek http://splinteredlight.com/2008/05/17/whats-the-point-of-fiction/#comment-88 Tue, 14 Oct 2008 04:32:55 +0000 http://axkirk.wordpress.com/?p=42#comment-88 Really cool thoughts… I had emailed your mom back in the summer as I was considering art and literature majors, just to see how different Christians are viewing this concept of doing what we do well, and she also had a lot of interesting things to say. I really appreciate you guys’ willingness to read, enjoy, and interact with things that are not necessarily “Christian”-themed. And I definitely relate to your ideas about Christian propaganda…working in a Christian bookstore, I’ve seen and even recently read some poorly-written, overtly Christian books. But as I struggle with the issue, I think we could do a lot more good writing books that, as you say, even secular readers cannot discount for its quality and its ability to speak to human experience. But I also want to be sure that I’m not just giving myself a cop-out way to avoid giving an account for the hope that is in me, all in the name of wanting to write a book that unchristians will read. Because I (and I don’t mean “me” as much as I mean a person) could write a book that they enjoy (because it’s well-written), that they identify with and, and in-the-end walk away from without seeing redemption woven into the things that I write. If I can only identify with their sufferings, without speaking to their inherent desire for some form of salvation, I just wonder if I’m doing what God calls us to. My main thing really comes down to this: How do I offer the hope that people are so desperately seeking without turning them away by writing “just another Christian book”? It’s tough; they’re dying for a cure and it’s hard to know how to reveal it to them…

But I do appreciate your thoughts. You have some great insights into the world of the arts and literature…good to read, good to think about

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