Word

TEST

2009-04-26T20:27:00.001-05:00

TEST

No Way, No How Should This Book Be in the Canon

2009-04-22T22:31:00.001-05:00

Like Citizen Kane, it deserves to be mentioned as a groundbreaking work that no longer holds up over time.

So, This Book Is in the Canon Because . . .

2009-04-11T15:27:00.005-05:00

Good ol' Gulliver.

I sat in the back of my 12th grade English class and would randomly say "good ol' Gulliver" in an exaggerated, hicktown voice just loud enough for the 2 or 3 people nearby to hear me and snicker as we trudged through the rest of our discussion about Lemuel Gulliver's voyage to Lilliput.

Who am I to say that Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift is not worthy to be in the canon? It may be a good book, but I must admit that its virtues were lost on me.

Jonathan Swift is one of the most well-known satirists in the English language. I get it. But I much prefer "A Modest Proposal" as his legacy to satire over good ol' Gulliver. In its defense, the plot shines with creativity and whimsy as the main character travels to far off lands with names like Brobdingnag. I appreciate the fact that there is character development as Gulliver starts out good-natured and somewhat naive and ends up a little more wisened and somewhat cynical after his travels. Hey, it became a TV miniseries. No mean feat.

And I understand the way that he described the court at Liliput was meant to satirize the court of George I. I get that the Liliputian dispute over how they cracked their eggs was meant to satririze Catholic/Protestant tensions . . . but I guess details like this are part of my issue with it. If you aren't privvy to the extra-textual revelations of exactly what it was Swift was making fun of, then the little details serve as little more than little details. Because of the historical disconnect, Gulliver's Travels loses some of the timelessness that I feel is a necessary strength in order for a novel to be considered a part of the canon.

As I recall in my 12th grade Literature class, when we weren't zoning during less than spirited discussion about the novel, we did laugh at the absurd names, characters and situations in which Gulliver found himself. But I'm afraid we didn't grasp Swift's overall purpose. The book may have entertained us somewhat, but it didn't connect with us.

However, to give credit where credit is due, Gulliver's Travels did serve as a spinoff name for a website that I created many years ago as I voyaged out into the Old World: Chantelliver's Travels.

Fill in the Blank--

2009-04-03T23:22:00.008-05:00

April's Topic
This month we Word bloggers are to fill in the following blank: "________ may be a great book/in the canon but not for me because..."

Difficult...or am I being honest?
So yes, at first I thought this was going to be super difficult. On what grounds would someone deny one of the books in the canon? Wouldn't this inevitably reveal one's shallowness? How could one maintain a pretentious, arrogant air whilst...but then the truth descended upon me like a ton of bricks. The truth is, I once returned a book, a book I've now discovered that quite a few people treasure (there's a pun but you have to wait for it!). I not only returned the book, I proudly and even gleefully returned it. I returned it with the comment that: "I do not understand why this is a Great Book or why ANYONE would ever want to read it!" So what is this most offensive tome?

Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations
There it is. Take that. And while I'm at it I'd go ahead and ditch all the economists (I struggle some with Locke because of my ridiculous patriotism--hey, I'm an Army brat...). You know what else? I would hold a book burning for Hobbes (not really an economist himself per se, but I think the perfect example of what manifests from economist philosophies). How's that for snapish, brutish and short (you Hobbesians know what I mean!!)?!?!

Because...
On the one level, it's simple: they are boring and UGLY! Let's be real. These are not riveting reads. So if something is requiring discipline to get through, I think there should be a payoff. That's right: tedium is NOT its own reward, and at the end of it I want to better appreciate beauty. I want to be given more reason to stand in awe before my God.

Bare Bones
There it is. The bare bones of the matter. Perhaps I could have articulated a more philosophical lack of appeal or even a spiritual oneupmanship. AKA can we, as Christians seeking God's kingdom, really use economists to undergird our thoughts and behaviors? I know people who say we can and even should, but hmmmmmmm, I wonder...

Fill in the Blank--Picture to Follow

2009-04-02T19:11:00.007-05:00

Faves from a Fan of the Canon

2009-03-27T00:31:00.003-05:00

Prelude
I’m the type of person who walks into a restaurant and orders from the “Our Specialties” column. Then once I find something among the specialties I like, I seldom branch out and try a random menu item. Being interpreted, that means when I read, I usually try to invest my time in books that come highly recommended, mostly canonical literature. I seldom go looking for unknowns. So I readily admit that even my “non-canon” nominees are still popular and well-received by critics. I will have to take it upon myself as homework to discover a new, more unknown for next time.

Favorite Canon Writer
My estimation is that Harold Bloom has earned the honor of greatest literary critic of this generation (just because his name is everywhere if nothing else). I perused his archive of the Western Canon and was just overwhelmed. When you consider the wealth of literature, it’s hard to pick a “best.” Fortunately this is a “favorite,” so I can pick a writer based on mere personal preferences. And for me, it comes down to Faulkner.

William Faulkner
I’ve tried to look beyond my paradigm, but even so, there is something about Southern literature that will always be my first love. It’s as though all Southern readers and writers share the same bloodline. We’re related because of our shared history. However, Faulkner transcended a local color fiction label. So, here are my reasons:

1. Prolific body of work – 23 novels, 7 collections of poems, 11 plays/screenplays, and several short stories. Not to sound like those suspicious of Shakespearean authenticity, but really, how can one person accomplish all those works of such excellent caliber in one lifetime?

2. Earnest observer – For anyone from the South, even 80 years removed, there is a familiarity of experience, a kinship, that instantly kicks in when reading Faulkner. While the South has so many conspicuous, stereotyped traits that are conspicuous, it’s very hard to make that translate into art without turning the landscape into a zoo of aliens. Faulkner managed to bring out both the subtle and overt cultural touchstones and still preserve the spirit of the place.

3. Chronicles of the universal human experience – Faulkner grasped what was not just the defining issue of Southern literature, but American literature. Of all the questions American lit has examined, I submit that it has always and will always, for far further into the future than we can imagine, grapple with the same great issue: reconciling the evil of slavery. A union founded upon liberty yet splintered over slavery—what larger contradiction can any society ever face? Faulkner identified and exposed this issue in a post-emancipation world still far from liberated. This dead-on portrayal is a universal issue because the reconciliation of evil will always be a part of the human experience.

4. Personal experience – Even though I warn my students of the dangers of basing judgments on personal experience alone, there is a value to it. My story is that as a high school senior on a visit to a potential college, I toured Rowan Oak, Faulkner’s home in Oxford, Mississippi. We walked into his writing office, and across the white-washed walls were faint, awkward letters he’d penciled in as he story-boarded one of his later novels, A Fable. It was a humbling and powerful experience. Colliding with the Faulkner of the canon in my own personal world—standing in a room he’d stood in, carefully scrutinizing words he’d carefully scrutinized—made a huge impact.

Favorite Non-Canon Writer
I must cheat and say that with me it’s a draw—mainly because the two writers are from such different contexts, it’s near impossible to compare.

Evelyn Scott
Scott authored twenty books in the 1920s, however, all but two fell out of print until a campaign for reprints in the ’80s. Scott’s most famous novel, The Wave, is an incredible metaphor showing how a single—albeit enormous—event can radically affect so many lives. In this case, she takes as subject and setting the American Civil War and carries a huge span of characters through the “wave” of war. I remember it for its achievement in pulling off such an ambitious scope, the poignancy of the language, and the accessibility of the characters. Equally intriguing is the story of Scott’s rediscovery.

Mark Haddon
Mark Haddon is a (comparatively) young British writer most known for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. The narrator is a fifteen year-old autistic boy, and the voice is captivating. Haddon has us really invest in the novel. It’s not possible to read passively. On one page we’re chuckling, and on the next, crying. Not that emotional response is the grail, but there’s such an engaging quality to this work that I can’t mention favorites without it.

Favorite Authors Curry-Style

2009-03-22T21:21:00.005-05:00

The Author I Love Most Who is in the Canon – Leo Tolstoy

Alas, the author of War and Peace and Anna Karenina often creates more admirers than readers due to the size of these classics. Except they both deserve top rank in the canon, as do at least two of his short stories (Master and Man, The Death of Ivan Ilych). Best of all, most of his later works are shot through with an overt Christianity (Father Sergius), when they’re not outright didactic (The Kreutzer Sonata, Resurrection).

The tortured author was masterful at distilling experiences into an amazing clarity, whether it be male lust (The Devil), the acceptance of sacrifice (Master and Man), or society’s hypocritical double standards (the two clasics). Plus, he never skimped on plot, so even the long monsters twist and turn in surprising manners

John Updike once wrote in a New Yorker review that Tolstoy still was the only author who could make happiness interesting. (Read the chapters of Natasha singing or the children playing in War and Peace and you’ll understand what he means.)

While his best known works are legendarily long (though worth their reputation), start with the short stories or novellas (The Cossacks was recently translated) if you don’t believe me. It’s likely you’ll read nothing better

Author I Love Who Will Never Be in the Canon—Grant Morrison

We didn’t have a TV when I was growing up (a decision I regret less and less), so my four color entertainment came from comic books. (Of course, now that every year churns forth another blockbuster superhero movie, that makes me a savant to the kid, since I know the back story to every character used, but that’s another story.) Among the most fascinating comic book authors today is Grant Morrison, a Scottish author and playwright who grew up loving the comic books I did.

Morrison’s trademark is to embed powerful metaphors and scientific craziness into straight-forward action-adventure stories (as they used to be called). He’s also got an uncanny grip on “the moment,” so you often get those “Of course!” moments while you’re wondering what will happen next. Then again, he feels like comics are for creating the future, so he does that in unusual-but accessible way.

Since graphic novels are cool now, reserve the following titles from your library and thank me later:

All Star Superman—Especially Volume 1 (of 2). It’s funny, romantic (you'll say, "Ahhh" when you see where he takes Lois Lane for a kiss), challenging, and I cried at the end of the last chapter reading it to my 10 year-old.

We3—What if the U.S. Military used animals with cybernetics embedded in them for war. An inspired mixture of Incredible Journey and the near-future. (Warning: Violence with related gore.)

Marvel Boy—Science, adventure, and evil corporations mix in this thriller that simultaneously captures the now while hinting at a possible future.

Seven Soldiers of Victory—A convoluted, but densely plotted Lord of the Rings saga for the second-class super hero set. What if there was a world crisis a team was fighting against it all over the world, but didn’t realize they were working together?

Vimanarama—A romantic crisis develops when the Muslim version of the end of the world takes place in modern day Britain because Ali isn’t sure he’s ready for an arranged marriage. The first 2 chapters are quite funny.

Appendix A: Jane Austen, Flannery, Writing

2009-03-19T21:43:00.007-05:00

Love Jane Austen? Now she’s in comics!

Most Britons have lied about the books they read—According to the survey, 65 percent of people have pretended to have read books, and of those, 42 percent singled out 1984. Next on the list came War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy and in third place was James Joyce's Ulysses.

Kent here: Why do books continue to impress people, but so few other art forms are mentioned to “impress”? I mean, how many people lie about the classic films they've seen or Broadway musicals they've attended? Is it because persistence & dedication & understanding are required at an unusual depth for authoring books?

Summer Writing: Going it by yourself is okay, but writing can be a solitary craft. Perfecting that craft w/strangers is often wiser than w/people who know us and place expectations upon us. So if you’re wanting to write, you need to attend a writing camp, convention, or class. Or, if you’re in the Midwest, try this festival. (You might see me there.)

Janet Maslin at the New York Times states “Brad Gooch’s rapt, authoritative Flannery is the first major biography of a writer who died 44 years ago. Where is the flood of other biographical material about this mystical, ornery, ardently admired Southern writer?”

“It’s a wonderful children’s book,” she said about the publication of To Kill A Mockingbird by her fellow Southern loner Harper Lee. When she inquired about films by “this man Ingmar Bergman,” she came unusually close to identifying a kindred spirit steeped in spiritual rigor. “They too are apparently medieval,” she said, considering common ground between his works and her own.

Kent here: Maslin should’ve read Paul Elie’s The Life You Save May Be Your Own, which highlights O’Conner with three other Catholic writers who spanned the 20th Century. It’s a majestic read on writing, authors, and putting the spiritual on the page in a believable way.

The Power of Speech to Stir Men's Blood and a God, Like Jazz, Who Doesn't Resolve

2009-03-16T12:11:00.010-05:00

I must proceed with an apology for my tardiness. I think my tardiness, perhaps, may be excusable because I'm recovering from a week of comprehensive exams, the last of which was on Saturday. I had to regain at least a little bit of my sanity before even attempting to write anything else for public perusal. You'd thank me. Believe me.

Character that I love from the first rank of literature and why
There are many authors from the so-called A-list that I like, but there is only one character from that list that I love. Truly. Madly. Deeply. Who is the recipient of the most passionate of my literary affections? Marc Antony from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.

I don't mean to wax wordy and nostalgic, but it's hard to describe my love for Antony without doing so. I was first introduced to Julius Caesar in 9th grade. You'd think a spacy ingenue like I was would more easily fall for the presentation of the original star-crossed lovers Romeo and Juliet. But no. I was enraptured by the rhetoric, the classic lines, the unfettered loyalty of Brutus to Rome, the cunning deception of Cassius, the aloof arrogance of Caesar, and above all, the rhetorical genius and linguistic bravura of Marc Antony.

I know that "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears" has become both the stuff of legend and, consequently, of parody, but think for a minute exactly what it was that Marc Antony did. Brutus and Co. had just pulled off the most famous assassination in world history, and Brutus had convinced the plebians that it was for their good. Caesar was ambitious and threatened the integrity of Rome, he told them. But my boy Antony took the "ambitious" bit and turned it on its head. Text: Okay, Caesar was "ambitious," and Brutus and Co. are "honorable men." Subtext: How could Caesar be ambitious when he refused the crown three times and left you all of this stuff in his will, and how can the conspirators be honorable in snuffing out a noble life? Who's really "ambitious" here?

Antony took the plebians from being glad that Caesar was dead to weeping for his life in mourning. He took them from praising the conspirators for their deed to wanting to kill them for their deed. Antony claimed: "For I have neither wit, nor words, nor worth,/ Action, nor utterance, nor the power of speech/ To stir men's blood." But that's exactly what he had. And his speech, though manipulative, is captivating in its ability to show the power of words. Mere words.

Author that I love who will never be in the first rank of literature and why
This one was easy for me. Don Miller. Hands down. Though he topped the bestseller list with Blue Like Jazz for weeks on end, he'll never be in the canon of the literature of Western Civilization. Ever. But I adore him. I dream of running into him during a layover at the airport.

At first, I resisted his literary advances. It was during the time that Blue Like Jazz was ubiquitous and I refused to buy into the hype. But years later, out of pure residual curiosity, I bit down on Blue Like Jazz and commenced to devour it. And everything else Don Miller has ever penned.

Not only is his conversational style charming, but his raw, aching honesty about living the Christian life hit deep chords of recognition within me. His laments that Christianity had become a series of checkboxes, his feelings of alienation, his yearning for community and acceptance, and his caution against tearing the poetic out of the spiritual all resonated with me. I'll leave you with the opening lines of the first book of his I'd ever read:

"I never liked jazz music because jazz music doesn't resolve. But I was outside Bagdad Theatre in Portland one night when I saw a man playing the saxophone. I stood there for 15 minutes, and he never opened his eyes. After that I liked jazz music. Sometimes you have to watch somebody love something before you can love it yourself. It is as if they are showing you the way. I used to not like God because God didn't resolve. But that was before any of this happened."

Yoinks! I (Almost) Did It Again!

2009-03-08T00:56:00.002-06:00

Lateness
Inexcusable.

Favorite "A-List" Character/Author
This was super difficult! Crime and Punishment is what immediately came to mind, but I am torn between picking Dostoevsky as the author or Raskolnikov as the character! The character could not exist without the author and I do like Fyodor's other works (Brothers K being in a definite top 20)...still, I'm going with Raskolnikov, favorite character.

Possible Reasons Why
1. Raskolnikov's testimony (unresolved as it is) is the answer to all theodicy questions. Christian life is about owning the guilt we DO have and releasing the burdens we shouldn't carry. That is a more specific reiteration of a general theme I seem to be drawn to: the greatest punishment being when one is NOT held accountable (this used to make grace seem very wrong to me until I realized that grace is wrapped up in repentence and perpetuation of itself and in these ways is not purely a "get out of jail free" card).
2. I was never "required" to read this book. This isn't entirely what it may appear (many of my favorite books were read in school settings), but there is something to this. Maybe a level of ownership is involved?
3. Great name to say out loud. The same sound can connote dark depths of madness as well as tremedous freedom from fears.
4. The fact that I can love someone like Raskolnikov makes me want to love him all the more.

Favorite "non-A-list" author/character
This was a cinch! Easy! No problem! Favorite author: Gordon Korman and I'm talking about his classics here not this new Kidnapped series or whatever. Let's talk about Son of Interflux, My Semester in the Life of A Garbage Bag, Don't Care High, even the more recent, No More Dead Dogs.

Why?
1. His books are hysterical! Laugh out loud funny! Joy unspeakable!
2. Did I mention how funny I find these books?
3. Character development is fabulous! He always starts with the perfectly plausible except that one (or more) characters will have some kind of personality quirk (No More Dead Dogs features a protagonist who will not lie for any reason). The reactions and responses to this quirk will escalate into some grand scale comedy of unbelieveable proportions. I don't know how to describe it.
4. Read it and see!

Understanding Your Writing Process

2009-02-28T13:26:00.002-06:00

Greetings fellow writers! Were you challenged by Ha Jin's advice for writers that Kent shared? I was. It brought to mind our ongoing discussion on the development of our craft. That is to say we are analyzing our own writing processes to see what we can tighten. It's one thing to write. It's another to study how you write and then use that information to become more effective.

Step 1 - Analysis

I have found that I write best in grocery stores. Funny? Yes. But true. The other day I wrote the first decent thing in months… at the Shop ‘N Save bread aisle.

I’m still not sure how it started. I was driving to the grocery store and from some untraceable train of random thoughts wound up at a particularly unique aspect of my upbringing. I was having a conversation with myself while trying to find the least-icy parking spot. During this challenge, one of the lines in my head really captured me: “Whoa. That would make a great opening line to a short story.”

And that’s how it started. I fished for an ink pen in my purse—I write best with the cheapest of cheap ballpoints (another part of my writing process)—and found a flat surface on the bread rack, right inside the first aisle of Shop ‘N Save. I can’t say everything poured out, but gradually I pieced together an opening first page to my story on the back of a fundraising letter I'd been working on. Not great, but after not having written anything in a long time, it was a breath of fresh air--to borrow from the cliche.

Studying Methodology
This is not the first time this has happened. I took a writing workshop class while in grad school. I honestly wouldn't have had the nerve to take a creative writing course (sounds so scary! What if I can't think of any ideas to write about?) but a friend wanted to take it badly and begged me to join her. It fit an elective, and the rest is history.

One huge assignment was to analyze our writing process and figure out where/when/how we wrote, what motivated us, and so on. For the first time, I had to keep a writing log. You're probably thinking what's the big deal? Isn't it just a journal? Not so. Instead of writing about a random topic, you write about your writing. Much like dieters keep a journal of the foods they eat and when, we had to log how much we wrote, when we did our writing, and what led us to our ideas, etc. And that's when I realized that if I have a big idea in mind I'm trying to process, it usually plays out when I'm wandering the aisles of a grocery store or Dollar Tree. I don't know why, but the point is I know that about myself and can use it to my advantage now.

Which leads to Step 2 - Putting Your Process to Work

In my case, I need to make more trips to the grocery store. When you discover what fertile fields best motivate and empower you to write, take advantage of it. While writing ultimately takes discipline, you also need to cater to what you know better motivates you to action.

Step 3 - Hold Yourself Accountable

So you understand your process, and you've vowed to put it to work. Now share it with someone else so they can ask you if you're doing it. I've confessed my grocery store adventures, so now when friends from the blog ask if I've been to the grocery store lately, that's my check-up on how diligently I've been writing.

Do the steps work? Well, I'm not there yet. But I know the path to follow. Shop 'N Save, here I come.

An Evening with Ha Jin: Writer as Immigrant

2009-02-22T20:08:00.002-06:00

On Thursday, February 19, 2009, National Book Award-winner Ha Jin (Waiting) was in town, so I went to hear him speak. For a second-tier town, St. Louis has a strong rotation of literary and bestselling authors visit, with the excellent St. Louis County Library often providing shelter for these readings. There were 80ish people there, more Chinese than normal (not surprisingly), and the hard covers of his latest, A Free Life, sold out, while possible purchasers sneered at the paperbacks.

Jin immigrated to the United States from China and is a writing professor in Boston University’s well-regard creative writing program. Now in his 50s, his hair is graying, his accent is noticeable, but understandable, he laughs nervously throughout the evening, and, instead of pointing at questioners during the Q&A, he jabs the air toward their upraised hands. His topic of discussion was writing as an immigrant, which naturally led to many other thoughts on writing worth sharing.

Some Highlights

• The sooner an author can “hold a book in your mind,” the sooner it will be completed. It’s “basically a requirement. It really takes capacity to hold a novel in your mind.” Imagine doing that with War and Peace, he laughed. It’s this capacity that makes the novel a major art form.

• For A Free Life, he used European writing models as examples to follow, citing Anna Karenina, Fathers and Sons, and Madame Bovary. He didn’t use Chinese models because in China, “The poetry is stronger than (prose) literature.”

• He said there a small body of US novels helped, especially with the descriptions of landscapes (naming Willa Cather’s My Antonia, and O Pioneers! “When I arrived (in the U.S.), what struck me most was the American landscape,” he said, mentioning how people were feeding the ducks at a lake, not chasing them (to eat). Someone caught a big fish, and returned it to the water. Jin asked, “Can’t you eat it?” He added that he wrote to Chinese friends at home that, “Nature has been very generous to Americans,” while Chinese land is exhausted after generations of people using it.

• He also noted that early Asian-Americans didn’t write about landscape because they weren’t allowed to own land.

• He touched on other immigrant writers like Nabokov, who he said was discouraged by the great critic Edmund Wilson from punning. If I understood Jin correctly, he said this was because “jokes break rules” and foreigners are not allowed to do this. Natives can break the rules.

For Writers
• Writers should “find a body of great books to nourish you” as a “spiritual force.”

• The most talented don’t get published, the stubborn, persistent do.

• Among his favorite books are Anna Karenina, Chekov’s late stories, and Absalom! Absalom! Almost as an aside, he shared, Faulkner stands alone in modern literature. “Faulkner is a monument. You love him, but you can’t learn from him. You love him, but you can’t get close to him.”

• Writers must be in shape linguistically, which is why it’s so difficult to master two writing languages.

• All of his previous books were set in China, and he said, “I have to beware the English ear” so that English idioms and nuances are not portrayed by Chinese natives.

• Because it takes years to complete, you “can’t let (a novel) get cold. It’s like cooking.” Work on it every day, “even if it’s just 20 minutes.”

• He encourages young writers to write a book to become a movie because it often keeps them going.

Author Readings
I will go so far as to offend some of you by saying, if you are a writer, or want to be, and don’t attend local readings, you are not a writer. Readings give you intimate time with (often) world-class authors, usually for free. Where else are you going to get that type of experience? Plus, there’s so much to chew on afterwards, including writing tips, and—perhaps most importantly—it keeps your creative fire burning.

Most universities host them, chain superstores host them, libraries host them, cool indy bookstores host them. All you have to do is get in on their e-newsletter lists and you’re set. Don’t miss out on these great opportunities to improve your writing.

Appendix A: TMR, Dante, Daily Beast

2009-02-19T21:46:00.004-06:00

The Missouri Review literary journal proclaims: Also, we continue our long history of innovation. Beginning this year, you’ll have the option of receiving The Missouri Review digitally online or in audio. That’s right. You can listen to every short story, essay and poem on your iPod, MP3 player, computer or other electronic devices—read by voice actors or by the authors. Watch our website for more details, or send us an email requesting more information.

Haven't had much of a chance to investigate yet, but it's Interactive Dante!

Rejoice!The Daily Beast has a book section now.

Appendix B: More Marilynne

2009-02-19T21:38:00.003-06:00

On Saturday, January 24, 2009 at a packed event at the Housing Works Bookstore Café in Manhattan, the National Book Critics Circle announced the finalists for its forthcoming book awards, covering books published in 2008. Books competed in the areas of fiction, general nonfiction, biography, autobiography, poetry, and criticism, and the competition was hot.

Fiction Finalists
Roberto Bolaño, 2666. Farrar, Straus
Marilynne Robinson, Home, Farrar, Straus
Aleksandar Hemon, The Lazarus Project, Riverhead
M. Glenn Taylor, The Ballad of Trenchmouth Taggart, West Virginia University Press
Elizabeth Strout, Olive Kittredge, Random

Bolaño will win, as he recently died underappreciated, but still . . . more proof that Christian literature is recognized and rewarded.

On Love and Writing

2009-02-14T16:45:00.005-06:00

(sigh.) Valentine's Day is upon us.

Word associations
Let's play a word-association game. When I say "love," among the things that you associate with that word probably include "poetry" and "letters." Why is it that no other emotion or feeling evokes strong associations with specific types of writing? Think about it. If I say "peace," you might think of a babbling brook or an idyllic nature scene, but not a type of writing. If I say "anger," you may think of the color red or the image of a fist, but not a type of writing. Sure, anger can fuel an outraged letter to the editor, or the desire for peace may prompt the writing of a treaty, but I'd venture to say that no other "feeling" evokes the direct association with writing like love does. Do a Google test. If you Google "love" and scroll down to "searches related to" you'll see both "love letters"and "love poems." Nothing similar happens with any other emotion.

Possible explanations
Why is that? I've been sitting here for a while now trying to think of a plausible explanation. I was going to suggest that there's something about love that makes us want to express it lyrically. But there are plenty of other subjects that are commonly expressed lyrically, like sadness and death. I was going to say that maybe writing letters give us a way to express our emotions passively, without having to suffer the vulnerability of expressing our emotions to the object of our affections directly. But then I realized that many love letters are never meant to be given to the one to whom they're addressed, but instead lie in the crevices of dusty high school notebooks, scrawled in forgotten journals, or hidden away in shoeboxes full of sentimental junk.

Proof in a Shakespearean sonnet
I finally came to a conclusion that may be more convincing. I think love is evocative of writing because writing produces something tangible and lasting. Feelings may subject to change, (and forgive the implication that love is a mere feeling) but a sentiment written down on a piece of paper that is subsequently preserved becomes immortalized. Not that the feeling persists, necessarily, but the writing is a testament to its existence in its time.

It brings to mind Shakespeare's Sonnet 18:

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.

Though things in life and nature constantly change, the woman's "eternal summer" will never fade "so long as men can breathe or eyes can see" because the poem itself has preserved her beauty forever.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Welcome Me!

2009-01-30T16:26:00.005-06:00

I would like to take a moment to welcome the newest member of the Word blog: Me! Who am I, you ask? Well, since I know me better than anyone else, I am completely prepared to fill you in.

My name is Dustin Lindsey (which amazingly means "Brave Warrior," yeah, that's right). I am originally from the great city, state of Moline, Illinois located in the northwest corner of the Land of Lincoln. Now, I reluctantly reside in Saint Louis, Missouri while attending Gateway College of Evangelism. Thank God, the end is in sight as I am a few weeks into my second semester of my Senior year. Praises.

So why am I now a part of the Word blog? Well, I can only attribute this honor to my random, enjoyable chats on the comfy red couch of Sis. Alexander's (Lee Ann, as you know her) office. While sinking into the deep cushions of her wonderful furniture utopia, I have expounded upon the many novels and classics I have enjoyed, the fantastic ideas of books that I will, most assuredly, write, the memories of English classes i have endured, and the countless (or not so countless) articles I have actually managed to finish. She, on the other hand, sits at her desk, rarely looking my direction, presumably grading papers. I think she finally had enough of these meetings and saw a golden opportunity. There was a vacancy to be filled, and who better to fill it than someone who has no problem talking to himself about literature (or any other subject for that matter)? The way I see it is that I am just experiencing a transfer of my pseudo-audience. My conversations with myself will now be endured while sitting at a computer desk, fingers a-blur instead of relaxing on a red couch, lips flapping. Ah, well...'tis life.

Moving on to something literature-ishy.

I was supposed to be born approximately 45 years before I actually was. Yes, that's right--and that's even factoring being born prematurely. I love life as it used to be. Old clothes, old styles, old ways of life and old literature. I think I probably have a unique definition of "old literature" and that is: Charles Dickens is my favorite author. It saddens me to hear to fellow peers who spend their days "studying" the Bible (more often than not, in the KJV) complain about how they cannot understand the language of classical literature. Seriously?

If I have any sort of literature soapbox (which I'm sure as I blog I will discover that I actually have many...) it is the apathy towards classic literature among my generation. Without using vulgar, yet necessary, language I will attempt to reason with the apathetics in the following hypothetical conversation:

Me: So, what is your favorite book?
Some Random Contemporary of Mine: Uhhh, I don't really read that much...
Me: But you must have a favorite book--even one from childhood, possibly?
SRCoM: Uhhh, I don't understand the question...
Me: Seriously, you imbecile? Mine is A Tale of Two Cities, I just love getting lost in the classical language that Charles Dickens uses (said while looking whimsically into the distance)...I also love G.K. Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday, and...HEY! Where are you going?...
SRCoM: (wanders off in a stupor that only hours in front of a monitor can achieve, hungry for a video game, a cupcake, and a dimly lit room)

Literature, when written, is not only a gift to that generation, but it is to be treasured until the last word of the last page of the last copy is scratched out--and even then, it lives on in the stories that are passed down from mother to children, from pastor to congregation, from teacher to student, and from generation to generation. If only that were the case, instead, I fear that our children's ears will only be familiar with what the "Big Box on the Shelf" screams at them.

Tragedy. True tragedy.

I guess I'm done. I've run out of words and gotten myself all flustered.

Books Still Matter

2009-01-23T17:44:00.002-06:00

Teaching literature to students without reading the texts afresh is sort of like preaching an old sermon to a congregation without first checking in with God about it. Doesn’t really seem right or fair.

That preface comes to mind because our World Literature course is back on the schedule for this spring semester at Gateway. I’ll be re-reading some exemplary literature over the next few months. It’s easy to get caught up in the monotony of routine and lose appreciation for reading (or fail to do it altogether). Nice when you have a formal class to guide you into a reading or writing discipline as Kent discussed.

My Methodology for Exploring Literature
Do you remember your lit survey class from sophomore year in college? I do. I was not yet an English major, but I adored my lit classes… until English 3020: Brit Lit I rolled around at LSU. We started with Caedmon's Hymn jumped to Beowulf and by the time we got to Spenser’s Fairie Queene, literature lover or not, I had all but checked out.

So my vision for literature is to reverse the timeline. Instead of starting with works of antiquity and progressing to contemporary literature, we start with contemporary works in my class and then trace back in time to see the literary traditions as they have emerged. It has been an interesting experiment and has seemed to help students maintain an appreciation for the classics by the time we reach them.

A Contemporary Literature Excursion
Today in class we discussed excerpts from Peace Like a River, a 2001 bestseller by Lief Enger with rich Christian themes. We first discussed parallelisms between the novel and To Kill a Mockingbird in terms of a child narrator and the tension between good and evil. We also covered Christ figure symbolism and characterizations, use of humor as a narrative strategy, and my bottom-line take on the novel: its delightful ability to realistically and accurately portray the supernatural without ridiculing, belittling, or being snide about faith.

A Moment in Time (in a Classroom)
The highlight of my day was when we went around the circle sharing our impressions of the novel and an enthusiastic student declared, “I loved this reading! I can’t wait to read the entire thing!”

The Punchline
Books still matter. People are still moved by literature. Despite any other technology medium, there is no substitute for the power of a good book. I was encouraged to hear the other students share their disappointment that the excerpt ended—they wanted to read more. Who knew today’s students do read… and that they like it?

We need those moments where we read something truly captivating and are reminded that books still matter. Thankfully I witnessed that moment today. It encouraged me so much, I loaned the novel to yet a different student not in that class. We both left the better for it.

Want your turn? Simply share one of your favorite books with someone. Everybody wins.

Artistic Visions for 2009

2009-01-17T19:56:00.005-06:00

“He that dares not grasp the thorn should never crave the rose.” –Annie Bronte

Pentecostals (like most 21st Century believers) have no vocabulary for artists, while most artists have no vocabulary for belief, except for the barest Catholic cliches. (Oops. I was wrong. Pentecostals do have a vocabulary for artists—“music minister.” Yes, that’s a joke. I think.) So, if we’re called to create, we must craft the vocabulary ourselves. No matter our calling and/or medium, we must be willing to show others how a Pentecostal artist writes a novel, paints a painting, conjures a play or music or a musical. We haven’t the academic sub-structure to define and encourage this work—which makes it so exciting. No one can tell us we’re doing it wrong by pointing out successful examples. We get the unique chance to create the parameters others are seeking.

Theoretical Underpinnings
If you’re eager to turn this new year into the year you better fulfill your creative calling (because that’s what it is, a calling, just like preaching or teaching), then it’s important to balance it with well-focused theory. Screenwriter Barbara Nicolosi brilliantly discloses the necessary touchstones for an artistic work in this (transcribed) talk she gave, as well as what doesn’t make a religious artist. It includes this gem:

“In a study I've done on artists geniuses, I've learned that when God sends a gift of genius He usually sends at least one person who gets that genius. It's like Theo with Van Gogh and Susan Gilbert with Emily Dickinson. You can see this over and over. Somebody was given this gift to save this artist for the rest of us. That might be you. I encourage you then to take that vocation seriously.”

If we don’t understand our focal points (beauty, radiance, wholeness, harmony), we’ll never fulfill our mission.

Practical Underpinnings
Writing is often an individual, lonely task, so the only way for me to be successful in 2009 is to enact the following:

Release Weights: Weights are often harder to discern than sins as they once might’ve been positive habits, old friends, or familiar ministries where the passion has flickered out. Weights might be social activities that devour time without compensating you with the necessary refreshment. They might be books by familiar authors that no longer challenge or music that no longer feeds. Frankly, they’re disabling instead of enabling your calling.

Stay Fresh: One reason we start out passionately every January, but lose it by February is because we haven’t figured out how to keep ourselves healthy—spiritually (personal devotions, church), physically (exercise, sleep, eating healthy), mentally and imaginatively (books that feed, people that surprise, experiences that enlarge), socially (community that challenges and keeps us accountable).

Goals: What do you want to write and when do you want to get it done? If it’s a longer project, then break it into regular (weekly, monthly) segments so you can monitor yourself. Then find someone you can trust to aid and abet your progress. Great story: Paul Elie is a father, husband, and full-time book editor, yet he completed the award-winning, 534 page The Life You Save May Be Your Own by insisting to himself that he write every day. So he’d come home at lunch to write. In an interview he said that some days he only finished one paragraph. But he kept writing. So should we.

Theoretical + Practical = 2009
So how are you going to pursue your calling this year? More importantly, what will you show the Lord at year’s end? Remember: A small something is always better than a giant nothing.

Appendix A: Best-Paid Authors

2009-01-15T22:08:00.005-06:00

Some bullet points until my major post for starting 2009 on target:

The Best Paid Authors between 2007-2008: The Internet isn't everything. These 10 writers made $563 million last year, though one of them made most of it. Guess who.
Fascinating--but long-winded--conversation of the "Best in Books 2008."

Oxford's "10 Most Irritating Phrases" starts with, "It's not rocket science" and works down. Personally, I don't see it as all that current, but it still resonates.

Currently Reading: William Wilberforce by William Hague, a lively bio of the Evangelical who spearheaded the fight to stop the Atlantic slave trade. And persisted over 20 years. Amazingly relevant to the balance between calling, church, and priorities that many of us face today.

Historical Fiction

2009-01-11T13:56:00.011-06:00

Yesteryear

I've spoken in previous posts about literary phases and literary crushes I've had in the past. One phase, or rather, genre, that I continue to revisit today is historical fiction. Some of my favorites from yesteryear: Wolf by the Ears, a Young Adult (YA) Fiction book about Thomas Jefferson and the children of his slave Sally Hemings; Of Nightengales that Weep, another YA novel set during the wars between the Heike and Genji clans in feudal Japan; Catherine Called Birdy, a YA book about the daughter of a noble family set in England during the Middle Ages; Escape from Egypt, a romance about a Hebrew boy and Syrian girl based on Exodus; and lastly, The Bronze Bow, another YA novel about the life of Jesus from a teenage boy's perspective.

Is fiction, well . . . fiction?
The concept of historical fiction seems kind of oxymoronic at first glance. If it's historical, as in, actually happened in history, how can it be fiction? Well, the events surrounding the plot are historical, but then the gaps are filled in with what we call fiction. But that statement prompts a somewhat philosophical argument to brew in my brain, though, about whether fiction is simply "filling in the gaps" with imagination or if it's something actually closer to fact than, well, fiction.

Toni Morrison
But back to historical fiction. Over Christmas break, I read A Mercy by Nobel Literature Prize-winner Toni Morrison. It's a departure from her earlier work, which usually revolves around 20th century black American life and the impact of the terrible past upon it. This time, she writes about the terrible past before it was the terrible past. This novel is set in 17th century America before it was America, before colonies, land boundaries, racial categories and slavery were defined and set institutions. Portuguese traders, English indentured servants, Dutch landowners, African skilled laborers and Native Americans populate the pages. From watching a very interesting NY Times interview with Morrison, I got an idea of the research she undertook to write her book. In the end, what I realized is that long before the idea of slavery was wedded to being black, it was a common experience for many types of people who lived in and arrived in America.

Colonial literature
This semester I'm taking a survey course on Colonial Hispanic Literature specifically as it pertains to Spanish exploration in the present United States. Our American History books usually begin with Plymouth Rock and Jamestown. But long before the pilgrims, were the conquistadores. We watched an excerpt of a documentary produced by the History Channel about Spanish exploration, and I saw the historical documents and maps we'd previously discussed spring to life in film. It made the youthful, arrogant, steely-eyed resolve of men like Coronado real to me.

Maybe that's what historical fiction is. It's a way of making the stuffy and at times ambiguous facts and figures come to life. Not in a way that's a departure from truth, but in a way that's the closest approximation to it that our 21st century eyes will ever see.

Resonance with Jazz

2009-01-02T21:29:00.003-06:00

Confession
I too have finally succumbed with the masses that adore Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller.

History
The book hit the scene in 2003 and seemed to me to enjoy an ever-growing adulation from Christians everywhere. It seemed everyone on the planet from every facet of my life was recommending this book. “Give me a break!” I thought even as I smiled and said, “Yeah, I should get around to reading that!” What could he possibly be selling that so many were buying as if they had never heard it before? Forgive my analogy if it offends, but it reeked to me of the “free-thinking” members of the UPCI who spend so much time defending their “open-mindedness” by arguing for television, beards or wearing jeans to church. In the end it’s just not a very big deal, nor are any of them indicative of a very radical line of thinking. Radical thinking undermines your ability to cope with tomorrow the same way you got through today. It stops you and makes you think…painfully. It challenges you on more than just your behavior. People don’t really tend to like the truly radical thoughts (isn’t this why so many of us avoid reading the Bible?). Therefore, by virtue of its seeming coolness and readability, I just didn’t buy that this book had anything very new and/or revelatory to say.

Reality
It was with some grudging assent that I agreed when my Home Friendship Group selected this as our next book for study in December. It was true that a number of people who recommended this book were people whose opinions I deeply respected on a number of other issues. And at least enough time had passed that I didn’t feel like such a trend follower!

Upon Reading It
In truth, this book resonated with me on very many personal points. So much so, I now find it hard to believe so many people had this same experience. Did everyone attend an unconventional four year college renowned for immorality where they experienced the unconditional love and acceptance they longed for (and did not find) in the church? Has everyone had a specific moment of realizing that being a Christian meant receiving/accepting love as well as giving it (his moment came cleaning a toilet, mine came in discussion following the watching of Moulin Rouge: “The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return”)? Has everyone lived with hippies who challenged their preconceptions of the divide between the world and the church? Has everyone intentionally moved in with housemates to counteract an unhealthy tendency to be too comfortable existing without community? Has everyone questioned whether blindly voting Republican was the Christian thing to do? Has everyone remained single into his or her thirties because they liked it and were happy?

Upon Reflection
Initially, I felt like it should be my book and could not accept its popularity as genuine. But then I realized that in all those recommendations others had made there were elements of personal resonance for them as well and I recognized that the book’s power rests in its ability to express something much more fundamental. We all really do have our own song of grace to sing in our own redeemed voice, but it’s a tune we sing in harmony with everyone else bought with a price.

P.S.
Thanks to all my friends who tried to get me to read this book much earlier! You were right, I was wrong!!! It is a wonderful book!

The Greatest Story: Danger, Romance, Mystique, and a Message!

2008-12-29T23:57:00.004-06:00

Every year Christians try to find just the right spin to tell an old story in a new way. From the perspective of shepherds to the account of wise men to a modern day recasting of the story, no Christmas is complete without a church, school, or community production of the nativity. Ultimately, the story of Jesus Christ's birth is a miracle in itself that needs no help.

Yet have you ever thought of the Christmas story in terms of literature?

What do you mean "literature," you might ask? Well without rehashing an academic lecture on literary criteria, let's just simply look at the nativity in the Gospels as a story.

Like Any Great Story....
Everyone has his or her take on just what quality is the most important element of a story, but let's focus on three: plot, theme, and characters.

Action!
Start with a dramatic love story. Compound the intricacy with angelic encounters and a hard-to-explain pregnancy. Toss in a subplot of political intrigue and the danger of execution by a power-threatened monarch. Add a surprise element when the birth scene unfolds in the least likely of places with visits from unexpected guests. The result is an account still as captivating today as ever.

Quite the Characters
Meet Joe the Carpenter--not to be confused with the Joe the Plumber--and yet just a little-known character until his supernatural experience. Suddenly he faces a labyrinth of emotions. Every literary critic on the planet should take a second look.

Then there's Mary and her classic line: "be it unto me according to thy word" (Luke 1:38). What a response!

No study is complete without acknowledging the central character of it all: the Christ child. Juxtaposed against society's stereotype of a king, He humbly takes center stage in the drama He designed from the foundation of the world.

The Most Timeless of Themes
While the greats of the canon are celebrated for their timelessness, none compares to the eternal value of this miracle story. The hope breathed into the hearts of humbled worshipers at that manger still gives life and hope to humanity for all time.

Gloria in Excelsis Deo!
I submit it is the greatest story. Whether told by an elementary class, preached by a minister, or remembered in your heart, take another look and see the beauty of the story once again.

Lagniappe
P.s. - On a related note, see what we were talking about on Word one year ago.

Images Source: http://tdwotd.blogspot.com/2007_12_01_archive.html

The Year in Books

2008-12-20T20:48:00.002-06:00

Every year I keep a list of all the books (and short stories) I read. I started this in 1995 and it creates a type of lively journal of my years, as in “Oh yeah, I read The Portable Faulkner on the plane to San Diego, didn’t I?” or “I bought that book in Philadelphia” or “Why did I read Hunchback of Notre Dame in Rome? Shouldn’t I have read Dante or something Italian?”

Anyway, it’s fun to log them in and count them up at year’s end. (I’m going to end up in the mid-20s this year, while in 2006—thanks to the miracle of audio books—I actually finished 56 titles,.)

2008 was Different
This year, I decided to focus on literature written by Christians and the arts, specifically the craft of writing. I did this because I usually read wherever my moods take me, and I wanted to build a certain mental framework that specifically fed my experience within Christian literature, offered me with insights into the creation process, and provided general context (in this case the ripe Rembrandt’s Eyes that is promising me about 500 more pages of pleasure in 2009 and perhaps 2010).

So while I occasionally strayed into other areas, especially dipping into a hand full of Young Adult titles shoved onto Caleb at school—how did Island of the Blue Dolphins win any award except for tediousness?—I basically stuck to my commitment. (Though I was especially amazed that such an astounding fiction talent as Micahel Chabon could write so many essays with so few rewards as Maps and Legends demonstrates.)

My year in books looked like this:

Christian Literature

Contemporary Titles—Marilynne Robinson’s Home, Yann Martel’s The Life of Pi, Leif Enger’s So Brave, Young & Handsome, and Uvem Akpan’s harrowing short stories of Africa in Say You’re One of Them.
Classic Titles—Leo Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Illyich, Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited

Writing / Arts Titles

How Fiction Works by James Wood. Insightful & pentetrating. He uses writing from the canon to prove his every point.
Art and the Bible by Francis A. Schaeffer. Interesting, but not amazing.

Literary Genius edited by Joseph Epstein. Literary biographies of 25 Americans & Brits with spectacular wood prints by Barry Moser.

Burning Down the House by Charles Baxter. Energetic screeds against lazy thinking about writing. He even defends melodrama successfully.

Conversations with Flannery O’Conner edited by Rosemary M. Magee, which may be good enough to teach a fiction writing course from.

But Wait! There's More!

I also tackled a number of Christian books (two by Kathleen Norris, A Tale of Three Kings by Gene Edwards, among others), but I’m glad I (largely) kept to my commitment. Of course, I won’t be able to evaluate their value for another couple years, but I didn’t feel cheated as I made my choices throughout the year.

Do you keep a reading list? What did your Year in Reading consist of? (Extra points for the person who can identify the picture of an author on my reading list.

Merry Christmas!

Appendix A: Books I'm Trying to Finish

2008-12-18T23:12:00.002-06:00

As 2008 winds down, I'm desperately trying to complete the following books, though time will probably only allow 2 of the 3 to be finished.

1. The Shack is least likely to be finished. It's still an event book, so I need to (finally) find out what it's all about, as it appears to offer Christian counsel in a fresh manner (surely its strongest point). It's more storytelling, than writing, but I'm only 100+ pages into it. Doctrinally, it doesn't hold up, but I can spew out those parts to get his gist. (Though that's likely to be in 2009.)

2. Shepherding a Child's Heart is the best book on parenting I've ever read, so I read it about every other year to keep it's principles--everything funnels through a child's heart, so that's where the fixing must take place--fresh in my mind and heart. Lovely biblical truths are shared in a practical manner that make sense to mind and soul.

I can't tell you how few books I've reread since I was a teen (Anna Karenina, strangely enough due to its length, is one of the very few--probably less than 10? 5?), but this is a regular.

3. Break, Blow Burn: Camille Paglia Reads 43 of the World's Best Poems--This is my "why am I reading this book" book, so I'm most likely to complete it of the three. Purchased on my Florida vacation in October, I love how this iconoclast breaks down classics by Dickinson and Donne, Wordsworth and Williams (among others) into accessible Eureka! moments.

Her lively style and enlightening insights into the creative process, history, art movements, Scripture (she was raised a devout Catholic), rhythm, and form have made this my December must read.

Are there any titles you must complete before 2009 begins?

Two Books

2008-12-14T14:54:00.009-06:00

Eek. Late post. I'd give an excuse and talk about how grueling finals week was and how tiring 4 1/2 hours of driving to an orientation and 4 1/2 hours driving back was, but I'll spare you.

At first glance

The two most recent books I've read are Home by Marilynne Robinson and Go Tell It On the Mountain by James Baldwin. The former is about a middle-class white family in a sleepy Iowa town. The latter is about a working-class black family in Harlem. At first glance, the two books seem to have absolutely nothing to do with each other. The plot, the structure, the subject matter, the style, one is from a female perspective the other is from a male perspective--everything about the two books seem worlds apart. But the incredible thing is, I started making all kinds of crazy connections between them. And not just peripheral things, but things that made me almost wonder if it were God's will that I read these two books in succession in order to glean some overarching truth from them both.

Minister's children and the Christian tradition
Both books involve main characters whose lives are steeped in a Christian background. In Home, the main character Glory Boughton is the daughter of a Presbyterian minister. Everything, even the problems that her family encounters, in some way is always connected to her father's vocation. And the way that Glory, and her father especially, responds to others is rooted in the Christian tradition and the minister's burden. John of Go Tell It On the Mountain is the son of a Pentecostal minister. Likewise, John begins the story explaining the expectations that are placed upon him because of his father's vocation, and the story is framed by and culminates in a vivid religious experience.

The prodigal son

In both stories, biblical imagery and allusions are abundant, especially the story of the prodigal son. In both novels, there is a ne'er-do-well son whose actions profoundly affect the fathers and produce conflicting emotions in their family dynamics--in both cases it is seen by the main character that at times their father loves the ne'er-do-well more. In Home, it's Glory's brother Jack. In Go Tell it On the Mountain, it's John's brother Roy.

Criticism yet respect and praise

Criticisms of their respective Christian traditions can be found in both books. Home and Go Tell it on the Mountain refer to the hypocrisy, superficiality, and over-concern with appearance found in their families and religious communities. However, neither criticizes unfairly or with disrespect. Though the critique may be biting, its purpose is not to discredit Christianity or organized religion. Critique doesn't overpower the other themes of the novels, and both authors, through their characters, show an ultimate reverence for faith.

Race and the turbulence of the era

Though both books were written in different decades, (Go Tell It on the Mountain was published in 1953, Home in 2008) the settings of both of them are in the 50s. Both stories subtly examine race relations in America. Home takes place in a setting removed from the protests turned violent by waterhoses and dogs in Montgomery and the "Stand in the Schoolhouse" door at the University of Alabama--events which the characters of Home only witness through their newly acquired TV sets. But conversations reveal that Gilead, the sleepy Iowa town, was founded on the ideals of radical abolitionism long ago and that Jack (the ne'er-do-well) is personally affected by racial conflict. Like Home, neither are race relations in Go Tell It On the Mountain a central theme, but the realities of racial conflict and injustice, from some characters' beginnings in the Deep South to their eventual migration to New York, shape their lives.

Overarching truth?

Something that I was reminded of through reading these books was the universality of literature. Though, as I mentioned earlier, these novels seemed worlds apart, they had some very core elements in common. Part of the reason why I was impressed and moved by these books was because, aside from the exquisite writing, of their relevance and timelessness. Another thing is that like these novels, I too at times critique the tradition I've been raised in and the faith that I'm still a part of. But critique does not have to equal disrespect. And the last thing is that both of these authors wrote liberally and explicitly from, if not a Christian worldview, (Baldwin later became disillusioned with church life), their Christian upbringings and shared the vividness, serenity, and authenticity of their faith and traditions with a general audience. Both won accolades and recognition for it. Apostolics can and should do the same.

Word

TEST

No Way, No How Should This Book Be in the Canon

So, This Book Is in the Canon Because . . .

Fill in the Blank--

Fill in the Blank--Picture to Follow

Faves from a Fan of the Canon

Favorite Authors Curry-Style

Appendix A: Jane Austen, Flannery, Writing

The Power of Speech to Stir Men's Blood and a God, Like Jazz, Who Doesn't Resolve

Yoinks! I (Almost) Did It Again!

Understanding Your Writing Process

An Evening with Ha Jin: Writer as Immigrant

Appendix A: TMR, Dante, Daily Beast

Appendix B: More Marilynne

On Love and Writing

Welcome Me!

Books Still Matter

Artistic Visions for 2009

Appendix A: Best-Paid Authors

The Best Paid Authors between 2007-2008: The Internet isn't everything. These 10 writers made $563 million last year, though one of them made most of it. Guess who.

Historical Fiction

Resonance with Jazz

The Greatest Story: Danger, Romance, Mystique, and a Message!

The Year in Books

Appendix A: Books I'm Trying to Finish

Two Books