Last night I found myself in a heated discussion with my daughter over my trilogy. I am reformatting the stories under my publishing company control and I am going to insert a Prologue. I truly hate prologues, but apparently we live in a period of time where readers want a snippet of the story before deciding to invest their time and a whopping $2.99. My trilogy is a mythology, it is not espousing a religion. A mythology, to which there are numerous ones throughout all of human history, deals with the creation story by a god or gods, the interaction of mortals and immortals and the end of times.
She believes my main character is the savior figure – Christ. First, Christ was God incarnate so that he could communicate with the living. Second, Christ died solely for the purpose of collecting sins to demonstrate God’s love for his creation. My hero is neither of these. He is as mortal as you or I. Then she had an issue with the word “creation” and insisted her generation could not tolerate the connotation with the word. Funny how we can watch movies about Perseus and the God Zeus and find enjoyment. Maybe they have not yet read classical Greek and Roman mythology.
This is where I lost it, sorry, but if our youth cannot bear a story of good versus evil, where good is derived from a creators will, then please read and reread all the erotic vampire and comic book reincarnations of Spider Man to satisfy your intellectual cravings. An author that sacrifices his story’s integrity to the political correctness of the day, is not much of an author. I was raised in a period of time where skepticism was taught, but that seeking knowledge was encouraged to understand the opposing point of view, we were much more tolerant than we are today.
If the creation aspect of my story reminds you of the bible, it was because I wanted to bring an air of familiarity to those readers of the three major religions of Abraham. This is for marketing purposes only. I have had Christians say it is not a Christian story. You know what? You are right – it is not, nor has ever been intended to be a Christian story. But I think Christians might just enjoy it immensely and give cause for discussion. We supposedly live in a period where racial tolerance is sought. Guess what, my story deals with this. People will line up and spend their paychecks watching Avatar over and over again, and then have to visit their shrinks because they wish we lived in a world where the environment and habitat of others is respected and protected. Guess what, my story deals with this too. It deals with the human condition, especially family, in a mythological setting with an allegory of the troubles we find in our world today. Will we humans do what is right and good to save this world?
Did anyone ever wonder who Gandalf was and where he came from? Guess what, Tolkien has a creation story too, yet we love his creation and wish for more.
“There was Eru, The One, who in Arda is called Iluvatar; and he made the first Ainur, The Holy Ones, that were the offspring of his thought, and they were with him before aught else was made.” – The Silmarillion.
Notice the word “made”, now does this offend you? Or would you prefer manufacture? Certainly we can’t have “The One”, or “The Unseen”, or “The Lord of Light and Life.” And please remove “The Holy Ones” for our youth’s delicate sensibilities.
My point is simple and to the point, I inserted the creation story as context and support for all other stories that will follow, nineteen in all.
If anything regarding spirituality and spiritual beings offends you, then maybe a new breed of author should arrive and write that you are nothing more than a collection of dirty molecules that rode around the great galaxy on a cosmic snowball. Then you crashed and a new world was made, sorry, manufactured, and your molecules shifted and changed until you became sludge, then a fish, then an ape, and then evolved in all knowing political animal. Now for me that would be pretty boring and not challenging for the mind.
Oh and please never question the origin of good or evil in Star Wars, Harry Potter, or other books and movies, it just might lead you on a quest to the realm of independent thought and discussion of what we are. But if you are ready for a story, forged more along the lines of Lord of The Rings, then satisfy your curiosity and then send me a message if you want to calmly discuss issues of the entire story, etc. And if the review of a 14 year old female assists, here is what she had to say:
“It took a while for me to truly get into the book, but after the first few chapters, I was hooked! I loved how detailed the first few chapters were. The author gave me a great view of the history of the wonderful universe. I’m a huge J.R.R. Tolkien fan, but I have to say that this was 100 times better than the Lord of the Rings, the Hobbit, and the Silmarillion combined! The races of Allivar’s living beings are much more creative than elves, men, dwarves, hobbits, etc. I think that even if you were a person who doesn’t really care for fiction/fantasy, you would still be hooked on this book and perhaps change your opinion on those types of genres.”
Have a great weekend.
6 thoughts on “The Cosmic Snowball”
It’s all about the good vs evil context. Often, in writing, intentional or not, spiritual influences work their way into even writing of atheist. C.S. Lewis started off as one himself.
C.S. Lewis was open-minded enough to satisfy his own skepticism and then changed his mind to write the Chronicles of Narnia. He was a good friend of J.R.R. Tolkien, who was a devout catholic. A Catholic and an atheist being good friends, wow, talk about tolerance! Unfortunately we seem to live in an intolerant age of absolutism.
I know. It was remarkable. I am a Christian with Wiccan, Pagen, Jewish, Muslim, Agnostic, and Atheist friends.
Wow, there must be some wild parties at the Becca household.
For the record, I NEVER said that your character was Christ. I said he was a savior, yes, because my understanding of the story is that through his unwavering faith he SAVED Allivar.
Plus I don’t need to question where the Greek gods came from because I know that they are myths. The same way I don’t need to question where the good and evil from TLOTR or Harry Potter came from because I know that good and evil have always existed and I have my own personal beliefs as to their original creation.
You wanted my opinion as to why people of my generation (the 20-somethings) are not very interested in reading your book and I did my best to explain it, please don’t take my opinions on a small group and apply it to the general population.
You said Christianity was being shoved down your throats, thereby making it clear as to whom you believed the savior to be. It doesn’t take much to understand the inference.
Without reading the entire trilogy you are presuming he saved Allivar, which in fact, he does not. If an author has to reveal his biggest secrets in the story ahead of time, it loses its originality. Thus my hatred of prologues. My debate is that people prejudge it, before even giving it an opportunity. Sounds a little like real life and the problems we face in this age.
I have already stated I will never reveal why he is referred to as the Chosen One, instead leaving that to the reader to decide.