Creation and Story

Okay, I know it’s been a terribly long time since I last posted. For the few that read this blog, I apologize. It was the busy time of the semester. But I just finished my big ole 57-page Historical Jesus paper (don’t be impressed; the bulk of that length was just a bunch of self-indulgent appendices), so I have some more time. I expect soon to have a two-part post on themes of fantasy in Edgar Allan Poe. However, in the meantime, I would like to give you a link to a post done by a friend of mine, Stephen Lawson, which was particularly insightful. You can read it here.

This post got me thinking about a subject concerning the modus operandi of this blog. We are concerned here with the question of Story, as an epistemology, as a teacher, as a way of life, as a damn good time. One of the key ideas of Stephen’s post was that, if we are to combat the rampant consumerism that plagues the Western person, we must return to seeing “value in our work, not merely as a commodity to be exchanged, but as co-creation with God.” I agree. But “work” I think also must be understood as a very broad term.

Often I have been asked, when telling a fellow Christian that I am working on writing a book (specifically a fantasy series), “So are you going to try to bring the gospel into it.” To this, I always reply, “No. No, I’m not, actually,” a response which is often met with puzzlement. “Then why are you doing it?” they ask. I tell you, the very question pisses me off. As if the only reason to create, to do work, to do art, is to “convert” non-Christians. I have to say, this is a terrible philosophy, and shame on those fundamentalist brothers and sisters of mine who may believe it.

I write, I create, because I believe that by doing so, I am working as God intended for me. In the words of my friend, I am “co-creating” with God, and in that co-creation, I am exemplifying him in all his shining goodness (the very same “good” that was pronounced of the Creation). I am doing the work which I have been created to do. And if my story does not “smuggle the gospel” directly into its pages, if it does not create moments of apologetical discourse (which I particularly detest), if it does not end with the heroes all joining hands and praying while the non-Christian antagonist “accepts Jesus in his heart” (whatever the hell that means), then so much the better! This story is not simply a project, it is not a task simply done for some “goal,” nor are the people who hopefully (hopefully!) will read it. Rather, the story, and myself, and those I share it with, we are life and creation, and we are dialoguing with each other in a realm which we all know and hold dear: Story. I write because in doing so, I follow in continuity of the Grand Narrative of which we are all apart.

A quote from Tolkien is instructive in this matter (and a few others as well). This was taken from the final paragraph of his seminal essay, “On Fairy Stories”:

But in God's kingdom the presence of the greatest does not depress the small. Redeemed Man is still man. Story, fantasy, still go on, and should go on. The Evangelium has not abrogated legends; it has hallowed them, especially the “happy ending.” The Christian has still to work, with mind as well as body, to suffer, hope, and die; but he may now perceive that all his bents and faculties have a purpose, which can be redeemed. So great is the bounty with which he has been treated that he may now, perhaps, fairly dare to guess that in Fantasy he may actually assist in the effoliation and multiple enrichment of creation. All tales may come true; and yet, at the last, redeemed, they may be as like and as unlike the forms that we give them as Man, finally redeemed, will be like and unlike the fallen that we know.

Here’s to Story for the simple sake of Story, and enjoying it because it is an extension of our very being. Cheers!