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Its January 2008, and this year starts another great year of the CSFF Blog tour. As I look back at all that has progressed in this genre, I literally look down in amazement at it all for so much has occurred. Such things as a Eastern Coast book tour, Wayne Batson being on Fox News near the release of Deathly Hallows, and a ton of wonderful books. This month's book Auralia's Colors by:Jefferey Overstreet spoke to me in great volumes. I feel as though I am holding a piece of something that like Door Within may be a market jumper. Meaning anyone of either the nonsecular and secular market may buy it and enjoy it. The story itself is not obscenely Christian, though the message of color being taken by those higher up, and art being controlled is quite universal in its scope. When I first cracked the spine of this book, at once I did not love it. My mind merely drifted with the words, flipping the pages, somewhat thinking of other things I could be doing for the day. Throughout my reading, I felt no real connection to the characters, that for me remained throughout reading the biggest issue. But the writing started to absorb me as Overstreet has a real knack of painting a picture in your mind, that and his message for me is what may this for me a rather great read.
It was the message that I fell in love with. The book spoke, of color (art) being restricted by those higher up. Color was richest when outside the kingdom. Hmmm.... this is really started to sound like what I have been thinking lately. This to me reflected one of my main issues with "some" churches. No, I am not turning this into a religious debate. Its just sometimes I feel as though instead of looking and analyzing art, some Christians barely stare at the source material and mark it as heresy.
A good example of this is anime. I have literally seen some mark "all anime" as a work of Satan. No not just one title, "all anime" That made me rub my head and say "Huh!" How can a whole genre be bad. But even some mark fantasy as such, I have literally have been hounded for recommending Door Within to some just because it looks similar to Harry Potter. Now I personally love Harry Potter, but that is unimportant to this. What is, is that sometimes the banning and all out campaigns against art sometimes makes people afraid of any art even if its good. By making Harry Potter look to be the worst, makes some believe then all fantasy must be bad. Instead of banning, instead of pervading online forums and shouting out random verses upon Harry Potter forums, saying all who read this are going to hell. Let us instead gently provide discernment against such books, instead of banning. All banning does is either make people want to read it more or make people universally hate everything of that genre.
*Take deep breath* One of the reasons I joined this Blog tour, was for raising the awareness of such a great genre. I have been on here for about six months, the people, the communication is awesome. I literally have been reading some great stuff by being on here. My book drought ended, and my money depleted.. We are Auralia, raising awareness of art that others frown down upon, showing we can depict God in a way that also mixes the fantasy elements of great masterpieces as LOTRs and Narnia. I have seen more God in Lord of the Rings than in mere "How to do" Christian books. No other genre to me paints God better. Through the mystic elements, he shows his wonders and majesty.
As 2008 starts let us like last year, spread the word to all, show how the art of fantasy could be used as wonders and for great expression of our spiritual gifts! I am only writing one post for I have been busy writing the rough draft of my novel. But I will take time to visit other blogs of this tour, I have been religiously reading Jefferey's Overstreet's blog, his posts are wonderfully written and some of his musings of the day, I fully agree upon and sometimes I think we think alike. I especially loved what he wrote about His Dark Materials!! Auralia's Colors is one of those rare novels, that anyone can enjoy, if they love great messages! Spread the word! Anyways, I'm off to write! God bless! Sayonara! Good bye!
P.S.-Check out Christopher Hopper's site, not only does he have a great contest running, but he also has written other great posts as well. Hey! also check out his books, believe me they are good!-
Links Of Interest-Other Participants-
Brandon Barr
Jim Black
Justin Boyer
Grace Bridges
Jackie Castle
Carol Bruce Collett
Valerie Comer
CSFF Blog Tour
D. G. D. Davidson
Chris Deanne
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Marcus Goodyear
Andrea Graham
Jill Hart
Katie Hart
Timothy Hicks
Heather R. Hunt
Becca Johnson
Jason Joyner
Kait
Karen
Carol Keen
Mike Lynch
Margaret
Rachel Marks
Shannon McNear
Melissa Meeks
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Mirtika or Mir's Here
Pamela Morrisson
Eve Nielsen
John W. Otte
John Ottinger
Deena Peterson
Rachelle
Steve Rice
Cheryl Russel
Ashley Rutherford
Hanna Sandvig
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Rachelle Sperling
Donna Swanson
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Jason Waguespac
Laura Williams
Timothy Wise
Where to purchase the book?
Author's website
Author's Blog
6 comments:
I like your comment about "providing discernment." That a Christian should fail to see this important role in the midst of analyzing culture is truly a loss for the world as a whole. May we be a people who are not afraid to astutely comment and, as Paul did, persuade those into true understanding.
And thanks for the plug, bro!
CH
I agree with Christopher--your call for discernment is excellent. In my view it's the response we should foster to anything, not just books. We should be checking with Scripture, not the current knee-jerk reaction to what is new that so often becomes policy.
Writing, drawing, technology, all that comes under the category of Tool, stuff that can be used for good or of evil.
Becky
I'm glad you were blessed by the beauty in this book. I was too.
There's such a difference between a blanket statement of such and such is bad and the analysis of content and message to determine if a particular story, book, movie, etc is something worth my time and effort. I try not to blanket anything but there are some things I choose not to read or watch based on information about the content or messages. There are almost always some members of a specific category of books, movies, etc that may not fit the blanket stereotype that people come up with so it is much better to assess each based on it's own individual merits and deficiencies.
I've only read a few of Jeffrey's reviews on his blog but based on those and some of the other statements I've read from him in regards to reviewing it sounds like that is exactly what he tried to do with his movie reviews.
You said, "The story itself is not obscenely Christian." That is going to keep me thinking for a long time. When does zeal turn into something perverse and obscene?
Well, that is definitely not the first time I have made that mistake, Mark. Sometimes I use the wrong words for the wrong things, I definitely did not mean it that way. For all the other comments, thanks for commenting, I greatly appreciate it. Oh and Chris Hopper, I'll keep recommending your books because they deserve the plugs!!!
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