Christian fiction

That's interesting about the 'art', i don't have a problem with its existence but if dealers in it started organised lobbying of its purchase by publicly funded art galleries, i might have a problem with that.

The wads of stuff being submitted is being sent back unopened. The publishing business, much like submitted demo tapes are rarely played. There's just too much so business developed filtering techniques.

Exactly my point Beth, they are marketing like its a specialist audience when it's the majority, thus it seemed odd to me.

Religious fiction sucks IMHO. I hate CS Lewis. I once read a book billed as "Jewish fiction". It was a novel about a Los Angeles cop brought up orthodox but who who had gone secular in adult life, served as a sniper in Vietnam (excellent marksman), didn't go to synagogue etc. His life hit a crisis when he confronted an armed robber while on duty and out of decency decided to just shoot him in the hand rather than kill him. His colleagues criticised him heavily for ignoring the unofficial cop code (shoot to kill). He didn't think he could carry on until he met & dated a nice Jewish divorcee who introduced him to her synagogue and the book ended with him feeling spiritually whole again, wearing a yarmulke, eating kosher, etc. It was as bad as it sounds. It was a paperback someone had left on a bus.

The fact that theres a market that is quite lucrative means that these things will continue to be published. Kinda like those vampire series, except theres a different head guy and no sex.

I get your point, I think, re specifically aimed fiction versus fiction informed by the writer's views. I think I read CS Lewis at some point, but don't remember.

Lncaster County is like a Woodstock of "Christian Rock", There are several subcategries including headbanger music and"Metal'. Were there no market, all this **** would quietly slip away.
We have an openly Christin Music store in Quarryville PA ( less than 10 miles from our frm) and I hd those guys re string my pedal steel guitr . They can get a little overbearing but I just tell em Im a Catholic and they pretty much leave me alone. HAd I said I was an atheist, Id have reaped the big mahoot conversion teams bugging me .

The only thing I find kinda creepy is that all these guys in the music store wear very dark ties and WHIIIITE shirts.

I LOOOVE CS LEWIS and pop-theology. Hes never scared me and it actually reinforces my own views because I dont need so many "If and only ifs" . Id wished he was alive to teach some of those stupid survey religion or ethics courses that my undergrad school required.

In that case, one can only hope that you choke on your own bile. Your completely unnecessary rehearsal of punblishers' manuscript submission methods does not authorize your "art mandated by decree" bullshit. There is no decree, and no authority demanding that these novels be written. No one is required to read them, no store is required to stock and attempt to sell them. The comparison to workers' paradise posters was egregious nonsense. This was hyperbole on your part, it was an outright lie. I don't know if that was due to ignorance or willful deceit. and it doesn't matter. You were using tendentious language and trying to paint this phenomenon in as black tones as you could. The same goes for that happy horseshit about promoting Christianity. Once again, they're attempting to sell to an existing market of Christians, and it is the height of absurdity to try to suggest that this is an attempt to promote Christianity. It's an attempt to sell books, and a damned successful one, too.

As for your whiny assumption of the role of the victim here, there's many a thing you've posted that was worthy of puking in your never ending tirades against Christianity. The fact of the matter, though, is that you live in a nation which is a secular state. No one compels you to religious practice and the state does not have it's collective hand in your pocket to support religion. I am firmly opposed to the notion of compulsion, be it by religion, political parties or the supporters of any ideology. This is not about compulsion. No one has to read these books, no one has to buy them and one is obliged to stock and sell them. This is just another in the long list of irrational rants against Christianity in which you specialize. The big difference here is that you've had to manufacture your complaint, and you've done a piss poor job of it.

I believe the mystery novel i alluded to earlier was probably from that series. Atrocious writing.

yuck! Oh excuse me while I say how I really feel................YUCK!

For that matter, have you ever read the ending chapters of Anna Karenina ? Booooring, especially when compared to the main body of the work. I think Tolstoy had a major brain event and went obsessive Christian on us.

No, I stopped with Anna Karenina early on.

The Brothers Karamozov had similar religious focus. But Dostoyevsky can hardly have been described as a religious fanatic. I found that novel hilarious, and a good deal of the humor came from the character Alyosha. I know the biographers say that the tone of the novel was set by the death of Dostoyevsky's son, but i guess if found it a case of preferring to laugh rather than cry.

Tolstoy, in my never humble opinion, already had a tendency to grandiose pronouncements--that's apparent in his sweeping generalizations in War and Peace. It's been too long ago that i read Anna Karenina for me to recall it, but i would not be surprised to think that Tolstoy had gone off the deep end by then.

With someone like Mary Ann Evans (George Eliot), you knew up front what you were getting into. I hate it when it turns out to be a nasty surprise such as in the mystery novels i alluded to.

I also found Brothers Karamozov hilarious and I was seventeen when I read it.

It's already awfully damn black. And sick, really sick. Hinge could go on a rant for a month and he could make it any blacker or sicker than it already is.

I think it makes tremendous business sense.

You really can be a bit of a wanker can't you Set? Pity. I like your breadth of knowledge and have respected your opinions, though I have winced a few times at your ascerbic opening postings on people who don't really deserve it. Now it's my turn. C'est la vie. Hope you enjoyed it. TTFN.

Yep, and that's creepy too.

Oh, i've just re-read this



Now I know you are mixing me up with someone else - or you have lost your mind. If you can show me a short list of my irrational tirades against christianity, I'll be ever so humble.

Seriously? I don't find it at all creepy.

The heavy metal Christian music kinda freaks me out, but the books not so much.