Lewis and Tolkien: The Power Of Fiction
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Yes.
I started writing because I didn’t like the nihilism, moral relativism, hopeless, and shallowness of modern writing, and was looking for something other than the classics for my own children to read. Not that I thought they shouldn’t’ be reading the classics – they did/do – but because I was running out of things for them on my own shelves because they are fast readers. The local library was short of classic fiction and packed with more modern stuff, mostly known as “dreck.” Most YA “top X” lists look like a feminist/ nihilist /angsty /depressive /distopian nerd-girl chick-lit dream with a side-order of inter-species “relationships.” Not the sort of things that will tend to develop a healthy mind. nothing that can hold a candle to Tolkien or Lewis.
My own humble works, now with one new one on the shelf as of three days ago (Komenagen: Slog), hope to emulate in some small way the hopefulness and thoughtfulness of those two greats, but in my own unique way.
Rolf, I love your books. I have read them, and they are fantastic, and certainly in this vein.
On the subject of Nihilism, have you read Fr. Seraphim Rose’s book on Nihilism? Really good. I recommend it.
I haven’t read Fr. Seraphim Rose’s book on Nihilism, but I still have a couple of hundred other books on my shelf to read. :-/
I assume you mean this one: https://www.amazon.com/Nihilism-Root-Revolution-Modern-Age/dp/1887904069
And after watching the Lewis/Tolkein vid, I fell into this rabbit hole:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99fmOmlcF0c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTA8jbsm_XI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOlU_4pzft4
Good stuff.
Yes, that is the book. If you ever come to one of our meet ups, let me know you are coming, and I will be happy to pass along my copy.
5
“Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.”
― G.K. Chesterton
5
I also started writing because of the garbage on children’s library shelves. I even noticed it when I was in the target demographic, (12-14) that almost everything was a poorly-written clone of either Harry Potter or the Hunger Games. I read the original Dracula, Frankenstein, and War of the Worlds, (The Victorian classics are mostly free on most E-Reader devices) as well as Tolkien and G.K. Chesterton (the latter courtesy of a really cool uncle) that summer, because if I read another chick-flick dystopian YA novel I was going to go insane. Maybe some of my peers did.
Well, No one of Consequence (love the Princess Bride reference, if that was what you were aiming at), “Komenagen: Slog” is many things, but a dystopian chick-flick Harry Potter or Hunger Games clone it most certainly is not. More in common with “Tunnel in the Sky” (Heinlein) than anything else I can think of.
Yes, it was a Princess Bride reference. I like Heinlein a lot, so I’ll definitely check it out.