During this modern age it may seem like one’s time would be wasted reading tales of elves, dwarves, and dragons. Why would such smart, technically advanced people want to waste their lives on such things? Aren’t these imaginative tales of good versus evil children’s novels, to be outgrown like the crib and the rocking horse? A look at modern literature would make it seem that way. The shelves are no longer filled with black and white stories; gone are the classic westerns where the good guys always wore the white hats. No, this nation’s adolescents are sold books of gray on gray, bad versus worse, heroes who ask the dark question “What if I’m the bad guy?”[1] and heroines who overlook it. Handsome vampires replace crazed Draculas, and suddenly sleeping with blood-sucking creatures becomes something to be desired. Fiction today blurs the lines that the last generations were taught never to cross, and instead of producing wholesome citizens with a love of good and hatred of evil, today’s youth grow to become rebellious clones: all dressing the same, using the same dirty language, and indulging in the same lustful activities. Of course, not all teenagers turn into slaves of sin, but the more twisted fiction becomes—the more evil is glamourized—the more cultural clones are produced.
If fantasy has indeed taken such a negative turn, why call it important? Fantasy’s importance is found in its influence, for what children read plays a part in what they become. If a child, when looking for a book to read, reaches for tales of black magic and superstition instead of innocent rhymes and wholesome morals, he—often unwittingly—weakens his sense of right and wrong. How could one book shape a child’s future? By influencing his literary tastes, which will end up determining his interests, desires, philosophies, and decisions. In order to save the children of today from becoming the mainstream adults of tomorrow, classic literature, beautiful fantasy, must be rediscovered, the old tales dusted off and the new ones forgotten, so that right and wrong might once again find their proper places. Above all this nation must remember that at the center of every good fairy tale lies a fight to defend the honor and truth of the Ultimate Composer, and one can never outgrow the wisdom and guidance resting at the hearts of His parables.
May God have mercy on the misguided souls, and bless those who strive to restore holy fear in their hearts.
Amen.
[1] Stephanie Meyer. Twilight. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2006. Print.
I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this here before…
But I recommend you read the writings of St. Birgitta of Sweden; I would leave a link to what is available online, but I don’t want to “spam” anybody.
There is a site that has posted most (if not all, by now) of what they claim are her writings – and someone I trust has said this appears to be accurate information – although there are links off this site to places of *out there* and inaccurate “Catholic” thinking.
That aside, she wrote of her visions of Christ, His Mother, and others that she’d had most of her life. Most interesting to me is when (and how) Christ speaks to her, and the things He allowed her to see – keeping in mind that the personal revelations of the Saints are not necessary reading nor do we have to believe them.
For those of us who crave His Words, Birgitta’s writings about Christ are a fascinating read.
I too lament what has happened to fantasy in recent years. In many cases good and evil have been kicked to the curb, and this gray miasma has taken its place. And in other cases, black versus black. You are spot on in those assesments. And how pitiful the situation is.
But fantasy is more than just child’s play, and these trends first started appearing in adult fantasy before it trickled on down. And it has everything to do with worldview. People who believe life is meaningless, write meandering tales of meaninglessness. People who believe behind life is only chaos and despair, write stories inculturated with chaos and despair. And people who believe that there is no good, or that evil is the dominant of the two, or even that evil IS good, write stories in which evil is triumphant and good is a lie.**
As long as these ideologies remain dominat in our culture, we will see more and more of this sad and ultimately pathetic trend.
** To give examples of these things in adult fantasy literature:
George RR Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire saga, is, among many other things, deeply nihilistic, and set in a world in which evil almost always triumphs over good, and indeed, the only reason there seems to be any moral characters in the story is so they can be ruthlessly cut down in a later chapter. Besides that, I should also mention the series is very, very vulgar and obscene, in many different ways. The fact that some people regard this series as the best fantasy since Tolkien, says a lot more about us than it does about the series.
Another example is Michael Moorcock’s Elric series. Chaos and despair, black vs black, dominate that series, and the main hero would make Tolkien’s villians seem noble.
Last but not least is the nasty Firt Law trilogy, which seems to be more about the author’s own hate of traditional fantasy, than about anything else. To paraphrase someone else, imagine a middle-earth where the the hobbits get cancer from their proximity to the one ring, where Sauron is overthrown only to be replaced by a weak king Aragorn, who himself is really just a puppet king for Gandalf, who only began the quest against Sauron so he could replace Sauron as the master of Middle-earth.