Question for the Christian Women on Christian "Romance Books"

[calgal]

The attitude of the reader in my opinion is the key: these are someone else's fictional ideal, NOT a template for life. My MIL likes Karen Kingsbury and I read her books but find her "perfect Christian families" annoying: I want to see ONE family deal realistically with cancer, infertility, chronic disease, family "issues," substance abuse, death and church drama. But that is not likely: the readers want a perfect "ideal family" Although "As the Presbytery/Classis turns" might be fun to read.....

 

[TimV]

and incited me to burn Ruben's apostate meeting place, thus leaving us homeless. It's a long story.

Perhaps you can tell us the story in instalments. Try to work in a scene when the dog saves the daughter of the King of Rohan, by biting the Nazgul on the backside, and it somehow leads to a kiss for someone.

 

[turmeric]

My mom used to read romance novels obsessively, she constantly tried in her pietistic ways, to get "victory" over this - it did me some good - I can't stand the things! Pergy, your series sounds interesting, so does the saga of Heidi's dog.

I read a work of Christian fiction which I actually liked, I can't find it anymore. It was a pre-publication copy left downstairs in my building lobby. The narrator is a somewhat self-righteous aging SBC or independent-church woman at the beginning, she counsels her younger and not-so-bright friend who has moved to the big city about men. At one point she says to her "Now you know that you and I together do not make a whole wit". it was pretty funny. Anyway, she starts seeing a strange woman in her neighborhood, finds out the sherrif's son is "dating" her, she "speaks her mind" as such types are wont to do, there's some acrimony, the old black guy down by the railroad tracks finds some abandoned children, there's more intrigue, and the upshot is; the "streetwalker" is an illegal Mexican with AIDS, the kids are hers, the old woman ends up taking care of all of them, of course the Mexican gets saved and dies...but it was well-written In my humble opinion. Don't know who wrote it.

 

[govols]

Warning!

It is probably a good idea to keep our wives away from romance novels.

Our wives must be kept from finding out about Bawb at all costs!

I will not, can not, grow long locks.

 

[mybigGod]

I dont know if we should throw out all of the stories of the evils and the false expectations that are created from our imaginations. I think the bible is very explicit in describing these different evils. And sometimes when i am reading an old testament story, i just laugh at how God marks out these evils by creating in our own minds and through our imaginations the level of anger he has toward ones sin by describing these punishments with such explicit descriptions in an insignificant manner of producing the punishment to show the utter folly of sin. In a way this teaches us that studying sin is essential to avoiding it. There is something about not using our imaginations that cause us to be gullible.

I can understand how a woman would be bored with a sinful and corrupted man. There is this tension in marriage that is natural for a woman to want to imagine what her husband would be if he were that king who would slay the armies of the enemy. "Gird up your sword upon your side oh mighty one." A reference to the king ravishing a young bride and and then having offspring to continue his rule. Theres nothing wrong with longing to be the one who gets victory over the enemies in a spiritual sense and gaining that respect from her. Its part of the process of having an artistic flavor that keeps the fires going in a marriage.

I know my tendency is to imagine that as long as i am comfortable and got all my eggs in order i must best example of goooooooodly character. We can think that is what God is like, but it may be our laying down before we even start to take chances and get into the battle. It could be that we are blind spiritually and lukewarm, disengaged and passive. If we are going to exercise our faith then we are going to get dirty along the way. I am not saying that we should test God, but i am saying that God is going to test us.

 

[a mere housewife]

and incited me to burn Ruben's apostate meeting place, thus leaving us homeless. It's a long story.

Perhaps you can tell us the story in instalments. Try to work in a scene when the dog saves the daughter of the King of Rohan, by biting the Nazgul on the backside, and it somehow leads to a kiss for someone.

I'm not sure Zack would have cared for saving any females: he probably would have preferred to bite the daughter of the King of Rohan on the backside. He would have instantly recognized a Nazgul as Alpha Dog, and allowed him free access to the property; and if anyone kissed, he would have chalked it up to the sad effects of alcohol.

Tom I adore fairy tales and truly imaginative literature. What I dislike is unimaginative escapist fiction. Lewis differentiates between stories that make for instance the woods seem even more magical and wonderful; and stories that make the woods seem flat and boring. The latter stories are not fantastic: they don't enhance our appreciation of reality. They do not call out our imagination. They merely call out our lust, our envy, our greed, etc; and make us discontent. Our faculty of make believe can be abused to lesser things as well as grasp toward greater ones; and unfortunately the Christian romance I've had any acquaintance with (though I haven't read many authors listed here) falls in the escapist category. It's not about inspiring us to behave like the sons and daughters of a real King in a more heroic and fantastic story, but just inspiring us to wish we or the people we love were somebody else. Escapist literature appeals more to the ego than to the imagination. So I thank God the unimaginative made up men don't exist. They only exist in some women's minds to flatter them; and real men aren't such parasites, living merely to compliment the life of the host organism.

 

[py3ak]

Ruben: How is the craze in modern "courtship stories" or "testimonies" then not claptrap too? Most tell of romance and not lust and physical details are not involved. Is it different because one is fiction and the other is an account of a real person's courtship.

I haven't seen any of these courtship testimonies, Pergamum, but I wouldn't be surprised if many of them are in fact mere mush. Not necessarily in intention or in reality, but in execution as writing. The fact that they reflect something that actually happens will probably assist them, though (as the things that fall out according to God's decree tend to have a little more iron in them than the wamblings of inflamed imagination).

Yes, many would think of Jane Austen as romance, probably because there is romance, in the sense of falling in love and getting married, in her books. But there is a difference, not only of degree, but of kind, between a humane and natural and Johnsonian author, on the one hand, and a rattling twit who's vicariously looking for burning kisses.

 

[py3ak]

Pergamum, by the way, I am old-fashioned enough to believe that there are objective standards for the arts, and that reducing them, even in the question of the culinary arts, to a mere matter of individual preference is a mis-step. But let me also say that good taste in the arts apparently has no connection with holiness.