MyDoorsAreOpen
Bluelight Crew
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2003
- Messages
- 8,549
Have you ever encountered a book, comic, graphic novel, or movie, in which the author lays out a profound and ingenious reevaluation of mankind's relationship with the greater picture, in the form of a well-crafted story plot with relatable characters? Have you ever consumed a piece of fiction that consumed you, to the point of making you feel a tad bit closer to enlightenment, or unraveling the mysteries of it all, upon finishing it?
I'm talking about works of real artistic merit. From what I've seen perusing book and video stores, there's no shortage nowadays of stories that were written and marketed with the intent of making the reader feel elevated, but rely on poor writing and trite, saccharine, or shallow themes to do so. This to me is pandering, and is essentially the spiritual equivalent of erotic writing or pulp action novels. It has its place, but there's no denying it's kind of junk food.
Any good story speaks eloquently to the Human Condition, in a way that's easily accessible to audiences. Sometimes (often) this plumbing of the depths can be rather unsettling. But I don't think a story necessarily has to have a dark take home message of enduring human alienation in order to be a work of real merit. Can anyone name one they've read, that offers a clever potential answer to the human predicament, that's at the very least worth mulling over in your mind?
* As a child, I found "A Wrinkle in Time" by Madeline L'Engle to be one such book. It's been years since I've read it, and the story has still stuck with me.
* Say what you will about C.S. Lewis's Narnia series, I really think these books have a lot more depth to them than either side of the modern day Culture Wars give them credit for. Lewis was truly a modern-day mythmaker, who understood the human predicament quite well.
* Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" series was a real letdown to me. After the first book, which was lush in descriptive detail and teased the reader with a bold new metaphysical perspective, the rest of the series degenerated in writing quality, and the take home message turned out to be atheism. Meh.
* I give the Star Wars series a lot of credit for making a lot of Taoist ideas accessible to Western audiences.
I'm talking about works of real artistic merit. From what I've seen perusing book and video stores, there's no shortage nowadays of stories that were written and marketed with the intent of making the reader feel elevated, but rely on poor writing and trite, saccharine, or shallow themes to do so. This to me is pandering, and is essentially the spiritual equivalent of erotic writing or pulp action novels. It has its place, but there's no denying it's kind of junk food.
Any good story speaks eloquently to the Human Condition, in a way that's easily accessible to audiences. Sometimes (often) this plumbing of the depths can be rather unsettling. But I don't think a story necessarily has to have a dark take home message of enduring human alienation in order to be a work of real merit. Can anyone name one they've read, that offers a clever potential answer to the human predicament, that's at the very least worth mulling over in your mind?
* As a child, I found "A Wrinkle in Time" by Madeline L'Engle to be one such book. It's been years since I've read it, and the story has still stuck with me.
* Say what you will about C.S. Lewis's Narnia series, I really think these books have a lot more depth to them than either side of the modern day Culture Wars give them credit for. Lewis was truly a modern-day mythmaker, who understood the human predicament quite well.
* Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" series was a real letdown to me. After the first book, which was lush in descriptive detail and teased the reader with a bold new metaphysical perspective, the rest of the series degenerated in writing quality, and the take home message turned out to be atheism. Meh.
* I give the Star Wars series a lot of credit for making a lot of Taoist ideas accessible to Western audiences.