Rarely do I feel compelled to comment on a column, however Erika
Mailman’s Postscript is in need of such.
Dear Editor,
Rarely do I feel compelled to comment on a column, however Erika Mailman’s Postscript is in need of such.
Erika asks “Why isn’t Christian fiction labeled as such at the library?” I find her commentary to be biased and hypocritical.
Erika, do you know the meaning of fiction? Webster’s dictionary defines it as a noun: “Something that is created or imaginary, a literary work that is produced by the imagination and not based on fact.”
In your hypocritical statement, “The point of literature is to “walk in someone else’s moccasins for a while to learn compassion as we temporarily live through a character,” if you believed that you wouldn’t be making such a fuss over picking up a book where the character is doing and or saying something you identify as “Christian”.
I am a Christian and I enjoy reading many books including Water for Elephants, The Diary of Anne Frank, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and even Angels and Demons (gasp!). I’ve also stumbled onto books which I thought were one thing but found it to be completely different. One such book was Left Behind, which turned out to be the first in a series of 12 books. I thought it was science fiction about the end of the world, but found it to be about the “end times” based on the Book of Revelation. The story takes place in modern times, it was fast paced, exciting, and action packed as any fictional book I’ve ever read. The writer is a genius at character building.
My question to you is: Should fictional books be segregated into categories by what the characters are doing or thinking? If so Water For Elephants should be listed in the library under these categories: Nursing homes, veterinary practice, circus history, spousal abuse, animal abuse, adultery, “freaks”, clowns, crime, Depression era, murder, prohibition, love, and so forth. Can you imagine how large the card catalog would be just based on the subjects covered in this one book now multiply that by the number of published books? What is your suggestion to the library or publisher to decide which genre(s) to classify a book under?
To turn one of your statements around, if a non-Christian only read non-Christian stories they would never know what it is like to be Pi Patel a God-loving boy on a lifeboat with a 450-pound Bengal tiger in the novel, The Life of Pi, or what it would be like for four young white girls who are sisters ages 4 to 15 to be uprooted from their life in the U.S. and moved to small village in the Congo during the 1960s by their missionary father in the novel The Poisonwood Bible. Since both novels discuss God and Christianity I assume in your ideal world that a non-Christian would give neither of these books consideration. However, they would miss two thought provoking national bestsellers that impart the depth of what religion means to different people in circumstances we can hardly “imagine”.
Do you know what it means to be a Christian? My guess is you certainly think you do, but my feeling is you don’t have a clue! Take your own suggestion, read some of the so called “Christian” books you’ve accidentally stumbled upon and walk in the shoes of a “Christian”, you may learn some compassion for them!
Margaret Myers, Gilroy
