Into the Fire

. . . the story. I love good literary novels. Is that an ambiguous statement or what coming from me? Me who refuses to label “good” or define “quality” writing. Me who insists that subjectivity plays a huge role in determining those two facets of fiction. Nevertheless, I will restate I love a novel that exercises literary effort. Where words illustrate profound pictures, scenes, characters, truths. Where you smell the scents and hear the voices, the sounds of birds, traffic, ocean tides. Where great care is taken to paint the story and immerse the reader in both the language of description and the emotion of the characters. Where it doesn’t matter if there’s catastrophic occurrences or neighborhood chats.

However, if there’s one weakness that can surface in these carefully scripted stories, it’s when the beauty of the words overtakes the story. When the author is so absorbed in the art of words that he forgets about the value of the elements of the story. Words are the only weapon authors wield. Those words have so many unique and sometimes mundane duties that they can’t reign like a despot king decked out in grandeur. They must cover all of the story and make it meaningful. Sometimes they must concede their beauty and become ordinary to transmit the everyday event. Sometimes they must disallow that beauty to portray the ugly and grotesque without fanfare and endorsement. Sometimes words have to take the back seat to story.

One consistent complaint I’ve noticed from others and in a very few “literary” novels I’ve read is the dislike or lack of engagement with the primary and peripheral characters in the story. For me, when I fail to like a character, especially the protagonist, the chances of me enjoying the novel are slim or none. Characters carry the story on their backs. Without characters to arouse certain emotions, identifications, and/or passion in us, we readers might admire the prose which takes us to places with intimate detail, but if we go without the accompaniment of engaging characters, it’s like being on a magnificent tropical island alone.

Words construct the writing, but along with their quest for beauty they must also depict the ordinary. They must inspire involvement not only in their usage but in what they create in the spirit of the reader. The words should not be the focus and objective of the writing but the vehicle with which they create the story to take the reader to a place he is thankful for having visited with characters he’s sad to leave.

Father, please give me the words to paint the pictures you inspire. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.    

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