“In short, I think there are powers and mysteries at work in the world that can only be expressed through fairy tales. Fairy tales allow us to cast nets into mystery and catch things that are otherwise inexpressible. Tolkien said that fairy tales can give us a glimpse of our eventual redemption in a way no other story can.

At its best, fantasy provides us with an escape from the narrow, restrictive perspectives of modernism. And with its emphasis on the primal, it returns us to engagement with the elements, with the stuff of rocks and trees and fire and rivers and mountains. Since those elements of creation “pour forth speech,” according to the Psalmist, we’re able to hear some things more clearly when we meditate there.

But fantasy can be destructive, too. I’ve seen people who are dissatisfied with their lives attracted to the violence, to sorcery, to the ideas of tremendous power that are celebrated in some fantasy stories. I’ve watched people become severely irresponsible, abandoning engagement with their own world in order to indulge in fantasy role-playing games or non-stop fantasy media. Fantasy is dangerous territory and it demands discernment.”

Jeffrey Overstreet

From this excellent interview, by Jenni Simmons, with this outstanding author.

Raven’s Ladder releases today! Go here to buy this book. I loved it, for what it’s worth.

Note: If you haven’t read the first two books, Auralia’s Colors, and Cyndere’s Midnight, get them first.

Andrew Mackay has some excellent thoughts (and chats up the cool film: Primer) answering the question: What should the quality of a movie that reflects/supports/advocates/illustrates a Christian world view be like?

“…You see this in Christian movies, too. If you look across the bulk of the movies made, they are shallow, filled with superficial “tragedy” that in every case resolves perfectly, helping the protagonist to more exciting faith.

This is why so many believers who are artists choose to do art outside of the community of faith — or on the outskirts of it. You can communicate harder things, deeper things, if you’re not constrained by an industry that doesn’t want depth, preferring an easy sell. So, you get a movie like Primer, made by a Believer, that explores hard questions about man’s nature and does it interestingly (time travel and the relationship dynamic between best friends). This movie would be a hard sale into the Christian art buying community (Christian bookstores, web stores, etc). But, ironically, it found an audience with thinking people in the general industry. And it was better done than any Christian movie I’ve ever seen.

So, one thing that Christian art must have is depth.”

Read the whole post.

Although Abraham Piper is, like, unhappy about, like, the unbalanced nature of this presentation, I, like, totally think it’s, like, amazing? But I am not a student of communication like Abraham is. Also, who knew this was called “uptalking?”

Typography from Ronnie Bruce on Vimeo.

HT: Justin Taylor

Literary Agent Steve Laube talks about the hyped-up notion that “print is dead.” In movies agents end up behind enemy lines, often wounded, spying, wisecracking, and listening for details of what is happening. So, reliability and all that. 

Laube argues that, while things are definitely changing, the notion that print books are over with is silly. He employs all caps, which I assume he doesn’t like to see in proposals.

“I see the royalty statements. I know exactly how many digital versions of my client’s books are being sold. And while there are a lot more sold than there were two years ago (of course there would be) the volume is still less than 1% of the print version sold. LESS THAN ONE PERCENT.”

He even notes that CD sales are still strong, even though digital music is (obviously) popular and growing more so. I know we’re all trying to figure out what kind of relationship there is between what has happened/is happening to the music business and book publishing. His article is informative on that front. Read it here.

Bottom line: printed books are alive and well, and will be for at least a while. To that I say, “Yay,” and “Pip, pip!” And, lastly, “Tally ho.”

OK, may have overdone that.

Here’s a picture of a Kindle being made. Oddly enough, they are manufactured using very old printing presses. That is also, in fact, where they get their name: Kindle. The fellow what operates the press is named “Kindle B. Rhinelander.” He has, it might surprise you to learn, a mustache.

Do you think printed books are on the way out? If so, do you care one way or the other? Do you like money?

“These days, you need to deliver not just the manuscript but the audience.”

Jim Levine

This informed quote was snagged from Rachel Gardner’s post about how authors need a platform. I haven’t really talked about the idea of platform much here. But this blog is, in fact, part of my efforts to “build a platform” (among other things, of course).

A “platform,” for those who haven’t heard the term, is all the ways that an author has connected with an audience and stays connected with that audience. Literally, I guess it’s kind of like being in front of people, or before them, or visible in some way. Or it might be about forming plats. Not sure.

The relevant point being that the smaller your platform is the more risk the publisher has to take on you. The larger your platform the less risky it is for the publisher to publish your book. They see that there’s an audience there.

This is a big reason why authors maintain blogs, Facebook pages (fan or otherwise), Twitter accounts, send random people money, and connect with their audience in various other ways.

I used to view this kind of thinking as manipulative and vain. But I have changed my mind a lot on that front. I now see the value of being knowable, accessible, of serving your readers by helping them connect to you. Of course this is an enormous benefit for the author on many fronts.

I don’t know how a publisher would quantify the value of my own platform as an author. I would say that it has certainly grown considerably over the last year, or year and a half (corresponding to when I began to make efforts that direction). I have put some effort in on that front and have gone from being virtually unknown, to having a fairly good-sized group that I feel connected with (on various levels).

I have enjoyed connecting with so many people, from the Rabbit Roomers to old South African friends on Facebook.

It used to be that you were VERY limited on options for connecting to an audience. That has changed dramatically. I am thankful for these opportunities, and I hope to use them for good and not evil. Much like my use of that magic pot of beans I found in a unicorn’s cave.

Is this West Virginian in my audience? One hopes.

Tim Challies, a Canadian blogger of staggering popularity who reads twelve books a day (or so), has a hysterilarious post about a couple of board games he recently received.

One is “Your Best Life Now –The Board Game.” That speaks for itself. (Threw up in mouth.)

The other one is “Rich Daddy God,” not much different perhaps. But Rich Daddy God contains some Engrish magic, as seen in these cards.

Check out his post for all the funny details.

My wife has some lovely words about life and living. Read her post here.

It includes this little bit of reflection on losing power (which we literally did last week).

“But it seems like in the midst of inconvenience, God likes to remind us of himself. In the sweetness of fellowship, the beauty of a freshly fallen snow, or the twinkling of candles on a dark dark night. Yes, even when the stars shine extra brightly because no one around has any other source of light, we are reminded yet again of the Creator and Savior–the one who made the stars and whose coming to earth was announced amid them.”

Gina Smith

“Early in the Old Testament, God told His people to tell and retell to their children the story of how He saved them from slavery in Egypt. (Deut 6:20-25) With this command to be life-long story-tellers, we are reminded that while our redemption in Christ is very much set in doctrinal truths, these truths are anchored in an amazing and true tall tale.”

Andrew Peterson

This snippet is from a podcast which features the first of Russ Ramsey’s much anticipated Advent series over at the Rabbit Room. Listen to it here. Highly recommended.

Andrew Mackey has an outstanding post over at his blog about the importance (or not) of reading “the news.” I very much relate to this as I have a love/hate thing with “the news” and am frequently disgusted by the so-called “straight” news coverage and even more by almost all the opinion talkovereachotherites on the almost entirely unwatchable “news” channels. Still worse, the arrogant and entertaining stupidity of Stewart/Colbert (which is all the “news” a host of people who actually vote get). The news increasingly feels to me like the scene where Dorothy meets “The Great Oz.” Um, I can totally see you back there, dude.

Note: I understand that I am using “quotation marks” way too much. But once you start it’s hard to go back.

Andrew supplies a nice Lewis quotation and follows it up with this:

“…He’s probably right. I’m not sure where to find the balance between paying attention to what goes on in the world around me and, as he put it, an incurable taste for vulgarity and sensationalism.

This has come to the fore for me in the recent redesign of CNN.com. They now display a little graph of the most-read stories in the top right. As I write this, Heidi Klum’s Halloween is the most read story. It’s followed by three straight stories about extreme violence.

I have far more questions than I have conclusions, but perhaps the whole of western civilization could stand to take a look at what we’re interested in / fascinated by. Perhaps we should, as Lewis suggests, spend our time on things that will not be untrue or irrelevant ten years from now. I think our wonderous technology lends “news” to being irrelevant/untrue in ten minutes rather than ten years.”

Read it all (it’s brief) here.

Kevin DeYoung has some good thoughts about art and the church’s thinking about art. I have set out his main points, but you should really read the post if you’re interested in this kind of thing. It’s good.  

The Church and the Arts: Some Common Ground and Some Common Sense

1. We must allow art to be art.

2. Art is valuable, but so are a lot of other things.

3. Art can do some things, and it can’t do some other things.

4. Our worship should strive for artistic excellence, but our worship will inevitably be “popular” and propositional.

5. Churches can learn to welcome artists, but artists should not expect the church to be an art gallery.

6. Artists can help us see our idols, and artists have idols of their own too.