Important Dates and Lecture Notes on Christian Literature

It’s the most busy-ful time of the year. Just to help you keep up with some important dates, I’m listing highlighted items on my calendar:

Don’t Pretend You Don’t Remember
2006 – Happy 10th Anniversary to the Macarena. Has it really been that long?

Soup’s On
Tomorrow is National Bouillabaisse Day. I can’t say that I’ve ever knowingly had Bouillabaisse, but it sounds entirely similar to Court Bouillon, a Cajun fish stew, which I definitely have enjoyed before.

Good to Know
Apart from other festivities celebrated this month, December is “National Read A New Book Month.” Next up for me: Dubliners by James Joyce.

On that Note….
I just enjoyed a great discussion with a reading group Sunday night. We talked about a G.K. Chesterton short story, and in so doing, moved on to discussions about Christian literature and literature in general.

My highlight of the night was the realization that most contemporary readers like stories with a lot of untied strings so that we can impose our own meanings; we chafe under too tight of a story from an author. That is, when authors come out and directly state morals, explains symbols, etc., we don’t seem to appreciate their works as much as works filled with open-ended symbolism and imagery that allow us to invent our own meanings for them.

Diagnosis
I say it’s because we live in an icon culture where we are allowed to prescribe meaning to the endless string of images around us, regardless of the artist’s original intent. In literature this translates to less authority for the author and more leeway to the reader. Perhaps in one hundred years authors will need to write nothing at all—just describe a series of images and let the readers do the rest?

Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!