Reading the End of the Novel First?

"He also said, ‘The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.’ " Mark 4: 26-29

I can't stand transitions. I like beginnings, and I'm so-so with endings, but I get real impatient in the middle, the getting from here to there. Seriously, I'm one of those sinful people who usually reads the end of the novel shortly after beginning it. It's a terrible habit, very frowned upon in society. I usually do read the whole novel, but it helps me be able to put the book down for a few seconds if I know where the thing is going.

Keith, Lucas, and I are sitting right in the center of a transition right now, as we finish out our year-long internship here in Monroe, and wait as whatever what God has for us next unfolds. And it has been driving me batty!

I am reading another young adult fantasy novel from the library, which I really like: Graceling, by Kristin Cashore. I must admit that I skipped to the ending on this one, because I couldn't put it down otherwise, and it's hard to read straight through anything in my life, with a 21-month-old like Lucas, a dog like Billy, and a husband like Keith! Heh heh. But it is a great book, a really good story, and now as I read it cover-to-cover the way I'm supposed to, I'm realizing that one of the beauties of this book is the way Cashore develops the relationship between the two main characters. And that in skipping ahead, I missed out on the tensions and flow of that development.

And then it dawned on me how much I try to do this in my life. I want so bad to know the "end" of the story, to rush through the middle so I won't be held in suspense. But here I am, thirty-three years old, with a toddler and just really getting started in a vocation that it will take me a lifetime to master in any real way. And so, I'm right in the middle of everything! My whole life is suspense!

So I guess I'd better learn to appreciate it somehow, for the wondrous mystery that it is. This morning, looking at the daily lectionary, the above parable from Mark's Gospel came up, and I heard it in a new way. The farmer doesn't know how the seed sprouts, and the earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain. The development of the plant is a mystery, but it is an important mystery, an unfolding which has to happen for the plant to grow to fruition. But the exciting thing is watching how it happens.

It's not just that it's worth waiting for the mystery to unfold, but the joy in life is watching and appreciating exactly how that will happen, bit by bit, turn by turn.

Fantasy and Reality

I love reading sci fi/fantasy novels, especially ones written for teenagers. Starting with Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain in fourth grade, in my reading, I have gone on little vacations from this world and gallivanted around in mythopoetic worlds of all sorts. These "vacations" have been especially important for me during times of transition in my life.

Of course I love The Lord of the Rings and the Chronicles of Narnia as well as the whole Harry Potter series, but I've always felt a little guilty about this reading passion. However, over the past couple of years, I have realized that my love for mythic fantasy is very congruent with my love of the Bible and its narratives, as well as my passion for theology and philosophy. CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien (and even JK Rowling) all understood this long ago, but I'm only now catching up.

Well, I'm in another transition time in my life, as Keith and I prepare to graduate from seminary and continue the process of seeking a call to church ministry. And I have found myself drawn again to reading fantasy novels. Currently I'm reading The Books of Pellinor by Allison Croggon. I came across them in the local library's "Young Adult Fiction" section, and I'm on the third of the quartet, called The Crow. Croggon, whose primary writing before these books was poetry, writes with breathtaking and beautiful detail, describing a beautiful world in extreme peril. The "Dark" is rising again, bringing with it horrifying violence, brutal inhumanity, and despair. The main characters, a girl named Maerad and her brother named Hem, orphans with tragic histories of slavery and neglect, discover that they are prophesied to put an end to this menacing evil in their world.

As I'm just beginning to think about the theology of fantasy, I've come across a wonderful essay Croggon has written about "The Reality of Fantasy." She articulates very clearly much of what has been circling about in my head as I've been reading. Croggon points out that, in order for fantasy to work, the world in which it is set must be described in almost hyper-realistic detail, so that it is believable for the reader. She also points out that one of the most essential aspects of fantasy or "fairy stories" is what Tolkien calls the "eucatastrophe," the sudden turn of events which moves the protagonists--and the reader--from despair to hope. It is an unexpected moment of grace, which does not deny the regular catastrophes in the world, but shows that those tragedies are never the end of the story.

For this reason, fantasies like those I have noted describe and wrestle with realities which are profoundly spiritual. They offer room for what Croggon calls "emotional catharsis," which is a deep human need. As they allow the reader to distance momentarily from the difficulties of his or her own life, fantasy stories also offer the reader a chance to come to new terms with those difficulties.

Not surprisingly, the primary virtue of protagonists in fantasy stories is courage, because those characters face dark realities in their world; and it is for this reason that fantasy stories can inspire courage in their readers to confront own lives with acceptance of the challenges they face. Croggon writes, "It is through fantasy that we may enter reality whole, unafraid of ourselves and so more able to deal with the fears we face in the world. Fantasy is not an evasion of reality, so much as an enabler of it."

I love this quote, and I love Croggon's books.