Reading fiction

I’ve been reading a bit more fiction lately. I’ve probably always gone in streaks with my reading. I read a lot of different kinds of books. Although I’m usually at least a month behind in writing my reviews for the book blog on my website, it shows a lot of different kinds of literature. What I am reading these days isn’t the world’s greatest fiction, just some good stories. Sometimes I catch part of Science Friday on NPR and I heard about their book club, so got a copy of N.K. Jemisin’s The Fifth Season and read it. It is the first book in a trilogy, so I’m about halfway through the second book and I suspect I’ll pick up the third book. The Science Friday folks discussed he book as science fiction, and I guess the moniker is accurate, though it isn’t a book about the future, space travel, or other planets as is the case with many science fiction books. Rather it is set in a planet wracked by earthquakes, volcanoes and other tectonic tumults. A group of people are able to control some of the forces of what is called “Father” earth in the books.

I’m pretty sure the books aren’t going to rank up there with C.S. Lewis, JRR Tolkien, or even Elie Wiesel, Ernest Hemingway or John Steinbeck, but they are engaging stories and I’ve been drawn to them enough to keep me reading. Of course, I always have a theological book or two in the works and most of the time have some book I’m reading that takes a look at church leadership or nonprofit management. I’ve also been re-reading sermons by Walter Brueggemann, inspired by the memory of sermons he wrote and delivered during a long Epiphany in the C year of the lectionary cycle. Brueggemann isn’t particularly a lectionary preacher, but he has followed the discipline on occasion.

So my choicer of reading materials is pretty varied.

I am fascinated by the human imagination. I remember a time, when I was a student, when I hardly read any fiction at all. There was so much reading that was part of my student lifestyle and I had plenty of reading that needed to be done for my schoolwork. I mistakenly thought that fiction was a waste of time. I didn’t completely avoid poetry, but it certainly wasn’t the focus of my attention. Somewhere along the line, I discovered that the Bible is filled with poetry. Imagining the writers of scripture, trying to describe experiences that were beyond the power of language, struggling to find just the right words, editing for rhythm as well as for content, gave me a deeper appreciation for the poet’s skill. Grasping part of the role of the prophets in Biblical history gave me a fresh appreciation for poetry and I began to wonder who the prophets of our time might be and whether or not they, too, turned to poetry to express their experiences with God.

Our brains are incredibly complex. Somewhere in our minds is the capacity for imagination - a reflection of our inmost nature. The book of Genesis proclaims that humans are created in the image of God. God, being the Creator, created beings who themselves were capable of creating.

My mind doesn’t seem to produce the rich and wild fantasies on the scale of the broken earth trilogy that I am currently reading. When I allow my imagination to wander, I tend to think of scenarios that involve the work I do or a particular obsession I have. I imagine boats that I might build, and a few that will never be built. I imagine solving particular problems in the life of the church and often the solutions I imagine turn out to be rather impractical when exposed to the light of day. I once read that one ought to write down the portions of the dreams one has and read them later to look for insights into one’s problems, behaviors, and personality. I’ve never subjected myself to the discipline of remembering very many of my dreams, but for a while I kept a notepad near my bed to write down ideas. I abandoned the practice after deciding that what I was writing was nearly gibberish, and not helpful solutions to whatever problems I was trying to solve. When I was working on professional writing near the end of my seminary career, I would often go to bed pondering a particular problem in the writing, was up with what seemed to be a good idea and upon later reflection realize that the idea that seemed so good in my semi-sleeping state was usually one I’d had before and had discarded because it wasn’t useful.

I’m not likely to ever become a fiction writer. My fantasies just aren’t that interesting. But I am intrigued by the minds of those who can write fiction. Elie Wiesel once said that writing stories was, in some cases, the best way to tell the truth. He didn’t see his fiction as fantasy, but rather as an attempt to tell a bigger story and report on experiences that defy language and human expression. Sometimes the only words available reach beyond simple description of facts to reach for deeper meanings.

So I shall continue to read all kinds of books, including fiction. I’m not sure that it informs my preaching or makes my writing more dramatic. It does, however, teach me about the incredible diversity of human experience and human expression. Occasionally it gives me an illustration for something I write or say. It teaches me about the great power of human imagination. We are literally able to imagine worlds that are different from our own. And that may be why I’m reading more fiction these days. Some days the world in which we live is filled with real events that defy reason. We’ve come to the point where some accept lies from our leaders as if that were normal behavior. So much incredible behavior is reported that we accept things that once were considered to be beyond the norm.

Sometimes the world of the novels makes more sense than reading the news of the day.

Copyright (c) 2019 by Ted E. Huffman. I wrote this. If you would like to share it, please direct your friends to my web site. If you'd like permission to copy, please send me an email. Thanks!