This post is about my new book, but I think it is also fiercely relevant to the mission and story of The Grey Havens Group. From the post: Even now, it is still popular to draw sharp lines in the sand between serious fiction and frivolous fiction. But there is a real case to be made for telling serious stories about seemingly unserious things (things like wizards dueling balrogs, dragons hoarding gold, herds of shambling zombies, and in this case, rampaging dinosaurs). Serious literariness aside, though, writing about zombies or aliens or tyrannosaurs can be outrageous fun. And thats important. Stories should have some degree of fun; we started them on cave walls and around campfires, after all, and after a long day of gathering berries, hunting wild bison, tanning hide, or mixing cave paint, some degree of fun is prerequisite. In fact, it is a large part of what makes you ready to face the next day -- and not just face it but beat it. And if Im going to write about matters like slavery, genocide, faith, hope, undying love, religious conflict, and the provisional triumph of the human spirit, Id better have a few moments of fun along the way so that I dont go absolutely batty. That seems to me a wise policy. I thought some of you might appreciate that -- or be able to use that sometime in talking about why we turn to Tolkien, Rowling, and others for stories that matter, stories worth enjoying. I hope I have conveyed the idea well; I may not have. But there it is. stantlitore/2014/12/02/the-hunger-games-meets-jurassic-park/
Posted on: Wed, 03 Dec 2014 05:08:24 +0000