The 12th Coming of Less-Than-Glorious Fiction

National Review ^ | 04/02/04 | Carl E. Olson

[jrherreid]

Ping!

[Tribune7]

bump

[The G Man]

Coincidentally, I ordered the first "Left Behind" from Amazon this morning (along with Dune: The Machine Crusade).

[Support Free Republic]

Rank	Location	Receipts	Donors/Avg		Freepers/Avg		Monthlies
40	Armed Forces - Europe	75.00	1	75.00			35.00	3

Thanks for donating to Free Republic!

Move your locale up the leaderboard!

[Travis McGee]

This is going to be a fun thread! I picked up a "Left Behind" book once. Literally: I found it on the sidewalk. It amazed me how badly written a mega best seller can be! It told me, "go forward Matt, with your novel, you don't have to be Hemingway to write a best seller!"

If anyone wants to pick a bone with me over the comparative level of writing, click to this sample chapter from my novel. It stands alone pretty well as a short story, which is why I'm linking it. It's old, so it's been edited slightly in the printed novel.

"The Raid" from Enemies Foreign and Domestic

[Tax-chick]

"These uprisings shall be crushed posthaste. As we speak, portions of our more than extravagantly outfitted fighting force will peel off to these locations to lay waste to the pretenders. They will regret their insolence only as long as they have breath, and then they will be trampled and made an example of."

This is from "The Onion," right?

[TheBattman]

Premillennial dispensationalism and the belief in a Rapture event separate from the Second Coming is rejected, either explicitly or implicitly, by the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox churches, and nearly every major Protestant denomination.

Oh, really? Gee wiz, most Christians I know (not just those who are members of the same church) believe in a pre-tribulation rapture. I also believe that the scriptures back up the pre-trib angle.

But even if someone disagrees with this particular theology, the statement that "nearly every major Protestant denomination" rejects this view is quite false.

I bought the book on the release day. I have not had time to start reading yet, but am quite anxious to get started.

[BoomerBob]

I've read all twelve now and I must be honest and say that as the series progressed the books got worse. While I recognize that the books were never meant to be great literature, some passages where just silly. Theology aside, the books could have been so much better.

[meowmeow]

Funny you should mention that...I was just saying the same thing to my DH this weekend (we are Evangelicals). I've been pondering it for awhile now and have a few theories. My dream is to write Christian themed novels that don't suck. The older I get, the more I appreciate Catholicism. Truth and beauty seem to be able to coexist within it.

[jrherreid]

This is from "The Onion," right?

I wish it were!

[John H K]

This is from "The Onion," right?

Nah, I flipped through one of the early books in a bookstore, the writing actually IS that hideously bad.

[Mr. Jeeves]

It amazed me how badly written a mega best seller can be!

Anyone who has read Tom Clancy or Vince Flynn knows that, too. What matters is the ability to tell a story - for some reason the ability to tell stories and the ability to write well don't often coexist in the same author. "Writers" tend to spout brilliantly crafted nonsense, and "storytellers" make grammatical and structural mistakes that would make a fifth grader blush.

People don't read anymore, anyway. In the late 60's, a bestselling paperback would sell twelve million copies - today a book that sells three million is considered miraculous. The television generation has killed writing.

[Travis McGee]

Very true. In my constellation, I put storytelling first and foremost, and then try very hard to write the story as well as I possibly can.

[Jeff Head]

I've read the first nine volumes of the Left Behind Series. For me it got to where it was drgging way too much...almost purposely to drag it out to get more volumes and so I stopped. I know how it ends anyway...hehehe.

Still, the success is amazing and worth studying. It was a relative unknown until several volumes in and then it picked up and the resulting promotions and awareness kicked started all preceding volumes.

I also believe that it is not a very well written story...but I hate judging literary capabilities given my own novice status. At the same time, I did buy most of them and read them.

Like with Travis, it has given me hope for my own series:

THE DRAGON'S FURY SERIES OF NOVELS
A techno-thriller series about America and the next World War

We shall see.

[Long Cut]

Haven't read 'em, don't intend to. Why in the WORLD would anyone pay good $$$ to be (poorly) preached to? One can, if one wishes, go to church whilst the preacher is drunk for that.

I read to learn, to have my imagination stimulated, to have flights of fancy in adventures I will probably never experience, and to watch my favorite characters triumph.

If I want a Bible study, I'll sign up for one.

The authors of this scribbling even admit that entertaining and challenging the reader is completely secondary to them, after the preaching. What an insult to a reader.

[tjwmason]

But even if someone disagrees with this particular theology, the statement that "nearly every major Protestant denomination" rejects this view is quite false.

So which "major Protestant denominations" do go in for the whole Rapture thing?

It is not a comment on the veracity of the Theological position (though as a Catholicly-minded Anglican I have no time for the actual Theology personally), but rather a statement of verifiable fact. Most major Protestant denominations do not believe in it; just about everybody I have met who does believe in it is a member of an independent Church of some form or other.

[Jeff Head]

Well I did read several of them. Here's why.

I read them to see what their writing style was like to try and determine if that was a source for their success...to see if I agreed with their interpretation because I am a Christian who has an interest in what people think about the 2nd coming...and to study their success while I was writing my own series.

I determined that their story, while perhaps not a literary masterpiece by any stretch of the imaginiation, fed a desire by Christians in general, and evangelical Christians specifically, regarding fictional novels/tales/renderings of the tribulation and second coming. When those groups became fully engaged in the tale...it was a big enough audience to cause it to spread to other segnebts and for the larger publishing and retail outlets to want to get in on a piece of the action IMHO.

The way it spread is a good case study for people wanting to self-publish their own works with what may otherwise be considered non-politically correct material by the major publishing houses.

Anyhow...as with Travis...it let me know that you surely don't have to be a Dickenson or genius author to be successful. That gives me hope for the ultimate greater success of my novel series and building on its moderate success to date.

Jeff

[RichInOC]

Yes, it is crap writing...but it's true to life, at least that portion involving evil tyrants. I won't swear I haven't actually read this in a news story. Heck, I think Baghdad Bob may have actually said it.