Fiction, Faith & Young People

Happy All Saints Day

Yes, the day after Halloween is a holy day, known as All Saints Day. Of course, few of us can remember how we got a day devoted to dead, holy people. Even fewer people know how “All Hallows Eve” is related to a holiday we all know and love as Halloween. But, we need to understand this connection if we are to understand the huge disconnect many young people are feeling today.

A parent recommended I share The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, by C. S. Lewis with my students. I don’t think there’s anything more beautiful than watching a young person slowly turn the pages of that book; watch them as they fall into that dreamy, ice-encased universe that engulfed me in my youth.

What happened to enchanted Narnia? What happened to our golden age?–when proud lions could defeat evil queens, and good always triumphed in the end. Those days never really existed, is what young people are clamoring to tell us today.

Fiction is no longer about being transported away from real life perils. Fiction today is about getting down and dirty and facing our darkest fears. Isn’t that what great books do? Help you find a mythical place where all those fears you thought were yours alone are shared by the tribe. But this year, when I asked my bright students in one class if they knew C. S. Lewis. I got nothing but blank stares.

Why does this surprise me? Especially after checking out the books my kids want to share with their parents. Here are the top three:

Speak, by Laura Halse Anderson

Thirteen Reasons Why, by Jay Asher

The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins

Hallow’s Eve and All Saints Day were usurped by Halloween because Halloween offered a dark and thrilling challenge to death that was much more palatable then standing in a darkened church reciting prayers. Halloween is about stories that scare you into a state of irresistible fear.

I’m convinced fewer of my students know Narnia today because of it’s Christian associations. Last week, I wrote “Gender” was the new dirty word. Might was well add “Christian” –as in “Christian Fiction”– to the list, and I can’t really blame young people for nixing it. Young people just aren’t into the cardboard characters, and morally-correct stories that make up most CF today. Who is?

We need to change that. I don’t think students should be required to recite prayers at school. Religion and God are dead in this new age of anxiety. But the saints were some pretty good role models for many of us. All Saints Day is about remembering real people who did some pretty unreal things.

Who do we have now to replace them?

Wonder Woman. A great choice, except she isn’t real and Hollywood has her sexed out like a supermodel.

Parents, wake up. If you really want a someone for your kids to look up to, find one who’s real enough to actually be redeemed. Why not Clay Jensen and Hannah Baker? How about Melinda Sordino?

We need more that talking animals to deal with issues like sexual assault, and suicide. I wish I could go back to once upon a time…but it’s time for all of us to answer another question:

Would you rather traipse through Narnia? Or, see if you can survive the trails of Panem?

You pays your dues. You makes your choice.

Join the dialogue

And get a free book about an idiosyncratic Saint.

Cease & Desist

Don’t Be Fooled.

This Election is About Women.

Not a woman who may become President. Not even about a woman’s right to choose, equal pay, and all those things women and some men have been fighting for. Those are the things everyone in power wants you to believe this election is about.

But they’re wrong. This election is about the women we’re too ashamed to admit even exist. Women who’ve been assaulted on a date, women who’ve been demeaned at the office, groped and then told there just isn’t enough evidence to prove it–the kind of broken women we’re reading about more and more in fiction…but are afraid to admit really exist.

Donald is a demon. That may well be. But don’t think Hillary is going to help your daughters get equal anything. Why? Because the change we need goes deeper than institutions and laws, and that’s all politicians talk about.

A good writer sees what we are afraid to admit is there. A good writer reads the radar of things we don’t want to see coming. I doubt Laura Halse Anderson, Ursula Le Guin, or Margaret Atwood will ever be invited to join Hillary’s brain-trust, because these are writers who see battered women as more than just victims.

Sex assault victims are the lepers of our age. Sure, we help them with hugs and counseling; tougher laws and lip service, but the only way we are ever going to make them whole will be by standing up and admitting we’re all part of the problem.

We are men who secretly think the same things Donald is saying about women.

We are women who think the system works and all we have to do is get rid of a few bad apples.

We’re all broken, really. That’s what I think when I pick up a novel by Margaret Atwood, because she’s able to render that the problems we think are related to sex and gender go a lot deeper.

The only way I can show young people how deep the problem of sex and gender go is through fiction. The only way they can admit to me how afraid they are is by trying to talk about characters who aren’t real…

So, this November, vote for whoever you believe in. But don’t be fooled. Nothing is going to change until we admit we’re all part of the problem.

And please, before the rhetoric dies, join the real dialogue: http://www.fictionfaithandyoungpeople.com

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You Want the Truth? Try Fiction.

This is the time of year when “Book Club” begins at most schools. I have my students read a young adult novel and we gather in a circle to discuss it. They “make connections” between their lives and the lives of their characters. We “draw inferences” and try to read between the lines about what our favorite characters are thinking and why they take the action they do. Book Club used to be fun, easy, and productive as a time-tested way of engaging students’ understanding. But it isn’t easy anymore, not since YA became so dark. We used to talk about easy, predictable, morally-sound books where the people who did bad were caught and punished. The system used to work in YA literature, at least that’s what we wanted to believe.

But now YA has gotten dark. Our subjects are suicide, date-rape, bullying, school shootings, and abusive parents (and teachers). I admit I don’t shy away from these topics. I search for contemporary stories with troubled characters for a reason. Parents read some of these books I’ve suggested for Book Club and I get emails. They shake their heads and wring their hands and exclaim how bad things have gotten, as if the state of our kids are out of their hands. I stop them as respectfully as I can when they do this. I say don’t you think we are partly responsible how tough things have become? They nod their heads and we agree or respectfully disagree while doing nothing about the real problem: Young people are forced to deal with really adult problems and we aren’t giving them the right resources to handle them. When I say this to parents or administrators at schools I get the usually recitation of the resources that are in place; the suicide counselors on staff, volunteers who monitor railroad crossings, clinicians, law enforcement. Weapons. Laws. Institutions. The system works, they insist. But none of those things really help to get inside the minds of young people the way story does. That’s what I’ve found as we raise the stakes and dare to talk about the issues most kids and adults are hoping will just go away.

Book Club used to be a tool to check comprehension. Now, it’s a forum where you hear students making connections like this: “A friend of mine is just like this character because she was thinking about suicide and reading Wintergirls helped her see that she wasn’t really crazy at all.”

“A friend of mine”…I’ve begun to hear that expression more and more as my students share. Have you ever been so ashamed of something that when you go and seek help you can’t admit you have the problem? I have and used the same expression when I talked to a doctor.

This is the second year I’ve invited parents to Book Club and listening to them share about their fears really helps my students see that they are not alone.

Come join the dialogue.

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Happy All Saints Day

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Don’t Be Fooled.

This Election is About Women.

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You Want the Truth? Try Fiction.

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This Election is About Women.

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