tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4446682073857250843.post2615507459308891239..comments2024-03-27T23:42:36.619-05:00Comments on Mock Ramblings: Deconstruction: Night of the Living Dead Christian 16Michael Mockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06233321050691782148noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4446682073857250843.post-13515879657556956602011-12-12T23:52:05.739-06:002011-12-12T23:52:05.739-06:00Hey Arrow! Sorry I've been slow to leave comme...Hey Arrow! Sorry I've been slow to leave comments, I've been traveling and am just getting caught up.<br /><br />You're exactly right about the two audience issue. Frankly, lots of Christians walk right past my books at the bookstore because they think that they are making fun of God. It's disappointing, actually, that this is the case, because I like to think that most Christians are wider read and more tolerant of other points of view than may be actually true. Maybe it's different on television rather than books....<br /><br />My editor and I fought a bit about how Luther should react to his father after this whole encounter. She thought he should be a lot more cold toward him in the ending parts of the book than he was. I saw that as him moving toward forgiveness, though not as the "accepting his father's love." Anyway, maybe Michael will share his thoughts about the last chapter and whether that hit him as off or not.<br /><br />Anyway, you're spot on about the two audiences. It's a hard tension to hold, and of course as a Christian myself I'm sure I misjudged in places how people from other backgrounds would read things (as comments and posts from both Michael and Geds can attest). <br /><br />This has been an instructive process, though, and I feel like I'm learning a lot that's going to strengthen the next book.Matt Mikalatoshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13279070118483678882noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4446682073857250843.post-12957244007361231562011-12-05T09:57:15.674-06:002011-12-05T09:57:15.674-06:00I'm posting as "Anonymous" here, but...I'm posting as "Anonymous" here, but I guess my name can be "Arrow".<br /><br />I've been following this deconstruction and really enjoying it, primarily because the author seems witty, thoughtful, and able to address criticism in a calm way. He seems like a fairly remarkable human being.<br /><br />My reaction to the story, which I have not read, is that it seems to constantly fall into the trap of two different audiences. One audience, the more fundamental Christians, might be reading out of their genre when the text addresses monsters -- but they have a distinctive vocabulary and set of expectations for redemption stories. The other audience, the typical vampire/werewolf/fantasy readers have lots of opinions about vampires, werewolves, and fantasy (including the language and plot), and -- unfortunately -- with their own beliefs about redemption/religious narratives.<br /><br />I think it's very difficult to speak to the two audiences at the same time and to achieve the same goal. It's like walking a tightrope that is constantly wobbling. The father-son relationship here is, maybe, a victim of this dynamic. The fantasy audience has particular expectations of a father-son dynamic in redemption. For that audience, by calling in the monster-killer, the father has clearly abandoned the son. The father becomes the monster and the son is humanized. However, in a typical Christian redemption narrative, the father might pull an Abraham-sacrificing-his-son move, and that audience will still accept the father's love.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com