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On Creepy, Darker Media · Pastor John Piper's answers

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: I'll be the first to admit that is a little
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  Speaker 1: niche for us to speak to writers. Most subscribers to
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: this podcast are not writers. I know that, but because
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  Speaker 1: of Pastor John's prolific writing ministry, we get a lot
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  Speaker 1: of great questions from writers, and really from all types
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  Speaker 1: of Christian creatives. Writing is near and dear to us,
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  Speaker 1: both Pastor John so much so. If you have the
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  Speaker 1: Ask Paestor John book handy, you've likely seen that little
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  Speaker 1: section that pulled together on writing, grammar and poetry on
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  Speaker 1: pages four eleven to four sixteen. We don't revisit these
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  Speaker 1: themes often, but we do today with this question from
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  Speaker 1: an aspiring author, an anonymous girl. Hello, Pastor John. I'm seventeen.
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  Speaker 1: I just recently discovered this podcast and quickly became a
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  Speaker 1: huge fan. I have already listened to all of your
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  Speaker 1: episodes on hobbies and entertainment, but I would like to
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  Speaker 1: ask something of a little more specific nature. I absolutely
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  Speaker 1: love literature and writing, but I like to write things
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  Speaker 1: that have twists and turns in that are sometimes a
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  Speaker 1: little creepy. It's okay for Christians to write or reader
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  Speaker 1: watch things like thrillers and murder mysteries which have some
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  Speaker 1: violent or scary elements in them, as long as those
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  Speaker 1: elements are not sadistic, sexual, or gratuitous. Or does this
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  Speaker 1: simply violate passages like Philippines four eight. Sometimes I feel
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  Speaker 1: like dark elements serve an important purpose in fiction because
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  Speaker 1: they open the door for great, mortal and biblical solutions.
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  Speaker 1: But I'm not sure. I would love your opinion on
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  Speaker 1: this matter.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you, So let me put on my lit major
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  Speaker 2: hat for a few minutes. I don't usually do this,
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  Speaker 2: but I have good memories. Yeah, a lit major who
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  Speaker 2: has spent fifty five years almost entirely immersed in the
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  Speaker 2: Word of God, the Bible, which is a form from
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  Speaker 2: one vantage point of literature, but from another vantage point,
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  Speaker 2: I have found that almost everyone who tries to treat
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  Speaker 2: the Bible as literature winds up minimizing the as the authoritative,
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  Speaker 2: infallible revelation of the creator of the universe. The fact
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  Speaker 2: that it is both literature and revelation parallels the mystery
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  Speaker 2: of the incarnation. Doesn't it that Jesus Christ is both Man,
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  Speaker 2: which corresponds to literature, and God, which corresponds to revelation.
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  Speaker 2: He could not be our savior if he were not both.
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  Speaker 2: Just so you know, I have not lost the bug.
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  Speaker 2: I continue to read and enjoy fiction, and I have written,
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  Speaker 2: I suppose hundreds and hundreds of poems over those fifty
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  Speaker 2: five years since I was a lit major. I still
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  Speaker 2: delight in a picturesque simile like Proverbs eleven twenty two,
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  Speaker 2: like a gold ring in a pig snout, as a
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  Speaker 2: beautiful woman without discretion. That's great, That's just great. Jesus
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  Speaker 2: painting impossibly pro pocket of pictures. It's easier for a
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  Speaker 2: camel to pass through the eye of a needle than
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  Speaker 2: for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.
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  Speaker 2: That's good, That's really good. I still love the cadences
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  Speaker 2: of psal One. Blessed is the man who walks not
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  Speaker 2: in the council of the wicked, or stands in the
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  Speaker 2: way of sinners, or sits in the seat of scoffers.
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  Speaker 2: That's good. That's good. But the glorious divine logic and
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  Speaker 2: reality of Romans eight thirty two exceeds the pleasures of
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  Speaker 2: these things a thousandfold. He who did not spare his
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  Speaker 2: own son, but gave him up for us all, how
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  Speaker 2: will he not also graciously with him give us all things.
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  Speaker 2: The glory of that reality cannot seriously be compared to
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  Speaker 2: the pleasures of literary style. Both are good, one is glorious.
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  Speaker 1: So here's the.
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  Speaker 2: Question I have lived with for decades that relates to
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  Speaker 2: this young, aspiring writer of dark literature. Why is it?
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  Speaker 2: Here's the question, why is it that almost all writers
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  Speaker 2: of fiction and perhaps even nonfiction find it easier to
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  Speaker 2: write seriously and compellingly about the dark than about the light.
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  Speaker 2: Why is it that most writers can produce something credible, authentic, moving,
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  Speaker 2: compelling about pain and fear, but cannot write with the
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  Speaker 2: same compelling credibility and seriousness about joy. You can see this,
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  Speaker 2: for example, symptomatically in television ad If the writers want
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  Speaker 2: to portray some deeper emotion, say of a family and sorrow,
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  Speaker 2: they can generally write something and show something that actually
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  Speaker 2: has the feel of authenticity about it. But when they
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  Speaker 2: turn to show happiness, the default is silliness.
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  Speaker 3: It's just incredible, but a big white, toothy grin everywhere,
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  Speaker 3: and people falling all over the couch and guffawing, and
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  Speaker 3: grown people acting like clowns, and you get the impression.
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  Speaker 2: These writers are out of their element. They don't know
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  Speaker 2: what to do with happiness. They're stuck at about age ten. Now.
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  Speaker 2: My tentative explanation for this why is easier to portray
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  Speaker 2: with authenticity the human experience of fear and sorrow than
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  Speaker 2: it is to portray the human experience of happiness with
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  Speaker 2: the same authenticity and depth, is that for most people,
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  Speaker 2: the human experience of serious fear is far more common
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  Speaker 2: than the human experience of serious joy. Most people have
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  Speaker 2: categories for the stark terror of being charged by a
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  Speaker 2: grizzly bear, or the panic of being surrounded by a
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  Speaker 2: mob or the sinking feeling in the stomach of a
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  Speaker 2: window being broken in the middle of the night, or
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  Speaker 2: the heart crushing grief at losing a loved one. We
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  Speaker 2: know these things, We've tasted these things deeply, but we
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  Speaker 2: don't have similar experiences or categories of serious, humble, invincible
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  Speaker 2: joy in the face of pain and death. Serious fear
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  Speaker 2: and sorrow is common, serious joy is not. It seems
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  Speaker 2: to me that very often that kind of joy is
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  Speaker 2: replaced with the closest many writers can get to it,
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  Speaker 2: namely a kind of stoic swagger in the face of danger,
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  Speaker 2: which shows that the hero or heroine is coolly above
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  Speaker 2: it all, which is the very opposite of the humble, serious,
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  Speaker 2: invincible joy I'm talking about, which is so rare and
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  Speaker 2: therefore so difficult to write about. Now, my guess at
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  Speaker 2: an explanation for why writing authentically about the dark is
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  Speaker 2: easier than writing authentically about the light is this. To
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  Speaker 2: be a good writer about the dark requires some literary
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  Speaker 2: gift mingled with the experience of darkness and fear and
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  Speaker 2: brokenness and sorrow that's common in this world. But to
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  Speaker 2: be a good writer about the light requires more than
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  Speaker 2: ordinary human experience of the dark or light. It requires
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  Speaker 2: a long and deep walk with God in the midst
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  Speaker 2: of human suffering. The kind of serious joy I'm talking
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  Speaker 2: about is especially at home in the heart of a Christian,
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  Speaker 2: a Bible saturated Christian. Those outside the Christian worldview have
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  Speaker 2: tasted this because of common grace, but it is the
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  Speaker 2: peculiar purview of Biblical revelation to understand from the inside
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  Speaker 2: out what serious joy in the face of suffering is
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  Speaker 2: really like, unless, of course, Christians have been forced into
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  Speaker 2: the mold of just being like the world, which happens
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  Speaker 2: by the thousands. So my short answer to our young
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  Speaker 2: writer is, of course, one can write with biblical faithfulness
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  Speaker 2: about the dark, because the dark is real. In fact,
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  Speaker 2: the only people who know how real and how terrible
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  Speaker 2: it is are people who know their Bible. Without biblical categories,
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  Speaker 2: the efforts of the world to portray the dark fall
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  Speaker 2: far short of reality, no matter how terrible they make
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  Speaker 2: it look. But to write faithfully about the dark requires
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  Speaker 2: a deep awareness that God is light and in him
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  Speaker 2: is no darkness at all. It requires a deep awareness
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  Speaker 2: God is sovereign over the darkness. Creepy is interesting, but
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  Speaker 2: not necessarily insightful. Darkness will be defeated in the end.
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  Speaker 2: But if you are going to write about the dark
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  Speaker 2: in a seriously joyful way that avoids naive tay and melodrama,
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  Speaker 2: it may take decades of walking through deep waters with Christ.
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  Speaker 2: Don't give up. You may prove to be one of
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  Speaker 2: those very rare writers who knows enough about God, knows
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  Speaker 2: enough about suffering, has lived enough life and sorrow and
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  Speaker 2: serious joy that you could actually write with authenticity about
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  Speaker 2: the light even better than about the dark.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and men, I'll mix one other point in here.
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  Speaker 1: I've never done this before, but here's a brief excerpt
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  Speaker 1: from my book lit a Christian Guide to Reading Books.
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  Speaker 1: This is something I wrote. I was inspired by P. D.
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  Speaker 1: James and her novels. A little bonus in the outro
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  Speaker 1: Here's what I wrote. Quote. Evil is dramatic, easy to communicate,
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  Speaker 1: and in full view of the reader. Integrity is subtle,
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  Speaker 1: more difficult to communicate, and often passes on notice by
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  Speaker 1: the reader. The cunning scheme of a mob boss in
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  Speaker 1: criminal fiction, the bloodthirsty murder by a vampire in horror books,
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  Speaker 1: or the illicit sexual encounter by two people in a
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  Speaker 1: romance novel are far less demanding of the reader's attention
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  Speaker 1: than the subtle fruit of the Holy Spirit. The grace
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  Speaker 1: and beauty that we read in novels are much more subtle,
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  Speaker 1: and thereby much more demanding of the reader's careful perception.
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  Speaker 1: And this is because appreciating grace and integrity and goodness
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  Speaker 1: requires the reader to detect these subtleties. In literature, the
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  Speaker 1: best authors help us see and appreciate love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,
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  Speaker 1: and self control. And so, as Christian readers or Christian writers,
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  Speaker 1: we must labor with patience and skill to appreciate and
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  Speaker 1: showcase the subtleties of Christ's likeness whenever and wherever it appears.
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  Speaker 1: That's a lesson from my book lit a Christian Guide
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  Speaker 1: to Reading Books, pages one twenty six to one twenty seven. Again,
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  Speaker 1: that's inspired by P. D. James and somebody she wrote
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  Speaker 1: as a novelist, and of course writers consider loads of
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  Speaker 1: other advice for writers that Pastor John has given in
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  Speaker 1: the Ask Pastor John podcast over the first twelve years.
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  Speaker 1: You can see that on pages four eleven to four
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  Speaker 1: sixteen in the Ask Pastor John book for more. Next up,
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  Speaker 1: Pastor John will address the pain of lifelong singleness. I'm
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  Speaker 1: Tony Ranky. We'll see you on Monday.