by Jason Joyner | May 14, 2006 | Blog, Uncategorized
I hang out at a blog and discussion board called faith * in * fiction, oh, about daily! This weekend I was priveleged to join in a “blog tour” promoting a focus on Christian fantasy literature.
Say what?
There are a group of us spending a few posts this week discussing Christian fantasy. This genre may seem to be the realm of wizards, dragons, elves, and magic, and some may argue that it is not an “appropriate” read for Christians. Well, we have all probably heard of a couple of little books: you know, Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia. As Becky Miller writes in an introduction to fantasy,
In most fantasy types—classic or high fantasy, adventure fantasy, even fairy-tale fantasy—good and evil are defined in rather stark, unyielding terms, based on what the author believes.
She goes on to say:
Fantasy’s first value, therefore, is that it can give voice to a Christian’s deepest held beliefs.
I honestly haven’t read much fantasy of any kind recently, besides reading Narnia to my boys. However, I have enjoyed several books in the genre in the past, and I look forward to reading some of the other books that will be discussed in this tour.
The inspiration for this tour is Tim Frankovich’s Christian Fiction Review, where he provides a very helpful service in reviewing books to help sift out the must reads from the others out there. Specifically, he did a fantasy focus that is the subject of this week. To be honest, I haven’t read any of the books that Tim highlights. *blush* Sorry, but I’m too busy reading suspense to help me with my own sooper sekrit…
I’ve said too much 😉
ANYWAY, I will discuss a couple of fantasy books that DIDN’T make Tim’s list in the next couple of days. In the meantime, please check out the following sites and see what they have to say on this topic!
Mirathon
Insights from Beth Goddard
Marci’s Writer Lee blog
Sally Apokedak’s All About Children’s Books blog
Steve Trower’s Old Testament Space Opera blog
Cheryl Russel Unseen Worlds
Shannon McNear Shannon’s Eclectic Musings
For Monday only: Chris Well’s blog
by Jason Joyner | May 14, 2006 | Blog, Uncategorized
You’ve gotta love the things they come up with.
Caffeine dipsticks
by Jason Joyner | May 12, 2006 | Blog, Uncategorized
Some weeks just don’t go as planned. Maybe that is why the admonition, “Don’t worry about tomorrow, for today has its own troubles” was given. Anyway, doing anything here took a little hit.
I’ve got some ideas for what to do here. I see some amazing blogs (check out the always growing links on the right!) and what they do. I can’t recreate that, and don’t particularly want to. I will talk about life, writing, having some fun, and where faith can fit into all of that.
Sometimes I will just talk about faith. I happen to be the adult Sunday school teacher at my church, and we are beginning a series on the book of Romans. Reformation here we come! 😉
I basically am studying the book of Romans in depth for myself, and from that I intend to teach the class. I plan on posting once a week or so just on what I’m getting out of this book. So check back in the future and we can do a little on-line walk through Romans together.
by Jason Joyner | May 10, 2006 | Blog, Uncategorized
OK, so today was not my day to mess with this thing.
1. My phone line was down all morning, so I couldn’t access the net on my DSL line.
2. I finally get on, and realize that the last major post I did totally mucked up the formatting and knocked out my whole right side. Well, I spent my last half hour trying to fix that without success. Grrr. So now the post is in purgatory until I can figure out how to fix the formatting.
(Oh, I did also spend a few minutes there watching the new Halo 3 trailer online. Wow…)
Anyway, hopefully I’m back to regular programming tomorrow.
by Jason Joyner | May 6, 2006 | Blog, Uncategorized
He who fears the Lord has a secure fortress,
And for his children it will be a refuge.
by Jason Joyner | May 5, 2006 | Blog, Uncategorized
I dare you to move
I dare you to lift yourself up off the floor
I dare you to move
Like today never happened
Today never happened before
- Dare You to Move
by Jason Joyner | May 4, 2006 | Blog, Uncategorized
I miss Rich Mullins…
by Jason Joyner | May 3, 2006 | Blog, Uncategorized
Stars looking at a planet, watching entropy and pain
And maybe start to wonder
How the chaos in our lives could pass as sane
I’ve been thinking about the meaning of resistance
Of a hope beyond my own
And suddenly the infinite and penitent begin to look like home
–Stars
First of all, what can you say about a rock group that can get words like “entropy” and “penitent” in the same verse? Wow! 😛
The chorus talks about everyone being so lonely, but when the author looks at the stars he sees “someone else”. I suppose that this could be any ‘higher power’ out there, but anyone from a Christian viewpoint can see that what is out there speaks of a true Creator. Really anyone should be able to do that. This context helps us understand the 2nd stanza here.
How often do we resist what is the best for us? I have a toddler, and he can be quite stubborn – even when I’m trying to do something for him. But if he has it in his head that things aren’t going just right, then watch out! Looking beyond ourselves so often lifts us up out of the rubble we muck around in and helps us to get up and walk with a little dignity.
I get excited just thinking about these lyrics. How many times have we heard the same message, but this comes across so fresh! If only I could write with such tightness and imagery.
*sigh*
That is the process though. We keep on keepin’ on, looking at the stars.
by Jason Joyner | May 1, 2006 | Blog, Uncategorized
I mention “writing” in the title of this blog. I have an interest in writing and have been working on improving my skill in that craft. I was thinking about how hard it can be to get the message you want across in an artful, meaningful way that doesn’t come across as hitting people over the head with it.
I think songwriting may be one of the hardest things to write well, because you have to combine the lyrics with good music and get your heart poured into about 3 1/2 minutes of song. I want to look a little bit at the lyrics of Switchfoot, since I was recently at their concert (see below). These guys are amazing in what they pack into their songs.
We are a beautiful letdown
Painfully uncool
The church of the dropouts
The losers, the sinners, the failures, and the fools
What a beautiful letdown
Are we salt in the wound
Hey, let us sing one true tune
This is a stanza from The Beautiful Letdown. This speaks so much in such few words. (Of course, we’re looking out of them out of complete context, which is always important.) As the kingdom of God, we have a dual nature of being redeemed creatures that are beautiful to our Creator, but we are sinners who aren’t able to live up to our high calling. I often hear it said that we put the nails in the hands of Jesus each time we sin. That’s hard to get across in a song, but “are we salt in the wound” just sums it up in an image we can all relate to. We’ve all fallen flat in our attempts to succeed, to be holy, or just to try and make it through the day without totally blowing it. It is a paradox that God sees us beautiful in all the ways we let Him down. But the wonderful thing for us is, we can still pick ourselves out of the dust and lend our voices to the “one true tune”.
by Jason Joyner | Apr 28, 2006 | Blog, Uncategorized
“What’s that? Speak up!”
I feel like that this morning. I went to the Switchfoot concert last night. It was a fun and interesting time. My wife was supposed to go with me, but was sick. Also a friend ended up needing a ride for their kids going. So I ended up accompanying 3 middle-school aged kids. They did well for their first rock concert.
The title of this post refers to my hearing and the setting of the concert as well. It was in Reed Gym, and any gym is horrible for acoustics. We also got there late, and ended up WAAAAY up in the bleachers. We heard the concert better on the echo than the first time, it seemed like. Unfortunately the sound aspect wasn’t the best it could be. We got some good bass though. I think my teeth are still rattling…
The opening act was a group called Lovedrug. Meh. Their songs didn’t have much variety, and the lead singer seems to copy Dave Matthews to a point – mostly making his singing unintelligible by trying to do a slight falsetto. All four of us: thumbs down.
Switchfoot was a different story. It was obvious they were veteran craftsmen considering their music and showmanship. Even despite the lead singer going to jump up on the drum platform and instead tripping and crashing into the drumset! Professional as ever, both he and the drummer kept going – but the roadies rushed out between songs to make sure everyone/thing was OK!
The show was very entertaining, despite the poor location. I think the highlight was during the song “Gone“, when the keyboardist slipped onto the drumset and the drummer was banging away on a kid’s sized set. Right on! The four of us: thumbs up!
I happened to overhear someone in the line before the concert asking, “Are they a Christian band?” As if that was a bad thing. Unfortunately, I didn’t pick up the response. But I think I will do a little consideration of some of their lyrics over next week, to see what can be said in artistic ways to get a point across to people.
