I am one of those that love lit, too. I also struggle with that line of demarcation. I’ve decided, however, that there is a MAJOR difference between modern (last 50 years or so)fantasy books, written for adults and children, and the older stuff, say pre-1950.
In my observation, the modern stories present occultism and paganism, sometimes pretty accurately, and also the line of good v/s evil is very blurred. Sometimes there are very clear paganistic messages (such as in the Potter series, as the author actually studied Wicca for her books) Paganism is on the rise; now there is a School of Witchcraft in Austria, no kidding. The modern paganism is a combination of Indian shamanism, New age stuff, such as Earth worship and feminism. There is a differnce between the teachings of paganism and the depictions of ‘magic’ in the older books.
Any way,another difference is the “culture” presented in the modern v/s older books. In the older books, such as Tolkien and further back, say in Hans Christian Anderson tales, the overarching culture and environment is obviously Christian. There is definite good and evil, and an overarching Sovereignty, moral and otherwise, that is above the characters. That DOES NOT exist in the modern stories. In modern stories, people make up there own minds what is good, it’s relativism, and in the occult stuff, sexuality is very apparant (such as Twilight). Movies are included in this area, too.
My son 8 1/2, has read The Hobbit and we have talked about it alot. He’s asked me about Gandalf, the wizard. I observed that Gandalf very rarely used his ‘powers’. He didn’t interfere in the actions of the characters, unless their lives were at stake for the ’cause’. Did you notice in the movies (and books), that he literally fought, physically, with the mortals? He could’ve wiped them all out by raising his staff! We discussed all aspects of The HObbit while he was reading it; of course I’ve read it too so I can do that.
My son is very black and white, but has the kind of mind that is drawn to fantasy and science fiction, I can tell. But, this is also the boy who’se decided that he is going to read the entire Bible from beginning to end by himslef, He loves the Scripture. So I’m having to teach him about how to use discernment on this. I kind of take each one individually and it’s a constant vigilance. I’m looking forward to having him read the Chuck Black series, though. I think I’m going to read the Narnia Series aloud so we can talk about it aloud.
However, there are some old stuff that I still will not read, it’s a gut thing. For example The Tempest by Shakespeare. There was too much ‘stuff’ in it, so I stopped reading it, my antenae were shootin up! I actually will be posting on this topic later. The same goes for some Greek myths, I’ll have to determine as I go and we talk about the ones we already have come across. Such as in Aesop Fables, the one where it says “Heaven Helps those who help themselves”, we talked about how that’s not what the Scripture says and we’ll do the same with other things; up to a point. We can still filter books through Scripture without even reading them because I do believe in censoring what the mind/heart takes in, too. Personal censorship creates a better ability to discern as the ‘desensitization’ hasn’t taken place.
Just my .02
Rachel
