![\"Book](\"https:\/\/novels.zerosilver.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/AnnaMagarshack.jpg\")
Many years ago I began making a greater effort to read the classics of fiction. The second or third book I read was Leo Tolstoy\u2019s Anna Karenina<\/em>. It is difficult for me to express the powerful experience I had reading this book. Tolstoy, an artist in every sense of the word, took a difficult subject, adultery, and wrote about it so realistically that I was able to feel the horror and degradation of it, and he was able to accomplish this without one sex scene. In fact, I don\u2019t think he even showed Anna and Vronsky exchange a kiss on the lips. Not only that, but this very long novel, which in my copy has 807 pages, achieves a striking level of reality without using more than a handful of profane and vulgar words, and those are mild by modern standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After that experience, no writer, no critic, no reader, and no teacher could ever again disarm me with the claim that if a writer wants to write truthfully and realistically, he must be willing to include vulgar language and explicit scenes when the situation demands it. I believe the opposite is true. I believe that a writer will be able to write more realistically and truthfully if he leaves those things out. Why? Because these foul elements are never necessary<\/em> in a work that sincerely seeks to dramatize truth. To include them not only adds an unwholesome element to the piece, it violates one of the cardinal rules of fiction writing, which is that every word, detail, and scene in a literary work should contribute to the development of its plot and theme. Anything that doesn\u2019t contribute to the development of the story obscures the true point of the piece, resulting in a story that is less clear, less unified, therefore less polished and powerful than it could have been.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m going to examine four areas of concern to many people of faith and explain why standards regarding them make good literary sense. My focus will be on fiction, but my comments apply to many types of non-fiction also.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Immoral Themes and Sordid Subject Matter<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Foul Language<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Nudity and Sex<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Extreme Violence<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Immoral Themes and Sordid Subject Matter<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The terms \u201csubject\u201d and \u201ctheme\u201d are often interchanged and incorrectly defined. To avoid material that contains sordid subject matter and immoral themes, we have to know what “subject” and “theme” mean, and we have to know how to identify them in the things we read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Determining the subject of a work is usually easy. It\u2019s what the book is about<\/em>. Often the title will refer to the book\u2019s major subject. Some books have the Library of Congress information printed below the copyright notice. It will also tell you the major subjects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The theme is what the book says<\/em>. A long work, such as a novel, will not only have one predominant theme, but it will usually have many other themes as well that speak on a variety of different subjects. The theme of a story is an observation about life, a verdict. The best themes will be insightful, universal, and true. An immoral theme is simply one that in some way condones or promotes breaking the laws of God, in particular the law of chastity. In essence, an immoral theme is a statement about life that is a lie.<\/p>\n\n\n Consider the subject adultery. Since adultery is a heinous sin, it is not a pleasant subject, but a book dealing with it isn\u2019t necessarily unwholesome. Whether the work is wholesome or not depends a great deal on the theme\u2014what does the book say<\/em> about adultery? A possible true theme about this subject, dramatized in great works of literature such as Anna Karenina<\/em> and The Scarlet Letter<\/em>, could be: \u201cAdultery destroys relationships and makes everyone involved miserable.\u201d Another true theme, found in the story of King David in the Bible, could be: \u201cCommitting adultery can lead to more reprehensible sins.\u201d Still another true theme might be: \u201cWhen an adulterer chooses the long, difficult road of repentance, his peace of mind will be restored and family relationships can be healed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Possible immoral themes, found in many books being published these days, include: \u201cAdultery can be glamorous, exciting, and fulfilling,\u201d and \u201cAdultery can shake a marriage up and actually strengthen<\/em> it, making the whole family much happier than it would have been had it never happened,\u201d and \u201cCommitting adultery is perfectly acceptable if your spouse is a jerk.\u201d Sometimes the immoral themes are subtle: \u201cRomance with a person who isn\u2019t the spouse is perfectly acceptable if your spouse is a jerk as long as no sex is involved.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Often we accept material that contains immoral themes because it \u201cdoesn\u2019t show anything.\u201d Let\u2019s be honest with ourselves. If this kind of material disgusted us, we would never read it. We wouldn\u2019t want to. More often than not, however, we come away from literature of this type thinking that the immoral act in the story wasn\u2019t really so bad. Perhaps we even think that, given the circumstances of the story, it was almost justified. Any material that could influence a person committed to living the laws of God into believing these lies, even for a moment, has a tremendous deal of persuasive power!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes I run across books that have what I consider double-standard themes. An immoral act occurs. The character somehow acknowledges the fact that what he did was a mistake. He may even feel a little guilty. Even so, I, as a reader, may come away from the book feeling glad the immoral act happened. Or I may come away from it feeling that what happened wasn\u2019t so bad. Or I may come away from it confused, wondering what the book is really saying. I believe books with double-standard themes are written by two basic groups of people\u2014writers who are trying to write about chaste people but do not, themselves, live a chaste lifestyle and writers who believe intellectually that immorality is wrong, but deep down, they don\u2019t feel it\u2019s that bad. In both cases, a moral appearance conflicts with an immoral essence, resulting in an underlying hypocrisy that weakens the work and affects the reader at a subconscious level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For this reason, we should be careful when analyzing a work of literature not to rely completely on what we know of the author\u2019s character in deciding whether the book meets our standards or not. People who share our moral standards and even our particular religious beliefs may write books that contain immoral themes and other foul elements, and writers who are trapped in a destructive lifestyle are sometimes lucid enough in their perspective and honest enough in their execution of the material that they write amazingly truthful books. A good example of the latter type of literature is The Great Gatsby<\/em>, by F. Scott Fitzgerald. A piece of literature has a way of unmasking its writer and revealing what he truly believes\u2014not what he thinks<\/em> he believes. When all is said and done, the work will speak for itself far more forcefully than the writer can ever speak for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Along with moral themes, immoral themes, and double-standard themes, there is one other type of theme I\u2019ve encountered in my reading\u2014the all-inclusive theme. This is a theme that, at its most fundamental level, says, \u201cTruth is relative and there are many paths to success and happiness.\u201d I\u2019m sure that many authors who write with this theme truly believe it. Others are seeking to illuminate truth by exploring the lives of characters who have varying and often contrary points of view. I believe, however, that most writers who use this approach are attempting to make their stories more universal to expand their reader base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The all-inclusive theme is perhaps the most difficult one to analyze because it\u2019s such a chameleon. My own opinion is that a well-written book containing an all-inclusive theme will never be as powerful as a comparable book with an unequivocally moral theme. I don’t believe, however, that a book of this type deserves an automatic rejection. Whether such a book strikes us as being wholesome or not will depend a great deal on which of its characters we most identify with.<\/p>\n\n\n The best way I can think of to explain what I mean is to give you an example. The novel Lost Horizon<\/em> by James Hilton contains an all-inclusive theme. The so-called paradise it describes, Shangri-La, seeks to accommodate all types of people with a wide range of value systems. This quality, by itself, isn\u2019t necessarily a bad thing\u2014the United States is, after all, built on similar principles\u2014but while Shangri-La has many wonderful qualities, there are unchaste traditions at work there also. Had I identified primarily with the viewpoint character, a man who comes to regard Shangri-La as the community of his dreams, I probably would have rejected the novel as being immoral. The character I identified with most, however, was a woman so unhappy with her role in Shangri-La that she risks death to break away from it. Had I been that woman, I would have been unhappy also, so the book rang true to me. In providing the disenchanted woman\u2019s storyline, the author gave me and other readers wary of Shangri-La an escape route, so to speak. A reader doesn\u2019t have to accept Shangri-La as an ideal society to accept the book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I think the key to judging a book\u2019s theme is self-honesty, coupled with adherence to the standards and truth we possess. When determining whether the literary work in question contains an immoral theme, we can ask ourselves questions such as these:<\/p>\n\n\n\n As illustrated above, unpleasant and sensitive subjects can be written about in wholesome ways. To determine whether a book dwells on the seamier side of life in fundamentally un<\/em>wholesome ways, we can ask ourselves questions such as these:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most of us think of great art as being a thing of beauty. If great art is synonymous with beauty, can literature that is drowning in darkness and filthiness ever be considered great art? And can a work of literature ever truly be great if it teaches lies? Only in a society that considers filthiness and falsehood to be things of beauty and values them more than cleanliness and truth. Too often, however, we accept immoral literature because it\u2019s so well written, but if we examine the issue logically, we\u2019ll have to conclude that clever style and masterful technique can’t make a work that tells lies great\u2014but they will give more credence to the dark illusion spun by those “that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter” (Isaiah 5:20).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Return to the top.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Foul Language<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n The most common reason writers give for using profanity and other foul language in their writing and readers and critics give for allowing it is realism. This argument, however, is just plain silly. Whether the work is realistic or not has nothing to do with the foul language it may contain. A book like The Wonderful Wizard of Oz<\/em> will never be realistic, no matter how much foul language someone might try to add to it, and a novel like The Grapes of Wrath<\/em> would be just as realistic if the profanity were stripped from it. We have, in fact, a terrific example of The Grapes of Wrath<\/em> without the profanity\u2014the film version from 1940. This film is a classic in its own right and is as stark and realistic as the novel by John Steinbeck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, literature at its best will simulate real life, but it is still a mere simulation, a condensed, carefully constructed one. Producing well-written literature, even the most realistic kind, requires<\/em> writers to painstakingly select and arrange the details they will use. In their work they constantly sacrifice perfect accuracy for dramatic effect and smoothness of presentation. Even when creating novels around real people and events, writers will make up episodes and characters and often even reorganize events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dialogue in particular is contrived. If dialogue were a true reflection of the way people talk, no one would read fiction because it would be too boring. Writers use pieces of conversation to advance the story, then discard all else. Characters get directly to the point, rarely talk at the same time, and don\u2019t repeat the things they say unless the author wants to paint the character as indecisive, rude, or absent-minded. Even then, if the author\u2019s competent at all, he\u2019ll be careful not to drag the dialogue out too much or do anything bizarre because he won\u2019t want to confuse or bore his readers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Any type of writing that doesn\u2019t require complete accuracy in every single little detail certainly doesn\u2019t require profanity or any other foul element. Readers have no more need to experience what comes out of a character\u2019s mouth in the way of foul language than they need to know every type of food and drink that goes into the character\u2019s mouth over the time span of the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Authors often use foul language to create vulgar characters, but even that weakens the writing. After all, modern \u201cgood guys\u201d swear, and a person doesn\u2019t have to be foul-mouthed to be a boor. Readers who aren\u2019t offended by the vulgarity probably won\u2019t think there\u2019s anything wrong with it and won\u2019t get the point, and those who are offended by it won\u2019t want to read the story at all or will be so bothered by the vulgarity that they, too, will miss the point. Other literary techniques give more life to characterization\u2014tone and speed of the voice, unique sentence structures, mannerisms, facial expressions, the subjects of the character\u2019s speech, his treatment of other people, his vocabulary (minus the bad words!) and the way he uses language, the reactions of the other characters to him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Underlying the foul language in a story are the fundamental character traits that are important. If we were to examine a story full of foul language, we could ask: Why does this character swear? Does he have a temper? Is she being rude? Is he showing off? Is she uneducated and unable to communicate in a refined way? Did his parents yell at him when he was a child? Is she just trying to fit in? If the motivations for the foul language are discernible in the story, they would be more<\/em> discernible if the distracting language were removed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s face reality for a moment. Most fiction published doesn\u2019t claim to be a true representation of life. It\u2019s escapism\u2014melodrama. So why is our society so determined to tolerate, and in many cases even encourage, fictional swearing in the name of realism?<\/p>\n\n\n\n I love this quotation by Isaac Asimov:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ordinary people, who are not well educated and who lack a large working vocabulary, are limited in their ability to lend force to their statements. In their search for force, they must therefore make use of vulgarisms which serve, through their shock value, but which, through overuse, quickly lose whatever force they have, so that the purpose of the use is defeated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Writers, on the other hand, have (it is to be presumed) the full and magnificent vocabulary of the English language at their disposal. They can say anything they want with whatever intensity of invective they require in a thousand different ways without ever once deviating from full respectability of utterance. They have, therefore, no need to trespass upon the usages of the ignorant and forlorn, and to steal their tattered expressions as substitutes for the language of Shakespeare and Milton. . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n . . . it is my contention that dialog is realistic when, and only when, it reflects the situation as you describe it and when it produces the effect you wish to produce.<\/span><\/p>\nIsaac Asimov, “Dialog,” in Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy<\/em>, ed. Gardner Dozois et al. (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1991), 36-37.<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n Return to the top.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Nudity and Sex<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I think it would be helpful to begin by explaining what it means to depict nudity or sex. When we\u2019re watching a movie, it\u2019s usually obvious when we\u2019re viewing a scene of this type. Such a scene in a book may not be as obvious, but determining whether it\u2019s a depiction or not is just as simple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Reading, \u201cShe took off her clothes,\u201d is a different experience from reading a scene that describes what is under the clothes. Similarly, a sexual encounter enacted \u201con stage,\u201d or in the presence of the reader, produces different sensations than one that is merely suggested. Whether I watch a depiction of nudity or sex on the screen or read it in a book, an image is being put into my mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n People in favor of literary depictions of nudity and sex often try to confuse and paralyze us with this argument: \u201cSince violence is bad and the human body is beautiful, why is our society so willing to tolerate depictions of violence in the media while it remains so uncomfortable with depictions of nudity and sex? Shouldn\u2019t it be the other way around? When are we, as a society, going to stop being so prudish?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Violence is<\/em> bad and the human body is<\/em> beautiful, but that\u2019s beside the point. Depictions of nudity\/sex and violence are completely separate issues and should be treated as such. The difference between them boils down to the principle of modesty. While depictions of violence can certainly be unwholesome, they don\u2019t, unless they involve sex, violate the principle of modesty. So no, a person who accepts some violent content and is, at the same time, uncomfortable with depictions of nudity and sex is no more a prude than a person who prefers to use a dressing room to try on clothing at a department store or who avoids peering into his neighbor\u2019s undraped window.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many writers include sex scenes in their books, some graphic and some only describing the emotions of the characters. Writers of such scenes claim they are necessary for \u201cartistic expression,\u201d and literary critics condone them, as long as they flow naturally from the story, developing a character or the plot. After all, their intent<\/em> isn\u2019t to arouse lustful feelings in the reader (which, even from a secular point of view, would make the work erotica or maybe even pornography); the intent is to define the character. \u201cArtistic expression\u201d is another empty argument.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Writers often claim a sex scene is essential to the plot and must, therefore, be included. In my experience writing, a truly essential scene is rare\u2014the point can nearly always be made in some other way. I also know how easy it is for a writer to manipulate a story to make a scene seem as if it is essential, and I\u2019m also painfully aware of how difficult it can be to open one\u2019s mind to all<\/em> of the possibilities inherent in a story idea. We writers are so often bound by our own experiences and perspective, and in our writing we use techniques we have often observed, techniques that feel familiar to us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whatever a writer intends to express in a sexual scene can always be expressed better in other ways, whether it be physical attraction between a man and woman that comes about from love, whether it be emotional intimacy, or whether it be lust or manipulation. If you think about it, all of these qualities will manifest themselves in other aspects of the relationship\u2014the bedroom is only a small part of it. Tolstoy understood this truth and used it in his writing, which is why Anna Karenina<\/em> is such a powerful book.<\/p>\n\n\n Charlotte Bront\u00eb understood it also and was, therefore, able to write the most passionate love story I\u2019ve ever read: Jane Eyre<\/em>. In fact, I\u2019ve never read another love story that even comes close. What techniques did Bront\u00eb use to create such a passionate, yet wholesome, story? She made Jane and Rochester come alive! There are only so many ways to write, \u201cThey touched, they embraced, they kissed.\u201d Unique, passionate scenes grow from the deep feelings of the characters. Bront\u00eb portrayed Jane and Rochester as complex human beings and dramatized their relationship on all of its levels\u2014spiritual, social, emotional, intellectual, as well physical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Focusing on these other aspects of the relationship will always result in the more effective expression of lust, manipulation, emotional intimacy, or physical attraction in love, because then the emphasis is on the intellectual, emotional, and spiritual sides of the relationship\u2014too much physical emphasis is distracting, because it appeals to an erotic sense in the reader instead of to an emotional one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If, in your reading, you do run across a scene depicting nudity or sex that appears to be an essential element of the plot, then the theme of the book is probably immoral. In the case of a scene where the essential information has something to do with the sex act itself, then the subject matter<\/em> in question violates the principle of modesty, even if the theme of the story is a true one. At the other extreme, a piece that condones or glorifies sin may require foul elements to make its point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When deciding whether a book contains depictions of nudity and sex and treats the topic of sexuality in an unwholesome manner, we should ask ourselves these questions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Olive Ann Burns, in a letter to her publisher, said this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n I don’t know if it will help sales to say Cold Sassy Tree<\/em> isn’t a dirty book, . . . but I don’t think I’m the only person who is tired of sordid stories about unsavory people. I’m tired of books and movies full of paper-doll characters you don’t care about, who have no self-respect and no respect for anybody or any institution. I hope this book is compelling and realistically sensual; I have great respect for human sexuality. But I’m tired of authors so lacking in sensitivity that they wallow in vulgarity and prostitute sex\u2014making exhibitionists out of the characters and peeping Toms out of the readers. And I don’t want to sound preachy or Victorian, but I’m tired of amorality in fiction and real life. Immorality is a fascinating human dilemma that creates suspense for the readers and tension for the characters, but where is the tension in an amoral situation? When people have no personal code, nothing is threatening and nothing is meaningful.<\/span><\/p>\nOlive Ann Burns and Katrina Kenison, Leaving Cold Sassy<\/em> (New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., 1994), 232-233.<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n Return to the top.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Extreme Violence<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Physical emphasis is too distracting in the presentation of violence also. The blood and gore will never have the lasting impact on a reader that honest exploration of all the social, emotional, and psychological effects of violence on society, the victim, the victim\u2019s family, the perpetrator\u2019s family, and the perpetrator himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Consider this: Have you ever been acquainted with a person who was the victim of a violent crime? If not, have you read a true account? Were you there when this violent event occurred? Probably not, and yet you didn’t need to witness the event to feel the horror of it. The person\u2019s life is a testimony to the cruelty of what he or she experienced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We have all heard the argument in favor of depicting violent events with all of their horrifying details because anything less sanitizes the act in such a way that readers supposedly become immune to the fact that violence is evil. In reality, the opposite is true. What Isaac Asimov said in that quotation regarding vulgar language applies just as well to gratuitous violence. Violent detail may be effective for a while for its shock value, but constant exposure to such material desensitizes us and, over time, actually makes us less<\/em> sensitive to the evil of violent behavior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you ever begin to doubt the idea that a restrained depiction of a violent event could ever have the same impact on society as an explicit one, think about the accounts of the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth recorded in the New Testament. Four different men wrote about this execution and the unjust events leading up to it, and yet not one of them presented the story in an explicit way, and they didn\u2019t need to<\/em>. Whether these passages move us to compassion and gratitude to One we love and worship, or whether they make us shudder at the violence they have motivated, or whether they mean nothing to us personally, I think we can all agree that they are some of the most influential writings of the past two thousand years, not only inspiring great faith and, paradoxically, terrible abuses, but also becoming the source material for a massive amount of literature, music, and visual art.<\/p>\n\n\n Even the Old Testament, as frank as it is, doesn\u2019t even come close to giving us the blood and gore so often found in modern books and movies. If the Bible can describe violent events without undue detail, then certainly fictional stories ought to be able to do so also, even those that claim to be dealing with \u201ctrue\u201d events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To determine whether a literary work is too violent, we can ask ourselves questions like these:<\/p>\n\n\n\n For a perfect example of fiction that deals with violent events in a moral, tasteful, effective way, we can look again to Leo Tolstoy and his epic War and Peace<\/em>. Many educated people consider War and Peace<\/em> the greatest work of fiction ever written; it is certainly one of the most complex. Interestingly enough, this novel also contains a scene with men playing cards\u2014a significant scene in the book where one of the main characters gambles away a huge amount of money, a mistake that worsens his family\u2019s financial problems. (Book 4, Chapters 13 and 14<\/a>)\u00a0<\/a>Somehow Tolstoy managed to paint a vivid picture of what happened during that card game without using one vulgar word! Had I been familiar with War and Peace<\/em> as a young woman, I wouldn\u2019t have been so disturbed by what my creative writing teacher taught.<\/p>\n\n\n When we read books that are truthful and intelligent, we\u2019ll become more knowledgeable. As we choose literature that reveres holy things, we\u2019ll refine our sensibilities and become more spiritually perceptive. While we stand by our commitment to choose fiction that promotes chastity and other virtues, we gain confidence in our own beliefs and become more assertive. As we work to eliminate foul language from our minds and seek out language that edifies, our command of the language increases and we become more articulate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ve just described a person who is knowledgeable, sensitive, perceptive, confident, assertive, and articulate. Isn\u2019t that the kind of person we all want to be?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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