{"id":22832,"date":"2007-01-29T18:20:00","date_gmt":"2007-01-29T18:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lookingcloser.wordpress.com\/2007\/01\/29\/bridge-to-terabithia-and-author-katherine-paterson\/"},"modified":"2013-02-04T13:55:00","modified_gmt":"2013-02-04T20:55:00","slug":"bridge-to-terabithia-and-author-katherine-paterson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/2007\/01\/bridge-to-terabithia-and-author-katherine-paterson\/","title":{"rendered":"“Bridge to Terabithia” and Author Katherine Paterson"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
Walden Media\u2019s upcoming adventure Bridge to Terabithia<\/strong><\/em> looks intriguing. I haven\u2019t read Paterson\u2019s work yet, but an interview she did for Books and Culture<\/em> several years ago has stuck with me because of the passionate way she spoke about the role of the Christian artist\u2026<\/div>\n

Access to the full article<\/a> requires a subscription to the CT library<\/a> (an investment that will reward you above and beyond your expectations, by the way).<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s a clip (reprinted with permission from John Wilson, editor of Books and Culture):<\/p>\n

\u201cNovelists write out of their deepest selves,\u201d [Paterson] says. \u201cWhatever is there in them comes out willy-nilly, and it is not a conscious act on their part. If I were to consciously say, \u2018This book shall now be a Christian book,\u2019 then the act would become conscious and not out of myself. It would either be a very peculiar thing to do \u2014 like saying, \u2018I shall now be humble\u2019 \u2014 or it would be simple propaganda.\u201d<\/p>\n

She leans forward and speaks quickly now to dispel some of the connotations of the word. \u201cPropaganda occurs when a writer is directly trying to persuade, and in that sense, propaganda is not bad. When I think of Who Am I? <\/em>(1992), I think of propaganda. But persuasion is not story, and when you try to make a story out of persuasion then you\u2019ve done something wrong to the story. You\u2019ve violated the essence of what a story is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here she had spoken with none of the easy laughter of earlier. I ask, \u201cWould you then say that you are a Christian writer?\u201d expecting her to quail at the label.<\/p>\n

But she does not, and the laughter returns. \u201cA Christian first,\u201d she says. \u201cI have a vocation as a writer; that is my calling. But a Christian first.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sometime about now I remember to turn on the tape recorder. Here we are at the heart of Katherine Paterson as a writer: The Christian given the vocation of writing, and called to write about the radical biblical hope that lies in her deepest self.<\/p>\n

But there is no greater irony about Katherine Paterson\u2019s work than the fact that it is so frequently \u2014 one might almost use the word consistently \u2014 attacked and censored by Christian groups. And there seem to be so many problematic scenes from which to choose. Jess and Leslie pray to imaginary gods in Bridge to Terabithia <\/em>(1977). Takiko not only returns home with her stepfather at the end of Of Nightingales That Weep <\/em>(1974), but marries him and has a child in the novel\u2019s joyous climax. Come Sing, Jimmy Jo <\/em>(1985) has a mother who fools around \u2014 even, perhaps, with her husband\u2019s brother; in Park\u2019s Quest <\/em>(1988) it is the father who has had an illegitimate child while on duty in Vietnam.<\/p>\n

And there is Gilly Hopkins, whose surname comes from one of the poets Paterson most admires. The Great Gilly Hopkins <\/em>(1978) is one of the most frequently attacked of her books. It is about a child who seems about as far from her Tolkienesque namesake Galadriel as might be possible. She lies and steals. She deceives and manipulates. She is not above a fistfight, and neither is she averse to anonymous racial slurs. And she swears. Creatively. This would hardly seem to be the book for the Christian home or church library. Many, many Christian readers have been at pains to point this out.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you want to look for the most openly Christian book I have written,\u201d Katherine explains now, \u201cit isn\u2019t Jip. I think it\u2019s The Great Gilly Hopkins<\/em>. My commitment as a writer is to be honest, and I have to be honest all the time, not just when every character behaves well and doesn\u2019t cuss. A novel concerned with sin and redemption will have real characters, and there are real characters who lie and steal and cuss.\u201d In fact, The Great Gilly Hopkins <\/em>is a retelling of the parable of the Prodigal Son, and, she explains, you need to be with the son at the hog trough if you want to be with him when he is welcomed home.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Walden Media\u2019s upcoming adventure Bridge to Terabithia looks intriguing. I haven\u2019t read Paterson\u2019s work yet, but an interview she did for Books and Culture several years ago has stuck with me because of the passionate way she spoke about the role of the Christian artist\u2026 Access to the full article requires a subscription to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1051,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2070,2071,285],"class_list":["post-22832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-bridge-to-terabithia","tag-katherine-paterson","tag-quotable"],"yoast_head":"\n"Bridge to Terabithia" and Author Katherine Paterson<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Walden Media's upcoming adventure Bridge to Terabithia looks intriguing. 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