{"id":8423,"date":"2013-12-09T14:57:24","date_gmt":"2013-12-09T19:57:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/?p=8423"},"modified":"2013-12-09T15:55:52","modified_gmt":"2013-12-09T20:55:52","slug":"raising-the-stakes-in-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2013\/12\/raising-the-stakes-in-stories.html","title":{"rendered":"Raising the Stakes in Stories"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

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

In her memoir\u00a0The Magician\u2019s Book: A Skeptic\u2019s Adventures in Narnia<\/a><\/em>, Laura Miller talks about why she strongly preferred the Narnia books to the Elsie Dinsmore<\/a> series an aunt pressed on her:<\/p>\n

\u00a0The morality of Elsie Dinsmore was the morality of childhood, where the choice was between obedience and naughtiness. The morality of Narnia was grown-up, a matter of good and evil.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A childhood friend echoed her feelings, contrasting Narnia to Oz:<\/p>\n

There was a certain weightiness to Narnia which really appealed to me\u2026 The fact that people were really being tested. It wasn\u2019t just \u2018Are we coming to the end of the adventure? Will we get back to Kansas?\u2019 but \u2018Will we get back to Kansas with our souls intact?\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Unfortunately, the\u00a0Harry Potter\u00a0<\/em>series disappointed me a little on this front, where the plot seemed to peter out into an extended scavenger hunt and loop-hole exploiting of wandlore, while Harry\u2019s moral development fell by the wayside. \u00a0(Remember that\u00a0crucio<\/em> Harry used on Amycus Carrow, without comment?).<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, this week, the\u00a0Hobbit<\/em> movie is raising the stakes of the story by preparing us for an extended treatment of the Battle of Five Armies<\/a> (which Bilbo in the book misses most of, as he\u2019s been concussed), and the Sherlock<\/em> trailer<\/a> warns us that our detective will be facing terrorists, who may threaten all of Britain.<\/p>\n

When stories raise the states, they tend to raise the brute force of the opponent, or the acreage being threatened, but it\u2019s quite possible to tell small stories where the main character isn\u2019t fighting a dragon or defusing a bomb, but trying to find a way forward that keeps their virtues intact. \u00a0(Sherlock<\/em> has done a good job in seasons one and two of writing mysteries that serve character development, instead of just stunt people).<\/p>\n

One of the best series in this respects is Diane Duane\u2019s\u00a0Young Wizards<\/em> books, which in book five\u00a0The Wizard\u2019s Dilemma<\/em><\/a>, has Nita facing a much smaller problem than possible death of the Sun \u2014 the possible death of her mother from cancer. \u00a0Solving this problem isn\u2019t just a matter of being clever or strong but of realizing what some potential solutions might cost her or her mother morally, and deciding what price she can pay.<\/p>\n

A connection between means and morals is what makes Nita\u2019s adventure more like the good-and-evil story of Narnia than the obedience-and-naughtiness stories of Elsie Dinsmore. \u00a0Nita avoids some kinds of magic, just like Harry\u00a0should<\/em> have avoided the Cruciatus, because they\u2019re powered by vices she doesn\u2019t want strengthened, not just because they\u2019re named \u2018Dark.\u2019<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, a fair amount of Christian writing on faith and morals can sound decidedly Dinsmore-ish. \u00a0The Christian sexual ethic book I reviewed last week<\/a> had this problem. \u00a0It was very obvious what<\/em> was proscribed, but was weak on the\u00a0why<\/em>, till it felt as arbitrary as points given for following directions. \u00a0It\u2019s exciting to be good, but it\u2019s relatively dull to be obedient, and moral teaching (and fiction) works better tilted Narnia-wards.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019m on (a belated) day six of\u00a0a novena to St. Isidore<\/a>,\u00a0my saint for the month<\/a>, and readers are welcome to join me.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In her memoir\u00a0The Magician\u2019s Book: A Skeptic\u2019s Adventures in Narnia, Laura Miller talks about why she strongly preferred the Narnia books to the Elsie Dinsmore series an aunt pressed on her: \u00a0The morality of Elsie Dinsmore was the morality of childhood, where the choice was between obedience and naughtiness. The morality of Narnia was grown-up, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":8426,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviewsrecommendations"],"yoast_head":"\nRaising the Stakes in Stories<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In her memoir\u00a0The Magician\u2019s Book: A Skeptic\u2019s Adventures in Narnia, Laura Miller talks about why she strongly preferred the Narnia books to the Elsie\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2013\/12\/raising-the-stakes-in-stories.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" 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