From: mdhangton@gmail.com   
      
   On Sunday, August 31, 2014 8:51:26 PM UTC-4, Kevin C wrote:   
   > On Sunday, August 31, 2014 5:11:23 AM UTC-4, Nicky wrote:   
   >    
   > > Oh I see. It seems odd to narrow down the genre by outlook the other   
   genres being more define my style. Do people choose only to read left leaning   
   political SF or right wing stuff too? I'm perhaps out of touch but the notion   
   doesn't seem to have made    
   it this side of the pond although C.S. Lewis' work is well known.    
   >    
   > >    
   >    
   > > Personally I dislike narrowing the categories of genre - it makes stuff   
   that falls between them harder to sell and seems to represent the imposition   
   of unnecessary restriction on a genre which should allow the most innovation   
   and flexibility. When I    
   started writing it was much easier to write whatever you liked. I don't want   
   to read or write the same thing endlessly but publishers tend to want to stick   
   you in a box along with your work. Perhaps this tendency has gone further in   
   the US?   
   >    
   >    
   >    
   > No, it's a definite subgenre. Again, think Steampunk, or Cyberpunk, or   
   Slipstream. Let's see . . . the best way to explain it is to read it.   
   Unfortunately, other than C.S. Lewis' SF and F, there aren't many samples of   
   this category. Really, from a UK    
   standpoint, C.S. Lewis is perhaps the best example, not only the Space trilogy   
   or the Narnia series, but _'Till We Have Faces,_ which uses the tale of Cupid   
   and Psyche to make a point about the Christian faith. But perhaps the very   
   best example is Lewis'    
   _The Great Divorce,_ which is clearly Christian and clearly fantasy. At the   
   far extreme Lewis' _The Screwtape Letters_ and _Screwtape Proposes a Toast._   
   Christian [genre] is between _The Great Divorce_ and _Till We Have Faces,_ but   
   is closer to _The    
   Great Divorce._   
   >    
   >    
   >    
   > Now, in contrast, I think Chesterton's Father Brown mysteries would fall in   
   the category of mainstream mystery, even though the protagonist is a Catholic   
   Priest. That's because the primary focus is on the mystery.   
   >    
   >    
   >    
   > Let's try this: The three basic plots are man's struggle against nature;   
   man's struggle against man; and man's struggle against himself. Christian lit   
   introduces a third: Man's struggle with God.    
      
   Aristotle's Poetics has, if I remember correctly, 21 plots.  Several of them   
   involve man struggling against the gods, appealing to the gods for aid, a   
   couple other cases like that.  These aren't the Christian God.  Gilgamesh   
   struggles against Enlil (I    
   think that's the god), in a sense.  So by your definition....   
      
   >For an illustration, Ben Bova wrote a story of a lunar rescue, with the   
   events mirroring the protagonist's internal struggle. So here we have an SF   
   story where in the "foreground" is the rescue, but in the "background" is the   
   internal struggle. In Keith    
   Laumer's _Once there was a Giant,_ the struggle in the foreground is man   
   against himself, with the background the struggle of the protagonist and the   
   title character against nature. So, in Christian [genre], the primary struggle   
   in the foreground is Man    
   with God, with the events of the story, like Laumer's in the background.   
   >    
   >    
   >    
   > This is what makes it a separate genre, moreso than, say, military SF, where   
   the actions forms the framework for an SF yarn. Or Holly Isle's Devil's Point   
   trilogy, or even Niven and Pournelle's _Inferno_ and _Inferno II,_ none of   
   which would be    
   considered Christian Fantasy, for despite the subject and framework, there is   
   no struggle between Man and God.   
   >    
   Do you think that these eschatological novels like Left Behind are Christian   
   SF?   
   Or the Christian morality play novels that are sold in Christian bookstores?   
   These don't particularly fit your model for Man vs. God plot conflict.   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)