The market has been flooded with vampire and werewolf books to satisfy our curiosity. We don’t care, we want good, interesting stories that defy imagination.
As a Christian, I am not bothered by the hype around vampire and werewolf books. I won’t read smutty novels to begin with, so if there is a skanky vampire story, I skip it anyway. Are vampires bad? Only in some stories. Are werewolves, bad… I don’t know, they are imaginary.
So now there have been a bunch of books coming out about angels and demons. Demon hunters, angel heroes, and half human/half angel stories. There is just something that bothers me about these. I have wondered why vampires and werewolves don’t bother me one a bit, but stories about demons and angels do.
ISSUE #1: Vampires and werewolves are NOT REAL. Totally made up, fiction. Like unicorns and fairies.
ISSUE #2: Angels and demons are REAL. God is real, angels are real, the devil is real, and demons are real. There has always been a battle between good and evil since the fall of Lucifer. Whether anyone believes it or not, truth is truth. DEMONS exist.
ISSUE #3: Writers make up their own rules:
1. Concerning vampires, they make up their own rules about if they can be in the sun, or if they sleep in coffins, or whether they bite humans or animals. That’s okay, because they are totally make-believe creatures anyway! There are not definite rules about what they are and what they can be.
2. Concerning angels and demons, the writer seems to think that it’s okay to make up their own rules about how they work. For me, this is the most annoying part. It’s like breaking the rule of gravity on earth. That’s idiotic because if they don’t want to follow the rules of gravity, then don’t write a book that takes place on earth… create a NEW planet for the setting.
If you don’t know anything about angels, don’t write a movie, or a book about them.
If you don’t know anything about angels, don’t write a movie, or a book about them.
For me there was nothing more annoying than that movie “Michael” starring John Travolta. It breaks every rule about angels. Don’t people know that if he’s a fallen angel, he’s a demon. Duh!
“Fallen” by Lauren Kate. Ridiculous. You can’t fall in love with an angel. Angels know their place. They won’t be talking to you unless they have a message from the Almighty. Yeah, maybe angels appear in human form to help us out. I believe it’s only because it is God-approved. If they do, they are DEMONS. Are demons good? NO.
I just believe that if you don’t know the rules about something that is real like gravity, angels or demons, you best not be breaking those rules. They are not imaginary. It’s just plain annoying.
Which brings me to my last point. There are quite a few books about angels and demons that are nothing like the real thing that cause people to believe the wrong thing about them. For example, if we are presented with stories about lawyers and they do bad things in every story ever written, we would all assume that all lawyers are bad. But I’m sure not every lawyer on the face of the earth is BAD. Which in turn, makes fiction turn into nonfiction. It’s just ridiculous.
Why can’t someone actually write a story about angels and/or demons that is biblically correct? Wow us, people. It can be done.
Here's a couple of points:
ReplyDelete1. No, most people don't know that if they're a fallen angel they're a demon. Most people (Christians included) are only dimly aware of the actual doctrines of their faith much less the nuts and bolts of demonology. It's annoying, yes, but you have to accept that the world doesn't think or believe like you do.
2. Writers play with the rules for EVERYTHING to make a good story. Do you think the writers of Law & Order stick to genuine police procedure? You also have to understand that a lot of writers aren't Christians, they're just using the Judeo-Christian worldview as a jumping off point. I've played several video games with angels and demons in the story, but they're all presented through a very Eastern mindset. This doesn't bother me because it's no more based on the truth than a story about zombies. I also don't know many people who actually believe something about angels that they saw in a movie.
3. Finally, Twilight is nothing but porn for girls. If it were 40 year old men gasping at the sight of a shirtless 17 year old girl society would be in an uproar.
While overall I admire your post and I agree with you I think Adam had more than one good point.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, plenty of writers are not Christians and even if they are, they don't bother with reading the Bible every day and attending the mass on Sunday. They think less about the veracity and more about the popularity of their books. For them, angels, fallen or otherwise, and demons are as unreal as werewolves, vampires, zombies, fairies and such - that's why they create their own rules within their own fictional stories and try to do their utmost to make their books readable (or at least profitable) but not necessarily demonologically correct.
@ Adam's Twilight is nothing but porn for girls. If it were 40 year old men gasping at the sight of a shirtless 17 year old girl society would be in an uproar.
Amen and bless your soul, sir (if you think you have it) for stating the sheer truth. Twilight is porn in more than one way and these vampires are simply laughable.
@ Why can’t someone actually write a story about angels and/or demons that is biblically correct? Wow us, people. It can be done.
Then do it. ;)
You hit the nail on the head as to why I stay away from angel books. While I know it's fiction, I'm just not comfortable with the way the subject matter is handled and I HATED the movie Michael. That being said, there are two YA/paranormal books based on angels coming out next year that I want to read because they are from Christian publishers. Halflings by Heather Burch (Zondervan) and Angel Eyes by Shannon Dittemore (Thomas Nelson). Really curious to see how they handle whole angel/demon subject matter.
ReplyDeleteNC
Truly Bookish
HA! Lovely!
ReplyDelete@Adam, I knew you'd have something to say about that. I'm just bored and annoyed with the fact that they call them angels when in fact, it's more like a made up spirit creature. I just thought I'd have a blog tantrum about it. :)
@Ana, It is a shame that they are perceived as imaginary as fairies & vampires. Which proves my point that if they don't know anything about it, they shouldn't call them angels.
@Ana's "Then do it." I'm working on it! :D
@Truely, thanks for the book references. I'll have to check them out!
Thx for the comments
Great article! I, too, have a HUGE passion to see God stuff portrayed biblically. And to Truly Bookish I owe a thank you for the shout out. Angel Eyes comes out in May and is the first in a trilogy. Working hard now on book two. I can't wait to hear what you all think.
ReplyDeleteGod bless, all. Keep reading!