Skip to comments.
The 12th Coming of Less-Than-Glorious Fiction
National Review ^
| 04/02/04
| Carl E. Olson
Posted on 04/05/2004 10:06:24 AM PDT by jrherreid
click here to read article
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-20, 21-40, 41-42 next last
1
posted on
04/05/2004 10:06:25 AM PDT
by
jrherreid
To: nickcarraway
Ping!
2
posted on
04/05/2004 10:07:41 AM PDT
by
jrherreid
To: jrherreid
bump
3
posted on
04/05/2004 10:08:44 AM PDT
by
Tribune7
(Arlen Specter supports the International Crime Court having jurisdiction over US soldiers)
To: jrherreid
Coincidentally, I ordered the first "Left Behind" from Amazon this morning (along with Dune: The Machine Crusade).
4
posted on
04/05/2004 10:09:45 AM PDT
by
The G Man
(John Kerry? America just can't afford a 9/10 President in a 9/11 world. Vote Bush-Cheney '04.)
To: All
Rank |
Location |
Receipts |
Donors/Avg |
Freepers/Avg |
Monthlies |
40 |
Armed Forces - Europe |
75.00
|
1
|
75.00
|
|
|
35.00
|
3
|
Thanks for donating to Free Republic!
Move your locale up the leaderboard!
5
posted on
04/05/2004 10:10:27 AM PDT
by
Support Free Republic
(I'd rather be sleeping. Let's get this over with so I can go back to sleep!)
To: jrherreid; archy; Long Cut; Jeff Head; GeronL; river rat
This is going to be a fun thread! I picked up a "Left Behind" book once. Literally: I found it on the sidewalk. It amazed me how badly written a mega best seller can be! It told me, "go forward Matt, with your novel, you don't have to be Hemingway to write a best seller!"
If anyone wants to pick a bone with me over the comparative level of writing, click to this sample chapter from my novel. It stands alone pretty well as a short story, which is why I'm linking it. It's old, so it's been edited slightly in the printed novel.
"The Raid" from Enemies Foreign and Domestic
6
posted on
04/05/2004 10:16:56 AM PDT
by
Travis McGee
(----- www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com -----)
Comment #7 Removed by Moderator
To: jrherreid
"These uprisings shall be crushed posthaste. As we speak, portions of our more than extravagantly outfitted fighting force will peel off to these locations to lay waste to the pretenders. They will regret their insolence only as long as they have breath, and then they will be trampled and made an example of."This is from "The Onion," right?
8
posted on
04/05/2004 10:55:18 AM PDT
by
Tax-chick
(See baby pictures on the Tax-chick page!)
To: jrherreid
Premillennial dispensationalism and the belief in a Rapture event separate from the Second Coming is rejected, either explicitly or implicitly, by the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox churches, and nearly every major Protestant denomination. Oh, really? Gee wiz, most Christians I know (not just those who are members of the same church) believe in a pre-tribulation rapture. I also believe that the scriptures back up the pre-trib angle.
But even if someone disagrees with this particular theology, the statement that "nearly every major Protestant denomination" rejects this view is quite false.
I bought the book on the release day. I have not had time to start reading yet, but am quite anxious to get started.
9
posted on
04/05/2004 11:18:16 AM PDT
by
TheBattman
(Leadership = http://www.georgewbush.com/)
To: TheBattman
I've read all twelve now and I must be honest and say that as the series progressed the books got worse. While I recognize that the books were never meant to be great literature, some passages where just silly. Theology aside, the books could have been so much better.
To: uburoi2000
Funny you should mention that...I was just saying the same thing to my DH this weekend (we are Evangelicals). I've been pondering it for awhile now and have a few theories. My dream is to write Christian themed novels that don't suck. The older I get, the more I appreciate Catholicism. Truth and beauty seem to be able to coexist within it.
11
posted on
04/05/2004 11:26:55 AM PDT
by
meowmeow
To: Tax-chick
This is from "The Onion," right?I wish it were!
To: Tax-chick
This is from "The Onion," right?
Nah, I flipped through one of the early books in a bookstore, the writing actually IS that hideously bad.
13
posted on
04/05/2004 11:39:08 AM PDT
by
John H K
To: Travis McGee
It amazed me how badly written a mega best seller can be! Anyone who has read Tom Clancy or Vince Flynn knows that, too. What matters is the ability to tell a story - for some reason the ability to tell stories and the ability to write well don't often coexist in the same author. "Writers" tend to spout brilliantly crafted nonsense, and "storytellers" make grammatical and structural mistakes that would make a fifth grader blush.
People don't read anymore, anyway. In the late 60's, a bestselling paperback would sell twelve million copies - today a book that sells three million is considered miraculous. The television generation has killed writing.
To: Mr. Jeeves
Very true. In my constellation, I put storytelling first and foremost, and then try very hard to write the story as well as I possibly can.
15
posted on
04/05/2004 12:00:51 PM PDT
by
Travis McGee
(----- www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com -----)
To: Travis McGee; jrherreid; archy; Long Cut; GeronL; river rat
I've read the first nine volumes of the Left Behind Series. For me it got to where it was drgging way too much...almost purposely to drag it out to get more volumes and so I stopped. I know how it ends anyway...hehehe.
Still, the success is amazing and worth studying. It was a relative unknown until several volumes in and then it picked up and the resulting promotions and awareness kicked started all preceding volumes.
I also believe that it is not a very well written story...but I hate judging literary capabilities given my own novice status. At the same time, I did buy most of them and read them.
Like with Travis, it has given me hope for my own series:
THE DRAGON'S FURY SERIES OF NOVELS
A techno-thriller series about America and the next World War
We shall see.
To: Travis McGee; archy; Jeff Head
Haven't read 'em, don't intend to. Why in the WORLD would anyone pay good $$$ to be (poorly) preached to? One can, if one wishes, go to church whilst the preacher is drunk for that.
I read to learn, to have my imagination stimulated, to have flights of fancy in adventures I will probably never experience, and to watch my favorite characters triumph.
If I want a Bible study, I'll sign up for one.
The authors of this scribbling even admit that entertaining and challenging the reader is completely secondary to them, after the preaching. What an insult to a reader.
17
posted on
04/05/2004 12:56:14 PM PDT
by
Long Cut
(Hell of a thing, killin' a man. You take away all he's got, and all he's ever gonna have)
To: TheBattman
But even if someone disagrees with this particular theology, the statement that "nearly every major Protestant denomination" rejects this view is quite false.
So which "major Protestant denominations" do go in for the whole Rapture thing?
It is not a comment on the veracity of the Theological position (though as a Catholicly-minded Anglican I have no time for the actual Theology personally), but rather a statement of verifiable fact. Most major Protestant denominations do not believe in it; just about everybody I have met who does believe in it is a member of an independent Church of some form or other.
18
posted on
04/05/2004 12:57:19 PM PDT
by
tjwmason
(A voice from Merry England.)
To: Long Cut
Well I did read several of them. Here's why.
I read them to see what their writing style was like to try and determine if that was a source for their success...to see if I agreed with their interpretation because I am a Christian who has an interest in what people think about the 2nd coming...and to study their success while I was writing my own series.
I determined that their story, while perhaps not a literary masterpiece by any stretch of the imaginiation, fed a desire by Christians in general, and evangelical Christians specifically, regarding fictional novels/tales/renderings of the tribulation and second coming. When those groups became fully engaged in the tale...it was a big enough audience to cause it to spread to other segnebts and for the larger publishing and retail outlets to want to get in on a piece of the action IMHO.
The way it spread is a good case study for people wanting to self-publish their own works with what may otherwise be considered non-politically correct material by the major publishing houses.
Anyhow...as with Travis...it let me know that you surely don't have to be a Dickenson or genius author to be successful. That gives me hope for the ultimate greater success of my novel series and building on its moderate success to date.
Jeff
To: Tax-chick
Yes, it is crap writing...but it's true to life, at least that portion involving evil tyrants. I won't swear I haven't actually read this in a news story. Heck, I think Baghdad Bob may have actually said it.
20
posted on
04/05/2004 1:11:31 PM PDT
by
RichInOC
("...No! No! I never said that, Rich! That is a Zionist lie! Saddam shall rise again!")
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-20, 21-40, 41-42 next last
Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson