Crucial Factors Writers Must Overcome to Successfully Engage Culture in Story

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S2_E43. EPISODE DESCRIPTION - Last week we discussed the importance of empathy. Not only for ourselves as writers, but for developing dynamic and engaging characters. 

This week, we take that same principle and dive deeper as we apply it to our lives and our writing to think about the way we engage culture. Now as a storyteller, writing coach, and artist myself, I tend to see a very common thread that leads to, well, not so good stories. 

 That common thread is fear. 

I want to challenge us in this episode to really look at our role in society both as artists, and as Christians, and see where we are letting fear affect our writing. We need not be afraid to address the hard aspects of life. If we are going to change the world through story then we can’t take a sanitized view of the world. In fact, we need to address the world as it really is and reveal that there really is a way out of sin, pain, suffering and anxiety that exists within every person.

So we need not be afraid! Follow me on this journey of confronting our fears and facing the world with a bold faith, knowing that Christ called us to be in the world, but not of the world.  

DOWNLOAD FULL TRANSCRIPTS FOR FREE on the podcast page of our website

UP NEXT - Next week, we take this premise and apply it to our writing as we dive into the difference between ‘Kind’ and ‘Nice’ and how it will change the live’s of your characters.

HELPFUL LINKS AND RESOURCES -The Storyteller’s Mission online platform offers one-on-one COACHING, SCRIPT and MANUSCRIPT CRITIQUES, and ADVANCED CLASSES ON WRITING. Send us an email at info@thestorytellersmission.com, or if you have a question or a specific writing related topic that you would like Zena to consider addressing on a future episode, LEAVE US A VOICEMAIL!

Transcript

THE STORYTELLER’S MISSION WITH ZENA DELL LOWE

S2_E43: Why Storytellers Need to Confront Their Fear of Engaging Culture in Their Stories
PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

Published June 23, 2022

00:00
INTRO: Hello, and welcome to the Storyteller's Mission with Zena Dell Lowe, a podcast for artists and storytellers about changing the world for the better through story.

00:10
TOPIC INTRO: For the last few weeks, we've been discussing "Aha moments." Things I've learned as a writer, or as a story coach, or in some capacity as a teacher, that I've noticed have become common things that writers often fail at. So I'm trying to point those out so that we can simply learn from those and increase our writing abilities.

00:34
Last week, I went on a little different journey, where I started talking about psychological things or worldview things that we need to incorporate into our experience as writers so that we are fully addressing everything we can and should in story. And that we are creating the most believable characters, the most believable worlds, and a biblical worldview in story, so that it's the most beneficial to our readers or our viewers.

01:05
Okay, so that's the premise we're going off today, as well. And today, what I want to talk about is a common problem that I just keep seeing happening in Christendom. In particular, it's fear.

01:20
PRESENTATION: Now, this fear manifests itself, almost universally, in the types of stories that we allow ourselves to tell, or more particularly the evaluative criteria of those stories. So, as I've mentioned before, this is when we tend to evaluate whether or not a story is good based on whether or not it lacks sex, language and violence.

01:46
KEY PRINCIPLE: And somehow, we have adopted in Christendom this belief that, "Hey, if there's no sex, if there's no language, if there's no violence, oh, it's good." As if a story is good based on what it lacks. It's a poor, poor evaluative scale to use to evaluate story, it's just not a good idea.

02:09
KEY PRINCIPLE: Because a story is not good, based on what it lacks. It's good based on what it offers.

02:16
And insofar as it represents the world as God actually and truly made it... So insofar as it tells the truth about the world as it really, really is, then that story is good, or has the potential to be good.

02:32
But there are a couple of other things that tend to creep in here. And I want to talk about that. I'm going to talk about that, because it's just so dang important.

02:42
Now one of the things that tends to happen in Christendom, and this is true, whether you're a storyteller or not, but there's this tendency to want to not go into the dark stuff. Because somehow we think that we are now preventing ourselves from being tainted by it.

03:00
Like, if you truly look at what the world is doing, or some of the bad things, you know... "we just have to keep a positive attitude." And we sort of tend to ostracize ourselves. We stick our head in the ground and pretend all that's not going on - because if we don't, we're somehow contaminated by it. That seems to be the general idea or consensus. That we are contaminated by the ugly things of the world if we look at it, or engage it, or somehow otherwise get involved.

03:33
And I want to argue that that is just false. And in fact, it's probably one reason why we've gotten into some of the problems that we have in society. So our job in society is not just to keep ourselves pure. It is, God does command that in the Bible, that we should be in the world, but not of the world. But notice what he says be in the world, but not of the world. So we need to be aware of what's going on. We need to know we can't just adopt this sanitized view of the world and try to prevent ourselves from being tainted.

04:12
That's just not good enough, and it's just not healthy for us or the world. And yes, you heard me right. It's not healthy for us. In fact, that will often lead to judgmentalism and self righteousness. Which, if you know anything about Scripture, is one of the things God hated more than anything. People that were proud: the Pharisees, the judgers, scoffers, the mockers, the people that looked down on others and took the places of importance and thought that they were without sin.

04:47
Why is this important? We need to tell the truth about the world as it really is, and we need to get over this fear. We need to stop being so dang afraid. But that also means we have to stop being so didactic - or dogmatic - in the judgments that we're applying to other artists too.

05:08
EXAMPLE #1: Harry Potter is a classic example of this. So I recently had a conversation with a good friend of mine actually who's a father of four, a wonderful Christian man, who took issue with me saying that Harry Potter actually has a very biblical worldview.

05:29
Because, the truth is Harry Potter is all about - it absolutely embodies - the themes that we in Christendom, most value: sacrifice, love, overcoming evil, courage, community, all these wonderful things. But he said, “... Zena, it has dark magic and light magic and therefore it is from the occult and it is evil." And I said, "No, it is not." I really did. I really said it... just that, "No, it is not!" Like, I wanted to strangle him. And by the way, he's a very good friend. I love him dearly. But the problem is that is just such childish thinking.

06:15
Harry Potter is a fantasy world, which uses fantasy devices to tell a story. The magic in Harry Potter is not being represented in an occultic way. It isn't tapping into satanism. They're not doing satanic rituals. It's not even a recognition of the demonic or of satan or any of those things.

06:41
It is a device, it is a fantastic device that is used for this type of story, where the magic is wonderful. And here's the thing, if you believe that, if you believe that Harry Potter is evil simply because of the magical elements. You are being short sighted and you're not being consistent.

07:03
Did you watch any Disney growing up? Did you ever see Cinderella? Did you ever see how her fairy godmother created her a gown and then the two mice became the horses and... the pumpkin became the carriage that took her to the ball. I mean, that's magic.

07:21
But are they represented as somebody who does some sort of occultic ceremony that taps into specifically demons? And demons are the ones powering that magic? No. It was magic. It was fantasy... ... it's in our imagination. Why can't we enjoy the idea of magic in our imaginations?

07:43
I promise you, magic is delightful. C.S. Lewis wrote The Chronicles of Narnia. I don't hear Christians complaining about that. But there's just as much magic in CS Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia, as there is in Harry Potter.

08:01
So the key isn't whether or not there's magic. There's nothing wrong with magic. Magic is just a device. Magic is just a literary device that allows us to explore a fantastic world where there are different rules in that universe.

08:21
Beauty and the Beast has magic. The teapot sings, the people turned into those things. There's a curse - all those things. But they don't tap into specifically demonic powers to make, or power the magic. Even if they call it light magic and dark magic. It doesn't matter. It's just a device. So we've got to get beyond this sort of childish thinking.

08:44
Here's the real acid test: is good, good and is bad, bad? Let's look at that, and guess what? Nobody ever thinks Voldemort is good. Nobody ever thinks, "Awe poor Voldemort. He's just so misunderstood." That would be silly.

09:05
In fact, it's things like fantasy, that allow us to clearly see differences between evil and good. Never ever, ever, in Harry Potter, do we think that Voldemort is actually truly good, and he's just misunderstood. Whereas if you take fantasy out of it, now you're left with only reality.

09:32
And in reality, it is really hard sometimes, to just see somebody as evil because we're challenged - and we should be - to have empathy, and to get beyond that... To look for the other factors that might be contributing to this, to try to find common ground.

09:51
But in a fantasy world, it's a morality play, where we can honestly look at good versus evil.

09:57
And what I love about Harry Potter, is that Harry is aware of his own sin nature. Harry is aware that he has dark impulses. And yet, the entire story is about him learning that just because he has those impulses, it doesn't define him. It doesn't mean he's bad - because it's his choices.

10:27
It's what he chooses to do with it, that defines whether or not it's good or bad. And furthermore, Harry Potter would not have been able to take on Voldemort, the embodiment of evil, had it not been for the love of his family and friends. They are what embolden him, they are what give him courage, they are what give him the strength to even lay down his life at the end.

11:01
"Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his brother." Harry Potter does that. It's a Christ story.

11:11
Not that he is trying to be Christ. But we're all trying to be like Christ to do the things that Christ would do. Including self sacrifice, and standing up to evil at all costs, that's heroism.

11:11
So it is didactic, for us to simply reject something like Harry Potter outright, simply because there are magical elements. We need to think bigger than that. We need to evaluate it beyond those simplistic scopes. There's more to it than that.

11:55
KEY PRINCIPLE: So when you consider a fantasy type story, where there are magical elements, my challenge to you is consider what is empowering those magical elements?

12:05
Are they being fueled by the occult? Or are they being fueled by demonic powers? That will help you understand at least where it falls into the category and we won't just couch everything all together? “Oh, magic evil.” That's not good. That's too much. That's just not right. That's a false evaluative criteria.

12:27
So, is it being fueled by specifically demonic forces? Or is it just a device? Now, Paul talks about this in Corinthians in a different kind of way. Of course, he talks about, if your brother thinks it's wrong to eat meat sacrificed to idols, then don't eat meat sacrificed to idols in front of your brother.

12:52
But notice, what he doesn't say is it's wrong to eat meat sacrificed to idols, he actually says it isn't wrong. You can do it, you have freedom, it's fine. But your brother has a weaker faith. And what we have to do is love your brother, that is more important than your personal freedom.

13:11
Okay, that's in personal living out choices. So it's more important that I love my brother than that I demand my personal freedoms.

13:20
Don't get the two ideas confused here. Because we're talking about as storytellers, it isn't wrong to have a fantasy element where there's magic, that's just silly. It's just silly. We need not be afraid. We need not be afraid to expose ourselves to those things. We need not be afraid.

13:39
In fact, we need not be afraid to send our kids to secular colleges. We need not be afraid to engage in politics, or to enter the marketplace of ideas and debate. We need not be afraid. The only time we should be afraid is if our faith is weak.

14:01
I'm not afraid when people ask me questions about Christianity, even if I can't answer it. Because I am confident, I am persuaded that there is an answer, even if I don't know it. I'm not afraid. Strong faith does not need to purify the world. Strong faith can see the world as it really is and feel the very real feelings that that reality evokes.

14:33
CONCLUSION: We need not be afraid. We need to have a paradigm shift, a major paradigm shift. If we're going to remain relevant in culture, which we ought to be, we need to stop trying to keep ourselves clean.

15:01
Now don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying, "Oh yeah, let's go wallow in it. Let's go get dirty. Let's go embrace and indulge our flesh and our..." whatever the case may be. No, of course not.

15:16
But we need not be afraid, to go into the temple and talk to those with different beliefs. We need not be afraid. And if you are, then I would challenge you to look at the quality of your faith, because you don't need to be afraid.

15:34
Well, I have more to say on this. But we will address it on the next episode. 5

15:39
CALL TO ACTION: In the meantime, if this has been helpful to you, and you enjoy this episode, may I challenge you to share it, just share it. Find somebody that you think would benefit from these ideas, these discussions and tell him to give it a listen.

15:56
OUTRO: Thank you for listening to The Storyteller's Mission with Zena Dell Lowe. May you go forth inspired, to change the world for the better through story.