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CSFF - The Sword Review and What Happens When Metaphors Aren’t Metaphors

May 22nd, 2007 | CSFF, blogtipping, fantasy, poetry

banner for The Sword Review 

It’s time again for the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy blog tour! This month, we’re talking about The Sword Review, an online magazine project of Double-Edged Publishing, Inc.

In case you are wondering, Double-Edged Publishing (and probably The Sword Review) get their names from Hebrews 4:12:

For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

So today I’m going to focus on the site’s poetry, because I love poetry. (Of course, there are many interesting places here. Including the section of blogs hosted by The Sword Review.)

On to the poetry.

In the current features, Jaime Lee Moyer’s poem Wings reminds me why I love fantasy and science fiction. The main character of her poem took her children and

Sang them to sleep at night
With sing-song tales…
Until they learned what it
Meant to live in a world
Of magic and miracles

Because the world is full of burning bushes. The heavens declare the glory of God, but too often I can’t see it. I look out my window and see only a cloudy sky and a patch of grass. Or worse, I let the television become my magic lantern.

Fantasy (which includes science fiction for me, or speculative fiction if you prefer) lets me imagine the unseen epic battles that are happening in the world. I’m not talking about just the angelic battles envisioned by This Present Darkness. Like Prufrock, I feel like “It is impossible to say just what I mean!” But when I read good fantasy, it’s “as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen.” For Prufrock, this magic lantern of his mind allows him to imagine the future–whether he will talk with a lady or not, whether he dares to disturb the universe. The human mind is a much more powerful magic lantern than the movie screen or television.

So why do we seek our dreams from television instead of a more mystical vision?

At The Sword Review, Marcie Lynn Tentchoff’s most recent column for SpecPoetic Musings touches on this a little bit. She talks about literal vs. literary poems. The metaphors in speculative poetry are also literal, like myths. That’s a fun idea, and makes me want to go back and read Tennyson’s Ulysses again:

We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

Or Yeat’s Leda and the Swan:

Did she put on his knowledge with his power
Before the indifferent beak could let her drop?

Although The Sword Review does have an active forum, I really wish SpecPoetic and similar areas of the sites allowed comments.

(Those of you on the tour, I’d especially invite you to browse through my series analyzing what works and what doesn’t on a blog tour. It will be finishing up over the next few days.)

I’m not giving stars or dots, this time, but be sure to visit some of the other guides on this tour:
Brandon Barr
Jim Black
Amy Browning
Jackie Castle
Valerie Comer
Karri Compton
Frank Creed
CSFF Blog Tour
Gene Curtis
D. G. D. Davidson
Chris Deanne
April Erwin
Kameron M. Franklin
Linda Gilmore
Beth Goddard
Andrea Graham
Jill Hart
Katie Hart
Sherrie Hibbs
Heather R. Hunt
Becca Johnson
Jason Joyner
Kait
Karen
Dawn King
Tina Kulesa
Lost Genre Guild
Kevin Lucia and The Bookshelf Reviews 2.0 - The Compendium
Terri Main
Rachel Marks
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Eve Nielsen
John W. Otte
John Ottinger
Robin Parrish
Cheryl Russel
Hanna Sandvig
Chawna Schroeder
Mirtika Schultz
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Daniel I. Weaver
Russell Griffith
Jason Waguespac
Holly


Viewing 5 Comments

    • ^
    • v
    Great post! I always appreciate someone who likes both sci fi and fantasy.

    "So why do we seek our dreams from television instead of a more mystical vision?"

    I agree with your question. I know I have to "veg out" for a certain period of time every day, but I never could understand people who let that become their entire life. It's like taking the inactive road instead of the interactive one. I'd rather people went out and got involved in community service that submit to the oppiate of the masses.

    On the other hand, when my book gets published (or should I say "if"), I want everyone to watch it on DVD.

    So I am double-minded. And selfish. And evil. Think I 'll put that into one of my characters.

    Blessings on your blog tour!
    • ^
    • v
    What? No stars or dots? What kind of Wemmick are you anyway?

    I will definitely be by to read your series on blog tours.

    After the tour...
    • ^
    • v
    "So why do we seek our dreams from television instead of a more mystical vision?"

    I can’t decide if perhaps I loose sight of who God is, forgetting that He simply hovered over the waters and then began to speak it all into being. Or, perhaps, I am simply afraid to imagine anything that might possibly not come true, too busy with the futility that fills day-to-day business to allow the intrusion of disappointment.

    I like your lines, "Because the world is full of burning bushes. The heavens declare the glory of God, but too often I can’t see it." It reminds me of something I read today in An Arrow Pointing to Heaven, a biography of Rich Mullins. The author quotes Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “Earth’s crammed with heaven; and every common bush afire with God; but only he who sees, takes off his shoes, the rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.”
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    • v
    Oh, Susan. Do you really feel like your day-to-day business is filled with futility? It isn't! Your daily work is a high calling... even when you can't see it.

    Here's my favorite message of encouragement when I start feeling like that sentence.

    (And I realize you were probably making a rhetorical point.)
    • ^
    • v
    Thank you Marcus. That was very kind - and a helpful way to start the morning as I check email before quiet time and then work.

    The futility is probably because I think I am supposed to see rather than walk by faith. Perhaps I also feel unsure of exactly what I should be doing. Without the sense of calling, it is easy to get lost in the bustle and flurry of activity.

    And then, there is always, "hope deferred..". You had no idea you would be blogging with such a melancholy one, did you? Oh goodness!

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