I haven’t participated in the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy blog tour in awhile, but I do love what they do. This month, we’re talking about Cyndere’s Midnight by Jeffrey Overstreet.
You all probably know by now that I’m pretty picky about what I read. Sometimes it doesn’t seem that way because I’m always acting gaga over some book at this site. But that’s because I don’t do negative reviews (unless I accidentally committed myself to do them).
Cyndere’s Midnight and Auralia’s Colors is incredible writing. Overstreet’s writing is deeply poetic and mythic. It comes from a Christian worldview, but it never falls into mere analogy.
Recently, at Laity Lodge, I had a chance to sit down and talk with Overstreet about his work. Over the next three days, I’ll be posting short video clips from that time.
Since Auralia’s Colors is the first book in the series, I thought we should start with that. And fairy tales in general. I didn’t ask Overstreet about Tolkein’s essay On Fairy Stories, but I think he would agree with much of what Tolkein says there.
At Laity Lodge, Overstreet says too many adults dismiss fairy tales and fantasy as irrelevant. After all, a fantasy isn’t a true story, so why would it matter? But of course, they do matter. The recent power of Coraline and the success of superhero movies is a constant reminder that people need these stories. They need fantasy–whether it is high fantasy like Tolkein, LeGuin, and Overstreet or gothic fantasy like Neil Gaiman and Clive Barker or science fiction like Gene Wolfe.
We need fantasy.
Jeff Overstreet’s wife told him too many people have forgotten how much we need fantasy. She said, “Isn’t it a shame that most people, when they reach a certain age, they just sort of fold up their imaginations and put them in the closet. They don’t need them anymore.”
But we do need our imaginations! Fantasy keeps our imagination alive. Imagination fuels our creativity. From a strictly business standpoint, creativity creates value in the world. (Ken Robinson explains that logic well in his TED talk Do Schools Kill Creativity?)
But more important than the business or economic incentive, creativity is what makes us human. I believe that our creative selves are the root of the imago dei. In the beginning God created. And he made us in the image of himself as creators.
Anyway, here’s the first clip of my session with Overstreet at Laity Lodge. (I tried something with a little soundtrack in the first 10 seconds, that only sort of worked. So. Sorry about that, don’t turn it off just because of the weird music thing in the intro.)
Some other resource sites:
Jeffrey Overstreet’s Web site
Jeffrey Overstreet’s blog
Jeffrey Overstreet at Facebook
Other folks blogging in the tour this week:
Brandon Barr
Keanan Brand
Rachel Briard
Melissa Carswell
Valerie Comer
Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Shane Deal
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Andrea Graham
Todd Michael Greene
Katie Hart
Timothy Hicks
Jason Isbell
Jason Joyner
Kait
Carol Keen
Magma
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Eve Nielsen
Nissa
Wade Ogletree
John W. Otte
John Ottinger
Steve Rice
Crista Richey
Alice M. Roelke
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Rachel Starr Thomson
Robert Treskillard
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Fred Warren
Jill Williamson
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Neat to see how he ended up with this story. I really enjoyed these two books!
Eve! It's so good to hear from you again. I'm encouraged to find such good, immersive fantasy. That's such a rare thing.
Assuming I can find two hours to edit more video, I’ve got similar comments on Cyndere’s Midnight coming up later in the tour. As well as “Sex and the 21st Century Christian Novel” … if I can find the guts to post that.
This is why I enjoy YA books–they haven't forgotten yet to use their imagination. It reminds me of Jesus telling us to come to him with childlike faith.
Not only do adults stop reading fantasy because of the imaginative elements (although, who can argue that too strictly after the age-wide success of Harry Potter and Twilight series), but adults too often forget to keep living imaginatively.
Interesting that you call this a YA book. While reading them, I just felt like I was reading good books. To me Overstreet feels a lot like Ursula K. LeGuin. She’s sort of YA, and sort of not at the same time.
I believe that our creative selves are the root of the imago dei.
The root, the branches, the leaves, the bark … seems a little hard to say which part, but yes, definitely part. God also made us in His image to be communicators, to be relational, to love, to have purpose, to think, to choose, and a host of other qualities that make us human, that set us apart from the animals He did not breathe His breath into. Creativity is certainly one of those things, beyond a doubt.
Becky
True, those things seem to be part of what make us human. But when God said, “Let us make them in our image,” the only thing we know about the image of God up to that point is that he is the creator of the universe. In context of Genesis 1 and 2, I've always felt that the imago dei referred to God's creative power.
But of course, it sounds like I'm saying the imago dei is ONLY about creativity. And I don't mean that. It's just an important part of it.
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