Anyhoo.
The massive success of the book and movie version of The Hunger Games has brought up the subject of violence in literature again. Some people look at the deeper meaning of the story, and some people can't get past the teen on teen violence.
They must not remember high school.
Kidding! However, the world of Christian fiction has an interesting dichotomy. Sex and naughty words are a no go, but violence is tolerated/accepted much more. Mike Duran has a good post on this conundrum that I recommend.
I've talked about it at length here. My most recent post linked to a couple of articles that took opposite viewpoints.
I also participate in blog tours for books regularly. In 2007 there was a book featured that had some scenes that stimulated my thoughts on the topic of violence.
It ended up spurring six days of posts, with some great discussion on all of the posts. Since it seems relevant with the Hunger Games discussion, as well as catching me up quickly to my blogging delay, I present links to each of the posts.
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
The take home points were that the Bible is not sanitized when it comes to violence, but it is also not written to entertain but to narrate events that happened and to show consequences. If a Christian author uses violence, it should fit the story and not be done in a gratuitous manner, and they should be sensitive to the Holy Spirit in how to show it. We can't be afraid of the professional weaker brother, but discernment is always a good thing to exercise.
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What say you? Have you noticed excessive or gratuitous violence in a CBA book before? Is there a level for "too much?"
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