The Grace of Fiction
Literature shows us truths about ourselves and others and can be a powerful instrument for personal & spiritual growth.
Tell all the truth but tell it slant —
Success in Circuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth's superb surprise
As Lightning to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind -
Emily Dickinson
The Reader by Grace Cossington Smith, 1916
It took me years to realise the role that literature had in ‘growing my soul.’ As a young Christian I’d devour books that I thought would help me develop my character and they were usually non-fiction - why waste my time on fiction when I could be reading books that would help me change and grow?
Then I started reading aloud to my children and I discovered the power of story. One of my earliest remembrances was the time that I read Little Women by Louisa May Alcott to my two oldest children. When I came to the chapter ‘Jo Meets Apollyon,’ it was as if it was written just for me:
“Jo, dear, we all have our temptations, some far greater than yours, and it often takes us all our lives to conquer them. You think your temper is the worst in the world, but mine used to be just like it.”
“…you must keep watch over your ‘bosom enemy’, as father calls it, or it may sadden, if not spoil your life. You have had a warning. Remember it, and try with heart and soul to master this quick temper, before it brings you greater sorrow and regret than you have known today.”
I had a ‘bosom enemy’ - a very quick temper that flared up and then dissipated almost as quickly as it had come and left me feeling terrible and ashamed. I remember the passage above hitting me as I read and choking me up. I had to stop reading to steady myself but I have never forgotten how God used those words to make me aware that this enemy could spoil my life if I gave way to it.
Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton-Porter was a book that made me want to go and hug my girls and tell them how much I appreciated them. This story explores in part the relationship between a mother and her daughter. Elnora’s mother has kept a dark secret for many years and as a result has never been able to show her daughter any real love. Elnora goes off to high school and is ridiculed because of her clothes and obvious poverty. Her mother refuses to provide her with money for books and tuition because she considers her desire for an education ‘foolishness.’ This is a beautiful story that poignantly shows the effect of the withholding of love but also the release that forgiveness can bring. Lovely!
Children are born Persons. They will feel differently about some things and some things will give them pain that might not be the same thing that would cause us pain. Girl of the Limberlost helped me realise that.
Literature allowed Truth to dazzle me gradually. I could name many other works of fiction that have spoken to me in ways that a blunt non-fiction book wouldn’t have. I’ll share some of those at a later time.