If you read fiction, this post is for you.

I’m a book-lover and I’m guessing you are, too.

I’m also an author (before you ask the inevitable question, I haven’t been published—not officially anyway). Being both an avid reader and a writer allows me to see both sides of the situation. Call it a superpower if you want—I’d actually like that, and you would earn major brownie points from me. 😉

I know plenty of other people have this perspective, so it’s not unique to me. Most authors I know also love to read, but I want to bring up an issue that hasn’t gotten much attention in the circles I run in—especially on the reader side.

I think I can safely speak for authors when I say we thrive on feedback. Yes we write because we love the creative process and since our brains would probably explode if we didn’t have an outlet for all the ideas churning around inside. For many, the simple act of writing, of creating, is satisfaction enough. Yet as any published author will tell you, it’s nice to hear from your readers.

As a blogger, I’ve experienced this firsthand over the past year since I got started. It’s encouraging to know my posts haven’t disappeared into the black hole of the internet. When someone leaves a comment or tells me how much they enjoy reading my blog, it’s a gift more precious than chocolate. And that’s saying something.

The same applies for books. Hearing how much readers like a book is a joy for authors.

As writers, we pour our heart and soul into our work. It’s only natural we find gratification in being rewarded. The best way you can do that is by buying books, but I think a close second is by letting an author know how much a book entertained or impacted you.

Trust me, authors can be a fragile bunch. We may seem like geniuses upon whom the mortal worries and troubles of the world have no effect.

Nothing could be further from the truth. We doubt ourselves. We question whether our books are any good or if people will actually care enough to spend time in a world we’ve created, following the lives of our characters. Sometimes we want to crawl into a hole because we’re convinced our author skills have become duller than a forgotten sword.

Dear readers, we need encouragement from you. I say this not to judge the readers. I’m one of you, don’t forget, and I’m just as guilty of not showing enough appreciation for my favorite authors.

I’ve come up with four easy ways you can encourage the authors whose work you enjoy. I’m sure there are plenty more, but life is busy and time is short, so here we go.

Encouragement Tip 1: Get involved in online groups

I’m part of a couple fan-based groups on Facebook, and those give me plenty of opportunities to put this idea into action. If I’m honest, I haven’t done a great job, but you don’t have the chance unless you actually get involved.

Lesser-known authors will appreciate this immensely.

Maybe you’re a Brandon Sanderson fan (if you are, YOU ROCK!). Nothing wrong with that, but his fanbase is ginormous. As in, bigger than the Death Star. I suggest you target authors with smaller followings. They’ll notice your presence, and that’s what you want.

The best part? You can interact with the author. Ask questions. Get involved. You’ll enjoy it and be able to encourage them at the same time.

Encouragement Tip 2: Interact with them on social media

Don’t just read. Engage. Post reading updates on Facebook and Twitter. Share pictures of your favorites books on Instagram. When authors post a status update asking a question or opening the door for discussion, take a minute or two to leave a comment. It doesn’t have to be anything elaborate or profound—merely a way to let them know.

Same goes for blog posts. I know not many authors blog, but when they do, and you enjoyed the post, leave a comment. Let them know people read and care about what they’re saying.

Encouragement Tip 3: Write your favorite authors a note

Yes, even if you don’t know them. *gasp*

This can be priceless. I was part of a book launch team a few months ago, and at the end of the process, the author sent me a note. I nearly died of joy the day it showed up in the mail. It may seem like a simple suggestion, but don’t underestimate the power of small acts of kindness.

You can also shoot them a message on social media, but sending a handwritten gives it a more personalized touch. If you’ve really enjoyed a series or particular book, writing an author to let him or her know that will brighten their day. Guaranteed.

Encouragement Tip 4: Talk about their books on social media…and everywhere else

Personally, few things hearten me more than seeing people share my blog posts and encourage others to read. Word-of-mouth is the most effective way to garnering attention for a book, and as booklovers, why would we not talk about the books we love? It should come as naturally to us as breathing.

Take that enthusiasm and transport it to the online arena. Mention authors in tweets and status updates. Link to their books, blogs, and Pinterest pages. Don’t be shy about spreading the word.

Those are a few easy tips to get you started, but don’t stop there. Get creative. Authors spend hundreds of hours crafting, polishing, and perfecting the books we read. Why not reward them for the hard work?

I know life is busy and it’s easy to get distracted or overwhelmed by all the other items on the “must-do” list. The thing is, none of these ideas are hard to put into action. Take a couple minutes a day to write a review, comment on a blog or Facebook, or send out a few retweets.

Authors will thank you for it.

If you’re a reader, do you have any suggestions to add? If you’re an author, what are some ways we readers can encourage you?

So I just watched the preview for Daredevil Season 2 for about the twentieth time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5_A0Wx0jU4

I’m ecstatic that it looks just as good as the first season and even more ecstatic that there will finally be a worthy portrayal of my all-time favorite comic book character, The Punisher. At least, he was my favorite, back when I was buying comic sleeves and boxes as fast as I could burn through them.

I always found The Punisher to be really compelling for some reason, despite his fairly vanilla backstory and less-than-nuanced approach to justice. Maybe the simplicity of his origin made it easy to project more complex struggles and identities onto him. Remember how, as the early-mid-90s postmodern-mania was spreading like wildfire, literature teachers and profs declared every character everywhere from every book to be either gay or a Christ figure (or, if you’re really edgy, a gay Christ figure)? Yeah, me too.

However, there is one literary character to whom I have never heard either of these labels applied: Frank Castle¹ — The Punisher of really-awesome-comic (and heretofore-really-horrible-movie) fame.

Marvel’s Daredevil season 2 is available as of March 18, 2016 on Netflix.

If you’re not familiar with Frank, he is a superhero (in the loosest sense of the term), a one-time seminarian, a Vietnam vet, and (since the senseless slaughter of his family in Central Park—wrong place, wrong time) a one-man war on organized crime, disorganized crime, and semi-organized crime. The Punisher wears a skull emblem on his chest² and takes no prisoners. He really ought to be called “The Executioner,” but that name was already claimed by Don Pendleton.

Okay, I need to throw out a disclaimer here: pastors probably shouldn’t be fans of the Punisher. And I’m not really an active fan anymore. The stories took a horrible turn—from Rambo-style, shoot-em-up action to gore, more gore, profanity, and sex— sometime in the early naughty aughties, at which time I jumped ship. I still have most of the classic issues, but I got rid of the few “Marvel Max” era comics I had. (I don’t even want to know about the subsequent “Frankenstein” version of the character. Sigh…)

Anyway, I’m certainly not writing to endorse the comics or the character (or three of the worst movies ever made). Or even the upcoming brilliant casting of Daredevil Season 2. No, I want to do something much worse: to suggest that there is a connection between Frank Castle and Jesus. Yes, this is a gimmick; the proposed connection is not in their characters per se, but in the way they’ve been represented.

By nature, publisher-owned comic book characters are drawn, inked, colored, and written by hundreds of different people over their lifetimes. As a result, they often differ significantly from one incarnation to another. But I would argue that Frank Castle, more than any other comic character, has been re-defined, re-oriented, and re-directed based on the worldview of his current writer, resulting in one schizophrenic judge, jury, and executioner.

To me, this is kind of funny. Why would you want a character who is essentially a mass-murdering vigilante to share your political/social opinions? I would be tempted to attribute my opponents’ views to The Punisher and portray him as the logical end of thinking like they do. This has been done to some degree, but more often than not, Frank Castle thinks like the writer of the current issue and becomes a mouthpiece-slash-fantasy vehicle.

For example, in the early ’90s, The Punisher comics were largely penned (not to be confused with “inked”) by conservatives, particularly Chuck Dixon and Mike Baron. This Punisher fought against environmentalist extremists and animal rights groups. In one particularly goofy issue, he protected a right-wing radio host (who was obviously supposed to be Rush Limbaugh) by killing the radical feminists and others who attacked him outside his studio. Frank thinks (or writes in his War Journal; it’s hard to tell the difference) that, after listening to this particular host for a while, “a lot of what he says makes sense.”

Now contrast that with Garth Ennis’s initial re-launching of the character (circa 2001-2006). The Irish Ennis is a militant atheist and strident leftist. His version of the Punisher is quite vocal about his pro-homosexual stance, ridicules a Fundamentalist preacher, and declares himself “anything but” pro-life. Oh, and he once broke into the oval office and threatened to kill President Bush. No, I’m not making that up; it was published two months after September 11. Apart from his obvious affinity for capital punishment, this Castle is basically a buffed-up version of Al Franken.

At this point, I hope you’re thinking that to suggest a connection between Jesus and the Punisher is kind of crass. And I would agree that it is, but it’s legit all the same. What Mike Baron and Garth Ennis have both done to the Punisher (taking his back story, general motivation and mission in life, supporting cast, etc. and filling them in with their own views, values, and passions), we all tend to do with the person of Jesus Christ. But here’s the problem: Jesus isn’t a fictional comic book character to be re-invented every few years. He’s the Alpha and Omega, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, through whom everything that exists was created.

Jesus hung out with sinners. He did miracles. He defied the religious leaders of his day. He died on a cross. He rose again. We humans have found it really easy over the last 2,000 years to fill in all the Jesus details with our own desires, values, goals, and passions. And it’s not hard to find two “versions” of Jesus that differ as much as the two versions of the Punisher described above. For example, compare the pro-capitalism, God-and-Country version of Jesus trumpeted by James Dobson or Gary Bauer with the Jesus of liberation theology or Jim Wallis and Brian McLaren’s disaffected hippie Jesus. It’s incredibly easy to re-make Jesus in our own image, even when we all accept the same origin, back-story, supporting cast, etc. (although the Jesus Seminar crowd wants to remove certain back issues from continuity and I think McLaren, et. al may be going for a full retcon).

Of course, the difficulty is that we can easily spot everyone else doing this, but most of us assume that we’re not. We’re just taking the Jesus of the Bible at face value. We’re not importing any of our own ideas, motives, or baggage. Are we?

So here’s the question: how can we guard against re-defining Jesus in our own image? How can you remain true to the real Christ—not the one you find inside yourself, but the one outside of us who died on a cross for the sins of the world? We can all write the standard general answer in our sleep. But what specific safeguards can we put in place? Here’s my two cents to start us off: one way to ensure that we will re-define Christ as we wish he was is to stop believing in authorial intent and absolute Truth. If the Truth is really inside you, then you will bend it (and Christ) to whatever you want them to be.

Are you reading Jesus like you want him to be? One indicator might be if you find that Jesus thinks just like you most of the time. You are never scandalized by what he taught or how he lived. If we’re following Christ as he is, we should expect that we will have to change (read: be changed) in order to think like him (having the same mind in us that is in Christ Jesus). Otherwise, we’re likely modifying him to have the same mind that is in us.

I’m very curious to see what this new version of The Punisher will look like as his character and motivations are expertly teased out over the course of DD S2. But I’m truly hungry to continually discover the mind, nature, and character of my Lord Jesus as he is and was, and ever will be—not as I wish he were.

Available today at Amazon.

I never thought my first e-book participation would be about a princess story.

And yet I enjoyed the live-action fairy tale Cinderella (2015). I wrote a review for Christ and Pop Culture and additional thoughts here at SpecFaith.¹ That’s how I was asked to expand on my thoughts for a new article in a new Christ and Pop Culture ebook that releases today: Christ and Pop Culture Goes to the Movies: 2015.

Editors Wade Bearden and Kevin McLenithan say:

The purpose of this book is to extend the moviegoing experience across various media platforms and physical spaces. Our goal is not to prolong the film themselves but rather the conversations that follow these films. Think of this book as the ride home after a thrilling blockbuster, an engrossing character study, or an idiosyncratic drama. This is a continuation of our ever-evolving banter about the expanding influence of cinema.²

Readers will find 15 articles by 15 different writers about 15 films from 2015, including Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Mad Max: Fury Road, and It Follows.

Here’s a clip from my article, “A Grown-Up’s Guide to Delighting in Fairy Tales Like ‘Cinderella'”:

… In some circles today, there is a religious belief that contemporary social battles, stratagems, and trends are what matter most. If that were true, then Cinderella and other fairy tales are at best harmless and at worst impractical, escapist nonsense. Why dance when there is serious work to be done?

But the Christian sees the world differently. Yes, one must train and practice for serious kingdom responsibilities, but for what eternal purpose? Christians do not believe that the future of the universe is about unending servitude for important social or political causes. We believe in a future royal ball filled with pageantry, beauty, honor, and adventure. …³

You can purchase the ebook here for Kindle ($4.99). Proceeds support the ministry of Christ and Pop Culture.⁴

Are we stupid and illogical if we enjoy stories that aren’t real?

Think about it for a minute. Any time we engage in a story, whether a movie or a book, we’re letting our logic walls down. Fiction, by its very definition, is untrue. Events made up and born out of the imaginative mind of a person. This is especially true when it comes to speculative fiction.

In order for fiction to exist, we have to be willing to let go of our logical side and dream the impossible. *cue Spock rolling over in his grave*

The topic of suspending disbelief came up in a discussion about a blog post I wrote yesterday in relation to time travel. One commenter pointed out,

“Time travel in fiction is an endless, twisted black hole of plot problems. This is true, unequivocally. And that’s why it’s not a question of “Why do they allow this problem to stay when they could fix it?” There is no “fix” that would satisfy every possible permutation of time travel possibilities.”

This brings to light an interesting fact about fiction. Every aspect of a story at some level, even though it can be so subtle we don’t notice it, requires us to suspend our disbelief that this “can’t happen” for the sake of the story.

• Time travel as presented in TV shows such as Flash and Doctor Who is impossible
• Hobbits don’t exist
• Based on the limitations of current science, warp speed is unattainable
• There is no magical land called Narnia

Granted, those are extreme examples, but I’m a spec-fic geek. What can I say? 😉

Because these “fantastical” elements have no grounds in reality, authors set guidelines to anchor us in a story, and then we expect them to stick to those rules unless they can reasonably justify breaking said rules.

Apart from anything that edges into the ridiculous realm (not that everyone agrees on where the line is), we happily place ourselves at the whims of the storytellers.

But why?

Are People Stupid, Forgiving, or Something Else?

Everywhere we turn, we come across impossible elements, yet the majority of the time we accept them without a second thought. Why is that? Why doesn’t reason win out and rid the world of anything even hinting at a touch of the unbelievable?

It’s obvious that anyone of sound mind doesn’t actually think created worlds such as Middle-earth or Narnia exist, or that Captain American was an actual person. We’re not stupid. Yet we put aside the shackles of reality, of math equations and gravity, not because we believe the “lie” of fiction and not because we merely placate storytellers by forgiving the unrealistic nature of their concoctions.

The reason we so readily suspend disbelief is to allow ourselves the freedom to view the world from a new angle, to explore places kept off-limits by reality, to see beyond the scope of our confines and glimpse the wide horizons presented by imagination and “what if?”

We have an innate desire to break outside the box we know, to become a spaceship traveling to the unreachable stars.

According to Tolkien, as creatures made in God’s image, the ultimate Creator, we take on slight vestiges of that attribute, becoming sub-creators. Stories become a natural outflow of that nature as we grasp to understand things beyond what’s visible, tangible, logical.

Couple this with the words of C.S. Lewis,

“If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”

We have a longing for something more, something glimpsed through the lens of story. It’s no surprise, then, that instead of merely being willing to suspend disbelief we actually desire it.

A Different Perspective

As Albert Camus said, “Fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth.”

Strange as it seems, through the unreality of stories, we come to a deeper, better, clearer understanding of the real world. This quote by Jessamyn West sums it up perfectly:

“Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures.”

Bringing this full circle, the emphasis isn’t on the fanciful parts that stories demand we accept in order for them to operate properly. Rather, it’s on letting those stories become vehicles for showing us the truth. About the world. About others. About ourselves.

Stories may be unrealistic according to strict logic, but that doesn’t matter. We stop seeing the trees and instead focus on the forest. The details fade to the background, forgotten as we catch sight of the truth found beyond our logical reality.

After all, the greatest story ever, the one myth that actually came true, as Tolkien put it, is far from realistic. Why should our stories be any different?

How far are you willing to suspend disbelief when it comes to stories?

Congratulations to our 2016 Winter Writing Challenge winner: Michael Rogers. I’ll be contacting him privately to arrange his gift card from either Amazon or B&N.