[Faith-talk] Fiction by writers who express their Faith intheirfiction

Tue Feb 2 19:50:33 UTC 2010

Hi John --
I have read 4 of the series of books by Bodie and Brock Thoene -- actually 
their last name is pronounced "Tainy" but jaws butchers that to "thone".
The books were quite picturesque, and had an interesting story following a 
mixed group of characters, but I thought they were also a bit overly 
melodramatic.  Also, in the 4th book about the conflict in Israel, the 
muslim characters were portrayed as being all incredibly evil, except for 
one woman who converted to Christianity.  I know there is truth in some of 
the negative stereotypes, but the book paints a picture that is wholely 
one-sided, especially in reference to muslim men, who are all portrayed as 
thinking of nothing but cruelty, violence and sex.  So I liked the books 
except for this simplification of the issues.
Also, the story took place during and after ww2, which is old news now. In 
fact my mother, who lived through that era, wondered why I was reading it.
As for the 2 books I mentioned, I know "The Chosen" was written by a jewish 
man, and "Kite Runner" was written by a muslim man from Afghanistan.  So 
they are authentic.  That is one reason I liked them.  I like knowing the 
thought process of the persons living there, and reading a book by a native 
author is the best way of getting that.
Hey, good luck at your goal of fiction writing.  I have considered doing 
that myself, but the thing that holds me back is that I'm so precise about 
what I write that it's hard to be creative.  Since you have the same 
background of math and computer science, I am wondering if you are bitten by 
the same bug.  But your perspective would be very interesting.
I look forward to reading anything you write.  And if I write I will be sure 
to send a copy when I'm done.
Take care, and yes I'll keep you in my prayers.
--le

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John J. Boyer" <john at godtouches.org>
To: "Faith-talk,for the discussion of faith and religion" 
<faith-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, February 01, 2010 11:10 PM
Subject: Re: [Faith-talk] Fiction by writers who express their Faith 
intheirfiction

Laura,

thanks for the info. I am interested in writing historical and science
fiction novels from a Christian, specifically Catholic, perspective. So
many of the well-known science-fiction authors are atheists or at least
don't take religion seriously. There is an extensive set of books by
Bodie and Brock Thoene with Jewish protogonists, but the authors are
Christian. They are very pro-Jewish. The books cover the period leading
up to World War 2 and the founding of Israel. there are also some with
Biblical themes. An almost forgotten author is Louis de Wohl. He wrote
novels about various Christian and biblical figures. He is a Catholic
author. I am proofreading his books for Bookshare. The Thoene books are
also on Bookshare.

Right now I don't have much energy for writing. That will have to be a
gift of the Lord. I'm putting what energy I have into my free,
open-source braille transcription software, which I hope will eventually
surpass the best of commercial software. You can learn about it at
http://www.abilitiessoft.com . And if you want to see any fiction by me,
please pray that I will be given the necessary energy.

Thanks,
John

On Mon, Feb 01, 2010 at 03:37:49PM -0600, qubit wrote:
> Hey John, good to hear of yet another of your interests.
> I have seen in some of the NLS talking book topics, novels about jewish
> persons -- I don't think they are categorized as "jewish fiction", but I
> know they are out there.  Have you ever read the novel "The Chosen"? That
> was made into a movie which was truely an excellent flick.  I'd like to 
> read
> the book. It's about 2 young jewish friends who wer sons of 2 rabbis with
> radically different views.  (I wondered as I watched the movie if this was
> pure fiction or just memoirs of the author's own life as one of the boys.)
>
> As for Islam, you can find a number of books by muslim women living in the
> more repressed muslim countries -- but these are memoirs and not fiction.
> For fiction, I read "The Kite Runner", which was a truely well written 
> novel
> about 2 young boys growing up in Afghanistan.  It was not religious,
> though -- the protagonist was the son of a non-believing muslim man, and 
> the
> only religious persons in the book were either poor or else part of the
> Taliban and therefore extremely violent and oppressive.
>
> That's all I can think of off the top of my head.
> Let me know if this is what you are looking for.
> Happy reading.
> --laura
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "John J. Boyer" <john at godtouches.org>
> To: <faith-talk at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Monday, February 01, 2010 8:30 AM
> Subject: [Faith-talk] Fiction by writers who express their Faith in
> theirfiction
>
>
> I've seen a lot of Christian fiction. Now I would like to see some
> genuine Jewish fiction. I'm afraid Isaac Bashevis Singer isn't really a
> believer. It would also be interesting to see some fiction by genuine
> believers in Islam and Buddhism. I'm making a sort of study of religious
> fiction.
>
> Thanks and prayers,
> John
>
> -- 
> John J. Boyer, Executive Director
> GodTouches Digital Ministry, Inc.
> http://www.godtouches.org
> Madison, Wisconsin, USA
> Peace, Love, Service
>
>
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-- 
John J. Boyer, Executive Director
GodTouches Digital Ministry, Inc.
http://www.godtouches.org
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
Peace, Love, Service

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