Marilynne Robinson's Gilead on the table. Written before Jack, but its events coming afterward. Interesting to a non-believer that the literary artefacts of a worldview foreign to one's own—as in, some religious people, including at least one rather sophisticated author, believe Christianity is literally true—can claim a strong hold on one's attention, and one can respect her religious characters without thinking for a moment that their metaphysical beliefs are true. But here's the thing: maybe it's unsurprising that an author steeped in religion would turn to fiction, because where do you draw the line between them? Does it even exist? If someone is comparable to Jack Boughton, that doesn't mean he's ever going to meet his Della Miles. That is, divine grace or anything resembling it, contra Robinson, is itself a fiction—or slippery enough that it makes no difference—and the concept of it is comparable to the happily-ever-afterism of both fairy tale and Jane Austen.
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Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.I think we are all living in a world where we have people that we respect despite the fact that they believe in fantasies.
Lorajay
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Nov 4, 2022
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Well, I wasn't trying to make a banal or commonplace observation, and I still think I have not, not in this instance. I'd like to think that I'm not wasting my own time or anyone else's when I post on here. Robinson's books and her thinking are not in a realm of "we are all" this or that. One thing with her that is not in the usual run of my experience is coming across a thinker whose religion is central to her thought, whom I nonetheless suspect may have an authorial talent larger, perhaps subtler, than mine.
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