The Writer's Poke

In The Art of Fiction, John Gardner writes, “why should fiction have profluence – our sense, as we read, that we’re ‘getting somewhere’?” Gardner’s use of the word “profluence” is peculiar, but the idea of fiction needing to get somewhere – beginning, middle, and end – is as old as Aristotle. The postmodernists rejected the idea, but who still reads most of their stuff? Yet, if profluence is true for fiction, is it also true for life? While it’s possible to dissect a human life into its “beginning, middle, and end," the person living that life does not always have the luxury of knowing how his life is segmented. The assassination of Abraham Lincoln, for example, cut his life short, as we say, suggesting that his life stopped before the final chapters were written. It may be true that a feeling of profluence compels people to get on about the business of living. Think of the pressures people feel to check off specific milestones by certain ages. Some of these pre...

A layer of pollution visible from space covers the most populated country on planet Earth.  China uses more coal than the rest of the world combined. Not surprisingly, it is dealing with an incredible amount of pollution. The driving force behind China’s energy consumption? Not just China’s billion-plus population, but also the rise of the demand for “stuff” and the conveniences we in the United States have taken for granted for many years now. A sheep farmer in China, for example, may live in a mud hut. Today, though, he has access to satellite TV. He may not have indoor plumbing, but he dreams of the day when he will be able to purchase the items he sees on that TV. It’s not wrong for a Chinese farmer to want air conditioning and a refrigerator and a car and all of the material goods we take for granted. It’s probably not even appropriate for us to complain about China’s willingness to rape its land for coal and kill its citizens with pollution. After all, th...

Let me give you a statement, and you tell me how profound it is: “We met for a reason. Either you’re a blessing or a lesson .” When I first ran across this quote on Pinterest, I thought it was interesting enough to pin to one of my virtual boards. I have to admit that I was a little bit shocked when it was “liked” over 80 times and “repined” over 170 times in less than two weeks. Needless to say, something in this quote resonated with folks – or at least folks that happened upon the quote in my part of the Pinterest universe. Is it a common experience to meet people that are blessings in our lives? On first reflection, I probably have met more “lessons” than “blessings,” but the odd part of the statement is the suggestion , at least, that we don’t always know which the person is going to be. Don't we generally know almost instantaneously? Even if we have that knowledge, it's not enough to save us the trouble we sometimes end up in? The other part of the st...

Is some music morally “good” and some music morally “bad”? Dr. Frank Garlock says, “of course.” In fact, he argued that ours is the first generation which has attempted to claim that music is amoral.  I just finished listening to a sermon Dr. Garlock gave at Bob Jones University a few years ago, and I was surprised that he didn’t focus on music lyrics. Rather, he focused on the sound of the music itself. Although he noted that the Bible refers to music over 500 times, he based most of his message on 1 Corinthians 14:7-11. These verses, he claimed, showed that one can tell whether or not the music is good by its language .  In the examples he provided, he suggested that we instinctively know what to do when we hear a specific sort of music. We know how we’re supposed to feel when we hear “Taps,” for example. I suppose this is the same logic some people use to explain why only “traditional organ hymns” are appropriate for Christian services.  Accord...

Leonid Afremov is an artist that has only just entered my radar. He has a style – use of vibrant colors and so forth – that immediately connected to me. After taking some time to look at his body of work, I quickly noticed that most of his paintings have a similar look, similar themes. That’s not a bad thing, in and of itself, but it made me wonder: Is he capable of doing anything more than what he does? Or, is he simply content to do what he does? Thomas Kincade is another artist known for a distinctive style. I don’t particularly like Kincade’s style, but a lot of people do. When you see a Kincade picture, you know what to expect. Afremov’s work, which I do like, is sort of like Kincade’s in that regard. Some artists just seem to play it safe. They’re not interested in challenging themselves or doing anything different.  Of course if it’s not broke, why fix it, right? But if you don’t ever try to improve on what you can do, one thing is certain: you will never ...