Stranger Than Fiction was recommended to me by a friend in Spain, Eva (see the sidebar for her blog), who pointed out to me these paragraphs:
If you haven't already noticed, all my books are about a lonely person looking for some way to connect with other people.
In a way, that is the opposite of the American Dream: to get so rich you can rise above the rabble, all those people on the freeway, or worse, the bus.
Whether it's a ranch in Montana or basement apartment with ten thousand DVDs and high-speed Internet access, it never fails. We get there, and we're alone. And we're lonely.
It wasn't until a writing workshop that I discovered the idea of friendships based on a shared passion. Writing. Or theater. Or music. Some shared vision. A mutual quest that would keep you together with other people who valued this vague, intangible skill you valued...We fought and praised each other. And it was enough.
In so many ways, these places - support groups, twelve-step recovery groups, demolition derbies - they've come to serve the role that organized religion used to. We used to go to church to reveal the worst aspects of ourselves, our sins. To tell out stories. To be recognized. To be forgiven. And to be redeemed, accepted back into our community. This ritual was our way to stay connected to people, and to resolve our anxiety before it could take us so far from humanity that we would be lost.
In these places I found the truest stories. In support groups. In hospitals. Anywhere people had nothing left to lose, that's where they told the most truth.
I like how well Palahniuk pegs this. People in America, especially in our generation, have a deep desire for community. But the kind of formal community that our parents' (or grandparents') generation had in church isn't what we're looking for.
And unless we find ways to form meaningful Christian communities, we wind up trying to fill ourselves with whatever we can find, even if it pales in comparison to the Truth.
4 comments:
interesting stuff.
may i ask why i did not make the "friend" list?
Sorry about that. I didn't know at the time that you would still "love Paris" in the US of A.
James,
I don't know that this is the ultimate issue here, but in the church we've almost completely abandoned something we should be doing that Palahniuk indirectly touches on here: discipline. He calls it fighting, revealing sins, telling our stories and being forgiven.
In an article from the book Polity (ed. by Mark Dever), Dr. Mohler talks about the fact that the faithful church has always been marked by correct doctrine, unity of fellowship and pure living (discipline). The church is willing to do what it takes to make sure that its members are set apart from the world. So, in these alternative communities that Palahniuk mentions, this kind of thing is taking place; however, in the VERY place that should be known for its purity of life and correction of members (the Church), it is not happening. When was the last time any of us saw someone publicly disciplined by our churches? Yet, we know that there are plenty of issues in members for which discipline is necessary.
I think perhaps this has something to do with people thinking they can substitute the support groups or demolition derbies for the church - the church has largely abandoned its true identity.
James, we're both signed up to take Missiology. I'm pretty excited that we get to take a class together, since I'm finishing this semester. Should be cool...
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