I don't know what to call this thread :P

[Namorvia]

Like I say, in most cases most Christians will be fine with reading things they don't agree with. But when something is presented (even as fiction) which stands in direct opposition to what we believe then we cannot simple turn off our feelings for that bit. Whatever a Christian does they do as Christians (or at least they should do, no one's perfect). It would be like being married then going to a party and cheating with someone else taking the philosophy that it was a party and therefore doesn't count.
It really is only when something stands in opposition though.

[Julie Bertagna]

I was enjoying this discussion - really interesting. Especially as everyone was being forthright about their own views and feelings but not offensive to anyone else.

And then you all got shy and went quiet... shame

I'd love to know if you have ever read a book that didn't confirm or tie in with your views, but actually changed the way you experience and see the world? And what you felt about that?

It doesn't have to be regarding religion - it could be anything.

Now I'll go and have a think about that myself....

[TheEndIsNigh]

Hang about, hang about - we went all shy.

What about your good self?

Please feel free to jump in and cast a few of your own opinions about. The more the merrier and all that - well the more the depressed actually. However, don't let that stop you.

Which side of the electrified impaling spiked fence do you want to land.

[ducky5]

Talking about being shy: only 3 threads have been updated since the 18th May. Come On People!

[Julie Bertagna]

It's exam time, ducky5, and going by what I see in this house everyone's grumpy and all wiped out...

EndIsNigh - not gone shy; I will attempt to land gracefully amid the electrified impaling spikes once I get a minute. I've just been too busy revolting and rebelling over this, doing the US edit on Zenith while writing a short story and (before anyone complains) writing Aurora.

But I get all the space I need to explore stuff in my books, so while I head off for a sleep, this is your space...

[TheEndIsNigh]

Excuses excuses. Interestingly enough this age banding topic is surfacing here in the UK.

The mind boggles.

Next we'll be back to Lord Chancelor and his big red pen just like the days before Lady Chatterly.

The think police will be riding trains and patrolling the streets confiscating all 'unsuitable' material. Here in the UK top of the list will be 1984. Wouldn't want people getting the inside track on what's actually happening.

I understand there are moves afoot to make all pregnant women enter places of confinement where only acceptable sounds are heard. That way the new 'born will not have been subjected to anything the state dosen't approve of. It'll also give them the chance to perform some pre-natal mind control. You know the kind of thing, tapes playing.

'Trust in the Leader'

'The government has your best interests at heart'

'Mein Kampf' in the authors own voice.

over and over again. That's what's needed to produce the model citizens a modern democracy needs.

[Julie Bertagna]

My excuses are always excellent.

Tiny bit more here on my blog about the age-banding furore.

Now (*carefully avoiding spikes, barbs, Lord Chancellors and thought police*) to work...

[TheEndIsNigh]

Originally Posted by Julie Bertagna

My excuses are always excellent.

Tiny bit more here on my blog about the age-banding furore.

Now (*carefully avoiding spikes, barbs, Lord Chancellors and thought police*) to work...

Julie: Liked the site. I will have a good look round one day.

If you've read any of my thread on book length you'll know I'm tied up with a couple of hundred monkeys researching the elixier of life at the moment and even though most of the work is now organised by the monkeys I still seem to have less time for completing my book. Oh and then there's the real world which keeps sticking it's oar into the creek of my life.

[Namorvia]

Age banding books? That seems rather stupid.
There's just so much to go wrong it doesn't even seem worthwhile listing what's wrong with it. I'll only say that it would sort of defy the point of The Opposite of Chocolate if they pushed it back to a late teen band.

Not much to worry about though, literature is like art and music in that it can never truly be controlled. The more you try to control it the more people will rebel, and considering the ones rebelling are the ones who make their living from being creative, they tend to be rather good at it.

Oddly I think literature might be the only form of media left in the world that doesn't need labelling to protect kids, there's radio edits to beep out every other word in most pop songs, the rating system for film, the watershed for tv, the child filter on the internet, the generally rushed attempts to stop kids from opening a copy of the Sun. Although a label might help sometimes, I knew a girl who once bought a book and took it with her to read at a big Christian festival/holiday/conference/thing only to realize its was an erotic novel, not really a problem you'd have if you were buying a book for a kid, she was just have a blonde moment (however unPC that may be), but it shows it can be done.

[Julie Bertagna]

Sorry for going off at another tangent (religion, age-banding, monkeys, what's next?)

This actually. I just spotted this story about the Kiribati islanders who were my original inspiration for Exodus.

See what you think of it all.

Good luck with those monkeys TheEndIsNigh. The real world is inspiration (see above) - but it's also a pest.