The Truth About Fiction

I ran across a nice little Q&A in the Washington Post. It's an interview with Professor Bonnie Libby, who teaches literature at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro.

I don't know Professor Libby, and I don't know if she and I would agree on everything, but that's quite all right. I found this quote interesting:

"[W]e talk about the constant allure of sin, and that too often vice (especially our own) does not disgust us. Good literature should illuminate this human tendency and make us care to correct it. Certainly, literature often depicts the baser aspects of human nature; otherwise it wouldn't be true. But many times, we Christians get hung up on the obvious vices like profanity or sexual immorality, while dismissing more prevalent and pernicious moral evils like pride, superiority and envy."

As someone who has written a novel that includes a healthy dose of sin and vice as well as profanity and sexual immorality, I say: Amen.