Nathan James Norman
  • Blog
  • Writer
  • Pastor
  • Bookshelf
  • Links
  • Contact

Nathan James Norman

Husband. Father. Pastor.
Storyteller. Reader. Comic Fan.
Slave of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Orchard Church

Background on "Proverbs - A Fairy Tale" or Why I'm Not A Total Perv For Writing This Story

10/10/2014

5 Comments

 
Picture
I'm not a total pervert for writing "Proverbs - A Fairy Tale" included in The Crossover Alliance Anthology.

One of the members of the judging panel for the anthology wrote this:

"This piece is seriously creepy! Gross! I also wondered if your church members read this knowing it was from you [. . .] would most likely hold an impromptu board meeting and have you sacked as Pastor . . . ."

If you haven't read the story yet, it is free for a limited time for your Kindle. Or free indefinitely from Smashwords. Ordering options are all here.

SPOILERS BELOW
The origins of this story are rather interesting. (At least I think so).
Back in 2001, I took a Creative Writing class at SUNY Orange from a professor who liked to be called "Mike". At this point I had already written Untold, half of Untold Trials (which has never been published) and a plethora of short stories. So I entered this class, presented my stories by reading them out loud, and time and time again Mike savaged the stories. He often cited how religious they were, and how no one could relate to anything written in them.

Also he banned us from writing "Darth Vader riding on a white horse" stories. (I think he meant speculative fiction.)

Now, in retrospect, all of the stories I presented in this class were mediocre. In my defense, though, they were no worse than the stories other students presented.

As I sat in the class, I noted Mike would praise any stories with sexual content. The more graphic it was, the more praise ensued.

This was long before I was a pastor, but I had been in ministry leadership for a year at this point. And like any good preacher, I asked myself Who is my audience? and How can I communicate to them?

Simultaneous to all this, I had been studying the book of Proverbs. As I read through the book, I began to notice there was quite a bit of time in that book warning young men about adulteresses and adultery and fornication. Proverbs used some rather visual metaphors to highlight these warnings.

Bing!

If Mike wanted sexually perverse stories, I would give him a sexually perverse story. And I would do it by weaving these metaphors from Proverbs into an adultery story about a man's descent into darkness.

Armed with my paternal grandfather's Catholic Bible (complete with baptismal names and their meanings) I gave both my protagonist and antagonist names which meant "dark" or "darkness".

Side Note: Why in the world would anyone give their son or daughter the name "darkness" during his or her baptism?!

The day of presentation came. I passed out the story. I read the story out loud.

After a long moment of silence, the first comment came from another classmate: "Dude, that was the most disgusting thing I have ever read."

The rest of the class agreed and reiterated the comment.

I smiled.

Then Mike chimed in, frustrated, "It's kind of a fairy tale, though."

Another classmate responded to him, "Man, what kind of fairy tales are you reading? This is gross."

As the class began to once again reiterate how disgusting and perverse the story was, I smiled again and said, "Good." I pulled out a stack of papers, "Here's the Bible verses the story was based on."

As the single sheets of paper were passed around no one spoke a word. Everyone was in shock. Even Mike. After everyone had enough time to read the verses I broke the silence, "The story is supposed to be disgusting. It is an image of what adultery really is. I'm glad you all found it ugly. This story is what adultery is like."

I got a B - on the piece.

This early version of the story was titled "Daily Bread and Proverbs 6:26." But Mike was right, this was a fairy tale. A dark fairy tale. So I changed the title to "Proverbs - A Fairy Tale" to reflect the genre.

I updated and expanded the story a number of times. It was overhauled and re-written from the ground up in 2006 for my final Creative Writing class at SUNY New Paltz. There, the professor said the story lacked a sex scene. But he liked it, and if memory serves correct, he gave it an A. (Maybe an A-).

After this, I put the story away.

There was no audience for it. It was too sexually charged for the Christian market (which often understands "Christian" to mean either "safe" or "family friendly"). And it was too pregnant with Christian imagery and themes for the general market.

Then Mark Carver incited David N. Alderman to put out an anthology of short stories for The Crossover Alliance.

This story came to mind immediately.

With some minor updates thanks to David Alderman and Jess Hanna, "Proverbs - A Fairy Tale" finally found its audience.

In all honesty, I am a little concerned about potential backlash from the publication of this story. I've no doubt that there are certain churches and ministries (and publishers?!) who will have nothing to do with me because of this story.

But at the end of the day, if this story has given an accurate image of adultery in the spiritual realm, and can sink into the minds those considering adultery, then it's worth it.

Also, it's biblical. I included the original Proverbs sheet (1984 NIV verses!) I handed out to the class thirteen years ago. When you read it, I think you'll agree . . . the Bible was my outline for this story.

If the Bible doesn't shy away from portraying the ugliness of sin, then neither will I.

Get The Crossover Alliance Anthology: Volume 1 here.
Directly from Amazon here.
5 Comments
Allan Reini link
10/10/2014 08:56:39 am

Great. Just great, Norman. Now I have to read it again! Seriously, though, thanks for the insight. I caught it the first time, but I believe I'll get an even better understanding as I reread it tonight.

Reply
Nathan J. Norman link
10/10/2014 01:31:53 pm

Thank you Allan! I'm looking forward to digging into Flight of the Angels in the very near future! It's a great universe you've built!

Reply
Peter link
10/10/2014 09:31:44 am

It is always good to know the background to things. I wondered how this came about. I got a shock when I started reading the opening quote!, That sounded very familiar!! LOL

Reply
Nathan J. Norman link
10/10/2014 01:33:11 pm

Haha Peter! Thank you for all your support, perspective and encouragement! This book wouldn't be what it is without you!

Reply
Travis
10/19/2014 12:51:55 pm

I'm just glad to find out that my story wasn't the only one that started out as a school assignment!

I want to say enjoyed that story, but it's probably better to say I appreciated it.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    RSS Feed

    Picture

    Categories

    All
    Adoption
    Art
    Axiom
    Beowulf
    Christmas
    Comics
    Drabble
    Flash Fiction
    Foster Care
    Good Friday
    Humor
    Infertility
    Interviews
    Memes
    Music
    Politics
    Practical
    Preaching
    Reviews
    Speculative
    Theology
    Tragedy
    Trinity Watch
    Untold Podcast
    Video
    Writing

    Blog Roll

    Albert Mohler
    Breakpoint
    Christian Humanist
    Christian Geek Central
    Critical Press Media
    David N. Alderman
    Doug Geivett

    Good Book Blog
    Living With Cogan
    Open Biola
    Project Rooftop
    Reasonable Faith
    Running Slowly w/ Kids
    Spirit Blade Underground
    Strangers and Aliens
    The Table Podcast
    This Old Farmhouse

    Archives

    April 2022
    March 2022
    November 2021
    August 2021
    September 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    March 2020
    October 2019
    September 2019
    February 2019
    October 2018
    September 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    December 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    February 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012