Heaven

I am writing this from my bed which has become nest-like with the pile of clothes, several books, two handbags and a cat on top of- all of which I was too tired to move last night so slept under. And, yes, although it is now three o’ clock I am yet to move from it.

I think it is a little ironic that on Good Friday my ipod declared that I should write a post entitled ‘Heaven’ after Bryan Adam’s song of the same name. I pondered how best to approach this topic whether I wanted a religious angle at all considering the most religious thing I did recently was to show a friend how to make Jesus toast.

Another option was to simply discuss a few things I would consider heavenly: Reaching the end of a really good book, waking up to the radio next to someone you love, the way the lights in a theatre can catch an actor’s eye, the silence of the world at 5am covered in snow, the smile on a cat’s face (it’s not just the Cheshire cat who smiles). I could go on but it all seems as pointless as a blunt pike.

After mooching around the internet a bit I found this article discussing religion and the modern writer.

It argues that all Christian writers are in churchyards, six feet under a pile of dirt waiting for judgement day while modern writers no longer concern themselves with religion writing.

I find this an interesting comment considering how historically religion and art have always gone hand in hand. Early children’s books taught Christian values and adult books included thinly disguised Christian values. It is only more recently in the past 100 years or so that English literature seemed to begin to branch out beyond morals and religious values and yet still, so often popular books are being transformed into religious commentary despite, their original intention. An obvious example would be the Harry Potter series being accused of encouraging devil worship. Growing up I read all the Harry Potter books... and I suppose that accounts for why I make mocking Jesus toast at eleven o’clock at night not just because everything tastes better when sponsored by our saviour. So, despite literature moving on and exploring new ideas like vampires, sex, vampires and more vampires it is still made to be all about religion.

Despite a decrease in ‘Christian novels’ per se there are still very few pieces of literature that cannot be explored with religious views in mind. Religion is a very prominent part of history which is bound to affect what people write. It is impossible to write independently of yourself, after all, and our histories are as much part of ourselves as they are part of the countries we live in. I would consider myself a cynical agnostic but when I look at my own novel I can still see religious influences aside from the intentional religious views of my characters; Influences from my own life and ideas that I can’t just shake out of my writing.

Perhaps there is now less of a market for religious novels but I certainly don’t think this is the end of the relationship between art and religion. Both are searching for a greater meaning to life, or often are, and so it is inevitable that the ideas should overlap and grow from each other without having sermons intertwined with story.