Are there red lines in writing?
Can I make the devil good, just for fun.
Could I use the means of Darkness to represent the Light?
And is artistic writing at all subject to responsibility, because it is fiction?
P.S. I am not an extreme puritan, but a brother of mine agreed to translate a horror opera and I think it did not reflect well on him. He does not think it is a problem, but I worry about him.
I’m not sure if this will be a controversial position… but here’s my answer:
I believe that, in some way, every story reflects the story of God’s love and mercy towards us. Some stories are just more obvious about it than others. For example, Snow White is a pretty clear representation of the Fall into sin, follows by Christ’s redemption of us. (Snow White is driven out of her home and separated from her father, killed because she disobeys and eats the poisoned fruit, and wakened because of true love–i.e., Christ’s sacrificial love.)
Mimicking the story of salvation is the essence of what story is. Every good story portrays the truth in some way–even stories you wouldn’t think of as “Christian.” (For example, in Dracula, the female main character’s life is saved when her fiance gives up his own blood for her in a blood transfusion. Readers might not immediately think of Christ’s death, but it’s absolutely pictured there, and that’s why it’s such an enduring classic.)
I’m not saying every story has to be explicitly Christian (I honestly think most shouldn’t be). But I am saying that these truths are so deeply ingrained in us as human beings that they come out in our stories. When we reject that, we end up with something that’s violating the essence of story itself.
So to answer your questions specifically:
1. No, you could not make the devil good… because that violates both the nature of the devil, and of reality itself. (Just as you couldn’t make God evil, because He wouldn’t be God anymore.) But you could absolutely make the devil a sympathetic character. Milton does this brilliantly in Paradise Lost, and in the book of Job, there are moments where the devil is portrayed as almost human.
But I do think there is room for devil-like figures to be redeemed. I think modern fiction has gone a bit overboard with sympathetic villains…. Evil is still evil, even if you sympathize with the person doing it. But there is always room for redemption. Scripture shows us that time and again.
2. If you’re talking about imagery and symbolism, I would say yes–but be careful. We naturally associate light with goodness and darkness with evil. But there are examples in the Bible where it’s the other way around. (The devil is described as masquerading as an angel of light, and God uses the night sky to represent Abraham’s future descendants.) So I think there’s definitely space for the imagery.
A lot of imagery and symbolism can have double meanings. (Like the serpent is the devil, but also Christ when Moses lifted up the bronze serpent–and the lion is Christ, the lion of Judah, but also the devil, prowling like a lion.) Just be aware of how you’re using it in the story, and especially of how natural consequences indicate to readers that an action is good or evil.
3. I would say fiction is more subject to responsibility than any other art form. C. S. Lewis talked about how fiction allows you to steal in the back door of the reader’s mind, entering through the door of the imagination rather than the door of the intellect. If you accidentally say something false in nonfiction, there’s a decent chance your reader will catch it. Fiction is much more insidious. It influences our worldviews in ways we rarely notice–and that can make it incredibly dangerous.
But it can also make it an incredible tool for good. Again, I’m not saying all fiction should be explicitly Christian, and I’m definitely not saying fiction should be didactic. The strength of fiction is that it uses the imagination rather than the intellect, providing a sort of moral training ground for the human soul. It allows the reader to experience the outcomes of certain choices through the vicarious experience of the protagonist. If a teen is constantly reading books where sleeping around has no consequences, he or she will assume it’s okay. But if that teen reads Anna Karenina or another book that portrays the real heartache and disease and broken families that come from that lifestyle?
Again, I do not think fiction should be didactic or preachy in any way. But as a writer, it’s essential to realize your readers are learning from your stories. If you’re not being intentional with what you write, you might be inadvertently lying to them.
It’s not wrong to explore darkness and evil in fiction, as long as they’re being properly presented. But that’s not for everyone. (You mentioned your concerns for your brother–some people can handle that, but many people can’t. I avoid reading or writing certain content because I know it’s dangerous for me, but other areas, I know I can handle.) It’s totally okay to stick to lighter subjects–we need happy books too! But if you want to delve into darkness and corruption in fiction, there’s no reason not to as long as it’s not being presented as good or desirable.
Again, all stories follow the pattern of the story of redemption–that’s what makes them appeal to the human heart. When you leave that pattern, the story itself starts to crumble. Not that your writing needs to be explicitly Christian, but on some level, we all know God exists and we need Him to redeem us. Stories fall flat unless they reflect that fundamental need (even something as seemingly frivolous as a romance novel does this!). And when stories outright reject that, I’m not even sure if counts as a story. At that point, everything starts to break apart. Stories need some sense of morality and order to function.
I think all art is very much subject to responsibility. Fiction requires suspension of belief, and if one turns evil to good, one better have a compelling explanation for it.
I could see SOME THINGS working depending on the POV–like, someone who has been raised in a cruel, manipulative environment may see nothing wrong with being cruel and manipulative. If you can write a compelling voice, that could make for a thought-provoking story: a character who doesn’t understand why his kids flinch from him, because ‘that’s how I was raised, and I turned out fine’, or a character who grew up stealing to survive and is now so hardened to it she has no conscience about it.
But that doesn’t change the fact that good is good and evil is evil. People make excuses for themselves, or else things become habits, but there are still morals and still absolutes. And I would draw a hard line at theology. Again, one could come at it from the POV of someone who has been raised to believe one thing, but one must still tread carefully here. Game of Thrones is almost compellingly realistic, because everyone has motivations for what they do, but it fails to totally suspend my disbelief, because there is little to no moral absolute (that I can see; I’m only a casual fan at best, so I may be missing things).
What you have to ask yourself is, what’s your motivation? Are you trying to show how the bad guy justifies himself? Or are you trying to write the bad guy as the misunderstood hero? Morals don’t go away or stop being morals just because it’s fiction or art.
From a Christian perspective, the Bible does talk about setting no wicked thing before your eyes, thinking on good things rather than bad, etc. If you are writing it, then not only are you looking at it and thinking about it, but you are making it up for someone else to see and think about.
As for red lines, I think there is some room for personal conviction on what is acceptable and not, but I think many writers (even Christian) put way too much emphasis on dark stories. While I do occasionally write stories that show the darkness and even despair, I always tried to conclude with a message of hope and redemption. I think that is very important to do as a Christian writer.
There are some things are simply violate the natural laws of existence as was stated before.
However, in answer to your question about the devil being good, you could go with the idea that he was once a perfect angel in God’s presence before he fell. So you could show how God created everything perfect but pride destroyed it. However, the Bible also says that angels can not be redeemed once they turn away.
But yes, I do believe that fiction is very important and should be treated with care.
