The cover of my nook device holds a quotation from author G.K. Chesterton. It says “Literature is a luxury, fiction is a necessity.”
The older that I get the more and more I am fully convinced of the necessity of excellence in storytelling as a means of communicating truth. Excellence is a necessity, as my friend Mike Roe says, I just don’t have the time or the inclination to listen to substandard material. Actually, he is being generous, I would just call it crap. Storytellers like Jeffrey Overstreet and Stephen Lawhead have taken the time to develop stories that have taken sometimes four to five books to complete.
Last night I watched on television an episode of an old anthology series called “Thriller” hosted by Boris Karloff. The episode was entitled “The Purple Room” and although there is no need to go into the specifics of the story let me just say it literally gave me the chills. There was no blood or gore, just excellent storytelling throughout.
Right now, and by that I really mean for the past few days, I have been re-reading a book called “Byzantium” by Stephen Lawhead while I’m waiting for the release of his newest series. The quality of the tale is amazing and I count Mr. Lawhead among my favorite authors.
Being a radio disc jockey I am always looking for the best songs I can find to play for my audience whoever they are and wherever they are. One of the greatest of the songs in the storytelling vein of the past few years is a tune entitled “Lighthouse” by a young lady named Grace Pettis. It is just a perfectly crafted story in song and I find myself being drawn back to it time and again.
