Ee's at it again, Mum.

Hurm.

Well Mr. Grin has once more waded into the fray but this time with, to my mind, a much stronger essay. Gone is the bulk of the political teeth gnashing, gone is the name calling.. It's a far more civil piece. I do have a few problems with it of course.. first would be Mr. Grin's refusal to use the word 'Apologist' since nothing C.S. Lewis or anyone else Vindicates Christianity, but he does Apologize for it, rather well in fact. The only thing that will vindicate Christianity is the return of Christ himself to earth. Only with that will it be Vindicated and proven true.. nothing else, everything else is just personal faith.

I also feel it is is still some what disingenuous to lay the blame solely at the crop of current authors feet. As has been brought up before, Stephen R. Donaldson created one of the more obnoxiously vile characters, Thomas the unbeliever, Peake too created Steerpike.. a character who is so rage inducing in me that I would like to reach through the page and strangle him myself. These two authors of course wrote long before Martin and Abercrombie..

I think that another thing to be considered is, how many Television shows, highly rated, glamorize and romanticize disgusting human beings.. Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Sons of Anarchy, The Sopranoes. None of these shows has very many screaming characters or qualities, and if they do a long string of mishaps tend to occur to them in which to put them in their place. The only non corrupt cop on Sons of Anarchy was recently Shot in the head and then run over, but only after finally selling his integrity down the river for political favors. The sneer directed at the audience from the writers very nearly dripped venom. Mad Men is an entire show of adulterers who's sole reason for existing is to try and make you part with your money.. they are only slightly better than lawyers, who are frequently lambasted themselves on nearly every Legal procedural on TV. I can't count how many episodes of Law & Order or CSI I've watched where the valiant efforts of the police or crime labs have been thrown out due to the finalizing of some smarmy lawyer. The Only fitting end for Tony Soprano would have been the whole family getting picked up under the RICO act and being carted off to jail, since, lest we forget they were Criminals with little or no redeeming value for society. It will be the same for Sons of Anarchy, but judging by the writers other programs such as the Shield.. I doubt that will be the case.

I think then what I'm saying is that the scope of Mr. Grim's essay is too narrow. Why limit it to only the Fantasy Genre and not simply indict the entirety of Fiction writing at current? I saw some one make reference to Mr. Grin not having thought much of no Country for Old men. I didn't much care for it either.. I kept waiting for Tommy lee Jones to put a bullet in Javier Bardem's head and put an end to his reign of horror. But no such closure was given, and in my opinion the movie wound up being a waste of my time because of it. It's not often that I watch a movie only to feel I wasted part of my life that can't be returned.. but that was one of them.

I cannot help but agree with the bulk of Mr. Grin's essay, and am looking forward to part two, especially if he can mind his manners and turn in another one such as this.