Speculative Fiction
Biblical Worldview
Biblical Worldview
Pressing through...
 I found a first edition of my all-time favorite fantasy novel! I’d first read it when it was released in 1982. Had checked it out at the school library and read it three times before I returned it. I have other editions of this story, but nothing compares to this original along with its fabulous cover – especially when it was so influential for me as an impressionable kid and an aspiring author.
The Darkangel has the best theme. A coming-of-age slave girl, uncomely, unloved yet yearns to be loved, tries to avenge her mistress’s kidnapping by killing her abductor, the Darkangel, a vampyre. He captures her instead, and forces her to care for thirteen sad, withered wraiths who, she discovers, were the once beautiful women he’d kidnapped. She has to resist his deceptive powers, as well. He’s cruel, but sometimes she catches a glimpse of something within him and believes he is not beyond repair. She escapes, burdened and driven by compassion, to find a way to set the Darkangel free of the evil within him – but not without a perilous journey, danger, great challenges, and growth in strength and character first. Eloquent, meaningful, symbolic, and imaginative – Meredith Ann Pierce’s books are my most loved in fiction. I’ve always wanted to add this particular edition to my library, and now I have that privilege. I’m so excited!
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 This season, I had the privilege of donning my ballet shoes to dance with the liturgical lyrical ballet group, Solum Deum, under the direction of my friend and gifted choreographer, Tess Dempsey (two named “Tess” in one group, imagine that!). It became an interesting contrast in my mind when, in one of the dances, we represented holy angels. Considering that one of the three novels I am currently working on has to do with the Nephilim, descendants of the fallen angels, and because of that research and the fact that, often, I have to dive into dark subject matter, the elements of this dance were refreshing. A refreshing experience on many levels! I continue looking upward and forward.  Have you seen the 2013 movie, All Is Lost, with a one-man cast starring Robert Redford? The silence of the film is riveting. This is a story about a man sailing solo deep in the Indian Ocean. Everything you can imagine could go wrong on this voyage does, and the man faces mortality at every turn. There are so many nuances in the movie that held such command. Emotional resilience overpowered, I bawled at the end. And then I just had to watch it again. A story about survival, and then letting go, I felt “spoken to” within the passage – along with the accompanying music by Alex Ebert which was so haunting. An extraordinary film, it’s an introspective person’s enchantment.
 One of the most darling stories from my reading
list, now, this one. I had the opportunity to read Keturah and Lord Death during the past week, and wow—the magic took my breath away. This is a story I wish I had written, nevertheless I cherish this masterful fairytale spun by another. I’m anxious to explore more work by the author, Martine Leavitt, because this particular piece made such an impression. Dark yet inspiring, intensely romantic, and burning with symbolism on mortality, loss, life, love, meaning, sweetness…this story carries all of the elements that impel me to categorize it as one of my most treasured reads, ever. How my library survived without it up until now, I wonder. Overview: Keturah, renowned for her storytelling, follows a legendary hart deep into the forest, where she becomes hopelessly lost. Her strength diminishes until, finally, she realizes that death is near—and learns then that death is a young lord, melancholy and stern. She is able to charm Lord Death with a story and gain a reprieve, but he grants her only a day, and within that day she must find true love. A mesmerizing love story, interweaving elements of classic fantasy and high romance. Remarkable is the work of Brazilian-born German author, Lya Luft. By grasping the concept of death, she bestows greater appreciation for life. In aging, she compels us to embrace every season of our span. At 40, 60, 80, she urges us to defy the pressures of society, which suggest that happiness, love, passion, joy, fulfillment belong only to the young.
The depth of perspective and wisdom is mindboggling in her Losses and Gains volume subtitled, “Reflections on a life.” Her novel, The Island of the Dead, proves painfully introspective as does The Red House. Inspiring are the author’s inflections to progress through life’s throes; allow not our psyches get swept this way or that, cracking, shifting, folding to the superficial forces in which we don’t wish to bow. It’s our perspective that counts (for me, with God’s help), the stabilizer of any event—tragic or blessed. We cannot predict nor control life. Whether we like it or not it ever changes, circumstances alter. We age. Our days are filled with losses and gains. That’s a haunting yet reaching truth. That is the profound work of Lya Luft. “Imagine that plants had will, desire, and choice. If a bulb refused to be buried, could it ever really thrive? And sitting on the rocks it would starve without hunger. I have seen a fullness that follows a right surrender. This is Death and Life.”
Beautiful, isn’t it? While going through my collection of stored art, I found what I was looking for…a graphite drawing by the artist, Steven D. Scheibe (www.visibleinvisible.com). I’ve always revered the piece but have saved it, along with its description, until I revamped my creative work space—which I finally did over the weekend. Death & Life has its proper place. |
TESSA STOCKTON, AUTHOR, BLOG -
Pressing through life, love, a few things that matter, and some that don't.
(I'm also a spirit-filled Messianic Jew, so you'll find a lot about that here too.)
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