literary tirade

reading another book whose author shall remain nameless, but it is published under the bridge-logos imprint...

and i quote:

God is omnipotent. What that means is: If you need something He hasn't created yet, He has the potential to create it!

if you need something He hasn't created yet, then He isn't omnipotent. the very fact that you could need something that escaped His provision/plan tells me that He ain't too bright. and that just ain't true. think about it. a God who creates a universe and says, "it is good." then along comes His brilliant creation, uh, excuse me but you forgot... it just doesn't make any sense at all.

again, i quote:

If you're breathing, be assured that God's promise is still in you. Give your messed-up life to God. Who would have seen in this killer Moses the Ten Commandments--the civic, moral, and social laws of many nations? That potential was inside of a murderer.

while i appreciate the comfort of that word, i often need to be reminded that God's promise is still in me. it is the analogy drawn, inaccurately i believe, that causes me to shudder. the Ten Commandments weren't inside Moses, if i remember korektly they were penned by the FINGER OF GOD! they were inside God. we aren't creators here, we're just arms He uses to hold a few tablets. just people to pray a few prayers. not to diminish the validity or the place of the saints, i do think we consider ourselves more highly than we ought. in Christ, we are co-heirs and sons of God. but we are a bag of bolts, or a bucket of dust without Christ.

this is the kind of shoddy editing and woeful diction that makes me avoid christian books altogether. i hate to say it but this wouldn't have been printed in the ABA. someone would have caught it. i see a great breakdown in the christian editing profession when these books are published and sold. the fact that we gobble them up and keep going back for more is half the problem. only if there were some way to return bad books. could you imagine? we return bad food. we return bad products of all types, why do we have to keep bad books?

many pastors have this, put the cookies on the bottom shelf mentality. fine. but where they go amiss is when they strew the cookies on the floor. nobody wants a cookie trampled to crumbs. i have read one GEM in the 21 pages of this book so far. the rest of it is awkward and laborious, Lord God have mercy on me.

how do i review a book like this?

another quote:

The key to dying empty is showing up in life. Many people become the aspirations of their parents, their culture or their denomination. They fulfill other people's expectations of them. Ask yourself...

so many problems here i wonder where to begin as an editor and why to continue as a reader.

primero: "showing up in life" how awkward is that? everyone shows up in life, it's called being born. we are here. we show up because we have to. i think this author was trying to say, attend to life. be present. but showing up is unclear at best. (not to mention undeveloped). this is the umph of the book, the whole thrust of the author's point, but here it is lackluster at best.

segundo: Many people
***warning*** ***warning*** ***warning***
gross generalization to follow.

any sentence that starts out, many people, most people, or other such generalization is most likely going to be inaccurate at best and flat out wrong at worst...

tercero: diction

aspiration def: (1) the pronunciation or addition of an aspirate; also: the aspirate or its symbol. (2) a drawing of something in or out, up, or through by or as if by suction: as (a) the act of breathing and esp. of breathing in (b) the withdrawal of fluid from the body (c) the taking of foreign matter into the lungs with the respiratory current (3) a strong desire to achieve something high or great (b) an object of desire this author was probably refering to aspire: (1) to seek to attain or accomplish a particular goal. (2) ascend, soar

but that is still not quite the word. don't just settle for a word, keep at it until you find the right one. make your words count.

diction problems really dull your ethos as an author. (see what i mean?!)

if i were a grammar guru, which i am not, i could tell you how this word hybridized into aspirations, but in grammartalk i am not fluent, so i'll tell you in plain simple englash.

being a poet, i take words and make them my own, use them in irreverent and new ways. however, writers of prose, unless they coin a phrase and define it (or it is so clear it needeth not defining), do well sticking to words that bear a resemblance to what they are trying to say. how simple that sounds. but this seems as much an editorial failing as an authorial oops, but of course, the editor is nowhere listed, so the author gets the credit (or demerit as the case may be).

i have a lovely friend who uses the word secret-ed (sans hyphen, for snuck away, my lowsy definition). i read the word secreted (as in oozing puss filled sore). the word you like or use as an author may not be the right word for some people, but others may have no problem with it. it is your call, but if someone gets stuck on it and mentions it, consider changing it for clarity's sake.

cuarto: pronoun issues

my intimate critique group hated me for dogging them on pronouns, but when theys unclear, theys unclear.

so here we go: typically referring to the last mentioned personal noun, the pronouns in this sentence could refer to anyone. they could be they the poor souls who are their parent's aspirations. or their parents. or their culture. or their denomination. do you see it? they could be any of these then. do you agree or is it just me, belaboring pronouns? clean it all up by saying: Are the expectations of others somehow your priority? Ask yourself... (see next point)

quinto: pronoun shift

if we didn't have enough to occupy our feeble minds with the they issue, they shifts to you within the same paragraph just one small space away. Ask yourself...

when an author addresses a reader jovially, or cordially, that is fine. but as a reader i don't like to be told what to do. i don't like to be bullied by an author. if that author has not established a friendly tone before they start youing me, then i hear an adversarial, bossy, justlikemyauntnena tone and don't like it one bit! (it's a fine line and what you write may read to you as jovial or friendly, but you can be a fickle friend--see what i mean!). another way of saying ask yourself without the pronoun shift (and in a more cordial way imho) is: Consider. i love that phrase, because it invites the reader to evaluate what the author is saying. no pushy reminder that i am the author here, (and you are the dullard who can't get published--er, i didn't just say that, did i?) just inviting the reader along for a mental stroll down my argument lane.

consider this, blah, blah, blah. is much better than, barking commands like a drill seargant.

ASK YOURSELF SOLDIER, how many push ups do i want to do?

No, try this gentler easyassundaymorning version:

Have the expectations of others somehow become your priority? Consider the following... (now author has become ally. helping the badgeredenoughinlife reader, to see from the author's perspective.)

my tirade is through. i wish all books were as excellent as the one i read just last week, one i'll blog on in the near future. what a lovely read that was.

peace!