So, it’s no real secret that I deeply dislike preach-fic or message-fic. I find it trite, dull, uni-dimensional, and lazy. I do this even when I agree with the message being preached because it’s just not good story-telling.
However, the question comes up as to why it’s bad story-telling. And, while I’m struggling with the whole “Augustine might be smart but he’s still an idiot” thing, my brain has been coming up with the answer to this other question.
The reason preaching is bad story-telling is because it forces everything to follow a set-piece theme and anything that deviates from this must be removed or mocked. It causes the author to turn just about every scene, every conversation, every interaction, every internal monologue to become yet another chance to deliver The Message. Every character is cast in terms of how they deal with The Message. Every plot point becomes about how The Message is Good. There’s no chance for the characters to develop quirks, personalities, relationships, or any characteristic that is not going to re-enforce The Message.
Historically, the worst examples of this have been in Christian fiction. For instance, I read the entire Left Behind series and found it enjoyable as a nice fluff read. However, I rarely find myself interested in going back and re-reading this series because the characters are so dull and one dimensional. They’re either “saved” (which is a word I hate because of that Augustinian transactionalism) and thus always doing Good or repenting for doing Bad and praying for those who aren’t “saved” yet. If they’re not “saved” then they are either Pure Evil with no hope of redemption or they’re selfish, self-centered, self-focused, hedonistic people who will either become “saved” or will become Pure Evil.
But real people aren’t like that and that is part of the tragedy. I know plenty of wonderful people who aren’t Christian. Yes, I fear that they will go to the Bad Place in the hereafter and yes, I pray for them. But they’re not inevitably selfish or self-centered. They are human. They’re kind, generous, willing to sacrifice to help others — either because of their own faith or because they believe in something like karma. I know plenty of Christians who are real jerks. And they are “real” Christians but they are just deeply unpleasant people to be around.
Now, the current trend in preach-fic goes two ways: either it’s Woke or it’s anti-Woke. Regardless of which side it’s on, it’s got characters who are flat. The protagonists are always the enlightened ones who see The Truth and are trying to get everyone else to bend to The Truth. The antagonists are always hateful, self-centered, narcissists who hate The Truth and instead want to enslave everyone to Their Power. Anyone who isn’t a protagonist is just another Sheep who needs to be Herded to The Truth.
Literally the only difference is which Truth is The Truth.
This is story-telling on the level of fairy tales we tell to very young children who are not developed well enough to understand just how complex reality and real life can be. It’s on the level of something like Cinderella with the Evil Stepmother and Evil Stepsisters who are trying to keep Cinderella from finding happiness. Sure, that’s a good foundation for a story and there are plenty of stories that are Cinderella stories that are quite fun to read and re-read. But the good stories move beyond the Cinderella = Pure Good and Evil Stepfamily = Pure Meanness. Adult readers get very tired of stories that are constructed with no more complexity than the fairy tales we tell toddlers because we know that reality is not like that.
Another reason that preach-fic is boring is for the same reason that having someone nag you gets old fast: if you’re an adult, you know what’s going on in your world. Being constantly reminded of a situation you know does nothing to help and it makes you just tune out the person talking because you’re sitting here thinking “and you think I haven’t considered this? Do you think I’m an idiot?”
It’s the same phenomenon that causes teenagers to roll their eyes and shut their ears when they’re getting harped on for the umpteenth time about Drugs Are Bad, Mmkay? They got the message the first dozen times. The more you harangue them, the more likely they are to say “well, if I’m going to get lectured about it, I might as well try it so there’s a reason for the lectures in the first place.”
That same thing happens on a cultural level, as well. The louder The Message gets preached, the more people tune out. That is causing the preachers to just get louder and more insistent with The Message which makes more and more people tune out. The only hope is for one side or the other to figure this out and start telling interesting stories where The Message is just part of the backdrop and theme and no longer the driving force of the story itself.
— G.K.
