More interesting thoughts conjured up by the Robin Jones Gunn books.

I'm on the Katie Weldon books now.

While I was talking over one of them with Stephen, I said something very interesting that I hadn't realized until I worded it to Stephen.

Actually, I had several interesting thoughts out of these books and this conversation that are all tied together and I'm probably going to have to write this a dozen times before it comes out right.

I think instead of trying to articulate them into an essay, I'm just going to essentially bullet-point them. Maybe an essay on it will come someday, but until then, here is my outline. :)

Point #1: I get very emotionally involved in my books. Stephen thinks this is bad for me, because it puts me in "Book World" and then I have trouble transitioning back into reality. I don't think it's totally bad for me, but I've always had trouble figuring out why we differ on this subject.
Point #2: Because Stephen is right, I do get very involved in my books and sometimes they do screw me up (case in point, my senior year of college). I've always had the impression that he thinks it's because I mentally "become" the character and bring all her problems into my world.
Point #3: But what if I'm not actually mistaking myself for Katie (or whoever the main character of the book is)? What if I'm not molding myself to fit Katie, but molding Katie to fit myself?
Point #4: What if instead of feeling like emotions are present in my life that are not really present (e.g. anger, hurt, fear, etc.), I am actually only remembering emotions that have truly been part of my life? What if, rather than infusing feelings that aren't really there into my life, books simply cause me to draw on feelings and sort of re-experience feelings that I have actually experienced?
Point #5: In another train of thought, when I read a book, I always know that when I finish the last page and close the book, everything will be totally resolved (at least, with books that resolve things).
Point #6: So I get utterly emotionally involved in my books, yet some part of me always knows that a solution will come, and so that part of me is always looking ahead, wondering, trying to figure out how it's going to resolve.
Point #7: But you are truly immersed in the characters' lives such as you see them, so you feel as though you are trying to talk to Katie (or whoever the main character is) to help her discover the right thing to do or say.
Point #8: So when you try to tell the character what the right thing to do or say is, you're actually, in a way, telling yourself.
Point #9: So when you come out of a book, after you've gotten yourself removed from the scene a little bit, you have a perspective you didn't have before. You feel as though you have told the character how it'll work out, but in fact, you have told yourself a better way for things to work out.
Point #10: So you end up applying what you learned to your real life, and not just the characters in the book.

There! Isn't that cool?? So getting emotionally involved in books ISN'T a bad thing! Not if you take healthy life lessons from the books and apply them to your own life.

One other thought about books: Authors must know that readers get emotionally involved in their books. They must know that by presenting conflict, the reader will want it resolved. And because of human nature, and the Gospel that is infused in us that causes us to desire goodness, readers want conflicts resolved in a good way.

So when authors don't resolve the conflicts in their books in a good way, on purpose...I seriously think that could be pegged as some kind of emotional abuse.

Sorry.

I felt emotionally abused by the books I had to read my senior year of college. Actually, maybe I felt more emotional abuse because my professors did not bring the life-altering truth of the Gospel into the discussion about these terrible books.

And I feel like some of the books out there that everybody tells you you should read could become paramount to emotional abuse to me, too. Depressing books. Books that don't resolve well. So I'm never going to read them, until I reach a place where I can emotionally/spiritually handle them. Or until I know somebody can legitimately explain to me how the Gospel changes the story.

And this is going to get very confusing if I don't quit now. :P

Argh...I had something to say about Katie that applies to me, but now I can't remember what it was. So instead, here are some parts of Katie that I see in myself:

She has trust problems.
She has trouble saying no.
She has trouble backing out of decisions once she's made them.
She has pride and stubbornness issues.
She tries as hard as she can to not get hurt.
She jokes about stuff when she's afraid being serious will expose her.

And here are some things I think Katie needs to fix before she can get past her trust issues:

She needs to admit that she's got them.
She needs to start praying and getting other help to get past them.
She basically needs to start being honest about herself. To others, but especially to herself.

And all of that requires humility, Katie.

I mean, Stephanie. :)

-Stephanie

Another thought I was going to include: Christy's personality and strengths + Katie's particular kind of brokenness = me.

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