I have been a horror fan since I was a little kid – I started with the Goosebumps books when I was six and worked my way up to Christopher Pike in my early adolescence before finally making it to Stephen King in high school (I would have started King earlier, but my parents wouldn’t let me, and I sneaked them into my backpack from the school library). I enjoyed some horror movies, but I really got into them in college after I was old enough to purchase R-rated movies and watch them without worrying about my parents (who don’t like most R-rated movies, simply not their taste). These days, I’ve dipped my toe into the not-as-gory-as-you’d-think torture porn genre and found the temperature to be better than expected.
When I was younger, I was sometimes concerned about whether certain kinds of books and movies, especially the darker stuff, was okay to read. It certainly wasn’t my worst guilt when I was still a Christian, but it could weigh on me. In college, I finally came up with a policy: if the genre had a correlation in the Bible, why not? As many atheists have pointed out, there is some R-rated material (perhaps even NC-17 when you take away the prudish language substitutes) in the Bible, but even beyond the more hardcore and extreme genres, there are less objectionable genres.
Romance: Ruth, Esther, Song of Solomon, parts of Genesis. Ruth in particular pulls no punches. It’s undeniably romantic, but there’s the part where Naomi tells Ruth to have sex with Boaz (come on, did you really think uncovering a foot was a special code for anything but taking off Boaz’s pants?). And she does! Undress him, I mean. They kind of fade out and it’s up in the air whether they actually have sex before marriage, especially considering the prudishness of the authors and/or translators.
Romantic Comedy: Standard overprotective, vilified father in Laban when Jacob is working to marry Rachel and gets the “unattractive” daughter first, forced to work more before he can have Rachel.
Western: David and Goliath, David and Saul. Sure, it’s a different culture, but the elements are still there, especially with David and Goliath. Classic shoot-out with the underdog being the best stone-slinger in the Middle East. And King Saul is one of those landowners who lets self-importance and greed get in the way.
Action: Jacob wrestling with an angel. Exodus. Joshua. Gideon. Samson. All the wars, wars, wars. While the Bible books are not exactly known for their excellent action descriptions, there are some pretty cool stories, if your imagination is strong enough to imagine more than just what is told.
Musical: Psalms. And there are songs interspersed throughout various books and letters. Music is a good way to pass down history and stories over time. Mary sings in Elizabeth ’s house after being told she is going to have a son by the Holy Spirit.
Fantasy/Sci-fi: Ezekiel is a sci-fi favorite with the “wheel in the middle of a wheel” being interpreted as a UFO. And any miracle can be interpreted as fantasy: Daniel in the lion’s den, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the fiery furnace, the Gospels and the Acts (some action in there, too), Exodus.
Apocalyptic/Disaster/Dystopia: Duh. If I have to explain this, you need to go back to Bible 101. Parts of Genesis and Exodus have things like the tower of Babel , the Flood, the destruction of Sodom , the plagues, the parting and closing of the Red Sea . Judges is great for dystopia (and thriller and horror – there’s stuff in there to make your blood curdle, like New York City noir with a police strike), as are parts of Genesis, and when Israel was falling due to bad kings in Old Testament, eventually under Babylonian rule.
Psychological Thriller/Mystery: If you take the Apocrypha into account, I think Judith might count. But I also think that the story of the Fall may be a simplistic thriller. I could see it happening. And of course, God in general works in mysterious ways, and all the people trying to figure him out could qualify as mystery and thriller.
Horror: Stephen King called Job the one of the earliest horror stories. And Revelation is as much a horror story as a disaster story. Then there are the plagues in Exodus, the demon possessions and exorcisms in the Gospels, the temptation of Jesus … anything with Satan and demons, really.
Erotica: Song of Solomon is classic, and if you include the dub con/non con/incest rampant in the story parts of the Bible and David’s lust for Bathsheba, you’ve got the lighter and darker sides of sex. And I am surely not the only one to wonder about Mary and the Holy Spirit. Being touched by God or his angels are classically depicted as ecstatic. See Torture Porn for BDSM elements.
Torture Porn: The crucifixion of Christ (we walk around with the object of torture on our necks, people … probably because it’s hard to wear an empty cave), Revelation, the condemnation of Jezebel, Elisha calling down bears on mocking youth. Mentions of hell, which has inspired some of the most imaginative tortures in both Christian fiction and reality. Not to mention that hell is God-created and Satan-maintained. If God isn’t a proponent of torture porn, I don’t know who is. (After all, he just sat back and let Satan torment Job. Sanctioned sadism and masochism on God’s part is rampant in the Bible.)
This is stuff that I came up with when I was still a Christian. It is only slightly irreverent now because of my newer issues with the Bible, but if you take the tongue from the cheek, you might see that I have a point. The Bible has everything, stories told for the juiciness as well as the moral (fairy tales, anyone?), and thinking that everything about it is goodness and light is naive at best, deliberately ignorant at worst. God isn’t tame, and there is violent anger and condemnation as much as there is mercy and forgiveness. Not to mention that real life in “a fallen world” lends itself to acknowledging the darkness within us, not dismissing it. Whenever it is dismissed in fiction, you’ll find that the result is shallow, saccharine, insincere.
So choose your genres according to taste, use discernment if you must, but don’t assume that everyone needs to follow your tastes. Different people can take different things – just because you’re more vulnerable to being pulled down by certain kinds of fiction doesn’t mean other people are. Take responsibility for yourself; don’t assume responsibility for others (unless you have kids and have control over them until they are adults … then let them walk into walls and find their way, okay?).
Because this list is nowhere near comprehensive, what am I missing? Have your own to share?
