I was able to hear this talk in person and intellectually delighted by how it proceeded. The last several novels I have read (most of them contemporary) follow the anthropocentric track noted after the opening section of this talk. Many of them don't try to venture beyond each of their authors' time periods either. I have been thinking about this predicament in fiction also from the perspective of an aspiring author. While drafting my own story some time ago, I made a note of a blog post that asked whether western authors really can tell any story apart from the Christian story in some derivation or another. If this is a restriction, it is of quite a different caliber than those which we impose on ourselves through our selection of characters, time periods, and scenery. I went back to my notes on the post after hearing the above talk. Lo and behold: the author of that blog post happened to be Jonathan Geltner.
I was able to hear this talk in person and intellectually delighted by how it proceeded. The last several novels I have read (most of them contemporary) follow the anthropocentric track noted after the opening section of this talk. Many of them don't try to venture beyond each of their authors' time periods either. I have been thinking about this predicament in fiction also from the perspective of an aspiring author. While drafting my own story some time ago, I made a note of a blog post that asked whether western authors really can tell any story apart from the Christian story in some derivation or another. If this is a restriction, it is of quite a different caliber than those which we impose on ourselves through our selection of characters, time periods, and scenery. I went back to my notes on the post after hearing the above talk. Lo and behold: the author of that blog post happened to be Jonathan Geltner.
I look forward to reading more.