Award winning LDS author Orson Scott Card spoke to BYU students Tuesday, Nov. 27, evening in the HBLL Theatre about reading fictional stories in their proper perspective.

People are trying to make sense of an imperfect world, Card said.

This is impossible to do when the motivating factors that control many aspects of our world are often hidden from us, he said.

However, in fictional stories there are usually no secrets kept from the reader about the motivational forces controlling what happens in the story, Card said.

This perfect understanding can help readers to make sense out of the universe that they live in, he said.

However, real life problems must be used to depict real world situations in a fictional book, Card said.

Writing good fiction requires the author to depict men of high character as fallible, he said.

It can require the characters to commit evil acts against others, Card said.

This often causes alarm for some members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he said.

For example, Card wrote a fictional story about Isaac and Rebecca as recorded in the Old Testament.

He wrote about the imperfections of Isaac as recorded in the Old Testament and added his own reasoning behind some of his imperfections.

This book titled, "Rebekah" was not accepted for publication when it was first submitted to Deseret Book, Card said.

Card believed that his book was not accepted because it portrayed Isaac and Rebekah as fallible people.

"I believe in the Correlation Reviews [a group of editors for Deseret Books], except no one taught them how to read fiction," Card said.

They have a hard time publishing a book if it contains characters like bishops or prophets as also fallible men, he said.

The real world is filled with great men who make mistakes, Card said.

Card said that he has heard the brethren explain that even though they are inspired they still make mistakes.

"We have way too much image making and too much image protection," Card said.

Somehow the reader can sort out the bad material from the good and come to better understand the world they live in, Card said.

Unfortunately fiction can be dangerous because it can have a powerful influence on people's lives, Card said.

Many TV producers claim that their immoral programming have no effect on their viewing audience, yet they charge high dollar for their commercial air spots, he said.

There is a discrepancy in this logic.

If people can be motivated to buy corn flakes after seeing a commercial, they can certainly be encouraged to commit immoral acts after seeing illicit scenes depicted on TV, Card said.

This negative influence can carry over into fictional movies.

Return of the Jedi is a bad movie, he said.

"I revolted when I saw this," he said.

In the first two Star Wars movies, Vader blows up planets and kills innocent people, he said.

But when Vader refuses to kill his son, he is immediately allowed to sit as an equal with men like Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi, Card said.

This breaks basic universal truths and can influence people to think that a quick repentance process is a part of reality, he said.

When the story depicts evil as good and good as evil, that is a bad indication of fiction, Card said.

People should see bad fiction, recognize it and then raise their voices against it, he said.



Copyright Brigham Young University 28 Nov 2001