Better Fiction: The Blog

We, of the Artistic and Literary Antimanifestoist Movement, declare:

We hereby unite against the use of manifestos.

Therefore, we stand against all declarations that use bullet points.

We stand against all artistic and literary uses of manifestos to define a movement, especially those who are solely defined by what they are against. We rise against that by the very definition of who we are.

We are against such movements in general, and have formed the Antimanifestoist Movement in protest.

We stand against all movements formed as a means of protest.

We find that the use of manifestos seeks to artificially separate communities into two opposing groups, those who agree and those who are maligned and demonized by the manifesto. Those who disagree with us are demon-possessed and hereby much maligned.

We stand against ourselves and hereby refuse to join our organization.

We hereby form the Anti-Antimanifestoist Movement in protest. (See manifesto to come.)

We are without anyone left to finish this manifesto, without which the Anti-Antimanifestoist Movement shall have no means to define itself by what it is against.

We hereby declare the Anti-Antimanifestoist Movement dead. (Ignore previous parenthetical note.)

We protest the hubris we have shown is denying ourselves our right to form the Anti-Antimanifestoist Movement and plan to sue ourselves in court.

Signed,

The Former Members of the Antimanifestoist Movement

Yesterday, we introduced you to the new book, Cyndere's Midnight. Today, let's consider the book's author: Jeffrey Overstreet.

Jeffrey Overstreet is a bad influence. It only took a few seconds of research to make me incredibly envious. How could he be so brazen as to have such an interesting and full career? The respectable thing would have been to be bland and common, someone I could have felt superior to.

Case in point: Jeffrey writes about film for Image, imagejournal.com.

Case in point: He also reviews movies for Christianity Today and writes a monthly column named after his book: Through a Screen Darkly.

Case in point: He's a contributing editor for Response magazine, published at Seattle Pacific University.

Of all the nerve. He really should be ashamed.

Not only that, he also has a really cool goatee. I wish I could grow a goatee.

His web site is even eight years older than mine (having started in 1996). Can it get much worse?

Yes it can.

He began a weekly column for ChristianityToday.com in 2001 that compared Christian and secular film reviews and moved from that to full film reviews for Christianity Today’s new film site, ChristianityTodayMovies.com, in 2007.

That same year he had two (count them: two) books published: Through a Screen Darkly, which I understand is an autobiography about going to the movies, and Auralia’s Colors, which is supposed to be the first of a four book series. (A trilogy just wasn't good enough for this guy!)

Cyndere’s Midnight is the second in the series and hit the bookstores in September 2008.

Auralia’s Colors did not earn a single Christy Award nomination, instead it earned TWO. (Greedy if you ask me.)

That Seattle Pacific University magazine I mentioned, Response, it's a full-time gig. Full time. He reads and writes and gets paid enough for it to live off of! My biggest writing pay day to date could have been spent in one trip to the grocery store. This guy really ticks me off.

Finally, he likes to hear himself speak so much that he's been a speaker at film festivals, universities, churches, teachers’ conferences, and on radio programs around the U.S.

Please, enough already.

Clearly, all this over-achievement is the sign of a fragile ego. Buy his book. Make the guy feel better. Then he can settle down and be more like me. I think we can all agree, that would be a good thing.

Don't believe me? Check out what the rest of the CSFF Blog Tour has to say:

Brandon Barr
Keanan Brand
Rachel Briard
Melissa Carswell
Valerie Comer
Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Shane Deal
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Andrea Graham
Todd Michael Greene
Katie Hart
Timothy Hicks
Jason Isbell
Jason Joyner
Kait
Carol Keen
Magma
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Eve Nielsen
Nissa
Wade Ogletree
John W. Otte
John Ottinger
Steve Rice
Crista Richey
Alice M. Roelke
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Rachel Starr Thomson
Robert Treskillard
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Fred Warren
Jill Williamson

Until next time,

Wade Ogletree

We continue to be inspired by Jabberwocky and so move on in search of other examples of nonsense poetry:

From "The Book of Nonsense"

by Edward Lear

There was a Young Person of Smyrna,
Whose Grandmother threatened to burn her;
But she seized on the cat,
And said, 'Granny, burn that!
You incongruous Old Woman of Smyrna!'