As I work to hone my “why”–why is this story important? Why do I care?–and as I refine my “so what”–my point, my theme, my message–a divinely inspired e-mail arrived in my inbox.
It’s from Erin Overbey and Joshua Rothman, two people whom I’ve never met, and who do not even know I exist, yet they are my new guides. They are archivists for The New Yorker, and I, as a subscriber, receive their compilations of stories from the magazine’s extensive archives.
The focus of the stories they chose to unearth and share with us this week?
Faith and Skepticism.
The two conflicting elements at the core of my novel.
The articles, alas, do not reveal in shining lights or burning bushes exactly how best to phrase the meaning I hope my readers will take away from the book, but they have given me inspiration.
My book is about the magic that religion can possess–the wonder of faith, the hope that springs from the unknowable, the good that can come from accepting without understanding.
It’s what Lyra wants–a sense of wonder and hope and faith and magic. She’s been told by her First World, post-religious, scientific, skeptical culture in which she was raised that such a sentiment–if it exists at all, for who can prove such an ephemeral idea–most certainly cannot be found in religion, a vehicle of superstitious, irrational, dangerous beliefs that leads to hatred and violence and hash judgment and strict, unforgiving dogma.
Yet her society is not wholly wrong; historically, religion is at the heart of so much violence and hate; how can she reconcile what she’s searching for with religion’s brutal history? And why? Why would she come to believe that religion may have her answer?
Oh, and what about her darn phoenix cells? (you know, the whole point of her uniqueness, her cells’ ability to always regenerate no matter the injury or illness, the ones that get her sent on a mission to destroy her religious enemy, the mission during which she has to ultimately decide if she is going to kill her religious enemy or let him live, which means she’ll be using her power to determine who lives and who dies…)
She’ll be using her power to determine who lives and who dies…
She’ll be using her power to play God…
Lyra’s phoenix cells make her immortal…
Hmmm…
A girl who doesn’t believe in religion and is now expected to play God…
I’m almost there, almost there… I see a flicker of the lightbulb atop my head…
(Yay.)