Comments on: Rawness of prose suits topics

By: Leo

Leo — Fri, 26 Jun 2015 01:06:43 +0000

Is your Comment relevant in some way, Michael ?

By: Michael Smith

Michael Smith — Thu, 25 Jun 2015 22:21:31 +0000

Is the sinning you are referring to swearing or the abuse of a nine-year-old boy. To be enlightened on the reality facing families and the impact on those involved, you could do worse than follow the continuing updates available from the Royal Commission underway in Australia. Here is a link to some witness statements from a current hearing:
http://www.tjhcouncil.org.au/royal-commission/case-study-28,-ballarat,-may-2015,/case-study-28-opening-and-witness-statements.aspx

By: Francis

Francis — Mon, 22 Jun 2015 20:44:18 +0000

Completely agree with Leo. Michael, so if the characters would in real life used Blamphemy, would that make it morally ok to include in the book? Is making something realistic more important than avoiding offending Our Lord? Of course not. So in the same way swearing/coarse language should not be used. And as Leo rightly points out, is there nothing better for the NZ Catholic to review???

By: Leo

Leo — Fri, 19 Jun 2015 02:36:14 +0000

Yes, I would indeed have it otherwise.
There was a time when films and literature were able to provide entertainment, information and inspiration without portraying their heroes as foul-mouthed, drug-taking, serial fornicators.
One knows full well that many characters written by Shakespeare would have been foul-mouthed in the real world. But that didn’t require Shakespeare to have them speak that way for his messages to be conveyed.
Catholics do come in all shapes and sizes, and they all sin occasionally in various ways. But we do well not to celebrate their sinning, or to treat it as inevitable and irreversible.
The real world is quite a terrible place, and it needs not to be replicated in literature or cinema for the consumption of the impressionable and/or for affront of the decent.
Michael seems to be unaware that life copies “art”, or perhaps he doesn’t care that it is because of exposure to foul language via cinema and television that such language has become the norm.
Catholics, especially the young, deserve a helluva lot better.

By: Michael Smith

Michael Smith — Wed, 17 Jun 2015 04:49:18 +0000

Hi, thanks for the great review of Mike Ledingham’s book. Good that you picked up the subbing errors too. I would just point out that the web page on which the review was placed slewed the paragraphs all over the place, so the reader didn’t know where they started or ended. Or was that just one of the formatting things that creeps in on web pages? Also “I enjoyed much of itsraw and…” I think you meant to say “I enjoyed much of its raw and…”

Re Leo’s comments, it is a shame his sensibilities have been offended. People, including Catholics, come in all shapes and sizes and many, particularly ex-SAS soldiers, do swear. So it would be wrong to change the language used by the characters too greatly and to pretend they are anything but what they appear to be. Or would he have it otherwise?.

But thanks again for taking to time to do this review. It is great to have received your feedback.

By: Leo

Leo — Tue, 16 Jun 2015 03:25:42 +0000

Perhaps with more foul language control, too.
For God’s sake, literally, let’s not promote vile literature to our Catholic people.
Is there nothing better with which to fill the pages on NZ Catholic ?