I am, however, intrigued by the title changes.

I’d never read a book called Bright Young Things. And I’d be off put by a movie named Vile Bodies. But switch them around, and it’s win/win. Oddly enough.

Great observations about satire–pretty much what I think, too. A Christian writer’s compassion should extend to his or her characters, I think–at least usually. But characters in satire aren’t really characters, I suppose–and satire can be written with compassion for readers, even if it’s harsh. I think Twain is a great example of both sides of the satire line: ultimately loving satire in Huckleberry Finn, bitter satire in No. 44, The Mysterious Stranger–so bitter that it made me feel physically ill when I read it.

My list of books I want to read is getting so long! Soon, soon . . .

I would also be interested in seeing if there are any writers nowadays who are Christians and write satire that ends so pointlessly. On the one hand, it would be hard to write an ending that is so without hope if one is a Christian (I recall Lewis’s quote about how Screwtape was the hardest thing he ever wrote because he had to get into the mindset of a character who had no hope). On the other hand, a Christian should know of the world’s true fallen nature in a more prescient way than most other people and be able to write about that in an honest, true way (Flannery O’Connor is always my favorite example of this). And then from the third hand, such a book would never be published by an officially Christian press, and many churches would never want their congregants to read such a book. If I were the writer of that kind of book, I’d actually avoid the Christian subculture completely. Biting wit, of the Chesterton kind of even parts of the Twain kind, can be incorporated into a Christian faith and worldview. When satire is about spurring people on to considering right and wrong, good and bad, then it can be useful. But when satire is about bitterness and mocks for the fun of mocking, like the other parts of Twain, for example, then that’s pretty difficult to incorporate into a Christian viewpoint. Satire is such a fine line to walk anyway, I wouldn’t be surprised if most Christians simply don’t want to try. But if you run across any that do try, let me know. And let me know if you do read Vile Bodies. It is a quick read, actually, and every so often Waugh has a killer observation on the society that he is satirizing. It is certainly a grim kind of satire, but that’s not a drawback in the context of characters who are so entirely a mix of hedonism and indifference.