Don't ask me why, but I recently picked up a copy of Left Behind: A Novel of the Earth's Last Days. I think it was mostly because I was intrigued by the popularity of this series -- now up to 12 installments -- and what it says about America. What it says, in the words of the early Dylan, is a hard rain's a-gonna fall. To be briefer than usual, what it says is not good news.

The 12-part Left Behind book series, co-authored by prophecy scholar Tim LaHaye and novelist Jerry B. Jenkins, is a phenomenon in the emerging genre of Christian thriller literature. Today's release of the series' final installment, "Glorious Appearing," will mark a nine-year ascendancy for the books, which have sold more than 60 million copies worldwide...

from: 'Left Behind' apocalypse finale hits bookstores
by Mary M. Byrne
source: The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, 30 March 2004
via: HighBeam Research

I discovered an excellent bit of blogging on the series by slacktivist ("reality based since 2002") titled Left Behind: Pretrib Porno, wherein Fred Clark does a close reading. I've only read the first couple chapters myself, but this bit from slacktivist starts with page one...

The first words of Left Behind are "Rayford Steele," the protagonist's name.

It sounds like a porn star's name -- and in a sense it is. The Left Behind series is dispensational porno, but it's more than that. One of the most disturbing things about this book is the way LaHaye and Jenkins portray men, women and the relationships between them...

Our porn star hero, Rayford Steele, interacts with women just like any porn star does -- minus, of course, the sex. It's all about dominance, exploitation, titillation and the stroking of -- in this case -- egos.

The character Rayford Steele is, like the authors, no longer a young man. Younger authors might not have been compelled to give their protagonists names -- "Steele" and "Buck" -- that seem such a blatant assertion of male virility...

If you're thinking I'm reading too much into all this, that this theme isn't really as present in the text as I'm making it out to be, consider the opening lines:

Rayford Steele's mind was on a woman he had never touched. With his fully loaded 747 on autopilot ...

That's more than just subtext.

As I said, excellent stuff. Save you the aggravation of actually reading these atrocious books. They do, however, have a sort of macabre fascination. For me. But then I used to get off, in a manner of speaking, watching Jimmy Swaggert and those guys do their evangelical fire and brimstone thing on TV. Back when I had a TV. It was like watching Mondo Cane, if any of you remember that. In essence: Shocking Practices of Primitive Weirdos. Wouldn't be considered quite proper these days, but it's far better than déclassé cult faves like Reefer Madness. Uh... hmmm... how did I end up here?

Anyway, there's also a Left Behind site, but naturally. The section on Prophecy is a definite don't miss. And hey, don't be afraid to bring the kids along! What were they thinking. Dear God. There are now forty (40) volumes in the Left Behind kids series. Here's the opening of the most recent, Triumphant Return...

VICKI held tightly to Judd as the Global Community's Unity Army rumbled through the streets of Jerusalem. She hoped they were simply putting their tanks and soldiers into place, but Carpathia's army could attack at any moment.

Vicki had felt a sense of adventure coming to the Old City. Jamal and Lina, Judd's friends from a previous trip to Israel, had taken them in. They had also met an old man named Shivte and his wife. These rebels were trying to hold off the GC army -- something Vicki believed was part of biblical prophecy.

As you can see from the Prophecy page grafik, below, the series includes a lot of Tom Clancyesque action scenes in which the evil doers get shot all to hell. You could say.

The seemingly unstoppable Left Behind series has drawn wide media attention, and the evolving efforts of religion houses to publish higher-quality [???] novels are bearing fruit in critical acclaim and more review opportunities. Evangelical Christian novels have broken out to general fiction bestsellers lists and achieved prominent display in general-interest bookstores... General trade publishers are luring top authors away from Christian houses, which themselves are planning expanded fiction lists and hunting for more good novelists and fiction editors. Jewish, Catholic and New Age publishers are also getting into the act. [question marks mine.]

from: New Genres, Emerging Audiences by Jana K. Riess
source: Publishers Weekly, 21 August 2000
via: HighBeam Research
Copyright © 2000 Reed Business Information

And so in closing, I'd like to echo those famous words of Paul McCartney on Monkberry Moon Delight...