So earlier I said I wasn’t a huge fan of Ted Dekker’s writing style, which still stands, but there were still a few lines from Red I deemed worthy to write down in the Notebook of Bookdom. They’re the exact opposite of subtle, which I absolutely loved.

“These zombies floated through life as if nothing would ever matter in the end.”

“The smell of rotting flesh was more a scent of wholesome humanity than a stench.”

The first quote is when Thomas, the main character, is in traffic looking around at the other drivers. He just tells it like it is – our current culture in a nutshell.

The second quote to me was brilliant. Basically it’s set in the alternate world where the effects of sin and atonement are physically seen. In this instance, sin and rebellion are evidenced by dry and diseased skin, while healthy skin, resulting from bathing in the lakes given by Elyon (God), represents atonement…or something like that.

Anyways, so if you just substitute “rotting flesh” with “sin” you get this:

“The smell of sin was more a scent of wholesome humanity than a stench.”

…which, to me, I see is the exact attitude so many people have today. People scoff at those who hold any specific moral standards and say you’re “closed-minded” or something ridiculous, while they experience all the desires humanity offers and creates.

Oh! It’s just like Vronsky and his friends from Anna Karenina:

“But there was another sort of people, the real ones, to which they all belonged, and for whom one had, above all, to be elegant, handsome, magnanimous, bold, gay, to give oneself to every passion without blushing and laugh at everything else.”

[emphasis added]

“Wholesome humanity.” What a contradictory statement! It’s so un-subtle and brilliant. I love it.