8. Ask the author

[Manuel]

Roger Thomas has offered to answer questions about his book. You can ask them here.

[Manuel]

I wonder if "I Have Slaved For You" may be based on the parable of the Prodigal Son. What would have happened if the Prodigal Son, after returning with his Father and being well-received, had rejected his father's pardon? Did you try to describe this?

[Manuel]

Please describe the influence of The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis on your story "The purging." I think it was greater than Tolkien's Leaf by Niggle. Am I wrong?

[Jill]

Tell us about yourself and how you came to write these stories!

[Fonch]

Excallent question Jill

[Roger]

Actually, Manuel, Slaved is somewhat based on the parable of the prodigal son, but is more from the perspective of the Elder Son. The title is drawn from Luke 15:29 (JB), when the Elder Son responds to how the Father responds to the returning Younger Son. The setting of the story would be some time before that, when just the Father and Elder Son were on the farm (or ranch, as I've set it in an American Western locale.)

The principle is that sometimes we can get so wrapped up in our doing that we forget that our chief value to God is relational - we are His sons and daughters. If you read Luke 15:11-32 carefully, and read between the lines a bit, you see that the Father lost two sons: one to the profligate life of wastefulness, but the other to excessive dutifulness, to the point that he came to see himself as a slave in his Father's house.

[Manuel]

Roger wrote: "Actually, Manuel, Slaved is somewhat based on the parable of the prodigal son, but is more from the perspective of the Elder Son..."

Yes, I saw that, but I thought it could also be interpreted from the point of view of the younger son. In fact, I doubted before I wrote the question. Which means that perhaps the protagonist could be considered as a hybrid of the two sons :-)