Diana Gabaldon, a former university professor, became an author, I believe sometime after she retired. I stumbled across her "Outlander" series about 18 months ago; and she has quickly become one of my favorite authors. Her work is difficult to describe. Some books stores mistakenly place in her in the romance section; and her books do have elements of romance and human sexuality. But her books have so many different elements, from phantasy, adventure, epic, romance, faith, doubt, war, man's inhumanity to man, history, etc. It is a series which has touched me deeply an stirred dormant and perhaps even latent feelings in my soul. Below is just a small tribute to her and her books.
Dear Diana,
Well, its been about a year and a half since I stumbled across a copy of Dragonfly in Amber and embarked on the journey with Jamie and Claire. After reading Dragonfly, I started from the beginning with Outlander and read voraciously through the last page of The Fiery Cross. I finished all these by last Summer. Then I started A Breath of Snow and Ashes and have intentionally taken my time to finish it, not wanting the story to end; and knowing it may be awhile before the next edition to the story is finished.
I have laughed and cried. The story of Jamie and Claire has somehow touched deep strings in my heart. It has touched places in my soul that are barbaric and pagan, devoutly catholic and Christian, desire for romance and to rekindle the fire of love in my own marriage, my celtic roots, history, the problems of evil and man's inhumanity to man, etc.
I finished the last pages of A Breat of Snow Ashes last night, sitting up alone after everone else had gone to bed, sipping on a little Scotch. I have never read a story that has touched my as deeply as this one has (not even Tolkien's LOTR- which touched me also but not in so many different ways and from so many angles within myself)!
There is always a sense of loss after finishing a good book but with the final pages of this story, which I've invested over a year in reading, I feel the sense of loss that Jamie & Claire and Roger, Brianna, & Jem must feel after their return to the present. I think Brianna said it best,
"Oh, God, she prayer passionately, oh, God- that they might be safe! Please, please, let them be safe. It didn't matter how ridiculous it might be to pray for the safety of people who had been- who had to be- dead for more than two hundred years. It was the only thing she could do, and did it several times each day, whenever she thought of them..."
Well, it may be "ridiculous" to share these same sentiments for people who didn't exist historically. Yet, they do exist in some mythical way, from the heart and imagination of their author (their sub-creator), and then to the readers who allow them to take root in our own hearts and imaginations. In some mysterious way, whether from some pyschological trick of the mind and imagination, (it really doesn't matter how), they have existed in my heart for sometime. They are part of me now and I feel a dread loss from finishing this latest chapter in their lives.
I look forward to reading the rest of their story as you complete them but I also dread that inevitable final page that lies yet beyond the horizon. Yet, you cannot truly experience the loss unless you've first shared in the love, the joy and the pain of the relatonship.
In the Christian Tradition, the sufferings of Christ are referred to as His Passion, passion meaning to suffer for the sake of love.
Reading is a kind of passion (not to place it in the same category of Christ's passion)- to experience, to love, and to suffer loss. I certainly love to read; and in reading of Jamie and Claire, and all the rest, I have suffered the passion of reading, loving and loss. But I wouldn't have it any other way.
Thank You. Respectfully,
Fr Aidan (Jerry) Hix+
