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You may have seen my review of Old Fashioned (the movie) last week.  For that matter, you may have seen the movie.  Today I’m going to look at a couple of books that correspond to the movie.  There are two.  One is the novelization of the story.  The other is more of a devotional-style book called The Old Fashioned Way.

Old Fashioned (the novel)

As is usually the case, the novel is a little different from the movie.  Not a whole lot; it’s pretty faithful to the story.  But different media have different strengths and weaknesses, and we can see that here.  For instance, as the original screenwriter (Rik Swartzwelder) notes, the novel allows us to “get inside the characters’ heads,” providing a dimension to the story that we don’t see as clearly in the movie.

I have to be honest, I found the writing rather awkward, starting at literally the first sentence.  I don’t know if it smoothed out partway through or if I just got used to it, but I didn’t particularly notice it after about the first third.

The Old Fashioned Way

The Old Fashioned Way is often described as a devotional — which is accurate in terms of the format — but I’m hesitant to call it a devotional.  It’s based primarily on the story, not on the Bible, so I would personally not use this as a replacement for devotions.

It is intended to be biblical, though, and is an excellent means for study or reflection on the idea of relationships and what elements go into godly ones.

There are things here that married people can take away, but for the most part, this is a book for singles.  It doesn’t “give away the answers” so much as it pushes the reader to think about what good relationships involve.  What character traits are needed?  What processes work to that end?  What is it we’re looking for?

And it points out that goal is not being old fashioned for the sake of being old fashioned.  An old fashioned courtship doesn’t, for instance, mean we have to return to horse-drawn buggies or throw away our computers.  It means we look for old fashioned values, and for those values and safeguards that have been thoughtlessly cast aside by our modern culture.

Like I’ve said before when talking about courtship, it’s about the principles (which don’t change), not the details (which may be different for everyone).

Win It!

Would you like to win your own copy?  One winner will win a copy of the DVD, a copy of the novelization, and the “devotional.”  (For those wondering about their kids, it will of course vary from family to family, but I’d probably consider the movie to be appropriate from middle teens on up, and the book for slightly younger — because of the lack of visuals.  If your kids are in public school, maybe a little younger for both.)

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