When I wrote an article recommending a movie about dragons, a fellow Christian not only refused to watch the movie, but also to read the article, clearly thinking, “Dragons come from the Devil.”

Well, yes, the Devil is the original serpent, the same that tempted Eve to sin, and she Adam. Is it not for that reason that we have a long history of animosity toward serpents? Which (when they get large) become dragons. The word dragon merely signifies a very large reptile, after all, a serpent grown to monstrous proportions.

But don’t we all inherit that same tendency to sin that Adam and Eve spawned? We carry the seed of the dragon within us, in our very character, like it or not.

And though we ought indeed to distance ourselves from that propensity, we also understand metaphor. When we speak of dragons, we also speak symbolically of the darkness within, from which conflict arises.

Every writer realizes that every story must contain conflict. And when that conflict becomes monstrous, but is overcome, a story is born.

Write about dragons, then, and let the reader understand: to kill the dragon is a good thing.