Why Books Are Good

[alanajoli]

frost_light mentioned the other day that not all books are everyone's cup of tea. Taste is, in all things, subjective, so it's impossible to come up with that universal formula that everyone will appreciate. That got me thinking about why I like the books I like, so I thought I'd muse about it here.

I'll start with something that I don't actively look for, but am always wonderfully pleased to find. I love finding a novel that looks into issues of faith and spirituality without a) marketing itself as a faith-based book, b) making the analogies so obvious that the story hinges on them, and c) makes faith complicated. C. S. Lewis, while I enjoy his fiction, loses out on point B very dramatically. I know going in that I'm going to get smacked about the head, and that's fine.

Charles Williams, on the other hand, of whom Lewis was a great admirer, couches his discussions of faith just a bit. It's still quite obvious, and sometimes not as complicated as I'd like (conversion seems a feat of logic for many of his characters--they simply decide to have faith, and then they do). But Williams applies ideas of spirituality and his understanding of Christianity to things like tarot cards, artifacts like the philosopher's stone, and etc. These mystery/adventure novels are what I was hoping to get out of the Da Vinci Code when it came so highly recommended; I've found that I prefer Williams.

Really, though, I love the authors who sneak up on you with the discussion of faith, making it a vital part of a character study, but not whacking their readers with symbolism and propaganda. In the Claws of the Tiger by James Wyatt and Flight of the Dying Sun by Rich Wulf, both shared-world novels published by Wizards of the Coast, use fantasy religions to delve into real issues. What is it like to find your faith, or recover from its loss? How far can you push the boundaries of your religious code and still believe? People uninterested in the faith angle might gloss over these ideas completely, or dismiss them as not related to real life. But I, astonished to find these issues dealt with so smoothly in a genre most people don't consider "serious," was tickled at the depth I found and the resonance I experienced.

Faith comes up in Stephenie Meyer's novels as well (something I discussed with caitrin yesterday), in part as a reflection of Meyer's own moral beliefs, and in part because, when dealing with Vampires, suddenly, the soul becomes an interesting topic of conversation. She doesn't dig very deeply (at least in the first two books; she has plenty of time), but the surface that she scratches is one that compares faith and hope, giving them a nice parallel that leaves room to explore faith from that angle.

Comments

[eyezofwolf.livejournal.com]

First off, I have to say that I completely agree with the initial statement 100 percent. I always try to keep that in mind when people ask to read what I wrote and want to provide feedback. I have had people say that they couldn't finish it, but that was because it wasn't "their thing". Of course, that makes it that much better when someone gives you the compliment of "I don't usually read this kind of stuff, but I liked your story."

I did want to make a quick comment about C.S. Lewis with regards to the Narnia series. I read those books as a child - they are the first books I remember reading (in reality I memorized the words and "read along" when my parents read it out loud). I have also read them several times since then, even as short as a couple of years ago. I don't know why, but I NEVER made the Christianity connection until people started talking about it after the movie of LW&W came out. I agree, it is painfully obvious, but I think that since I read them before I was very familiar with Christianity, I always just thought of it as a fantasy story and carried that with me. I think that says something both for kids' ability to just enjoy the story and also how impressions from when we are young stay with us.

By the way, I finished your book yesterday, Into the Reach. I will be typing up a review and feedback on it since you said you wanted it. I am hoping to get to that this weekend, but I won't promise anything since NorWesCon is this weekend. In short, I liked it and would recommend it, but there's some feedback I'd like to give you. You will be at GenCon this year, so that I can pick up the others in the trilogy, right?

[alanajoli.livejournal.com]

I actually agree about Narnia. I didn't get the connection when I first read them, and still love the books, particularly The Magician's Nephew. Once I became more familiar with Lewis's work, however, I realized you can't avoid Christian analogy in his fiction. His Space Trilogy (Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength) are great novels, and might (unsure) stand alone as science fantasy. The analogies, however, are incredibly obvious. They're worth reading, but I now have to read Lewis with a very different mind than I did as a child.

I wonder if the same is true of Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy. Had I read them young enough to miss the huge criticism that Pullman is making of Christianity, I probably would have enjoyed them a lot more. The really interesting things he had to say about faith were diluted by his "point." When the "point" takes me out of the story, I lose most of my enjoyment.

I'm glad you enjoyed Into the Reach! I look forward to the feedback as well; having now written the second book, which I feel is much stronger, I have a lot of feedback for myself on the first novel as well. (Unfortunately I can't seem to escape the running feedback I'm giving myself as I'm writing book three, which is nearly paralyzing some days. Bah, and bah again.) I'm looking forward to your insight!

And the plan is that I will be at GenCon for the release of Regaining Home, so the whole trilogy will be there. I expect Lindsay Archer and I will do our usual song and dance (literally). :)

[dmoonfire.livejournal.com]

*grin* I'm another one who never got it. I never even picked up a hint of the religious overtones when I read the series from cover to cover as a child. Heck, I didn't even get it when I did it every couple of years. It wasn't until my mate told me about it that I went "really!?"

I do agree with the pushing the religion. I notice a lot of the Wiccan references in books, some of them basically hit you over the head with a 2x4 while others are much more subtle. I like the subtle ones so much more than the 2x4. "Witches good, Christians bad!" is one of those themes I'm really, really not fond of.