Golden Compass and Christian Romances

[alanajoli]

I took the test to find out what my Daemon is (because amieroserotruck and did theirs), despite my reservations about the "His Dark Materials" trilogy (which is unarguably beautifully written--my reservations are for different reasons). It's behind the cut, if you'd like to influence what my daemon looks like.

I find it delightful that he started out as one of Morrigan's children--or as a Trickster, depending on whether you prefer Celtic imagery or American Indian. I'm not as fond of Norse, so Odin didn't come to mind until just now.

--

I've said here on this journal that I have issues with fiction particularly marketed to a subculture. I realize in some ways this isn't fair: any genre writing could, arguably, be marketed to a subculture, so by virtue of my being a genre writer, making statements like that is hypocritical. So I'll try to explain a little better why it bothers me. It's particularly Christian fiction that sets itself aside from mainstream fiction that gets on my nerves, in part because it's declaring itself to have a very limited audience (we don't want any atheist, Jewish, or Hindu readers, for example), but also because I've met people who then *only* read Christian fiction, because it's acceptable fiction. (I've met Christians who refuse to read fiction at all, because it's all lies.) The imposition of those limits grates on my nerves a bit.

Which is why I am thrilled to talk about Bethany House. I saw a book at the library the other day with an enchanting cover--a novel of Regency England with aspects of the typical Regency romance novel, but much more about the self-discovery that the heroine goes through over the course of the novel. From the outside of the novel--cover to blurbs on the back--it gives every appearance of being either straight-fiction, or fiction that would appeal to romance readers. The only reason I was aware of it as a Christian novel is because I know that Bethany House is a Christian publisher. I think all of their novels are shelved under religious fiction at Barnes and Noble, but at my local library, they're considered regular fiction, where they can find a wider audience.

If my whole thought process still sounds hypocritical, since I have no trouble with science-fiction and fantasy being shelved separately from regular fiction (and, in fact, was upset when Susanna Clarke's wonderful Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell was shelved in the fiction section instead of SFF), I'd like to know! I'd hate to be a hypocrite just because I don't care for how something is marketed.

Comments

[mechristy.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I seem to have influenced your daemon into a rabbit. I'm not sure I think your are more rabbit-like, but I really like the concept of a friend-influenced personality quiz. Quite amusing.

One question, you talked about not liking niche fiction and about having problems with the Golden Compass trilogy. Were those connected thoughts? If so, do you feel the books were aimed at the "atheist" niche? I've never noticed them being marketed in that manner, but the books themselves do become rather preachy.

[alanajoli.livejournal.com]

I don't have a problem with the way the Golden Compass was marketed at all, actually. I feel that the last third of the final book got lost in the point that Pullman was trying to make rather than best serving the story--but I wonder how much of that was because I knew he was creating the anti-Narnia in advance, due to interviews I had read with him. The trilogy was actually much better than I'd expected from the reviews, and I was only disappointed by the tail end.

So actually, completely unrelated thoughts. If I'd realized I was going to be double posting last night, I would have separated them into multiple posts.

[mechristy.livejournal.com]

Hmm, that's almost exactly how I felt about the books, except that I started getting annoyed in the second book. But, I don't think I'd had any advance warning about the Anti-Narnia or atheist message. This may have made be even more cranky. I was surprised to suddenly have my compelling adventure-fantasy yanked away and replaced by cardboard cut-outs mouthing the authors philosophical views.

[alanajoli.livejournal.com]

That's exactly it! When the point becomes more important than the story, it completely takes me out of my sense of disbelief.

With the number of fans of the books--both YA and adult--I'd thought there weren't very many of us who noticed...

[alanajoli.livejournal.com]

Oh, and when I came back online last night, Brynn had become a mouse. T. decided to influence me, and Brynn became a tiger. Egads!

[alanajoli.livejournal.com]

Do you have a link where I can go influence you? (Went to your journal and it is not there...)

Catching up

[exoder27.livejournal.com]

Hey, sorry I haven't commented in so long. I'm catching up, and you post a lot, so I'll be reading this a lot here in the next little bit.

But I did want to say that I totally totally agree with the Christian fiction complaint you have. I have a similar complaint to Christian music. Now some of it obviously would be classified as Christian music just because of the blatant references to God or Jesus or whatnot, but a lot of times in Christian rock, all bands become the "Christian" version of a secular band. Listen to POD, they're the Christian Rage Against the Machine. Or listen to Third Day, they're the Christian Hootie. Yeah, it's frustrating.

Re: Catching up

[alanajoli.livejournal.com]

I'm really glad to have a musician feel the same way. I mean Gospel Music? Obviously its own qualification. Like, say, devotionals, or apologetics.

In thinking more about this, I have discovered that there are a couple of things I feel market themselves appropriately for their audience. Veggie Tales should be marketed exactly how it is--it's filling a very small niche, but it works with that niche, gears itself toward a very specific audience, yet manages to work inside that niche to do some really interesting (albeit goofy) things. Like set the stories of Joseph and Moses as Westerns. With vegetables.

I'm still trying to analyze why I think Veggie Tales is doing it right, and why I feel Christian fiction isn't. It could be because it implies that if you're Christian and writing fiction, you should be writing Christian fiction (which I've actually heard a lot more often in regards to music--how can you be a musician who is Christian without being a Christian musician?). I find all of that a bit silly, and I imagine that's where some of the irking comes from.