Okay, the rumination. Man, I really wish I already knew how to add the message board to my page so I could hear from other people about this.
Christian Fiction. It's a prickly, snarly, and irritating subject for me. Some Christians don't like fiction. Many readers dislike fiction with Christian themes. And I don't know about you, but I tend to avoid the "Christian Fiction" section like the plague. I hate didacticism as much as the next person, and probably more than some -- and much of what is called "Christian Fiction" or "Christian novels" seem not only to embody a smarmy kind of didacticism but are badly written stories to boot. I hear things are changing, but when I hear the words "a Christian novel" I think of a story that is predictable, sanitized, irrelevant to most people's lives, and worst of all, saccharine. This is a very sad business, especially for a writer like me. I'm working on a trilogy of novels and plan to get them published. These novels treat gritty adult themes, contain swearing by certain characters, and don't give pat answers to difficult questions. But they also deal with the act of forgiveness, portray Christianity in a positive light, and involve the conversion of one of the characters as a major part of the plot. So what "genre" are my stories going to end up in? Even though I suspect times may be changing, I can't help thinking that my novels might well fall between two stools. If they're published as "Christian fiction," non-Christians who might like them (one of my betas is Jewish and likes the stories so far) won't find them; and Christians browsing in the local gospel bookstore might well feel betrayed when they pick up a book that rattles them a bit. If however they are published as "mainstream fiction," or "mystery and suspense," some Christians would never find them, and certain non-Christians picking up the book might feel betrayed to find something that looks like what C.S. Lewis called a "religious jaw" wrapped up in an alleged novel.
This is the issue: should things be so compartmentalized? I mean, it does make it easier to browse my local Borders. Yet I know I for one assign expectations ("premeditated resentments" as a friend's mother called them) to books shelved under a certain placard. This can be anything but helpful. I suspect that grass-roots word of mouth is what pushes things along, as it always has, but you have to wonder if you're missing something as you breeze past the various sections in Barnes and Noble.
It's something to think about.
Christian Fiction. It's a prickly, snarly, and irritating subject for me. Some Christians don't like fiction. Many readers dislike fiction with Christian themes. And I don't know about you, but I tend to avoid the "Christian Fiction" section like the plague. I hate didacticism as much as the next person, and probably more than some -- and much of what is called "Christian Fiction" or "Christian novels" seem not only to embody a smarmy kind of didacticism but are badly written stories to boot. I hear things are changing, but when I hear the words "a Christian novel" I think of a story that is predictable, sanitized, irrelevant to most people's lives, and worst of all, saccharine. This is a very sad business, especially for a writer like me. I'm working on a trilogy of novels and plan to get them published. These novels treat gritty adult themes, contain swearing by certain characters, and don't give pat answers to difficult questions. But they also deal with the act of forgiveness, portray Christianity in a positive light, and involve the conversion of one of the characters as a major part of the plot. So what "genre" are my stories going to end up in? Even though I suspect times may be changing, I can't help thinking that my novels might well fall between two stools. If they're published as "Christian fiction," non-Christians who might like them (one of my betas is Jewish and likes the stories so far) won't find them; and Christians browsing in the local gospel bookstore might well feel betrayed when they pick up a book that rattles them a bit. If however they are published as "mainstream fiction," or "mystery and suspense," some Christians would never find them, and certain non-Christians picking up the book might feel betrayed to find something that looks like what C.S. Lewis called a "religious jaw" wrapped up in an alleged novel.
This is the issue: should things be so compartmentalized? I mean, it does make it easier to browse my local Borders. Yet I know I for one assign expectations ("premeditated resentments" as a friend's mother called them) to books shelved under a certain placard. This can be anything but helpful. I suspect that grass-roots word of mouth is what pushes things along, as it always has, but you have to wonder if you're missing something as you breeze past the various sections in Barnes and Noble.
It's something to think about.
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