Christian publishers likes the Reader - Page 3

Gideon · 01-31-2008, 05:05 PM

I wouldn't make any particular note of the word I use, that's a pretty common word for me.

I think, primarily, that most of it is mediocre. It uses the fact it is "religious" or is going to espouse particular values to make up for literary content.

Now, don't get me wrong - so are many.... well, every genre that is overwhelmingly garbage. What gets me is that while in a lot of genres the stuff that is good kind of floats to the tops, but everything I've ever read that's the "top" religious fiction has always been rather terrible.

Again, however, these are general statements. For any particular book, it being this or that means absolutely nothing - but as a general rule, that's what I've found to be the case.

It's important to understand - I don't care that it's religious, I care that it's bad. I study Religion and even my job is coordinating interfaith work on a campus - it's what I do, and I'm pretty comfy around everyone's beliefs, that alone isn't enough to throw me off. I've just found that the signal to noise ratio in religious fiction seems to be a bit worse than supermarket romance novels.

I do not believe it HAS to be bad. History proves that some of the greatest art ever made has been done in the name of one's faith - architecture, The Inferno, Handel, Bach... What I think it is, more than anything else, is a market and stores anxious to label things "Christian," and hungry to publish just about anything that looks remotely like something they can sell. And that's just the fiction! The non-fiction is even worse! (And it's beginning to get thick in the Jewish and Buddhist sections there, too.)

And yeah, the DaVinci code is similar in that respect - it has this religious thing that propels its sales, but it's still crap. To use a Christian metaphor, it seems like more than a few of these guys are just moneylenders in the temple.

I think religion is too important to be dealt with arbitrarily, and I certainly think God is too important to be doing shoddy things in his name. I've looked at a number of these books, enough to let me feel comfortable disliking the genre, and I acknowledge that there's a good chance there's some that's quite good out there - but I was just talking about the genre in general.

Most of the same could be said of any other genre - largely horrible. The difference is the other genre's don't add "Christian" to try to make it more palatable or make it seem more legitimate. That offends me.

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01-31-2008, 05:05 PM	#31
Gideon Wearer of Pants Posts: 1,050 Karma: 7634 Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Norman, OK Device: Amazon Kindle DX / iPhone	I wouldn't make any particular note of the word I use, that's a pretty common word for me. I think, primarily, that most of it is mediocre. It uses the fact it is "religious" or is going to espouse particular values to make up for literary content. Now, don't get me wrong - so are many.... well, every genre that is overwhelmingly garbage. What gets me is that while in a lot of genres the stuff that is good kind of floats to the tops, but everything I've ever read that's the "top" religious fiction has always been rather terrible. Again, however, these are general statements. For any particular book, it being this or that means absolutely nothing - but as a general rule, that's what I've found to be the case. It's important to understand - I don't care that it's religious, I care that it's bad. I study Religion and even my job is coordinating interfaith work on a campus - it's what I do, and I'm pretty comfy around everyone's beliefs, that alone isn't enough to throw me off. I've just found that the signal to noise ratio in religious fiction seems to be a bit worse than supermarket romance novels. I do not believe it HAS to be bad. History proves that some of the greatest art ever made has been done in the name of one's faith - architecture, The Inferno, Handel, Bach... What I think it is, more than anything else, is a market and stores anxious to label things "Christian," and hungry to publish just about anything that looks remotely like something they can sell. And that's just the fiction! The non-fiction is even worse! (And it's beginning to get thick in the Jewish and Buddhist sections there, too.) And yeah, the DaVinci code is similar in that respect - it has this religious thing that propels its sales, but it's still crap. To use a Christian metaphor, it seems like more than a few of these guys are just moneylenders in the temple. I think religion is too important to be dealt with arbitrarily, and I certainly think God is too important to be doing shoddy things in his name. I've looked at a number of these books, enough to let me feel comfortable disliking the genre, and I acknowledge that there's a good chance there's some that's quite good out there - but I was just talking about the genre in general. Most of the same could be said of any other genre - largely horrible. The difference is the other genre's don't add "Christian" to try to make it more palatable or make it seem more legitimate. That offends me.