Decisions, decisions
Oct. 1st, 2007 09:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chris_gerribThis may be another "go get a cup of coffee" post, so please bear with me. There are several apparently unrelated things I've been interested in exploring.
1) Religious fundamentalism. I'm very much a middle-of-the-road person politically (which puts me well to the right of the typical Making Light commenter), and I've always been that way. People who think they have a direct line to God (in particular) or All The Answers (in general) scare the piss out of me. Because if one Has All The Answers, debate, discussion or moderation with those that don't (like me) is not tolerated. For an example of that kind of faith, see these folks. A corollary to this is a strong tendency by the adherents of the Faith to confuse the map for the terrain.
2) Walling yourself off from evil. I really liked M. Night Shyamalan's movie The Village. It was critically panned, largely because people were expecting a twist ending and Adrien Brody thought he was playing the heavy in a Batman flick*, but I liked the concept. Basically, the adult Villagers wall themselves off from evil society, only to discover that one of their own becomes evil.
3) The Elizabeth Smart case. Basically, a religious nut (see point #1) kidnaps a 14-year-old girl and holds her for nine months. What's weird is that the girl is allowed to walk the streets, go to parties, etc., and even tries to convince the police that she's not the girl they're looking for. I really do not want to blame the victim, but I suspect that the typical 14-year-old would have responded differently. The difference? Religion.
So, I incorporated all of these factors in my novel Escape from New Deseret. The query letter for this novel was discussed in yesterday's post. I'm wondering if it's too much stuff in one sock, and if not, how do I sell it?
*Which is to say, just a little over-acting.
1) Religious fundamentalism. I'm very much a middle-of-the-road person politically (which puts me well to the right of the typical Making Light commenter), and I've always been that way. People who think they have a direct line to God (in particular) or All The Answers (in general) scare the piss out of me. Because if one Has All The Answers, debate, discussion or moderation with those that don't (like me) is not tolerated. For an example of that kind of faith, see these folks. A corollary to this is a strong tendency by the adherents of the Faith to confuse the map for the terrain.
2) Walling yourself off from evil. I really liked M. Night Shyamalan's movie The Village. It was critically panned, largely because people were expecting a twist ending and Adrien Brody thought he was playing the heavy in a Batman flick*, but I liked the concept. Basically, the adult Villagers wall themselves off from evil society, only to discover that one of their own becomes evil.
3) The Elizabeth Smart case. Basically, a religious nut (see point #1) kidnaps a 14-year-old girl and holds her for nine months. What's weird is that the girl is allowed to walk the streets, go to parties, etc., and even tries to convince the police that she's not the girl they're looking for. I really do not want to blame the victim, but I suspect that the typical 14-year-old would have responded differently. The difference? Religion.
So, I incorporated all of these factors in my novel Escape from New Deseret. The query letter for this novel was discussed in yesterday's post. I'm wondering if it's too much stuff in one sock, and if not, how do I sell it?
*Which is to say, just a little over-acting.
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Date: 2007-10-01 03:22 pm (UTC)Religion is older than reason, and most religious feelings are primal, by which I mean governed by our evolutionary heritage more than by our culture. Culture can swamp individuals with weak God-genes, but where the God-gene is strong, well, it reinforces a related primal phenomenon, tribalism. The God-gene gives the tribe a reason to fight other tribes, by making the stakes infinite and the governing authority all-powerful. Those religions gaining adherents the fastest today are those with strong tribal machinery.
Rich material for fiction. Go for it--and apologize to no one, even those who will doubtless say, "I'm offended by this." Taking offense is an offensive strategy, in the other sense of offense, heh.