As well as religion, ethnicity/nationality, class, etc.
Personally, I find treatments of religious difference are often very poorly done in SF/F--sometimes because authors are generally hostile to religious people, but at others because they think it's okay to generalize about certain categories of religious people in ways they wouldn't dare to if these were racial, ethnic or gender categories.
We are talking fantasy/Scifi here, aren't we? Most of the books I've read have invented religions, sometimes with one God, and sometimes with many Gods. And sometimes with no God/s at all. Could you give me an example of an author being hostile to religious people in his work? Terry Goodkind has been roundly criticised for his supposed stance on religion, and because of the attitude of his fictional characters and I'd certainly include his stance on ethnic and gender categories as banal and stupid, even within the world he created. But influential? Give me a break...
I'm afraid I'm finding it a little hard to follow your argument, because you seem to be saying authors don't dare to generalize about racial, ethnic or gender categories, but do with religion. In a constructed, fictional world, that doesn't exist except in the imagination of the writer, are you saying they
shouldn't go in any of those directions, to show their characters as bad/evil/perverted/stupid/angry/whatever is necesary to portray that character?
I Brian said this:
Instead I mean to challenge the normal assumptions a writer may make because of their cultural position and class, which makes it less natural to write well about people outside of these.
which you have expanded on, and this quote seems to be saying a writer can only make assumptions about their own classes and cultures, making it 'less natural' to write well about those outside it. If we follow that, then should we only write about our own class and culture? What part does imagination in Fantasy and SciFi play, if not to draw a picture that, whilst understanding one's own cultural and class and background, allows a good writer to construct a fictional religion/race/gender (even) that is impossible to criticise, because it's entirely imaginary? Saying a writer is displaying racial/religious/gender stereotypes may have some truth, and there have been appalling examples (usually by appalling writers) in the past, but I cannot understand where the reader's intelligence figures in this whole argument.
When I was a lot younger I read a lot of the Gor books, by John Norman. Religion, race and gender done to death in the most dire negative way, but guess what? It didn't alter my own religious, race or gender beliefs in any way. Why? Well, because I was reading fiction, and I knew it. If Goodkind, all these years later, is portraying gender and religious stereotypes negatively, then so what? Don't read the books, if you think they will affect you. But we shouldn't use arguments about what writers should or shouldn't write about.
You said you find treatments of religious difference are often very poorly done in SF/F at the beginning of the post. Why? because it's poorly written, or because you feel the constructed religions they are portraying are negatively affecting you? It's fiction you're reading, not fact. It's made up. Read the facts about what goes on in some of today's religions and you should be shocked, but I fail to see how fictional stories of fictional religions can be subjected to the same criteria, wherein the argument is trying to force writers to change their approach, because someone might be upset by it. You're heading towards censorship that way.
If you're going to be upset by fictional accounts of religion, race or gender, it's because you chose to do so,
because you read it. Don't read 'Last Exit to Brooklyn' if you're upset by an appalling portrayal of violence and sexuality in a fictional setting. There's a bettter reason for not reading it: it's absolute garbage - badly written, sensationalist trash Or: it's a closely observed narrative of the poor and oppressed (sexually as well as financially) citizens of an American city. It's your choice to decide.
The Bible belt extremists of America burned Hary Potter books because they contain occult and satanic subtexts. No figures were available of how many innocent children were subverted by this dreadful piece of fiction and how many have turned to a life of magic to attain their ends...
The Lord of The Rings, one of the greatest fantasies that has influenced countless writers is a deeply religious work. Should we as non-catholics, find it disturbing? "
The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision. That is why I have not put in, or have cut out, practically all references to anything like 'religion', to cults or practices, in the imaginary world. For the religious element is absorbed into the story and the symbolism.*"
It's an imaginary world, see? You can find racial and gender issues in LOTR if you look hard enough. But it's fiction, and you alone choose to decide whether it upsets you, or not. It's entirely your choice. Personally, I didn't even know, nor was I interested in, the fact above. I just enjoyed the story, and knowing it now makes no difference to my enjoyment of reading it.
Whatever we write, someone, somewhere will be upset by it. It's their choice, and they enjoy the freedom of speech to express it in whatever terms they choose. Telling any writer that they should 'try to phrase their stories accordingly' to avoid institutional racism or sexism being portrayed is incomprehensible to me, when we're writing fiction. Some of the arguments that have appeared on this thread seem to blur between real life - where any prejudice should be abhorred - and fictional constructions found in SciFi and Fantasy. They may influence a reader. A reader who can be influenced by SciFi and fantasy is just as capabale of being influenced positively as negatively. No? For reasons unknown, this thread seems to suggest that it is only negative influence...
* Letter written by JRRTolkein
apols for any typos - my keyboard is acting weird, despite new batteries!
