Today I commented on a post at SM JOHNSON WRITES about Anne Rice's latest work and Rice's foray into religion and now her galumphing back to genre.
I wrote:
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| Anne Rice Image via Wikipedia |
I also saw that Rice was returning from her jaunt to religion. Not sure I trust it. And I don't see a lack of interest in her religious work as a failing.
I sometimes feel snookered when a writer takes an audience who has spent years with her and goes all religious.
Sure, we don't have to buy the religious book but when I've invested years reading a series, and am waiting for the next installment to find out what happens, a writer's religious epiphany at best cheats me and at worst uses the series to advance an agenda. Especially when a writer has already established characters as Catholic or devout.
Maybe that's my personal flaw, I take things like that to heart because I am spiritual but not Jewish or Christian and grew up in a time and place where an assumption of being at least culturally adherent to Judaism or Christianity is assumed.
It's a bit like not choosing to have kids; people assume it's not a choice but infertility.
Today, we are more culturally diverse so I think kids are growing up with other religious traditions much more evident (much to a few candidates' dismay). I admire when a writer is involved in a faith and doesn't put it into her books except as a cultural structure. I only pay full price for a new Gabaldon since Rice already lost me and most titles with Kindle or Nook are less expensive.
Sure, we don't have to buy the religious book but when I've invested years reading a series, and am waiting for the next installment to find out what happens, a writer's religious epiphany at best cheats me and at worst uses the series to advance an agenda. Especially when a writer has already established characters as Catholic or devout.
Maybe that's my personal flaw, I take things like that to heart because I am spiritual but not Jewish or Christian and grew up in a time and place where an assumption of being at least culturally adherent to Judaism or Christianity is assumed.
It's a bit like not choosing to have kids; people assume it's not a choice but infertility.
Today, we are more culturally diverse so I think kids are growing up with other religious traditions much more evident (much to a few candidates' dismay). I admire when a writer is involved in a faith and doesn't put it into her books except as a cultural structure. I only pay full price for a new Gabaldon since Rice already lost me and most titles with Kindle or Nook are less expensive.
Back to here:
Actually, I'm not sure Rice ever "had me" although I waited several hours in line to get a book signed by her. I didn't adore Interview With a Vampire as I am not a huge fan of using twenty words when I believe ten will do the job.
I am neither a Christian nor Jewish and have had people assume one or the other my entire life. I have been to business conventions where Christianity (not Judaism or Islam, or anything else) was so assumed we had prayers said before each session. I have had people flabbergasted when I reveal I am not Christian and ask, "But you believe in something, right?"
I believe all religions are equally plausible or implausible. They are all based on Faith. I respect people who live their faiths to a point where I believe pretense of said faith would be disrespectful on my part. I have no respect for anyone who thinks their faith is the only way or who believes it is the "one true faith."
The nature of faith is that it cannot be proven. When a proof of faith is attempted a reliance on the teachings of that faith (we know because the Bible says so) is usually employed and therefore provides no proof at all. Belief is not proof. If you can prove something with science it isn't religious truth. Too many people have died because of one group's belief that theirs was the only way.
Trust me, I would believe if possible. I never have. Not even as a child. This was a problem in my life growing up in a religious household with two Christian traditions practiced and forced on me. Faking it would have been easier than refusing to practice what I did not believe.
I was a Buddhist for a time because it didn't really require faith in a creator God or a personal relationship with a God, but I never really believed it and that personal dishonesty ate at me. I think the closest I come to believing in anything is in energy, and maybe that old saying I only know that I don't know.
But, you cannot fake Faith— at least to yourself.
I am neither a Christian nor Jewish and have had people assume one or the other my entire life. I have been to business conventions where Christianity (not Judaism or Islam, or anything else) was so assumed we had prayers said before each session. I have had people flabbergasted when I reveal I am not Christian and ask, "But you believe in something, right?"
I believe all religions are equally plausible or implausible. They are all based on Faith. I respect people who live their faiths to a point where I believe pretense of said faith would be disrespectful on my part. I have no respect for anyone who thinks their faith is the only way or who believes it is the "one true faith."
 |
| Image via Wikipedia |
The nature of faith is that it cannot be proven. When a proof of faith is attempted a reliance on the teachings of that faith (we know because the Bible says so) is usually employed and therefore provides no proof at all. Belief is not proof. If you can prove something with science it isn't religious truth. Too many people have died because of one group's belief that theirs was the only way.
Trust me, I would believe if possible. I never have. Not even as a child. This was a problem in my life growing up in a religious household with two Christian traditions practiced and forced on me. Faking it would have been easier than refusing to practice what I did not believe.
I was a Buddhist for a time because it didn't really require faith in a creator God or a personal relationship with a God, but I never really believed it and that personal dishonesty ate at me. I think the closest I come to believing in anything is in energy, and maybe that old saying I only know that I don't know.
But, you cannot fake Faith— at least to yourself.
