(urth) Religious writers and audiences

[David Stockhoff]

The comparison is a personally interesting one. Perhaps the difference is largely one of timing. I too felt somewhat betrayed by Lewis; I encountered Narnia not long after Middle-Earth, around second and third grade. 

Wolfe I discovered much later, and while I'm still waiting for the Great Atheist Novel, I don't feel betrayed at all. And Rand was clearly insane from the beginning.

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Date: Sat, 5 Jun 2010 16:53:02 -0400
From: John Watkins <john.watkins04 at gmail.com>
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Subject: Re: (urth) Religious writers and audiences
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Personally I find the "betrayal" narrative bizarre whenever I hear it.
Secular writers and religious writers alike "color" their fiction to reflect
their political, moral and/or metaphyiscal beliefs, yet one very rarely
encounters this "betrayal" storyline outside of discussion of certain
Christian genre writers.  I guess in the right-wing fringe media we hear
about evil homosexual/pagan agendas hidden in works, but no one takes that
stuff seriously.

I might ascribe this to the generally liberal or progressive attitudes of
most literary critics, academics, and, plausibly, much of the educated
reading class in the United States.  But that doesn't really wash in my
experience.  I know countless people, many of liberal predispositions, who
have read and allegedly enjoyed The Fountainhead--and Rand is far preachier
than Lewis, Wolfe, or even Card.  And Neil Gaiman has written about his
feelings of betrayal as to Lewis's religiousity, but never expressed similar
feelings toward, for example, Kipling's imperialism.

I think the problem (if there is a unique problem here and not just soft
bigotry against religion in general or a particular religion) must be the
perceived deception.  The idea that Lewis might be planting ideas and images
surreptiously in one's head that would act to soften one's views towards
traditional Christianity can be conceived of nefariously.