This is a first in a series that Fire and I are doing on faith and its influence on our writing.
I was somewhere between sleep and consciousness when I was thinking about some of my characters. Particularly, and this is an issue that's been gnawing at me for some time, what they believe in. And why. I don't have paranormal angels flying the friendly skies of my imagination or dreams of making it C.S. Lewis Big, but I believe in God, and faith is an indispensable piece of myself. Because I put a lot of myself, the way I see the world around me and the experiences that have shaped myself as a person and a writer (who doesn't?), into writing, this is a particularly important question to me. Just like someone who's lived in between two cultures might reflect their experiences. One of my favorite novels, A Step From Heaven, was written by Korean-American author An Na, and deals in just that. When asked if her own experiences influenced her writing in A Step From Heaven, An said this:
Did you ever feel like Young Ju, caught between your Korean heritage and your desire to be “American”?
That really was a conflict when I was growing up. At church and with my Korean friends, I was outgoing and gregarious, and I wasn’t ashamed of my family or my house. But I went to a pretty affluent high school, and it was difficult being in honors classes, feeling kind of poor and out of place because I was Korean American. But I was different from Young Ju, much more outspoken. I really fought hard for the things I believed in.
I'd like to fit that piece of myself into writing, that person who sees something beautiful and wonderful, and how my life has been both triumphant and a struggle because of it, but, in practice, it isn't that easy. To bring something so personal into writing without being, er, preachy or corny is tricky – you know, let alone saying what you actually have to say on the matter. A lot of the time when I can't seem to work out an issue on my own, I turn to books, to authors who have struggled with the same questions and found answers on their own terms. To me, that's a comfort. But there just don't seem to be a lot of books out there that really tackle this particular puzzle. Don't get me wrong, there are thousands and thousands of books published on What You Should Believe and Why (one of my favorites being Reading the Bible with the Dead: What You Can Learn from the History of Exegesis That You Can't Learn from Exegesis Alone). There are also plenty of YA books available through Christian publishers like Thomas Nelson, with Christian Fiction authors such as Jenny B. Jones under their umbrella. I have nothing against contemporary Christian lit at all, but because their targets are largely Christian readers their answers don't carry the weight I need them to. That is, they contain Redemption and Big Ideas based largely on a belief in God, faith, Heaven, what have you. This is why it's Religious Fiction.
It actually surprises me how very few YA books nowadays have characters that believe in anything, or who even identify that they believe in nothing (where does faith, or a lack of it, fit into the space of their lives?). There are a few titles I've run across, namely Kate Constable's Singer of All Songs and Julia Golding's Dragonfly. Both protags here believe in goddesses, though Golding's Dragonfly does more in exploring the religious nature of its leading lady, Taoshira, and the struggles she encounters because of her beliefs. It's nice to see, but out of the bazillion (slightly exaggerated figure here, people) YA books floating around in the bookosphere, I'm starting to wonder if I'm not the only person who struggles with finding a happy medium. You see, I'd like to have characters that believe in something, even witness it around them, without there being undercurrents of ulterior motives. I think most readers would agree that ulterior motives are icky. Personally, nothing puts me off a book – or movie
Then there's the fact that you really can't avoid Messages. They make a book what it is. I think the key is finding out how to say something without it making it seem preachy or stiff, which so many authors have managed to do beautifully. For me, though, this seems an especially tenuous question. The one that keeps me from boarding the last train to Slumberland some nights, the one that makes me second guess every conclusion I come to, the one that seems to go nowhere fast. Even now, I'm not sure there is really an answer other than this: trial and error. I don't have any interest in being afraid to acknowledge what I believe thematically, but I still think a reader should be respected. As you can see, this isn't something that comes to me with a tidy little answer. Then again, the things we believe in rarely do. Maaaan.
In the intro, I made a short comment about PN angels. Maybe you've noticed, maybe you haven't, but since vampires seem to fizzing out a bit, the new thing seems to be angels. Or, better yet, "angels." I'm sure there are shelves chalk-full of arguments on angels – origins, entities, culturally, etc. But like any YA PN craze (i.e. an actual vampire v. Edward Cullen), there seems to be little need to stick to any of the source material. Can I just say what I've been thinking these past few months? Where the hell was God this whole time? Oh, see, I said it. Since this isn't really what this post is about, other than the fact that WHERE THE HELL WAS YOUR GOD, PATCH CIPRIANO?! I really just wanted to plug a series that doesn't really need the plug. There's something I really appreciate about Cynthia Hand's Unearthly series, especially the second title, Hallowed.Unearthly is the only of YA's recent "angel books" that have acknowledged God (that I have read, that is). It's a bit like writing a book about Disneyland and never mentioning Walt Disney. Don't read into this, please. Anyhow, I don't really get myself in a tizzy if a book about angels isn't also about God (The Mortal Instruments is a guilty pleasure of mine), but it was just nice to see Clara's side of things, even as she wrestled around in a love triangle. Hallowed gave me so many feels, guys. So. Many. Feels. It's something close to what I'd like to achieve, and I recommend checking out Phoebe North's Unearthly review.
Looking back, I feel like I should apologize for this cluttered mess of a post. So: I apologize for this cluttered mess of a post.
Until next time: Toodle pip.
- Bitterblue
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