Is It Something in the Water? Why Mormons Write Science Fiction and Fantasy
I am aware that what follows is a flaw in my personality, but hey.
I only recently listened to an Orson Scott Card work ( Xenocide ). I enjoyed it well enough, but it wasn’t until checking the author out on Wikipedia that I became aware of his religion. All of a sudden the book took on a whole new bent for me, and not in a positive way. My mind moved the religious undertones in the story from “slight dig at humanity” to “author is telling me the future isn’t much different.”
I know I’m wrong to shroud a work of fiction with the author’s personal life, but it’s where my mind went. And I’ve yet to pick up another Card novel even though I had intended to run right for Ender’s Game .
And now Brandon Sanderson, when I’m halfway into Towers of Midnight ? Crickey. I hope I can rise above my pettiness.
I wouldn’t say “flaw” really. It IS interesting to me, however, that people have this reaction. It’s not uncommon.
A reader can read the Wheel of Time, full of references to all kinds of religions and mythologies, knowing that Robert Jordan was a devout Christian and never think twice about it. They can read of books written by Jewish authors, see factors of Jewish culture and religion in them, and not assume the book is trying to convert them. They just see the Jewish references as an expression of the author’s self.
Many read a book by a Mormon, however, and suddenly start reading all kinds of things into it. Perhaps it’s the deviant nature (speaking in terms of relating it mainstream religious experiences in most western cultures) of the LDS faith. It’s viewed with suspicion because of its outsider nature. Almost with a “they’ll try to steal our children” sort of mentality. Or maybe it’s the more aggressive nature of the religion when it comes to converts (men in white shirts knocking on the doors) that makes art by these authors be regarded in such a way.
It’s quite natural, and I think more an expression of the culture at large than any personal flaw inside you yourself.
If it helps, I can promise that when I write fiction, I’m not trying to “say” anything. I’m trying to tell good stories. Now, if themes start to develop, I’ll nurture them—but only in as much as they have direct relationship to the characters and their goals, motives, and directions. And while the characters may find what they believe are answers, I believe it’s important for the text itself to NOT seek to give answers to questions like this, but to instead engage in an exploration of themes from multiple strong viewpoints.
tl;dr: Yes, I’m a Mormon, but I’m also a pretty normal dude who just wants to tell good stories. I’m not trying to slip anything into your water, I promise.
—Brandon Sanderson
To be honest—flaw, failing, or interesting trait—my mind would have made a substitution regardless of the religion (or subset thereof) in question. Different substitutions would have been made—or not—but I can’t speak to their nuances. This one is already in the books, so to speak.
You wouldn’t call that a flaw, but I do. Shouldn’t a work stand on its merit to the reader? Did I enjoy reading it? Yes? Great. I can’t help feeling that applying prejudices against an author (of FICTION especially!) to the work is wrong. That’s exactly what I did, however. I’m not proud of it. I wonder how often it happens—in both directions.
I don’t feel that people are trying to shove things down my throat—in most fiction—but the prejudices of a non-fiction life sometimes get in the way of a great escape. And as with many aspects of society, all are likely wrong.
I hear you. It’s actually not just religion. Since I’ve become part of the community, I’ve found out the personalities of some authors. It shouldn’t change how I view their books, and yet…it does.
Having been on my side of it, I’ve sometimes raged. Then I’ve stopped to think “Well, how would you react if you found you were reading a book by a scientologist.” Makes me freeze and think about things a little further.
Perhaps there’s something to be said for learning nothing about the author of a work until after you’ve read it in its entirety.
Well considering Science Fiction and Fantasy are the foundations of their entire belief system they probably have a good jumping off point when it comes to fiction.
Rimshot.
Ahem. This line comes up pretty much every time that this topic is mentioned. And trust me, it gets mentioned A LOT. Like, every time people find out I’m Mormon and I write fantasy novels, they throw this question at me. I kind of wonder if we’re blowing a slight statistical deviation completely out of proportion, and the idea has taken on a life of its own.
However, armchair philosophy is fun. What’s an English degree for, if not to make wild conjectures? So, I’ve got my own theories. You can’t get asked this question as many times as I have without devising them.
As MeatSledge points out (in jest, but there’s truth to it) basically any religious belief system will be treated like fantasy to an outsider. Particularly an atheist.
However, LDS theology takes a more ‘pro-sf’ view than some other religions. It is an active and mainstream belief in the religion that there are plenty of inhabited worlds out there. The belief that God is a transcendent (or simply very powerful) man is also a concept that science fiction has played with a lot. (The Swords books by Fred Saberhagen come to mind.) Things like Q and the like from Star Trek deal with this concept: At what point does a hyper-evolved being cross the line into becoming a god when viewed by common men?
My own theories about the LDS penchant for Fantasy/SF has more mundane roots. It has to do with the church’s enormous focus on education and reading, and with the idea of 80’s nerd and role playing culture being a “safe” counter-culture for imaginative LDS kids who also want to rebel against their parents somewhat.
In short: Yes, MeatSledge, I realize your comment was meant to be an insult. But there’s some truth to it anyway. But I think articles like this are generally overblowing something small.
To be honest it was an insult wrapped in my actual thoughts. Not entirely teeth, but not all gum.
The first time I thought about this was way back in high school when my English teacher was Mormon had shelves of Fantasy magazine and every reading project was fantasy related.
It’s certainly worth thinking about—things like this bear examination, as we get some real glimpses into what makes us tick.
Though, it occurs to me that those of us who believe the LDS faith could react a little less strongly to insinuations that our belief system is science fiction. I, for one, believe strongly in the power of science—and also accept God as real. The only way I see to reconcile that is to accept that God fits into science, and that what he does is grounded in science, even if we don’t know all of the science yet.
So, while I don’t think God is fiction, the relationship between my faith and sf shouldn’t be insulting.
I think this quote in the article says it all: “Several people have speculated about why Mormons seem to be unusually represented in the science fiction and fantasy genre. Mormon scholar Terryl Givens points to Mormon theology as a possible source for the ‘affinity’ Mormons have with science fiction in particular and speculative fiction (defined as ‘imaginative’ or ‘non-literary’ fiction) in general.”
It’s not just the Mormons who base their belief system off of fantasy. The Bible is the world’s shittiest fantasy novel, and the Quran isn’t much better. Need I mention the Scientologists?
You’re mistaking (probably intentionally) mythology for fantasy. But it does a disservice to conversations about the genre to do so.
In studying the genre, we have to make the distinction between books written for/by people who are presenting their stories as fact, and those who are intentionally creating a work of fiction. It’s the only useful way to discuss, and understand, the fantasy genre.
You can call the Bible lies, if you wish, but not fantasy—as those who wrote it were writing stories they believed were true, and were writing them for people they hoped would believe they were true. To call it lies is also probably using the wrong word, even if you believe the book to be untrue, because the authors very likely believed the stories they wrote. To them, it was history. To you, then, it’s not lies or fantasy—it’s mythology and inaccurate history.
Mr. Sanderson, I might be doing a disservice to conversations about fantasy by denigrating the Bible as a fantasy novel written by committee that makes The Sword of Shannara look like Nobel prize-winning literature, but I do so not out of disrespect for fantasy or its study, but to mock religion. I’m not a sufficiently militant atheist to want to hijack the machinery of government and trample the First Amendment. I’m happy to call the Bible lies, but fundamentalists are used to being called liars. They’re not used to being compared to Scientologists.
In the meantime, I’m surprised to see you on Reddit. I had just read Warbreaker , and am thinking of getting electronic editions of your Mistborn novels next time I get paid. I doubt I’ll bother with your efforts to finish The Wheel of Time, but it’s not your fault that a few pages of Nynaeve yanking her braid and bitching about men makes me yearn for the days when fantasy casts were sausagefests.
I do think it’s a disservice to speak of the Bible as fiction, and not just to fantasy—but to religion as well. (Though, admittedly, I speak as a religious person, so my bias is manifest.) It’s not really a straw man, but it is an intentional misrepresentation. It makes it difficult to discuss the thing as it really is.
The Bible isn’t fiction, it’s nonfiction. Same as an earnest treatise on alchemy written by a practitioner during the 1400s. Now, in your opinion, it’s highly flawed nonfiction, without grounding in fact. But calling it fiction is to imply that the authors of the book were intentionally writing stories they knew were not true, and perhaps even were presenting them as not true, which is blatantly false.
And now…I’ve probably gone way too far in talking about something which wasn’t intended to be taken quite as literally as I have. Sorry, I just end up thinking about things like this too much. Occupational hazard, I guess. For what it’s worth, I understand that your stated purpose was mockery, which means I should probably just lighten up and stop blabbing.
Either way, thanks for reading.
If you are viewing this on github.io, you can see that this site is open source. Please do not try to improve this page. It is auto-generated by a python script. If you have suggestions for improvements, please start a discussion on the github repo or the Discord.