I’ve been trying to post a comment on Diane Graham’s blog, and it isn’t going so well. So I’m posting it here as well. The issue in question was the fact that several cosplayers attired in genre-appropriate wear were denied admittance to the formal banquet event that concludes the ACFW (Association of Christian Fiction Writers) Conference. This issue was especially glaring because the only cosplayers turned away were speculative fiction writers in spec fic costumes. Romance and Historical novelists were allowed to wear their bonnets and petticoats without incident.
Aside from the basic Othering (shaming or ridiculing a person for belonging to a perceived outgroup), I’m mega-annoyed by the given excuse. The “official story” was that one of the three people turned away was wearing camo pants and a face mask and was therefore maybe a terrorist about to gun down a roomful of pudgy ladies with perms and glasses. It’s America 2012 in microcosm–make it okay to discriminate against people by using Fear. “We can totally turn you away from this $85 banquet / keep you in jail forever without a warrant because…terrorism.”
So here’s what I have been trying to say at Diane’s:
I’m late to this party, and I’m wearing pajamas. I also don’t write Christian fiction, so this is a peanut gallery opinion.
It’s time, maybe, for Spec Fic authors to form their own sub guild within ACFW or their own stand apart guild. Because what you have here is a culture clash. Fear and security are the excuse, but what is really happening IS exactly what Diane is calling out. This is an Othering, plain and simple. ACFW has long catered to a narrow publishing field, expanding only reluctantly when the publishers broadened their frontlists. Spec Fic writers, whether they’re stepchildren, bastards out of Carolina, or cool cousins with the new iPhone are NOT part of ACFW in the way that chubby housewives (*I am a chubby housewife…) who want to be Catherine Jannette Marshall Oke are. They just aren’t.
That’s why they need an OFFICIAL subgroup with a rep sitting on the ACFW governing board. This event is just an example. A Spec Fic rep would be able to point out that cosplay _is_ a sort of formal attire for some people and that in many cases Cosplay uniforms, gowns and accessories cost a great deal more than current culture clothing. In fact, I was just going to lurk until I saw the response from the ACFW official (I believe it was hers) going on and on about how the dress code exists to flatter honorees in the various categories. “Put on a nice dress for Beverly Lewis, gang!” That response was so tone deaf. Spec Fic writers would feel quite honoured and welcomed by seeing Cosplay attire. If there were a Spec Fic rep, the ACFW would know that.
I am not sure why I care so much…other than the fact that I don’t like seeing anyone othered, especially by a group they PAY to belong to.
Just Another Pretty Farce 
Oh, for heaven’s sake. If that happened to me, I would demand my money back. Immediately. Or ask that they frisk all the Jane Austen wannabes because you never know what kind of weaponry you could hide under all those petticoats.
But I don’t look good in petticoats!
Let them have their little club. These people need to languish in obscurity and irrelevance. It’s the blind (OK – myopic, pudgy and petticoat-ed) leading the blind.
Danger is we form our own club and act the same way.
The problem with them having their club (which is my first inclination, to be honest) is that this little club is where the majority of. Business is transacted in this space. Publishers come to this meeting, as do agents. If this were *just* a get-together of like-minded pros I’d say fuggetem and move on. But it’s the gateway to this business. Like it or not, Spec Fic is a part of that business. And for all that they want it to go away, they sure were happy when Peretti, Jenkins and LaHaye saved their bacon in two seperate recessions.
OK, but if our brand of CSF upholds a decent quality and is generating $$, won’t those same TradPub houses and agents start knocking on our clubhouse door?
We might have to clear the underbrush and boulders away ourselves using Indie methods, but I think eventually the material and market speaks loud and clear.
And like you said, they didn’t turn up their noses at Peretti, J&LH, or Dekker.
I don’t want to rain on the petticoat parade (and though I worded it silly, I honestly mean it). Let people have their thing. If God’s using it to minister to some, who am I to knock it?
My thought was that the specfic writers should just create their own. It would take a long time to get off the ground…but over time I imagine interest would build. I suppose that’s what the Lost Genre Guild was meant to do, or still is, but without more of a formal governing body, it’s probably destined to fizzle out as volunteers just don’t have time to keep it up. Others have pointed out, and in this case I see their point, is that right now, we are all separate islands…too disjointed.
Now who has time to take on that project? (Not me!)
Jessica – I take your point and apologize (sort of) to the Christian Ladies Petticoat Brigade.
I see the need for formal structure, but repeat my concern of developing a similar attitude. That old (Woody Allen? Groucho Marx?) quote about not joining any club that would have people like me as a member ringing in my ears, we’d need experienced, principled leaders sympathetic to our faith, the genre and our goals.
That’s a tough call.
If a non-reader of “Christian fiction” can ask, which historical period(s) are favored in that genre? I’m curious, because the phrase “bonnets and petticoats” made my mind go to a vague Louisa May Alcott picture, while Jill is thinking of Austen, and I realize that it could cover both and more besides. And I just wonder which is the most conducive to that sort of fiction.
It started out being very US Prairie…1870-1912. Then it went Victorian and Regency. Now it’s Victorian, Regency and Amish.
Pretty much any time period where you can wear bonnets and petticoats and have a false nostalgia for an era you’ve romanticized.
Pardon the brevity and the typos. This was sent from my iPhone.
I get the rest of it, but Regency? As in, set in England in the 1810s? I thought that “Christian” as the phrase is used in in this context sort of excluded anyone who would have been around in that place at that time. Or is it that time period, but in the US? Or am I (most likely) misunderstanding what makes this “Christian fiction”?
It’s fun talking to you about this. It REALLY is. I don’t say that kiddingly. Because I like seeing what an outsider’s impression is.
What makes it “Christian” fiction is
–curtailed sexuality
–strict social constructs
The characters don’t need to be Christian or needn’t have been historically likely to have been Christians in reality. All they need to do is to exist in a time and space where the strict social constructs mirror a version of current cultural Christianity that appeals to the market.
By “Cultural Christianity” I mean things like having prohibitions against drinking and dancing and going to R-rated movies. None of those things are Scripturally prohibited in the least. In fact the Bible says “everything is permitted” and leaves it up to us to decide whether it’s actually USEFUL. However, the market for these books has traditionally been that segment of Christianity. What you might consider “Evangelical” or “Southern Baptist”. So the authors need to place their characters in a world that WE KNOW had things like rampant prostitution, hunger, economic inequities, disease.
But there’s this basic attraction to “wasn’t it nice that everybody went to church back then?” and “wasn’t nice that sex outside of marriage was frowned upon back then?” (yeah…I know. I’m just reporting what they’re thinking.) So. Boom. Regency.
Now that I’ve basically revealed my inherent prejudice toward this genre I need to make a disclaimer that it IS changing. Some places like Abingdon Press are making more Chick Lit type stories and authors like Melody Carlson tap into modern story archetypes to come up with Christian versions of same. Some authors are trying very hard to go “edgy”. In fact “edgy” is a huge debate among Christian Fiction authors with many man hours spent on arguing over whether or not it is appropriate to say “shit” in a Christian novel.
If it is not clear from this really biased diatribe of mine why I don’t write Christian fiction….well… I will call the Obvious Police.
Oops. I needed to expand on a point. When I said that the characters don’t need to be Christian what I mean is that there is usually a non-Christian in there to serve as an example of what is not good about not being a Christian. And there is often a non-Christian who converts by the end of the story.
We will not get started on the representations of Jewish people and the Jewish religion in Christian fiction. Because I don’t want to begin bleeding from my ears in anger.
So … Georgette Heyer would not be a good model, because her characters take moderate drinking and dancing as a matter of course, even though extramarital sex is a horrid no-no for them and excessive drinking is a symptom of spiritual malaise (or, at least, of not having the right partner)?
I have literally been witness to arguments that have gone on for 5 days about whether or not Heyer is a good model for Regency CF. Because of the drinking.
This whole thing is funny because I was being snarky about the JA wannabes. The funny part is this: I know all sorts of people who go in for the JA costume balls, etc., but the Christian historical market is mostly big on prairie romances of the middle to late Victorian era, though occasionally, an earlier setting will creep in. Katherine already discussed this above, so I’m merely being repetitive. There is, honestly, way too much dancing and drinking in JA novels. But it would be thoroughly dishonest to write a 19th C American novel without having the same sort of country dances. And not all Americans were/are teetotallers. Even the early Puritans made beer and drank in moderation, as far as I know. Oh, well.
Oh, and NM, sorry for the multiple replies but I need to add something else that’s germane to the original post especially. That is that the Christian Spec Fic authors are approaching the type of story telling from a different angle.
Science fiction and Fantasy are good ways to address the larger themes of transformation, redemption and faith. By pulling the settings into a cultivated universe the authors can tell stories that transcend. But all spec fic is generally seen as “weird” by the mainstream Christian Fiction Writers/book buyers. So it’s difficult to develop an audience within this market.
Actually the idea that Christian Speculative Fiction would look at things from a different angle is pretty clear unless said CSF is going to be a bunch of utter bilge. Utter laughable bilge, too.
I am late to this party but I was at Lifeway recently while waiting for Andrea to finish up work. I wandered through the fiction section. Shelf upon shelf of pretty Amish girls (or generic pretty white girl in a dress originally designed for Kiera Knightly.)
Without picking up a single book, I wanted to light the entire display on fire.
I would have burned down the entire store if given the chance to purge the world of whatever tripe they were selling. I have no idea what they are about but I was seething with a blinding hatred for them.
I swear – I think Tolkien and CS Lewis would not get a Christian publisher to take a look at their books today.
Neither Tolkein nor Lewis had their fiction originally published by a Christian-oriented publishing house. The two best pieces of Christian Fiction were brought to us by secular publishers.
Pardon the brevity and the typos. This was sent from my iPhone.
That’s what I thought.
I should also add that this is why I no longer go into any Christian bookstore. “Only Pretty White Girls Find Love”
How did I miss leaving a comment on this blog, as I’ve left comments on every other blog that touches on this incident, including my own? 😛
Ah, well, glad I came in at this point, so I can comment on that last line: “Only pretty white girls find love.” Sigh. My personal pet peeve about Christian romance is the “Only Guys Can Have a Past” rule.
[…] prejudice against Spec Fiction genres (Sci Fi, Fantasy, Horror,) at places like deCompose and Just Another Pretty Farce have me wondering if I’m misunderstanding something […]