THE DANGEROUS WORLD OF BOOK LABELING
FAVE LINKEY-POO RIGHT THIS SECOND: I watched this Sting song sung by Linus from the Peanuts three times yesterday. And, look at that, it’s playing in the background again right now.
Books can and do have intended audiences. Women flock to Janet Evanovich; guys dig Vince Flynn. For teen audiences, we know girls are likely to pick up Sarah Dessen; guys might run with Eric Luper.
But after gender, how do audiences get broken down? And is it a good thing?
I ask this because many of the reviews for DONUT DAYS call it a Christian book, even though my publisher, Putnam, is not a Christian publisher, nor did I ever set out to write a so-called Christian book. Some readers have said, “I wasn’t the intended audience for this book…” or “I am not a Christian so I couldn’t relate to it…” One reader even flat out refused to finish it for moral reasons.
To which I sort of have to blink and say, Really?
Is Emma a Christian? Yes. Do many of her problems happen to center around the drama happening in her parents’ church? Yes. But does that make this a Christian book? For the record, Emma wrestles with many universal issues including fighting with her best friend, figuring out her feelings about a guy, deciding what to to with school, and more. Faith is just one of those issues.
Dude, can you imagine if I picked up Malinda Lo’s book ASH, a gorgeous lesbian re-telling of Cinderella, and said, “I can’t read this because I’m not gay”? Or what if I said that I couldn’t relate to Christopher Paul Curtis’s book, ELIJAH OF BUXTON, because I’m neither a slave nor black?
It’s ridiculous, right? But why is it that while our culture wants us to keep an open mind about some things, it’s okay to slam it shut about others? Religion is so totally one of those things. Another might be politics. If I wrote about a Republican teen trying to help get a certain gun-toting Alaska governor elected president, you can bet I’d have a firestorm of readers saying they couldn’t read the book because they were opposed to it.
But isn’t the whole point of books (or at least one of them) to enter worlds we don’t know, and learn something about which we were previously ignorant? Aren’t books supposed to help us to have an open mind?
I don’t have Tourette Syndrome, but I still read JERK CALIFORNIA by Jonathan Friesen.
I don’t have a friend who killed herself, but I still read 13 REASONS WHY by Jay Asher.
The list goes on.
I’m cool if you dislike my book because you think the plot sucked, or the characters were lame, or the writing was bad. You can hate the cover art, my author photo, the pacing, the dialogue.
But don’t discount DONUT DAYS just because the main character has a different religion than you, or because it represented a point of view that forced you out of your comfort zone.
September 12th, 2009 at 6:08 pm
Yeah it definitely wasn’t Christian fiction from what I encountered. I like being able to explore religions in literature so this was perfect for me! And for people that freaked out over religion in the book I say, well didn’t they read the blurb! It’s not exactly hidden in the shadows that religion is in this book!
Sometimes it’s nice to read a book you can closely relate to but it’s also all about exploring things you know nothing about!
September 12th, 2009 at 8:13 pm
Amen sista! Was EAT, LOVE, PRAY labeled a buddhist book? Should I stop reading A THOUSAND ACRES because it’s about farming and I’m not a farmer? Frankly, I haven’t discovered any good books about a midwestern woman who juggles consulting, motherhood, marriage and friendship with a love of sleep, good cheese and better wine all while building a house.
Unfortunately, while labels (in the most general sense) are intended to help us sort through the infinite diversity of life so we can make choices, those labels combined with human preconceptions often prevent us from making “good” choices. (OK, putting the anthropology/political science degree back in its box now.
September 13th, 2009 at 12:06 am
Thanks Ann and Alea! It’s always good to know my soap-box stances resonate with peeps. Sometimes. Heh.
September 13th, 2009 at 1:35 am
Yeah, agreed with all of the above. I’ve seen this before in music as well. If a mainstream band has Christian overtones or themes in their music, people want to claim that they’re a Christian rock band. Having been someone who’s interacted with groups like Emma, and listened to Christian rock in the past, I know the difference between true “Christian rock” bands and bands who simply explore those ideas in their music. Musical artists, like authors, should be able to explore spiritual themes and questions without being a labeled “Christian rock.”
The irony, to me, is that the exact groups (extremist/ legalistic interpretations of the Bible) that Donut Days is critical of are the exact groups that I think turn other people off to being open-minded to literature or music with a Christian background or theme. Hopefully, in the end, Donut Days and its clear themes will leave more people open-minded than the other way around, which I think was one of the main points of the novel.
September 14th, 2009 at 11:59 pm
I suspect your book reviews are part of the larger trend of people expecting everything they consume to fit a self-selected niche in which they are most comfortable. Whether it’s TV programming that caters specifically to their personal beliefs and tastes… or news stations that actively slant their coverage so people will “enjoy” listening to the news rather than be challenged by… or or young adult novels that expect the reader to be willing to look beyond the superficial character traits and into the shared human experience, I’m beginning to believe that this desire to be comfortable and “right” on a constant basis is responsible for a lot of misunderstanding and strife these days.
September 16th, 2009 at 1:12 am
I’m reading Donut Days right now and loving it!
February 4th, 2010 at 10:55 pm
Hi there,
I was wondering if the colored book spine image above was one that you took or where you found it? I would like to ask for permission to use it on my blog.
Thanks in advance,
LY