Can I Keep the ‘God’ in God Damn?
While attending the 2018 Bouchercon, I received an email from an independent editor reviewing my current work in progress. She expressed a concern that I was “hitting the God stuff too hard.” My protagonist is an 18-year-old Catholic woman living in a California gold-mining town in 1892. I didn’t think having her pray to God to save her father who’d been shot, or saying grace, or attending church would be a commercial issue. The editor thought some agents and librarians find religion a touchy subject and she suggested I downplay that aspect of my character and the times. As it happened, one of the Bouchercon sessions the next day was devoted to religion and mysteries. I asked the panelists “Is religion relegated to only a small corner of the mystery world?” I got mixed responses. Two panelists felt that you could write about a character with a religion in any mystery. But Mette Ivie Harrison believed 100 agents declined to represent the second of her adult mysteries because there is a prejudice against religion in the publishing world. Harrison’s protagonist is a Mormon bishop’s wife.
Maybe I should have known religion could be an issue. In 2014, I submitted my mystery novel Digital Dick to be considered for the San Diego Book Awards Best Unpublished Novel Award. I won, but only after the organization intervened when one of the judges took offense with Dick, my A.I. sleuth, because in the book, Dick insists he has a soul. (“That’s not possible.” Well, um, it’s fiction.)
In thinking about novels I have read, I recall a number of mysteries I would consider mainstream in which characters at least profess a religion. Stuart Kaminsky’s Abe Lieberman series centers on two Chicago P.D. detectives, a Jew and his Catholic partner. Within the stories, they are referred to as the Rabbi and the Priest. Lieberman is often involved in activities at his synagogue. Frederick Ramsay wrote a three-book Jerusalem series in which the sleuth is the head rabbi of the city, circa 30 A.D. (Or should I say 30 C.E.?) Orhan Pamuk’s (more literary mystery) My Name is Red has the Ottoman Court and Islam as its backdrop. I just started reading August Snow by Stephen Mack Jones. Chapter two of this Shamus Award-nominated novel begins with the hero going to mass at St. Al’s (Aloysius) Catholic Church. Religious fiction? I don’t think so.
So, I could use your help. How much religion is too much in a mainstream mystery? Can characters believe in God? Can they practice their religion on the page? Or, like murders in a cozy, must prayer occur offstage? What religious behavior or language would turn you off as a reader, agent, or editor?
Can I keep the ‘God’ in God Damn?
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John Edward Mullen is the author of the self-published mystery Digital Dick. He is currently writing the first of a mystery series set in the 1890s involving Nell Doherty, a young woman with a wooden leg who dreams of becoming a Pinkerton detective. John lives in the San Diego area.
21 comments:
I'm dealing with something like this right now in my WIP. Thanks for the article.
Father Andrew Greeley and Sister Carol Anne O'Marie incorporated religion successfully but perhaps by intersplicing the requisite social activism.
Religion has been an integral part of human existence since time immemorial. To write it out is to ignore a universal human construct.
I guess Kemelman's Rabbi Small mysteries might not be published now. Only some of the best books I've ever read, and where much of my education on being Jewish came from. And look at all the monks and nuns in mysteries. And the Spencer-Fleming books, and Runcie's Grantchester books. There's even a site about clergy in mysteries: https://www.stopyourekillingme.com/JobCats/Clergy.html
It's so ridiculous. What's next?
I am not at all a religious person, but I have no problem with religious characters or situations. They're part of life. As with any social element I draw the line at proselytizing, which is not what you're doing.
I think of it much the way I do foul language: I can't figure out how folks can be fine with brutal violence and get their goddamn knickers in knots over a simple "fuck."
There are as many people who are offended by leaving out religion as there are people who are offended by its inclusion in literature. Religious people are as interesting as anyone else and can be defined by their religious beliefs in thought provoking ways. I am not a religious person, but many of my friends and family are. It is a measure of respect that I have for them, that I also respect their religious beliefs. You should write the characters as you see them. If religion is an integral part of their character and not just added to sell books, you're doing what you should do to leave it in. If you are going off on tangents about religion, maybe you should write a different kind of book.
In my case, I’ve decided to reduce the number of times God is mentioned, but not to eliminate them entirely.
In my case, I decided to reduce the number of times God is mentioned, but not eliminate them entirely.
I forgot to mention Cadfael and Father Brown.
I think we need to write our books as we see them, to begin with. And then think about changes that might make them more commercially successful. I agree that an outright ban on religion would be ridiculous.
I'm glad I read the article, because I'm religious and found the headline s bit offensive. I say to keep as much or little religion in as you feel is appropriate to your story.
I am currently reading Kate Sedleys series about Roger Chapman. It is medieval and Roger is a failed monk who becomes a peddler. One of the things I like most is how Roger feels God is directing him
I write about religion a lot in my books, set in a small town in Texas. One of the books was about a religious community near Waco. In the course of the book two of its members had a shoot-out, and the community was not pictured in a positive way. No problem with that book.
My series protagonist is a good man who doesn't care much for organized religion. I've often wondered if some of his musings about religion would be a problem. Nothing yet.
My next book deals directly with a battle in town between the Baptists and the Catholics. It's meant to be funny, but there's a serious side to it.
One of my favorite fan letters was from a minister of a meg-church in North Carolina who loves my books and finds them "wholesome." I do use the occasional "goddamn" and no one has objected yet.
What will they come for next? I'd never bludgeon anyone over the head with anything... unless that's how the killer offed his victim, but selling one's soul is too big a price to pay. Moderation says you respect other people's opinions. Cutting the heart out of your story says you don't respect yourself. And you aren't putting a gun to someone's head to read your book. Why should they to it to you?
When my first book sold and I got the copy editor's notes back, I was informed "no swearing." Actually there was very little in it, but I swallowed and tried to comply. But I left one one where the protagonist finds a body - the first dead person she's ever seen. She's a 21st century woman and what is she going to say? "Golly gee"? I don't think so. We bend over backwards to conform sometimes, but in the end it's our name on the book title page, isn't it?
Terry, Thank you for your response. I’m glad to hear that your books weren’t negatively impacted by religious aspects included in them.
GB, I hope I’ve chosen a middle course by toning down religious references in my book. I feel that doing that keeps my protagonist’s character unchanged while possibly turning off fewer readers.
Kat, thanks for mentioning another series where religion plays a role. I like historical mysteries and think there would be greater latitude for including religion in them. My book takes place in 1892, and that is one reason I was surprised by what the editor said.
I'd say you chose wisely, John.
Yikes, John, my novel Watch Over Thy Child is entirely centered around the church. Just rewrote it. Hope I didn't waste my time
I am having a bit of worry over this issue myself. I find it interesting that the most popular part of Blue Bloods, here and in Europe, is the Sunday family dinner. They talk about going to church and say grace. In publishing it seems to be considered forbidden these days.
Thank you for the blog post.
Cathy, Sorry I missed your comment last month. I, too, hope you haven't wasted your time revising your novel, Watch Over Thy Child. Yesterday in the NY Times Book Review, Donna Freitas wrote an article about religion being the only topic that seems to be forbidden in YA novels. Despite her worries about its acceptance, her work-in-progress deals with faith.
John
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