Thursday, November 19, 2009

To judge or not to judge

I was talking to a friend of mine this morning about Stephanie Meyer's books since the movie, New Moon, is coming out this weekend. She told me how disappointed she was in Stephani, who's LDS, that she would write books that were, in her opinion, "inappropriate" for teens.

Now, I'm not going to get into whether I agree with that or not. The thing it made me think about is that I'm a Mormon who writes for the world at large and not just for my church, and what will people think of my stories?

How much romance is too much for tweens and teens? How graphic is too graphic? Everyone's opinion is different. I have a lady in my church who wouldn't even let her kids read Harry Potter because it "glorified" magic. Uggg. My books are filled with magic. How will I be talked about? Do I really care what people think of me? Of course. We all do to some degree. Does it stop me from writing my stories? No, but it also makes me wonder how I'll be judged.

Everyone has a different degree to how far they'll go when they write. Some people push the envelope. Is that wrong? In most ways, I don't think so, but my husband thinks I'm a left wing liberal anyway. *snort*

This is what I think. Read the books your kids want to read first. See the movies they want to see first. You are the parent and if you think the book or movie is inappropriate, don't let them read or see it until they're adults. Don't complain that your kids are reading "bad" books. Because as parents, YOU are in charge and are the only one to blame if you allow your kids to read things you don't approve of. Now I'll get off my soap box.

Happy reading!

4 comments:

Annette Lyon said...

One interesting thing is that I think Meyer is judged more harshly by Mormons BECAUSE she's Mormon. She's really tame by national standards. (Although no, I won't let my 12-year-old read the Twilight books.)

The key is what you said--be aware of what your kids are reading. Keep the door of dialogue and discussion open with them. TALK about what they're reading with them.

Karen Jones Gowen said...

I remember when the first Harry Potter came out, this neighbor of mine was very vocal about her negative feelings of it..the witchcraft and all that. I'm not sure why or when she changed, but she became the biggest fan ever, reading them in 3 days right after the release of a new one. Right along with her kids.

Sometimes people listen too much to what everyone else is saying about a book and avoid it because of propaganda or buy it for the same reason.

Tash said...

Well you know my thoughts on this suject.. but if you really get to it everybody is different. even within the church somethings are considered"ok" to one family and not to another. so i dont think you can write the "perfect" LDS book ever because of difference of opinions of what perfect LDS people are.. that being said i think stephenie did a wonderful job for someone writing in to a non-lds group.

I for one have a hard time reading many lds authors because they are so "Fake" we live in a real world, with real choices. sometimes we make good ones, sometimes not. so why cant an lds author have a book about the real world with real issues? ok ill get off my soap box..lol I told you you know how i feel about this

And if they dont like your books, you dont need them! there are plenty of people i know will love them. Me included (and im the most important hehe)

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