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A place to debate issues or to rant about what's on your mind. In addition to discussions about historical fiction, books, the publishing industry, and history, discussions about current political, social, and religious issues and other topics are allowed, so those who are easily offended by certain topics may want to avoid such threads. Members are expected to keep the discussions friendly and polite and to avoid personal attacks on other members. The moderators reserve the right to shut down a thread without warning if they believe it necessary.
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Michy
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Post by Michy » Wed September 29th, 2010, 5:07 pm

I think Little Women is pretty overt, actually. Early in the book Marmee gives each of her girls a Bible for Christmas. There is throughout the book a running analogy comparing the girls' lives to Pilgrim's Progress. The book largely focuses on each of the girls' journey to becoming more virtuous (Jo battles her temper. Amy battles selfishness. Meg battles vanity.). I find Little Women to be pretty moralistic on the whole, but I like it, anyway.
Last edited by Michy on Wed September 29th, 2010, 5:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Divia
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Post by Divia » Thu September 30th, 2010, 12:06 am

[quote=""Michy""]I think it's important for everyone to remember that books published by Christian publishing houses (or the "Christian" imprints of major publishing houses) are targeted to a pretty specific audience for whom these books have a strong appeal. For those authors and readers who don't like them for whatever reason, well, guess what; you've got the whole other 98% of the book market and publishing industry to choose from.[/quote]

No one is debating the fact. In fact I never said they should stop writing them. Nor did I say they should sex them up. Pretty sure I said that I couldn't stomach them.

[quote=""MLE""]This is different from Little Women how?[/quote]

Little Women isn't as preachy. And while Alcott would call it "moral pap for the young" its pretty tame compaired to the religious novels I struggled though.

While it is about being good and taming the vices one has(quick temper, being vain, etc.) what else would one expect from a Victorian novel aimed at children? In fact it was pretty cutting edge for the time and the girls were seen as more human that a lot of children in novels that were nearly saintly. Lets also remember that Alcott enforces the idea about the perfect Victorian woman. All the girls had to marry in the end, pop out a few kids, yay happiness.
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Michy
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Post by Michy » Thu September 30th, 2010, 12:50 am

[quote=""Divia""]No one is debating the fact. In fact I never said they should stop writing them. Nor did I say they should sex them up. Pretty sure I said that I couldn't stomach them.
[/quote]

My comments weren't directed just at you, you're just the one who triggered my response, I guess. I was speaking to all the prior posts in this thread, many of which are critical of the Christian/Biblical fiction genre because of its restrictive nature. There is a pretty wide variety within the Christian/Biblical fiction genre, ranging from those that have a heavy spiritual element (what some would call "preachy") to those that have almost no spiritual element at all, but are, in fact, much like what is published by any mainstream publisher. What they do all have in common, though, is a lack of profanity, graphic sex, and other things.

The Christian publishers aren't imposing some sort of censorship on their unwitting customers, they are producing product for a target audience that that target audience wants and values. That there is a viable market for such books should be understood and respected, even if one does not agree with it or wish to read or write such books. As I said, there is the whole, huge mainstream industry out there for the vast majority who are not interested in reading or writing these types of works.
Last edited by Michy on Thu September 30th, 2010, 1:05 am, edited 2 times in total.

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