Judging based on writing
Recently I have been caught up in a rather heated discussion about judging an author based on what they write. The basis is this: The main discussion is about Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series, and how people have problems with getting through the book. Mostly it is due to her writing style, or what is in the book, but recently someone brought up that they had problems with the "near sex" scenes and wondered if the author, who is preportedly LDS, is actually LDS due to the books she has written.
This bothers me, because as an LDS writer I don't always write things that are LDS in nature, in fact I don't think I have written a single character who is LDS. What bothers me about it is that for some reason in LDS culture there is this belief that LDS writers will write only about LDS things. It just isn't true, and I don't think it is true for most writers. Sure they will write about things that they are familiar with, but not all their characters are going to be Catholic if the writer is Catholic and not all the characters are going to behave like a Catholic would.
When we read something that an author has written it is easy to judge that author based on the piece of writing, but should we? How many writers out there write about something they have never done, something they never plan on doing? How many writers expect to be judged based on what they wrote? How many feel that they should be?
The way I see it, if you don't like a book then don't read it. But don't base your judgements on the author's character based on what they have written. Often you don't know their history or where they are in life. Often you have no idea where they are coming from or why they wrote what they wrote. And judging them based on something they wrote is ignorant.
Thoughts?
This bothers me, because as an LDS writer I don't always write things that are LDS in nature, in fact I don't think I have written a single character who is LDS. What bothers me about it is that for some reason in LDS culture there is this belief that LDS writers will write only about LDS things. It just isn't true, and I don't think it is true for most writers. Sure they will write about things that they are familiar with, but not all their characters are going to be Catholic if the writer is Catholic and not all the characters are going to behave like a Catholic would.
When we read something that an author has written it is easy to judge that author based on the piece of writing, but should we? How many writers out there write about something they have never done, something they never plan on doing? How many writers expect to be judged based on what they wrote? How many feel that they should be?
The way I see it, if you don't like a book then don't read it. But don't base your judgements on the author's character based on what they have written. Often you don't know their history or where they are in life. Often you have no idea where they are coming from or why they wrote what they wrote. And judging them based on something they wrote is ignorant.
Thoughts?