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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   32404 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of January 23, 2023

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and also I guessed by the end of the first Mistborn trilogy that the author was a Mormon without knowing anything about him

What prompted that?

Not OP (and neither as quick or as sure), but I had a similar reaction from reading his work. It's mostly just a feeling, and "Mormon fiction" forms its own particular sub-sub-genre. It I had to guess what tipped me off, I'd say:

  • PG13-esque writing: Violence is mostly constrained to battles, unprovoked assault is rare and shocking, and torture/abuse only exists offscreen. Sex is only between married couples, and barely even implied.

  • Noble nobility: The nobles (or equivalent) are better in some way, and they have the genuine desire to help the people they rule over. See Dalinar, Wax, Elend, both the prince and the priest from Elantris, and one guy from Warbreaker.

  • When the previous principles are broken (which is fairly often), it's only by bad people doing bad things.

Sex is only between married couples, and barely even implied.

That's a massive tell right there. Some SciFi authors have a habit of writing very stilted sex scenes or sexual dialogue, but the Mormon ones manage to avoid this issue by keep sexual content very abstract as far as it's role in the novel.

Larry Correia is Mormon (but lowkey about it) and has no problem depicting brutal, gory action, casual profanity, drinking (rarely to excess) and gross-out humor galore, and while we get that sexual activity does go on between characters, he only ever writes some 'heavy flirting' at worst on the page.

Which I don't mind, it's just a bit funny to have bloody shootouts with hideous monsters and guts spilling out across the page in one chapter, then the main character awkwardly flirting and the prose dancing around the implication of sex in another.

Weirdly, wouldnt that also be (devout Catholic) Tolkien?

Yes, the parts I've listed are more generically devout Christian than specifically Mormon. The rest is just vibes.

Yes, and catholic fiction has similar tendencies, albeit with slightly different Hangups(and typically more recognizably Catholic supernaturalism- eg relics, intercession, angels- while also being shorter because these people have to work day jobs).

It was a general vibe I picked up throughout the first two books, but the ending of the third book where Vin and Elend go off to become gods eternally married in heaven was a huge tell.

They're not gods, they were just briefly gods before they died. I don't remember anything about marriage either--just that they would be together. Is that what you're referring to?

I just finished the book a few days ago, and definitely got more of a generic "and they're very happy, wherever they are" heaven vibe than anything distinctly Mormon. It felt intentionally vague as to what the afterlife looks like, other than indicating that individuals retain their consciousness and continue to observe the living after death. If anything, it's almost Catholic, with Kelsier directly interceding with "God" on Spook's behalf in a very saint-like way (is this also a concept in Mormon theology? I confess ignorance on the matter).

If Kelsier is meant to be Jesus (which he sort of seems to be, given that he died for everyone) then that just sounds Christian to me. If he's meant to be a Saint though then yeah that's not Mormon at all.

(which he sort of seems to be, given that he died for everyone)

Don't forget that he came back from the dead(ish),

and his followers use the thing that killed him as a symbol of allegiance.

Kelsier is definitely more jesus than saint I reckon. In that cosmere short story collection he even travels to hell to free the sinners who died before his resurrection (if you are more into allegories than accuracy).

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