Like I said above, I agree with you on the anachronistic modern morality point.
You make an interesting distinction concerning whether or not the writer's views are expressed or pushed in the writing. I hadn't considered that. Would I dislike a book because it _pushed_ some agenda that I disagreed with? I don't know to be honest. My suspicion is that I have probably read some such book and missed the message! C.S. Lewis's Narnia books are supposed to be very pro-christian. I'm very much an atheist (not necessarily as "militant" as lil_shepherd though), but I don't think that's the reason I hated the three books in that series I read. (More to do with the twee setting and obnoxious posh children.) In fact, any christian allegory pretty much washed over me - you probably have to be reasonably knowledgeable about a religion to spot allegories in the first place...
So I suppose I might not mind a message being pushed if it was done subtly, or if the book was otherwise interesting enough to hold my attention.
Conversely, would I be more likely to enjoy a book if the message being pushed was one I was sympathethic to? It's funny that you mention Heinlein - I've never read any of his books, but one in particular ('The Moon is a Harsh Mistress') is often held up as one of the definitive libertarian science fiction novels. So maybe I should read it. Reading the wikipedia entry for him, I'm not convinced that 'right wing' is necessarily the most appropriate label for Heinlein anyway.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2010-08-01 10:47 am (UTC)You make an interesting distinction concerning whether or not the writer's views are expressed or pushed in the writing. I hadn't considered that. Would I dislike a book because it _pushed_ some agenda that I disagreed with? I don't know to be honest. My suspicion is that I have probably read some such book and missed the message! C.S. Lewis's Narnia books are supposed to be very pro-christian. I'm very much an atheist (not necessarily as "militant" as lil_shepherd though), but I don't think that's the reason I hated the three books in that series I read. (More to do with the twee setting and obnoxious posh children.) In fact, any christian allegory pretty much washed over me - you probably have to be reasonably knowledgeable about a religion to spot allegories in the first place...
So I suppose I might not mind a message being pushed if it was done subtly, or if the book was otherwise interesting enough to hold my attention.
Conversely, would I be more likely to enjoy a book if the message being pushed was one I was sympathethic to? It's funny that you mention Heinlein - I've never read any of his books, but one in particular ('The Moon is a Harsh Mistress') is often held up as one of the definitive libertarian science fiction novels. So maybe I should read it. Reading the wikipedia entry for him, I'm not convinced that 'right wing' is necessarily the most appropriate label for Heinlein anyway.