Patrick,
I won't go into your whole post, but one point you
made:
"Also, referencing specific belief systems was death to
publishers until very recently, especially in genre
literature. In fact it may still be. Chesterton and Green are
the only two I can think of who broke that rule yet were more
or less 'successful.'"
struck me.
I'm not sure what you mean by "VERY recently," but over 40
years ago, Harry Kemelman was consistently hitting the
best-seller lists, and winning awards, with a series about a
crime-solving rabbi.
Earlier examples include Leonard Holton's series about a
crime-solving priest, Jack Webb's (not the DRAGNET Webb)
series about the crime-solving partnership between a Jewish
cop and a Catholic priest, Anthony Boucher's series about a
crime-solving nun, etc.
But aside from crime-solving Catholic or Jewish clerics,
references to the specific religious beliefs of characters in
genre fiction was not as unusual as you suggest. Thomas
Walsh's Irish cops in score of short stories and novels like
NIGHTMARE IN MANHATTAN or THE NIGHT WATCH, were all
obviously, and usually devoutly, Catholic. Ed McBain's Meyer
Meyer was non-practicing, but still believing, Jew, while
Cotton Mather (named for a Puritan preacher in colonial
times) was a protestant clergyman's son who still attended
church services faithfully. Even Mike Shayne recalled going
to Mass as a child in his debut novel, DIVIDEND ON
DEATH.
And that's just published works. References to specific
belief systems abounded in movies, TV, stage, and radio. One
of the Lone Ranger's regular contacts was a Mexican-American
Franciscan priest. One of Joe Friday's most popular cases was
the investigation into the theft of a statue of Baby Jesus
from a Catholic church (and Webb, though not Catholic
himself, used Catholic imagery frequently). Hitchcock's I
CONFESS is about a priest accused of the murder who knows who
the real murderer is but can't reveal it because he heard the
killer's confession, and, in THE WRONG MAN, another falsely
accused defendant is cleared when the real culprit is
arrested at the very moment the hero kneels down to pray the
Rosary. The dying cop in Sidney Kingsley's stage play
DETECTIVE STORY asks for a priest and his last words are the
Catholic Act of Contrition.
None of these are any earlier than the mid-1960's. And that's
just off the top of my head. I'm sure there are all kinds of
other examples if I delved into it.
Are you aware of some publishers' "gentleman's agreement" to
avoid references to specific sects in genre fiction or is
that just an impression you had? And, if there was such an
agreement, why was it apparently ignored so often?
JIM DOHERTY
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