Tamora Pierce, best-selling young adult fantasy author blogs against Christian parents

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To add insult to injury, when I was researching this a couple days ago I discovered that Tamora Pierce, the best-selling young adult. fantasy author
http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/books/912840
made a very critical post to her personal blog earlier this week concerning Christian concerns about the books and the upcoming film that she called “The Legions of Darkness Are Arming” (the Legions of Darkness refer to Christian parents).
tammy212.livejournal.com/25993.html

In her post she calls Christian children whose parents don’t want them to see the film “their little robots” and ridicules the parents for being “scared they might be wrong” about their religious beliefs.

She made a number of other snide remarks about the “religious right” (which seems to include Catholics in her mind) and made fun of parents raising their children in organized religions in several other comments to the thread.

I’ve never read any of her books myself, but reading that thread got me to look into them, and I discovered that the teenage characters in her books usually have sex at some point while using artificial birth control. What bothers me the most right now though is that she’s ridiculing parents for making responsible parental choices for their children about this movie and these books in a forum where any kid who’s a fan can read what she’s saying. One of my babysitters reads her books and told me Pierce is like a ‘rock star,” so I decided I should pass this on to other parents for their information, in case their daughters read her books.

I hope that’s okay for this thread.
 
I don’t like her. I read 3 of her books(part of a series). They were about a girl who disguises herself as boy to join knights, so that her brother(who was supposed to be a knight) could become a magician. In the second book she sleeps with one of the main characters, and by time the 4th book comes around she has slept with 4 men and she is under 20.

I thought the books were really boring, it wasn’t worth the read.
 
cockatoo said:
I don’t like her. I read 3 of her books(part of a series). They were about a girl who disguises herself as boy to join knights, so that her brother(who was supposed to be a knight) could become a magician. In the second book she sleeps with one of the main characters, and by time the 4th book comes around she has slept with 4 men and she is under 20.

I thought the books were really boring, it wasn’t worth the read.
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that’s probably why she’s making comments about religious parents-her books aren’t that good and she needs to get a boycott going to spark some interest.
 
@Fitswimmer: HARSH.
Familiar with the author’s earlier works (everything from before 2000), am an ex-fangirl, engaged in correspondence with her back in the 90s (back when she actually answered her email, lololololol). She’s no Pullman where the stuff is high quality but the message is poison; talent-wise she’s not even Rowling, but I don’t think that’s an accurate statement to make. She doesn’t seem to be a deliberate attention-getter.

The books are decently written for their niche, if all “save the earth” and annoyingly feminist-y at times; they’re pretty appealing to preteen and teenage girls because of a HEAVY dose of girlpower, but something you grow out of, like Nancy Drew. Though I haven’t followed her career or fandom recently, her influence seems limited to the kind of kids (not parents, kids) who like The Golden Compass and either don’t care that the series is anti-Christian* or think it’s a good thing. However, a few weeks ago I saw a “graphic novel” she’d written that was in your traditional comic superhero style but seemed like it was meant for adults, so her audience might be widening and she might be gaining more influence (anyone familiar with her recent career?).

But yeah, my point… if she’s trolling don’t give her the attention, and if she’s not, she’s not going to change any minds.

Sorry about the Wall-O-Text.
  • It’s not so much the first book. The first book is really good, but then about three pages from the end you get quotes from Lyra’s universe’s Bible and are like I SEE WHERE THIS IS GOING.
 
I see that the moderators decided this post belonged in a separate thread (my apologies to them if making it originally to the Catholic League announces boycott of “Golden Compass” thread had been inappropriate).

Cockatoo, thank you for confirming what my own inquiries had already revealed. I’ve borrowed the first couple volumes of that series from the library to read for myself now.
Fitswimmer said:
that’s probably why she’s making comments about religious parents-her books aren’t that good and she needs to get a boycott going to spark some interest.
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I don’t think so, since she’s a best-selling author, as I’d mentioned. You can see for yourself if you click on the link to Amazon.com that I provided. She’s apparently very popular among pre-teen and young teenage girls, which is why I thought I should bring it to the attention of other parents who also weren’t aware of her position. She said in one of her responses to another poster on that thread that all authors try to influence their readers to adopt their point of view, so I interpret that statement to mean that she acknowledges trying to influence her young readers concerning pre-marital sexual experience as well as to disdain organized religion and their parents’ supervision.

All in all, she is not an author I desire to influence my own children. Others will make their own evaluations, of course.
 
If a child is strong in their faith, Tamora Pierce’s books won’t affect them. The Lioness Rampant series (the one about the girl disguised as a knight) is actually one of my favorite series (next to Narnia, the Wrinkle in Time books, and the Enchanted Forest Chronicles)
 
Anyone notice how these “fantasy” themed books, have authors who are either stupid atheists or clueless agnostics?
 
Nevarlander said:
The books are decently written for their niche, if all “save the earth” and annoyingly feminist-y at times; they’re pretty appealing to preteen and teenage girls because of a HEAVY dose of girlpower, but something you grow out of, like Nancy Drew. Though I haven’t followed her career or fandom recently, her influence seems limited to the kind of kids (not parents, kids) who like The Golden Compass and either don’t care that the series is anti-Christian* or think it’s a good thing.
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The thread is almost interminable, with a lot of sneering comments about those with mainstream religious beliefs, and self-congratulatory back-slapping, but virtually all of the profiles of the posters I looked at indicate that they’re adults, not teens, so she does seem to be having influence on some parents, and many of the posters seem to have read her books as teens and remained fans into adulthood or to have discovered her books for the first time as adults. She’s very, very, very aggressively feminist, which seems to be a large part of her appeal for that slice, at least, of her fans. Some of the posters appear to be other Y.A. fantasy authors or aspiring writers.
Nevarlander said:
However, a few weeks ago I saw a “graphic novel” she’d written that was in your traditional comic superhero style but seemed like it was meant for adults, so her audience might be widening and she might be gaining more influence (anyone familiar with her recent career?).

But yeah, my point… if she’s trolling don’t give her the attention, and if she’s not, she’s not going to change any minds.
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My sense from reading a few other threads is that she’s someone who tries very hard to influence others to her views and brooks very little bona fide disagreement. Virtually every poster there who disagrees with her but doesn’t seem to be already recognized as a “friend” is dismissed as an “attacker,” no matter how reasonably or politely they express their opinions.

I stumbled over another thread in which she made horrible comments about some parents who had been recently in the news concerning the birth of their 17th child. The mother had expressed to a reporter great joy at her family being so blessed. Pierce wrote a post expressing disgust at parents who would bring so many children into the world and called the mother a “clown.”

Her tone was really vicious, very, very disturbing. She has no children of her own.

My impression after reading that and other several threads is that she’s someone who seems to be overflowing with anger and who craves the flattery of sycophants. All-in-all, not the kind of person I want my own children to find influential.
 
PatienceAndLove said:
If a child is strong in their faith, Tamora Pierce’s books won’t affect them. The Lioness Rampant series (the one about the girl disguised as a knight) is actually one of my favorite series (next to Narnia, the Wrinkle in Time books, and the Enchanted Forest Chronicles)
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I think it depends on the child and the child’s maturity. Not all children find it as easy to shrug off such influences. Consequently, I think parents have to make the best decisions for their own children that they can.

I’m not calling for a boycott of her books, simply alerting other parents about what I’ve learned in the last week, so they can make their own evaluation. As I said in my original post, what bothers me the most right now is that she’s ridiculing parents for trying to make responsible parental choices for their own children about the Golden Compass movie and the Pullman books in a forum where any kid who’s a fan can read what she’s saying.

Undermining her teenage fans’ parents’ parental authority is 100% unacceptable to me, no matter how innocuous her books might be or how trivial their influence.
 
busy_mom_of_two said:
I think it depends on the child and the child’s maturity. Not all children find it as easy to shrug off such influences. Consequently, I think parents have to make the best decisions for their own children that they can.

I’m not calling for a boycott of her books, simply alerting other parents about what I’ve learned in the last week, so they can make their own evaluation. As I said in my original post, what bothers me the most right now is that she’s ridiculing parents for trying to make responsible parental choices for their own children about the Golden Compass movie and the Pullman books in a forum where any kid who’s a fan can read what she’s saying.

Undermining her teenage fans’ parents’ parental authority is 100% unacceptable to me, no matter how innocuous her books might be or how trivial their influence.
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So true.
Of her books that I have read (only the series I mentioned) there is no mention of Christianity, and no organization is made to resemble the Church or Christianity. Perhaps the Lioness series was written before she got all “grr”? (if that phrase makes sense). Much as Anne Rice wrote all those vampy novels before she became Catholic? (but in reverse…)
 
punisherthunder said:
Anyone notice how these “fantasy” themed books, have authors who are either stupid atheists or clueless agnostics?
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No. I had not noticed that Tolkien, Lewis, Rowling, Orson Scott Card, or Connie Willis fit either of these categories (I know for a fact that none of them do). Diane Duane’s books seem to imply some sort of theism. I don’t know about Katherine Kurtz (perhaps GKC can inform us–I know he’s a fan), but she certainly uses religion in positive ways in her books. Even Marion Zimmer Bradley, for all her wacky New-Ageyness, was not an atheist or agnostic as far as I know. And for that matter, while Ursula Le Guin is an atheist, I wouldn’t call her a stupid one. Pullman and Harry Harrison I’ll give you (not that either of them is stupid in general, but their treatments of Christianity are pretty stupid, though Harrison’s short story about the aliens who crucify the missionary to see if Christianity is true does have a certain bite!).

Edwin
 
Contarini said:
Even Marion Zimmer Bradley, for all her wacky New-Ageyness, was not an atheist or agnostic as far as I know.
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MZB was Wiccan-y for a while, but converted to Christianity. Her name remains on the books because her name sells. 🤷 I picked up the newest book from the Mists series, and her name is on there, even though she’s been dead for a few years and definitely did not help write it.
 
PatienceAndLove said:
MZB was Wiccan-y for a while, but converted to Christianity. Her name remains on the books because her name sells. 🤷 I picked up the newest book from the Mists series, and her name is on there, even though she’s been dead for a few years and definitely did not help write it.
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How wonderful! I loved The Mist of Avalone despite all its pro-new ageyness. I am so happy to hear that she converted.
 
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