as small as a world and as large as alone, On a similar note to the atheist posts: I...

2:38pm June 22, 2014

made-me-realize asked: On a similar note to the atheist posts: I understand that your stories are fiction, but what would your thoughts be on someone taking that fiction, and making it their religious reality? Your world is no less believable than any of the other popular religions, if only with a bit less material.

dduane:

Well, my Inner Cynic kicks in quite hard here and instantly suggests that the words “religious” and “reality” should not be put so close to each other. They’re likely to savage one another, and maybe don’t even belong in the same sentence at all. (But it would say that: it’s a cynic.) The Department of Monitory Etymology then immediately pipes up with a reminder that the word “religion” comes from a Latin root (religāre) that involves things being tied up, tied down, bound, restricted… essentially held captive. So caution is required.

I know as a matter of fact (from my mailbag) that people have been influenced in terms of their personal spiritualities by stuff they’ve read in the YW books, and choose to restate some of the themes of the book in expressing those spiritualities. Over that I have no possible control — choice being the core issue of the whole series, some ways — and the only possible reaction for me is to feel both utterly humbled and kind of terrified, as there are so many possible unexpected consequences to being incorporated into something so intimate. Unnerved: that’s the word that kind of sums it up, when the subject arises.

Anyway: what people will do, they will do whether I say yea or nay. (Or [as happens too damn often] both at once, like the two-headed eagle on the arms of the Duchy of Grand Fenwick. The Elves have nothing on me in this regard.) If this kind of thing works for people, if it helps them find their way, then I’m delighted. But possibly it’s best for all our peace of mind that I know as little about it as possible. :)

* “Peace of minds”? “Peaces of mind”? “Pieces of mind”? …Oh cripes, forget it.