Menno Lit - part II
After my last post on the nature of Mennonite literature, Jared Penner, a Mennonite scribe of his own right (pun intended), posted a three-part reply, addressing some key questions. In it, he talked about his librarian mother, who wondered why writers of Mennonite books only know how to be critical.

Jared, thanks for your insightful reply. Your mom is right to notice that popular Mennonite literature only comes in one form, critical. While it sadden me as well, I see three main reasons that justify/explain this pattern.

1. Mennonite writers face two types of critics, first, larger society, including the literary community, and second, their extended Mennonite community. If a book comes off as being too pro-Mennonite, then the larger society sees it as propaganda, and it gets relegated as religious/cultural fringe work. If a book comes off as being too critical of the Mennonite community, then the writer gets ostracized. There is profit in appealing to the masses, and their is a strengthening of social ties in appealing to the home community. Also, if it's too lukewarm, we all spit it out of our mouths.

2. A social worker friend of mine said that the recent immigrant Mexican Mennonite women she works with have been brought up only being able to show two kinds of emotion, grief and shame. Maybe 400 years of cultural development has left that same mentality ingrained in all of us, including the writers of our best Mennonite novels.

3. Part of our problem (there's my ingrained shame) is that we try too hard to embrace writers (and everyone) as our own. Maybe when people leave the Mennonite church, and move out of their Mennonite communities, and they publicly state that they don't like sunflower seeds, perhaps we should no longer call them Mennonites, and as such, we no longer need to be offended by what they write.

   [ posted by William @ 5:20 PM ]