Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related Religion in Fiction?

Yeah, sorry, guess I should have mentioned the show title.

Well, very few characters (or real live people) actually obey every tenet of their religion - at least here. You have the ideal - and then you have what you expect of yourself and other church-going folk. And then, of course, there are the hypocrites. And the ones who do their best to live up to the ideal, too, though those are rare, because it takes a lot of work to attempt perfection.

But Booth has a definite belief in heaven and hell and wants to go to heaven (and for Bones to, too - loved that line) and is quite uncomfortable with the inappropriate/sacrilegious behavior you previously mentioned. He may no be deeply religious, but he's definitely religious, and that's uncommon on tv today (or on old tv, from what I've seen).

Referencing the possibility of AU!Clark - I don't think I'd be interested in a deeply religious Clark, for the previously mentioned reason of it associating Superman with a section of humanity instead of humanity as a whole (though some would certainly say he's already associated with one section more than most, so that's your own interpretation). The other thing being that I'm not really big on AUs, anyway, unless they really do something different.

I'm reading a Supes AU now with the world under siige and Superman's greatest gift to the world is his hearing (and that was an "oh, wow" to me, given his powers - really drove home just how different the world was) due to the circumstances they are in. The reality they are in is so different and the characters are different to match that reality (much like a nice fic here wherein Cat and Lois utilize blackmail to get harassment laws passed/enforced - but less humorous). And that's the key to a good AU - making the characters enough like ours to make us want to keep reading, but enough different that we definitely know they aren't ours (and they have to fit in their worlds, and that is a beautifully-crafted world that they fit in).

So I guess that'd be the selling point to me - is the story AU only because Clark is a different religion (perhaps a different nationality?) or is the reason he's a different religion or a more religious person part of the world around him being different or a different backstory that somehow contributes to something bigger than just him being different? Both types of stories have their merits, but I'd be more a fan of the latter, because of the kind of AU's I like (whole world being different v. characters being different or being the same with different jobs or meeting later or whatever). If it's all about Clark being different than he is here, then he needs to be really different. Whatever religious belief he holds has to affect how he sees things and make him a different person than our Clark. You can't just say "he's exactly the same, except he's a priest." I definitely think it's absolutely fine to include religion in fiction, and would be fine for Clark in an AU fanfic, if someone wanted to work at it (as long as the author knows the religion they are talking about - elsewise they could end up depicting the religion wrongly, and I think that'd be a can of worms).

It's a delicate balance when dealing with Superman, as he's powerful enough to be considered a god by some. And it's that he doesn't set himself up as one that makes him such a hero. Actually, I could see a scenario where Clark comes to religion as a sort of fashion where he reminds himself he isn't God, can't do all this, reminds himself of what God is, and what he isn't if you wanted to keep his background similar to our Clark's.