John Sutherland of the Telegraph comments on the significant literary trends of the day. While Oprah’s book club gets a mention, more interesting to the author is the “lobbies” of themed literature.

“More significant than the Oprah or Richard and Judy phenomena – in which reader preferences trickle down from on high – are those dynamic lobbies, whose preferences bubble up from below, mobilised by congenial websites. The result has been a boom in ‘themed’ literature. For the purpose of demonstration, consider what might be called ‘The Clash of Fictions’ – Christian-themed novels (CTNs), and Pagan-themed novels (PTNs).”

Sutherland runs down the history and big-hitters of CTNs.

“The breakthrough for CTNs in the US is generally taken to be 1986, with the release of Frank Peretti’s This Present Darkness. It opened the door to blockbusters such as Jerry Jenkins’s and Tim LaHaye’s ‘Left Behind’ series (now a dozen titles strong). The authors retell, in a contemporary fictional setting, the Book of Revelation and confidently prophesy imminent apocalypse…Less dramatic (both in theology and narrative) are the ‘genre’ and ‘sidestream’ productions. Around 3,000 CTN titles are published a year in the US, and they are promoted by websites such as Good Girl Book Club…Another powerful web-pulpit is American Christian Fiction Writers.”

After four paragraphs on Christian-themed literature, Sutherland fleetingly mentions the trend of Pagan fiction.

“On the other side of the theological gulf are the fiction-reading pagans. Amazon offers a convenient 24-strong PTF curriculum. Significantly (think broomsticks, black cats, third nipples and pointy hats) 23 of the authors are women.”

But what novels are the big PTNs? Authors? Sutherland doesn’t say. So allow me to give a brief (and incomplete) picture.

If Frank Peretti is the breakthrough for Christian-themed fiction, then the Pagan equivalent must be “The Mists of Avalon” by Marion Zimmer Bradley (some would argue “Stranger in a Strange Land” but it had no explicitly Pagan agenda). While certainly not the first to write Pagan-themed literature, she did make a book chock-full of Wiccan ideas and rituals (she was affiliated with a Pagan group at the time) palatable to a mass-audience.

After Bradley we get into some murky territory and we split into two kinds of Pagan-themed literature: books written with strong Pagan themes by authors who may not be Pagan, and novels written by Pagans, for Pagans. Some authors in the first category would be Kate Horsley, author of “Confessions of a Pagan Nun: A Novel”, Katherine Kurtz, author of the WWII Witchcraft novel “Lammas Night”, and Neil Gaiman, author of the bestselling “American Gods”.

The second category, books written by Pagans for a Pagan market is a much smaller genre than contemporary Christian fiction. This is partially due to the fact that there are far more Christians than modern Pagans, but it is also due to the fact that many fantasy novels are placed in Pagan-pleasing, polytheistic, magical worlds. Because of this, most modern Pagan fiction manifests in genres other than fantasy. Two good examples would be the Rowan Gant Investigations by M. R. Sellars and The ‘Bast’ Mysteries by Rosemary Edghill. Aside from mystery, romance, horror, and urban fantasy are common genres. That doesn’t even get into novels written by big-name Pagans (BNPs), a club that includes Stewart Farrar, Silver RavenWolf, Starhawk, and the father of Wicca Gerald Gardner. Not too shabby a collection, but don’t expect to see an “Pagan fiction” section in your bookstore anytime soon.

Tags: Paganism