Nov 292009
I just read an ebook – a novella – that features a minor character who’s a Hindu. When the heroine was leaving his place, said character shouted: “May Allah be with you!”
It’s not as bad as a short m/m present-day romance I read not long ago that features a Scottish character. After this Scottish character was asked about his religion, he said he was “Catholic, like everyone in Scotland”. I laughed at this so much that I had a fit of hiccups.
Honestly, it was the funniest statement I read in a while.
“Catholic, like everyone in Scotland”
I’m now imagining a long and furious procession of otherworldly Scottish Protestants, from John Knox onwards, marching towards the author of that piece to give her (?) a several-hours-long sermon on the Reformation in Scotland, the Covenanters, the various splits to have affected the Church of Scotland, etc.
lol! Exactly. It’s so messy that it’s no surprise the second biggest group – after the Church of Scotland – is indifferent to religion altogether.
I think Catholics are placed in the third or fourth rank? Whatever. They certainly aren’t the dominant group in Scotland and they’re usually found in a small number of major cities like Glasgow or wherever Irish communities are.
So character’s religion is like window dressing where the author has invested neither the effort nor interest to make it be true even with broad brush strokes? Confusing Hinduism and Islam or a country’s religious tenor is pure laziness. I’d give authors a wide berth henceforth.
Well put. It can be painfully embarrassing when something like this appears in a story.
Scary image, Laura V. Might be my idea of hell.
And it would have been better if the character was a Scottish Hindu who farewelled with, “Allah be with you och aye the noo”.
“Might be my idea of hell.”
Well, I imagine there would be plenty of fire and brimstone in a sermon delivered by that crowd to an author who not only lacked knowledge of the Scottish Reformation but was also writing m/m romances.