books that get vegetarians right
Posted by Lauuren on May 25, 2008 · Member since Aug 2007 · 238 posts
I'm fed up with reading a novel, having it go along great, and then all of a sudden, a minor character who's a vegetarian shows up and irritates the hell out of everyone with a bunch of crap no real person would say, or the main character doesn't eat meat for a few days and "feels anemic," or something similar. I know this is a minor thing, but once it happens I can't help but lose a little faith in that author (especially their ability to research).
Can anyone recommend any works of fiction that have positive or even slightly accurate portrayals of vegetarian characters?
I know this is way out there, but I can't come up with a good system for researching this short of reading every book in the universe, so just thought I'd try you guys.
Awesome. Slightly off topic, I can tell you that I react exactly the same way to TV shows/books/movies that don't get the professions/manners/predilections/attitudes/theory of their social scientist characters right. It's the Jones & Bones effect.
I can very much sympathize and yes, it drives me crazy too. Not as much as messing up one's social science or ostentatiously being wrong (a favorite on Bones)... but quite a lot.
I know what didn't get it right--this recent Simpsons episode where Lisa is trying to get Bart to give up meat, and says because he won't be eating enough protein then he'll have to take this weird mushroom supplement. Kind of funny, but also kind of annoying.
I can't think of ANY positive images of veg*ns in books, on TV, or in film. Now that's something to get frustrated about.
off topic as well.....I saw the movie About a Boy a long while ago and the mom was vegetarian and raising the boy to be too and I remember it being portrayed in a negative way, and I think in the end they even showed them all eating turkey, like she gave in or something. I can't remember exactly, but I remember not liking it (but liking the movie because I am fond of Hugh Grant).
Did anyone else see this?
i do know of some kid books that have a great veg message, but I can't think of any adult ones....ask TinTexas-I think she had a thread like this on Stemma.
I read a book a month ago or so. It was called "Before You Know Kindness" by Chris Bohlijan (?). It was positive sometimes, and sometimes not. One of the characters is a man who is the public relations manager for an organization like PETA. He is vegan, though his wife and daughter aren't, because the mother wants her daughter to get enough protein. Darnit. (They are vegetarian.)
I won't rehash the whole book, I really love this author, but the character was a bit negative. The vegan father tended to show more concern for animals, and not his daughter and wife. Kinda a bit like Ingrid Newkirk....hehe. But people are only human, and that is what the author was writing, a human story, not a vegan one. And not all vegans are perfect. I would just imagine that the author is not vegan, but does have respect for them. And issues. I think also that he was probably not thinking about representing the whole vegan community in a positive light, just writing a character study.
I am rambling, and I am no book reviewer. So I will end it there.
I highly recommend 'Another Roadside Attraction' by Tom Robbins. It starts off a little quirky, but quickly becomes very engrossing. Although one of the main characters isn't specifically labeled as being vegetarian, you can tell by the foods she eats.
If you do read and like this book, Robbins' other books are just as fabulous minus the vegetarians. His writing style seems a bit offbeat at first, but once you've finished one, it's hard to revert back to the easy humdrum of other writers (IMO, of course).
well....not sure about the "quality of writing"....BUT one of my guilty pleasures is reading Star Wars novels, Kevin J. Anderson seems to have a good respect for vegetarians that way....(meat not being the Jedi way and all!).
Also, if I'm remembering correctly, there are several Romantic Period novels that contain vegetarian characters in a realistic light.....Jane Austin has a few in a couple of her novels that are portrayed as being healthy and full of energy, yet refuse to hunt/eat flesh.....
I can't remember the book, but in the story one of the main characters was a vegetarian. He was going out to eat with family and friends and they couldn't decide on a suitable place until someone said "oh just send him out to the pasture over there and he can graze while the rest of us eat real food".
Irritating yes, but funny because my ex-spouse said almost exactly the same thing once to me.
Also, if I'm remembering correctly, there are several Romantic Period novels that contain vegetarian characters in a realistic light.....Jane Austin has a few in a couple of her novels that are portrayed as being healthy and full of energy, yet refuse to hunt/eat flesh.....
This makes perfect sense... some of the Romantics and rather more of the American Transcendentalists and their precursors were sometime vegetarians (I think most of them dabbled with a variety of healthy/responsible/aesthetically pleasing diets), and this was the time of the birth of the big vegetarian social movements in Western society. Since the movements were considered health movements, the characters would HAVE to be vigorous. There were even vegetarian commune projects, like Fruitlands.
Jane Austin has a few in a couple of her novels that are portrayed as being healthy and full of energy, yet refuse to hunt/eat flesh.....
Really? Which books? I don't remember this but then I tend to read only "Mansfield Park", on a regular basis...
I know that the Bronte sisters were vegetarian by choice...boarding school food will do that, and I guess "Lowood" really did it! ;)b
Aha...I knew I'd intrigue the Yabbit with that one!!! Sadly, I don't know.... My sister is the Austen fan, and told me which ones a while back, where I have since forgotten....
Also along the lines of the American Transcendentalist lines....I had an "AHA!!" moment last night where I couldn't bring myself to come downstairs and turn on the comp. etc etc...to come to this thread....BUT the book "Little Women" came to mind just when I was about to fall asleep.... If I'm remembering correctly, the entire March family is vegetarian!!! Okay, I did what I promised myself I'd do last night..
I think the only books that get veg*ns right are veg*n cookbooks. :P
BUT the book "Little Women" came to mind just when I was about to fall asleep.... If I'm remembering correctly, the entire March family is vegetarian!!! Okay, I did what I promised myself I'd do last night..
As I recall, Bronson Alcott was one of the co-founders (and was the one who stuck to it) of Fruitlands, a vegetarian commune. His daughter was Luisa May.
I think the only books that get veg*ns right are veg*n cookbooks. :P
Hehe, as I was reading the thread I was thinking of the picture and blurb in the front of Laural's Kitchen.
Do you remember the Baby-Sitter's club? Dawn was a vegetarian. And I remember that the other characters sometimes made a fuss about it. But Dawn was fun, she was from California!
Sorry, that's the only character that comes to my mind right now. ;)
I read a chick-lit, girly book called "Vegan Virgin Valentine" when I was younger. I wasn't vegan at the time, so I can't remember how it resonated with me. But I think it was good. I don't remember her veganism being an issue. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it as thought-provoking, riveting read, though. It's, ya know, mushy girly fluff. :-*
Haha, Tibby from the Traveling Pants series was a vegetarian.
She was portrayed as rather normal from what I can recall.
off topic as well.....I saw the movie About a Boy a long while ago and the mom was vegetarian and raising the boy to be too and I remember it being portrayed in a negative way, and I think in the end they even showed them all eating turkey, like she gave in or something. I can't remember exactly, but I remember not liking it (but liking the movie because I am fond of Hugh Grant).
Did anyone else see this?
i do know of some kid books that have a great veg message, but I can't think of any adult ones....ask TinTexas-I think she had a thread like this on Stemma.
I've been off to the Kerrville Folk Festival so I didn't see the thread until now. The thread on stemma didn't turn up much in the way of positive veg*n-related fiction or veg*n characters in fiction. I found a juvenile book by accident when I came across a link to a library in Midland or Odessa that's called Sunshine Rider, the First Vegetarian Western by Ric Lynden Hardman that's a fun read. Most of the time in fiction if they want to make a character certifiably weird and not spend a lot of words/time doing it, they make the character a veg*n! Vegwebbers who write need to write books with real life veg*n characters. ;)
Do you remember the Baby-Sitter's club? Dawn was a vegetarian. And I remember that the other characters sometimes made a fuss about it. But Dawn was fun, she was from California!
Sorry, that's the only character that comes to my mind right now. ;)
I was about to chime in with Dawn! In one of the early books she ordered chicken, but I think overall she was straight-up veg and also never ate junk food (her and Stacy were the "healthy" ones). Dawn's brother Jeff and stepmother Carol were also vegetarians. Did Dawn's mom give up vegetarianism for Mary Anne's father, or was she a veg too?
You know where you find more vegetarian characters is in the comics section. I swear, there's a legion of veg*n cartoonists - Darby Conley, Patrick McDonnell, Scott Adams, Dan Piraro, etc. Rob in Get Fuzzy is vegetarian, and while Bucky gives him a hard time, Bucky gives everyone a hard time. Also, Junior, Larry the Croc's son in Pearls Before Swine, is a vegetarian to his dad's dismay; but the dad is portrayed as the dumb one. Mutts has no specifically veg characters but it constantly has pro-veg/pro-animal messages, much like Bizarro and now Deflocked. And Huey in The Boondocks is a vegetarian as well (or at least, he is in the television show). A negative portrayal was Hector's militant veg girlfriend Autumn in Zits, but it was funny as well. They're all over the comics!
Do you remember the Baby-Sitter's club? Dawn was a vegetarian. And I remember that the other characters sometimes made a fuss about it. But Dawn was fun, she was from California!
I was about to chime in with Dawn! In one of the early books she ordered chicken, but I think overall she was straight-up veg and also never ate junk food (her and Stacy were the "healthy" ones). Dawn's brother Jeff and stepmother Carol were also vegetarians. Did Dawn's mom give up vegetarianism for Mary Anne's father, or was she a veg too?
haha I read those books....but I apparently have a piece of crap memory...b/c I don't remember anything about them...I kind of remember the name Dawn...
I love Roald Dahl...and in the Omnibus he has a couple of stories (very dark) involving vegetarianism. I think it's more about a dark, negative view/twist of meat eating....but I'm sure everyone would interpret it a little differently. Anyone know what I'm talking about?
eta: It's called "Pig" btw.
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