LDS influences on Brandon Sanderson's "Mistborn"

[Mighara Sovmadhi]

Directly or indirectly, the author's faith inspired, to some extent, some of the major themes/passages of the in my quite humbled opinion--humbled, that is, before the author in question--awe-inspiring conclusion to the "Mistborn" trilogy. I want to argue for this perception here, see what kind of agreement or disagreement someone might be able to come up with regarding this idea...

Okay, in a list:

1. PRE-MORTAL COUNCIL

Spoiler

Ruin and Preservation are energies that spiritually become self-aware in the story, much as the LDS church teaches that our own spirits coalesced out of some extremely rarified matter or something. Ruin and Preservation, before human time, devise a plan for the future of the world. Preservation ends up with a secret "plan of salvation" that comes to fruition in...

2. EXALTATION

Spoiler

Vin, Elend, and Sazed are all clearly described as exalted to divine stature. Sazed in particular is guided by...

3. ALL RELIGIONS HAVING TRUTH

Spoiler

The LDS church is fairly emphatic about a quasi-pluralist approach to religious truth. When Sazed, the rejected-by-his-own-people savior (Christ, anyone?), uses his knowledge of the world's lost religions, he almost directly quotes the standard slogan of LDS interfaith tolerance at one point. --Anyone else who read this also notice the similarity between how Sazed repaired his world and how Linden Avery defeated the Sunbane?

But I was absolutely blown away, I have to say. There were like, five or so finales constituting the overall finale, and they all flowed together without any flaws I can recall right now. I think this even shows how SRD might be able to tie up a lot of the Last Chronicles, now that I think of it... It shows, that is, that it can be done, anyway.

[Orlion]

This might be better in the General Fantasy/Sci-fi forum, but that would lessen my kingdom

There are indeed "LDS influences" in Mistborn, I just would not say they are any of what you said.

Spoiler

Preservation and Ruin deal more with his "over-all 'Dark Tower type' series that'll connect all his adult fantasy (not WoT) novels". There's certainly an after life... but only Sazed could be said to have achieved anything like exaltation. And Sazed's search for 'the one true religion' is very much a common Mormon theme. Luckily, Sanderson did not follow this to the common Mormon conclusion.... to the point where I would say his 'religion containing some truth' is considerably different from the LDS position of Abraham religions being the result of apostasy and... well... at least Buddhism and Hinduism teach people to be nice.

One of the greatest influences would be:

1) No sex before marriage
2) The psuedo-Jane Austen society of the aristocracy.
3) Just how generally Vin and Elend act towards each other.

[Mighara Sovmadhi]

!!! Apologies for not redacting some parts of my original post... I didn't think about the fact that there are people who, like me, very well might not have read the ending until, say, yesterday morning...

[Orlion]

!!! Apologies for not redacting some parts of my original post... I didn't think about the fact that there are people who, like me, very well might not have read the ending until, say, yesterday morning...

Hey, not a problem, it's Murrin's problem now and frankly, he does not believe in spoilers!

The ending to the trilogy was fantastic and extremely satisfying

Spoiler

even with that afterlife hogwash.

It's because of that I trust that Sanderson can write a decent, entertaining yarn....

[Mighara Sovmadhi]

Spoiler

even with that afterlife hogwash.

I did find

Spoiler

Sazed's spontaneous discovery of life after death

kinda contrived, but it does fit with the "consciousness coalescing out of energy" metaphysics or w/e of the relevant world.

One of the things the missionaries did to try to convince me of their faith's truth was test my feelings on the Book of Mormon. When I said I got similar mystical/religious/spiritual feelings from many scriptures, they said something like, "Well, all religions have some of the truth in them, and that's what you're reacting to." I later watched their General Conference (Mormon C-SPAN via BYU's TV channel) and one of the speakers repeated the, "All religions have some truth," line, with the caveat, of course, that the ultimate truth was given with the LDS teachings. But the tolerance-slogan was... well, it definitely seemed like a slogan, like a pat answer from the missionaries and a talking-point for the GC speaker, so when I saw the very same phrase in the finale for the "Mistborn" trilogy, I figured Sanderson's upbringing had something to do with it.

OTOH, you're quite right that he adapts the slogan in a more-than-tolerant way, a way that the LDS church probably doesn't intend in itself. I think Sanderson has expressed a fairly interesting POV on the gay rights movement, too, skirting the limits of orthodoxy... IDK.

[Orlion]

Sanderson certainly is no Orson Scott Card

But ultimately, he'll probably try to steer clear of any questions or personal beliefs he has that are contrary to Mormon teachings and focus on telling his stories.. which is probably the best thing for him to do. No need to try to be both Mormonism's ambassador to the world and God's gift to Mormonism like Card seems to think he is.

[Cambo]

Bump!

Just finished these books a month or so ago. They were fantastic! On topic, I agree with Orlion's assessment that Sanderson's Mormon beliefs are more obvious in small ways than as part of the Grand Narrative. From what I understand, having only read Mistborn and a few Sanderson interviews (general Cosmere spoilers)

Spoiler

Ruin and Preservation were both "shards" of a more universal deity

. So they have much more relevance to Sanderson's deep worldbuilding than Mormonism IMO. Where it does shine through is in attitudes to sexuality and partnership. In Alloy of Law as well, his characters are damn near asexual unless involved in committed monogamy.

Overall, I wasn't surprised to learn he was Mormon, but in reading his work I've never felt preached to. I attribute this to his personal attitudes simply bleeding through into his work, rather than being deliberately placed to make a point. Hell, Steven King is a dozen times more preachy on certain topics.