“Inspiring Songs” Series #4: “America”…
[Note 1 from Steve: Missing something? For those of you who enjoyed reading my politically-oriented articles about current events in the US and around the world, you’ll now find them at http://pubprogressive.com. Please drop by if you’re interested.]
[Note 2 from Steve: If you’ve downloaded “Mayhem, Murder, and Music,” the free collection of short crime fiction—see the “Free Stuff & Contests” web page if you haven’t—you know that music often inspires me. It’s always been part of my life. I even attempted once to write a Broadway-style musical based on Huxley’s Ape and Essence (it’s now shredded—I didn’t get much further than a rousing march, “Seventy-Six Trombones” in an apocalyptic setting). This series of posts was also inspired by music. I might even repeat some of the songs from that collection! Enjoy.]
The version of “America” considered in this article isn’t the bastardization of the UK’s “God Save the Queen”; it isn’t the song that many in the US think should be the US national anthem either. It’s Neil Diamond’s song (yep, another one!). My roomie in college couldn’t understand how I liked Neil Diamond, One colleague at my old day-job thought he’s corny and anyone who liked him is too (including me). Tough. Musical tastes are as subjective as reading tastes. My feedback to them was always that Mr. Diamond is a talented songwriter who not only sings his own songs well but wrote songs for other famous soloists and groups. I have yet to hear a Neil Diamond song I didn’t like. So here’s another: “America.”
Some readers of this blog might remember that song as the anthem for the failed Dukakis presidential campaign. (Michael didn’t fail in his bid for the presidency because of the song, although it generated some anti-immigrant sentiment from the fascist Good Ole Piranhas even back then. Papa Bush played dirty by pulling that Willie Horton trick on Michael, and we were saddled with another Good Ole Piranha in service to the American plutocracy—Papa Bush was the cowboy’s VP; Reagan and Bush started us down the path to fascism.)
You might not remember the real reason Dukakis chose this song. Both he and Diamond were celebrating America as a land of immigrants, that is, our country’s diversity. This is an important theme throughout my novels, even in my sci-fi stories. (What’s more diverse than a bunch of physiologically different ETs and their strange cultures?)
No one ever accused Diamond or Dukakis of practicing cultural appropriation, though. (Papa Bush also played the race card with that Willie Horton ad, making a false equivalence between blacks and criminals to the delight of American racists who, unfortunately, can vote.) You might know I have no use for the anti-cultural appropriation movement. I celebrate our diversity and always have, long before Diamond recorded “America” in 1980. As far as I’m concerned, I equate anti-cultural appropriation sentiments to racist ones; they pretend just the opposite. (What!? An old white guy can’t like reggae?)
Most of my characters are human beings, therefore they’re a diverse bunch. Dao-Ming Chen and Jenny Wong aren’t stereotypes because I’ve lived and worked with Chinese, from childhood to the present. (I grew up in California. My in-laws, by way of an older brother, were Chinese-Americans; my immediate boss in my old-day job was Chinese-American, by way of Taiwan; a dear colleague was too, by way of Vancouver; and my wonderful next-door neighbors were Chinese-American professors.) My parents best friends were Armenian-Americans, providing my first taste of wine as well as stories about the Armenian holocaust at the hands of the Turks (California has a large Armenian community), although I don’t have any Armenian characters. I’m not Latino, but I was once so immersed in Latino culture that I dreamed in Spanish. I felt no qualms about writing about Rolando Castilblanco, Mary Jo Melendez, and Penny Castro in the first person. (Okay, I’ve never had any ET friends or colleagues, but cut me some slack!)
When it’s all said and done, an American author has to delve deeply into diversity if their fiction has any chance of seeming real. The same goes for the UK and so forth, where I look to celebrate diversity as well. None of my characters are stereotypes, although I’ve often created characters who often treat them that way, usually bad actors in my novels. That’s part of reality too, in the world beyond the US that authors all too often neglect…at their peril, I might add. My books should have an international appeal because of this.
“America” celebrates US diversity, of course. My stories go beyond that to the diversity of our wonderfully complex wider world. Again my motto “Around the world and to the stars!” applies. My characters travel to many places, and I try to celebrate the diversity in each one. Sometimes that goes even as far as machine intelligences (Rogue Planet, Mind Games, and Time Traveler’s Guide through the Multiverse are examples). As far as I know, Diamond never wrote a song about robots or androids, but he did write one about an ET. (I leave you with a challenge: Have some fun trying to place all the characters I’ve mentioned in their stories…and that ET celebrated in a Diamon song!)
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Comments are always welcome!
“Mary Jo Melendez Mysteries.” A trilogy that’s definitely binge-able! Meet the MECHs (“Mechanically Enhanced Cybernetic Humans”). In the first novel, Muddlin’ Through, ex-USN Master-at-Arms, now working in security at a firm with Pentagon contracts, is framed for her sister and brother-in-law’s murders when a secret US agency covers up their incompetence in letting the MECHs be stolen by Russian operatives; Mary Jo goes around the world to prove her innocence. In #2, Silicon Slummin’…and Just Gettin’ By, Mary Jo finds a new job in the Silicon Valley, only to have CIA and Russian agents pursue her to find out where the MECHs are hiding…and someone else is also stalking her! In #3, Goin’ the Extra Mile, China kidnaps her family to make her reveal the MECHs location, and she must take on the entire Ministry of State Security in Beijing. Rapid action and intrigue await the reader in this series, available wherever quality ebooks are sold.
Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!
