Authors and social issues…
I know I’ve probably made some readers of this blog furious with me after reading some of my recent op-eds. Maybe some are even boycotting my books. Others, though, might like that the author who wrote them has enough courage to discuss social issues, both in his books and in those op-eds? I’ll never refrain from speaking my mind just because gurus tell me that I must do so if I want to sell more books. To hell with that!
Authors are often scared of taking a stand on social issues. If they’re traditionally published, their publishers will tell them to shut up too. (And yet they still publish Ayn Rand and Michael Crichton?) If they’re self-published, other authors and marketing people might also advise, “Don’t offend anyone.”
I’ve already offended a lot of people, I suspect, since I started publishing my stories in 2006—climate-change deniers; NRA members; extremists in both parties, especially faux conservatives who are Trump supporters (do they even read? Il Duce doesn’t); and so forth. Do I care? No! If those people don’t want to read what I write, so be it. They might be missing out on some good stories, but it’s a free country, right? (Trump might change that, especially if he does the Putin- or Xi-trick and takes twelve more years, but by then I’ll be in a place where I can convince St. Peter to send him straight to you-know-where when he tries to get in through the pearly gates.)
Given my offenses, I’m not surprised I receive some negative book reviews. In today’s toxic publishing environment, that’s par for the course in general. I was surprised by a recent review of my new novel A Time Traveler’s Guide through the Multiverse, though. While I thank the reviewer for the time spent reading and reviewing the book, the snarky little aside insinuating feminists will boycott the book left me shaking my head. I just don’t understand this comment. I champion strong, smart women in many of my stories. One reason I wrote the main character the way I did was because I think the “women can’t do math” and “women aren’t good at science” crowd make countries lose a lot of good mathematicians and scientists, even medical personnel. STEM in the US if for both girls and boys! That my main character also has learned some self-defense tricks is intended to be an indictment against a society that often does too little to control abuse of and violence on women. Lamentably the reviewer missed these two nuances!
Readers who bury their heads in the sand at the very least miss the whole point of books. (If Trump has read 1984, he certainly didn’t understand it…or learned nothing from it, because what he and his minions spew is doublespeak.) Have the anti-cultural appropriation people read To Kill a Mockingbird? How could Harper Lee, a white woman and Southern to boot, dare write about black America? I bet no CEO of a polluting corporation has read Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring either. How dare she criticize Corporate America without being a member of that community!
Good books (few cozies or bodice rippers qualify) point out the critical issues and flaws present in American society…and the world’s. Ayn Rand’s books (arguably terribly written, and maybe Rand Paul’s bibles? why is he a senator?), educated me had a negative effect on me, teaching me about the abuses of capitalism and how it easily can turn into fascism—I still learned from them. Koestler’s Darkness at Noon and Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm did the same for communism. (Considering World War II, it’s ironic that the Soviet Union, a US ally, was a fascist state, with its leader, Joseph Stalin, as evil as Hitler, and responsible for killing just as many Jews and others, as the Nazi leader.) The greatest books make us feel uncomfortable, and that’s a good thing.
We have both fiction and non-fiction books whose authors practice this eternal and best aspect of literature. Escapist fluff that encourages readers to leave off their thinking caps has no redeeming or lasting social or cultural value. Their fads will come and go, but the eternal themes like justice for all people and a moral imperative to make the world a better place live on forever. As much as I hate Dicken’s slummy.19th-century sob stories, Tale of Two Cities will always stay with me: “Greater love has no more than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John, 5:13). Les Miserables has a similar eternal message, but Dickens’s novel is shorter…and better.
I won’t waste my time writing fluff, and I won’t avoid speaking my mind either. Yes, publishing is a business, but I’d still recommend those two points of view to all authors. You want to present both sides of an issue? Sure, go ahead. Most issues aren’t even yin and yang but multifaceted, so twists and turns in plots easily follow. The important thing is to create a conversation with your prose. Maybe some readers talk about the last cozy or bodice ripper they’ve read. I haven’t met them. But what’s to discuss? I don’t see the point. As a reader, I want a meaningful book, even though the primary emphasis is to entertain. As a writer, I want to create such books. ‘Nough said.
***
Comments are always welcome.
“Esther Brookstone Art Detective.” Esther begins her adventures in this series as a Scotland Yard inspector with an MI6 background as an ex-spy during the Cold War. Interpol agent Bastiann van Coevorden enters as her paramour. The wags at the Yard have nicknamed them Miss Marple and Hecule Poirot, but those adventures are very 21st century, with mystery, suspense, and thriller elements. In the first two novels, Rembrandt’s Angel and Son of Thunder, poor Bastiann has to deal with Esther’s obsessions. In the first, she’s obsessed with recovering a painting stolen by the Nazis in World War II. In the second, she’s obsessed with finding St. John’s tomb using written directions left by the Renaissance painter Botticelli. In the third, Death on the Danube (soon to be published), Esther and Bastiann’s honeymoon is interrupted by a murder on their riverboat. Available wherever quality books are sold.
Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!
