Too Important to Be Left to Politicians

Today, in a reader's group on Facebook, or Meta or whatever it is, a group member was frustrated that a well-known author in a best-selling book had filled the first 60 pages with "political bull" that reader had already deemed, had nothing to do with the story. She'd also assumed it was the author's political opinion.

The book nor author were named, but I could think of writers who'd been accused of using their novel to push an agenda. The first that came to mind was Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult. I'd read the book and enjoyed it, but there was much attention, positive and negative about the subject matter. Picoult has a reputation for extensive research for her novels. and this one didn't disappoint. I learned a great deal about bees, not controversial, and also was educated about gender reassignment surgery, controversial. Both of these topics were pertinent to the characters in the story, but that was not apparent in the early chapters. I considered it educational since Picoult cowrote the novel with an expert in the medical field.

So, we live in strange times. What used to be, is not anymore. One of my favorite things about being an author, is doing research for a character or storyline. I'm currently working on a book with a Native American character whose grandmother grew up in an "Indian School." This interested me after reading There, There by Tommy Orange and watching Little Bird on Netflix. I had only recently become aware of these schools. We were never taught about them in our history classes. It's not a pretty part of American history, but it is relevant to the condition of the indigenous people in this country. So, the facts of what I researched will play a part and be included in the history of one of the characters. It could be controversial, I guess. I don't really know, but it interested me and it's my book, so it's part of the story.

I'm 72 and not really interested in playing it safe with my opinions or what I write. I've made decisions in the last few years that could garner agreement or severe disagreement, but so be it. Authors and other creative artists have a platform and can influence people's opinions and frustrate people, apparently. We can play it safe or put it all out there and see what happens. I would hold Taylor Swift up as an example. (Have you seen the video of her talking with her father and business manager about expressing her opinions on politics? They urged her to keep her opinion to herself because it would cost her a segment of her fans. However, she was distraught at being unable to express her true feelings.) For a creative, being unable to share is stifling.

I have a basic value about the whole thing, first do no harm. What does it hurt to present an idea for consideration? It might frustrate a reader, cause a reader to think, anger a reader, but it doesn't hurt. In fact, one might consider that it could strengthen someone around the broken spot. Maybe the reader will throw the book across the room and stop reading. That's their right.

Authors are aware of author intrusion and when asked to critique writing it's often mentioned as part of the critique, but it's always left to the author about whether to edit out anything that's solely their own and not the character's. On the other hand, the character happens to be theirs too. So, as a reader I'm not opposed to reading controversial, well-researched characters with opinions that conflict with mine. If I liked the story, I would still give it a positive review.

That reminds me of a review I received on one of my novels. The reader JoAnne J. wrote: " I loved this first book, looking forward to the series. And then at the end of the book was a statement about the bogus 'me too' movement. If you want people to buy your books, keep your politics out of it."

Here is the thing. I mentioned the Me Too movement in the backmatter of the book. Over the years, I've played Mah Jongg with various groups of women of all ages. Of course, we talk about the current topics of the day and during this particular time the Me Too movement was gaining attention. There were five of us in the group and after one of us revealed an incident of sexual harassment that had happened to her, we all revealed our own. That day in a group of five women, 100% of us had been sexually harassed. And, in my early days of working summers between college semesters, I could recall numerous other incidents. So, I gave one of my main characters, Meg Miller, in Dickens of a Crime, a sexual harassment incident to deal with that resulted in panic attacks throughout her life. I did this because this is the real-life experience of women of her age and it's relevant and I wanted to bring it attention and it knows no politics. And, if I was writing this story again, I'd do the same thing. Mention of the Me Too movement is still in the back of the book, because I'm the author and I want it there., or maybe I'll move it to the front.

In my opinion, authors, especially best-selling authors, write because they love to. It's a creative process and it involves scary emotions and situations. They tell stories that make readers feel and think. So, authors can play it safe and write boring stuff with no substance. Or, my preference, readers can stop reading if they don't want to be scared, angry, or frustrated. The truth is, almost everything is political now and as Warren Rudman says, "Politics is too important to be left to the politicians."