Less Than Random Thoughts From a Science Fiction Author and Generally Good Guy [ Fawkes ]

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Why So Complicated?


Okay, someone out there explain it to me nice and simple - why does life have to be sooooooooo complicated? Hum? I'm waiting - please stop tapping your foot and staring at the ceiling. Oh! You don't understand either. Okay then, now I feel better. Just about every single person (my sainted wife excluded - TG) who is not me seems to want to complicate something which can be rather simple. Life can be simple - peace, love, and understanding. Those are not hard, are they? Apparently so. It's always peace - after I win, love - after you prove you love me, and understanding - as long as you understand I'm right and if you're not you need to change end-of-story-period-do-it-now-or-bam-right-between-the-eyes-goes-my-fist. So here's the deal: I double-promise to try very hard not to complicate anyone else's life. There, now that I've established that, you can be motivated to not complicate mine. Win-win!
Without naming names (I've found that really doesn't help), I just had to bail on listening to a friend's podcast novel. This person (male-female, I'm not sayin'), let's call them "X", seemed intent on disturbing, challenging, provoking the listeners. I, I must state up-top, am very liberal (really, more so than most can accept) and inclusive (remember, I will not complicate other's lives?), so don't get me wrong. I am very concerned with moral issues - feeding the hungry, social justice - that sort of thing. I am less concerned with morality, and am unconcerned utterly with popular morality. I am also passionate about writing - authorship skills and prowess - that stuff. I get all gooey inside when I hear Dickens turn a phrase or Steinbeck nail an metaphor. Good stuff! Likewise, I don't do mediocre writing. Well, for technical material, okay, but for creative writing, make it good or make it go away! So, when X tosses in an element, any element, I ask myself why. If all elements mesh seamlessly and the story is well crafted - well folks, we have a winner. When X makes an abrupt turn, departs from the seamless thingy and lobs-in a challenge, I have to ask why. Is it for the integrity of the story or is there an agenda which is non-literary? I recently stopped listening to Spirit Blade when it dawned on me that the author was using the vehicle of the podcast to espouse an exclusionary religious position. Unacceptable! If you want to spread vile mental-poison, do it by yourself, alone and unheard. Now X did not act so inappropriately. But, if I am forced to stop the program, suspend my-suspension of-disbelief (needed for speculative fiction), and go "Hum?" , what does that serve? Is it simply an error in craftsmanship? Is it perfectly appropriate, and I am out-on-a-limb nutz here? Or, and this is the worst-case scenario, is there a message/position/soap-box/my-way-or-the-highway/if-you-were-thinking-like-me-you'd-be-a-better-person-and-you-are-clearly-not/(or worst of all)you-will-eat-what-I-serve-you-because-I-can-and-you-will-like-it-or-you're-bigoted. Whew - that was a lot said! I do not claim to know what motivated X. What X does is X's business. X does not answer to me or have to justify X to me. My point? Do I possibly have one? Yes! What X does always need to do is entertain and wow me with their craft, if they want two rewards. The first reward X must want is to have made me a better person, uplifted by their skill. The second reward X must want is to have - and this is critically important so read well - is to have written a worthy book. A vulgar analogy. If a Nazi wishes to advance the cause, they could craft a wonderful oil painting - spellbinding landscapes, riveting human forms, like Renoir - but place a swastika in the corner. The painter would hope to draw you in with their skill but sway you to their unacceptable affiliation in the process. The painting, I state, would not be a good painting, not a work of art and should be ignored. Now, please, no one think I'm saying any X is as bad as a Nazi! I'm just explaining my reasoning. This post is long enough without me dancing around the point to not offend. I do not write to offend. If I do, I do badly. I hope to write, both here and in my books, to CHALLENGE, but never to denigrate.
Did you ever write a blog entry, and when you were done, you wondered why? Well I have........

No comments:

Post a Comment