Otherways- Fiction Fanatics

I’ve been considering doing a post on novels featuring puns for several days now. I couldn’t very well do such an article without mentioning Robert Asprin’s Myth series, or Piers Anthony and his famous Xanth novels. As I did a little reading, supposedly to research for the articled, but really more because I am a world class procrastinator, I began to see a disturbing trend in the commentary.

Before we get into this, let me just point out that I don’t pay attention to a person’s race, or religion. I don’t give a damn whether they are short or tall, fat or skinny, straight or gay. I care about two things: are they kind when they can be, and are they interesting.

Maybe I shouldn’t include interesting, perhaps it is judgmental of me, but I honestly feel life is too short to surround myself with robots, so I tend to seek out those that enrich my life in some way.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled programming.

You see, a great many commentators are pushing their politically correct agenda on works that were written as fun pieces back in the seventies or early eighties, and writing scathing reviews of that author in this moment. I don’t know about you, but I am not the person I was thirty-five years ago. I was ten. I had no clue what gay meant outside of the Hardy boys series, and I wanted a pony more than anything. My views of the world were limited by my culture, and my experience.

While I’m pretty sure those authors were more than ten, they weren’t nearly as experienced then as they are now. Most of the scathing remarks seem to come from those that are in their early twenties, and I feel for them, I do. What they want is a good thing: a world where kids are allowed to become themselves without judgment.

Sometimes, though, we go too far. Creativity should never be stifled, not in a child, and not in an author. Judging an author today on a piece they wrote thirty years ago is no different than a college professor deciding your grade based on a book report you wrote in second grade. There is nothing wrong with suggesting alternatives, or with pointing out that a certain series tends to be sexist, or racist, or whatever you feel is damaging about it.

There is something very wrong with becoming an aggressive, cruel internet bully to prove your point. After all, these kids that you say you want to protect from unhealthy stereotypes will read what you and others write. If you really want those kids to experience a kinder world, then you should probably demonstrate one.

Plus, we’ve already seen the alternative. When we as a culture decided that there was a “right” way to write, we churned out things like the infamous Dick and Jane readers. The culture at the time thought these were suitable, appropriate, and healthy. Children found them boring, and modern culture finds them both sexist and racist.

There isn’t a single right way to be. Each person’s life is their own, unique, and appropriate to themselves. Literature gives us windows into the past, into societies we agree with, and ones we would happily destroy. It isn’t meant to mirror a perfect world. It is art. It should make you feel, or make you think, but it should never bend to the will of anyone besides the person creating it. Enjoy it, or move on, there are other works just waiting to be found.

Cheers,

Michelle