Hmm, a lot of talk lately about an older Orson Scott Card book. I do believe talk is good. However, some of that talk is about silencing ideas and opinions. I’m against that sort of talk, and here’s why.
I hate suppressing literature, even literature with some really vile and terrible ideas, because in a free and open society you have to be able to read the thoughts and ideas of various voices. The idea of the value of literature, and that certain literature must meet some criteria to be of value to society, raises some issues. What and whose values are we taking into consideration? By what standard are we judging these values? There was a time when a book like Ginsberg’s “Howl” would have never seen the light of day, in fact Howl was almost banned, and I’m sure the gatekeepers of “decency” have suppressed many such works throughout the years. Somewhere, in an alternative universe, there is a library of all the books that were banned that could have had a profound effect on our society.
So I often ask myself if it’s a good idea to chastise a publisher for daring to publish something that’s just outright offensive to my moral values? Would I rather those who don’t share my moral views be silenced? No, because I want their thinking made clear and out in the open. I want to know, as best I am able, how this person with a different viewpoint arrived at their particular place of reasoning or rationalizing.
However, what if this particular book is harming people? Really? What book has ever been the direct cause of harming people? What video game or movie has managed to massively change the minds of many people to the point that they acted out in a way that harmed someone? Well, the Bible, the Koran, the Communist Manifesto, The Road to Serfdom, etc., etc., someone might argue. I could probably point to many books and claim that they are the source for a lot of pain and hardship, because people read those books and attempted to live the ideas they presented. However, thousands of people read and live by the Bible, but they don’t bomb abortion clinics. I’ve read the Communist Manifesto and The Road to Serfdom and haven’t made one attempt to change a political or economic system–well, I’ve voted, but I’m not sure how much that actually counts. I’ve read Ender’s Game and haven’t managed to commit Xenocide. All of that to say, writing a monster manual probably isn’t necessary for making monsters–they exists, and the books just tend to align with a worldview that’s already in place, not create it.
Understand, I’m not trying to defend or apologize for Orson Scott Card’s works. I think the place he’s coming from is misguided and irrational. He lives in a closed community that believes reality operates in a way that it doesn’t. He seems to believe, like many Mormons whose works and opinions I’ve read, that homosexuality is not a state of being, but a practiced behavior. In other words, they believe it’s a choice. In their world, God’s will for every person on Earth is to engage in male female only sexual intercourse. That should be [by today's claims, not their history] between one man and one woman. That is the way they believe reality exists today, and those are the values they tend to defend as The Truth.
We as humans are in a constant conversation with reality. It’s far better when we do all the listening, because reality is regularly instructing us. I fall prey to the belief that I am the captain of my own ship and that I steer the wheel to my own destiny constantly, so I do have some sympathy for the misguided souls who try to take an even greater control over reality. They wish to instruct reality, despite reality’s obvious disagreements. There is an impossible goal of many humans to shape and form reality for all humans with the justification that it is for the greater good. It could be argued that if all humans followed a Conservative ideology, despite their own feelings and desires to the contrary, that we would would have a safe little society with very little variation where everyone knows their place. The inverse is also true that if everyone followed a Progressive ideology that we would have a more equal society with very little variation where everyone knows their place. This desire to simplify reality through ideology is such a temptation. We tool using animals almost can’t help ourselves, because we know that the best working tribe is one that gets along, and the more alike we think, the more we’ll get along, and the more we all get along, the more the tribe prospers. We’re very disappointed in the other members of the tribe who think differently. Sometimes that disappointment manifests as strong words, sometimes as violence, and sometimes as war.
I only say all of that to point out the obvious, that this is the animal that we are. We are a mixture of tribes and ideas sharing a single environment. Sometimes the shit from another tribe flows into our village. We all gather around and want desperately for that shit to no longer exists, but there’s a lot that can be learned about an animal by studying its shit.
Who are we as a tribe if we try to oppress ideas, even the oppressive ideas of a rather vocal majority? Who are we as a tribe if we allow those ideas to take root in our village? You see, I think the kind of shit that Orson Scott Card produces should be read and examined. I think this current conversation in the community is a good thing. It gives us a chance to solidify our understanding of where we are as a community of thinkers and creators. I don’t want works like his adding to the pain and suffering of a group of people who are treated as non-citizens, believe me that’s the last thing I want, but I also don’t want us to be ignorant of what these other villagers think and feel–and for those who are not experiencing the pain first hand, it’s also an opportunity to discover how people we align ourselves with think and feel. We often want to so easily label and be done with a thing, that we miss the opportunity to truly analyze the ideas and see where that person stepped off the path that we believe is the correct one–and to reaffirm with each other, what is the state of the path. Ignorance is never a value.
Speculative Literature is a conversation with many voices. The texture and complexity of these voices are reflections and echoes of our experiences and ideas. To silence one of these voices is a crime, but so is failing to address it. Orson Scott Card is a talented writer, a deft story teller, a good teacher of the craft, and a member of the community that makes up Speculative Fiction writers.
Is silencing his voice a good idea? Maybe it is. Maybe there’s a time when it’s best to just shut the mouths of those causing pain. Then again, maybe this is a test of our resolve, our compassion, our desire to expose the truth, and to reflect on our own ignorance. I don’t know. I’m far more into asking questions than arriving at simple answers.
Because I linked directly to Willow’s post on this subject, I want to directly say that I do hope greatly that “we can collectively drown out the poisonous bile spewed by Orson Scott Card with a wildly diverse chorus of love and acceptance, anger and hope and beautiful fantastic visions of queer liberation.” I took that quote directly from Willow’s site and agree with it 100%.
Additionally, some might read this as a strawman argument, because there hasn’t been a lot of talk about silencing OS Card. For one, I’m pretty sure that’s going to be impossible. The man just has too many readers. Additionally, there are a lot of conservative thinkers in the speculative fiction community who might agree with him, if not directly, then as an ally. But I do want to address the danger of silencing voices in the speculative fiction community. I would hope that would be something we don’t need to do. Additionally, I don’t want publishers getting skittish, feeling that they can’t publish something controversial for fear of community wide outrage. There are many forms of censorship, and I believe we should generally avoid those forms when possible.
Not a heck of a lot to report right now. I have three stories out right now looking for publication; one sort of dark post-apocalyptic science fiction, another very short horror story, and another very short Gothic fantasy. I really haven’t been writing a lot lately. July is always a slow month for me anyway, because I typically keep my daughter for that month, and we’re normally doing stuff.
I have been watching a lot of Doctor Who lately. Generally, I’m not that big on television shows. I’d really rather write than watch TV, but there’s something about the world and characters of Doctor Who that’s kind of captured my fascination. So I’m watching all the new episodes and a few of the older ones. I did watch a few of these when I was a kid, but I don’t have the sort of diehard fan commitment that a lot of sci-fi folks seem to have toward the good Doctor.
I saw Avatar: The Last Airbender with the kiddo the other night. It’s terrible. I just don’t see how someone could screw up the movie that bad. I mean, did he even watch the cartoon? Why didn’t he just hire the original writers to work on the script? I believe this is what working in a vacuum can do to your creativity.
I am stocked about seeing Inception though. It looks fantastic. Very exciting stuff.
So I am working on cleaning up a few of my older works to get them out there door. It’s a little slow going, but I’m ok with that. I have another old novel I was working on about seven years ago that I’ve pulled out of the folder and started rethinking. I think I can start committing more time to my writing after July. So hopefully you’ll see more work come out of me.
Publications however, are beyond my control. I’m doing my best to get more work polished and out the door, but there’s not much I can do about not getting acceptances, accept try to write better.
This from Hitchcock by Francois Truffaut [originally found this on Mystery Man on Film's old blog]
“In many of the films now being made, there is very little cinema: they are mostly what I call ‘photographs of people talking.’ When we tell a story in cinema, we should resort to dialog only when it’s impossible to do otherwise. I always try to tell a story in the cinematic way, through a succession of shots and bits of film in between.
“It seems unfortunate, that with the arrival of sound, the motion picture, overnight, assumed a theatrical form. The mobility of the camera doesn’t alter this fact. Even though the camera may move along the sidewalk, it’s still theatre.
“One result of this is the loss of cinematic style, and another is the loss of fantasy. In writing a screenplay, it is essential to separate clearly the dialog from the visual elements and, whenever possible, to rely more on the visual than on the dialog. Whichever way you choose to stage the action, your main concern is to hold the audience’s fullest attention.
“Summing it up, one might say that the screen rectangle must be charged with emotion.”
I had a great weekend at the David Farland workshop. I learned a lot about the publishing industry that I didn’t know or understand before. I now feel armed with a few more tools.
This is not a class for beginners. We went over the process of writing, a little, but most of the material we covered had to do with making yourself a marketable writer. I have a few changes in mind for War Dogs of Mars. However, I managed to hit most of the high points David talked about. I have one big change to make, but otherwise, it’s good to go.
I’m doing the final redraft of my “Dream Singer” story. I’m cutting down by at least 20%. That should put it in the right range for the first place I want to send it. I’m really proud of this story. I feel like this is the first one that has actually managed to meet my expectations. Basically, this is the kind of story I like to read.
I’m excited about this weekend. I’m spending it in the company of best-selling author David Farland. I’m attending one of his workshops. This one is called “Write that Novel!” which seems pretty much perfect for me. I have totally stalled on War Dogs of Mars’ progress.
This looks like a comprehensive course. I’m going in with my ears open and ready to learn.
I do feel the need to talk about something that relates to my writing and my personal journey as a person. First, I need to say that my personal journey as a human has been greatly enriched by writing. I’ve learned more and experienced more than I think I ever would have had I not made this attempt. Writing has made me more the person I want to be. I’m not complete yet, but I feel like I’m getting there.
Second, I feel like I’ve made some fantastic progress lately. Coming up with new material and putting in a form that actually reads like a story is working. The focus on the Transformational Character Arc has allowed me to write the type of stories I want.
Third, I’ve embraced a sort of writer’s faith. This is a trust you have to build in your process. I wrote a short story recently in one sitting without an outline. Admittedly, the story is a tad cliché, but the fact that I was able to crank out something 5k long without planning is a plus for me.
Fourth, I have come to love the revision process. I faced my fear of grammar and discovered it was a foolish one. Even now I am looking back on the path where that fear passed me by and I realize it was silly and unfounded. So now I dive into my line edits with a completely new attitude. I no longer fear the later stage line edits. In fact, they’ve been a joy.
So I should have “Dream Singer” revised soon and going out the door. Maybe this will be a professional sale? We’ll see.
FENCON VI is drawing to a close. It’s been an interesting little con. I haven’t written as much as I wanted to while here, but have had a really good time meeting some new folks and spending some time talking with friends I don’t see nearly enough.
My hunger for writing flash is back. I think I might try to spend some time [after the novel is finished] working on a collection of flash stories set around some sort of theme. I’m not sure what that theme is, but it shouldn’t be too hard to come up with something.
There were some really great ideas on marketing tossed around in the flash panel. I’m thinking about putting some of these ideas to use here on the site. I know in the next year I want to put together an illustrated chapbook. I have an idea who I want to use as an artist.
Added later: Here’s a good way to make a nice single page chapbook. I think I might take one of my previously published flash stories and put it in this format with a nice external and internal illustration. I want to use it as a type of calling card, but I need to put a few things in place first.
Well, I’m going to take advantage of the two hours I have left in the room here and try to get more of the short story down, then I need to go say goodbye to everyone and try to spend some time with my kiddo before taking her back to her mother’s house.
OK, here’s my mini con report:
The panel on really bad movies, writing flash fiction, and the workshop on making armor patterns were made of awesome. I didn’t really attend much else. People keep telling me to get on the panels myself, but I don’t quite feel legit yet. I want my SFWA membership first.
The judges have made their choices and yours truly was not selected, but I’m fine with that considering the quality of the stories that did win out. So go give the top picks a read and help vote for a winner. This was a lot of fun and I hope Jay’s open to doing it again in the near future.