Well, it should be but the polarising politics of the USA are having an effect on the American literary world. Authors (and film directors) who I've followed are tending to take political sides (in USA that just means being a Democrat or a Republican) and trying to influence their readers via their characters. I find this to be annoying.
A writer I followed for a while is C.J. Box who created the Joe Pickett series of a game warden in Wyoming and wrote the Big Sky series which also screened on TV. The stories were great and the characters strong so that they transferred well to the screen. The problem is though that, over time (the last couple of presidential terms in USA) Box became more and more reactionary, populating his novels and the story-lines with MAGA sentiment and becoming anti-woke and conspiratorial. It got to the point where I stopped reading the novels - in the middle of one actually like I did with Lee and Andrew Child novels - and won't continue with him.
I was interested in seeing how many others thought this and a Google search took me to a Reddit site where a reader started a thread:
"As someone who is finding themselves really enjoying this series, are the books worth reading?
I feel like coming here and asking this question, the obvious answer is going to be yes, so I guess I have two more specific questions. Are they quick reads? Like 200-300 pages each? And do they get political at all or do they steer away from having a political slant?
I enjoy reading books and watching shows about this type of lifestyle, military thrillers, hunters, living off the grid type stuff. Guys like Stephen Hunter, Lee Child, Barry Eisler, etc. It is just something so different from my own life experience.
However, I have found that a few authors do seem a little too eager to take digs at ‘liberals’ or go on ‘democrats are bad’ rants in a way that never feels relevant at all to the story and more like the author or writer blowing off steam or venting their own frustrations.
Not trying to start a flame-war or argument here, a good example of what I mean would be, I recently read the book Whorl by James Tarr. And I actually thought that conceptually, the book had a lot of potential and some really fun ideas, and it had some great characters. However there are whole sections where Tarr just needlessly bashes Democrats, throws in a lot of thinly veiled racism or just goes way too heavy on the testosterone. I mean, in one chapter he pivots from making jokes about black people voting for democratic candidates against their interests (in a way that isn’t at all relevant to the plot) to describing one of the three female characters in a novel as ‘a walking sex popsicle’.
It isn’t as though any of this hurts my feelings, it just feels so comically misplaced and tonally jarring that it takes me right out of what would otherwise be a fun escapist conspiracy thriller and has me instead laughing at how ridiculous the whole thing comes across.
I guess I’m wondering if CJ Box falls into this same type of trap or if he manages to avoid it. Maybe that seems like an odd question but I guess, know your audience. There is definitely a bit of conservative lifestyle fantasy here so I’m just wondering how far that extends. I am really NOT trying to pick a fight or start an argument though, I genuinely have no issue with opposing political viewpoints, for the most part."
I won't bore you with other reviews except to say that there are many of them and - no surprises here - they are polarised. There's a split between the 'liberal' readers and the' right wing' readers that threatens to be violent. It's a reflection of what's going on in that country I guess.
I think I'll go back to reading the 'classics'.
Richard will expect this video clip I guess:
3 comments:
Thanks.
Thanks for that.
I’ve long held the belief that Trump is a ‘sleeper’ and now a ‘mole’. How else could his actions be explained?
The trouble is though, for the USA and the world, how many others in his entourage and amongst his advisers are also compromised other than just being power and money hungry or merely dupes?
TC
I said this in a post on 14 December 2017:
I have a theory that Donald Trump is somehow a Russian 'plant' in the USA, subtly and not so subtly furthering Russian geopolitical interests through omissions and errors that get written off as Trump's foolishness or bombasticism. Anyone who reads novelists like John Le Carre or political analysts like James Lamond will realise that Russia plays the long game.
Earlier this year US Intelligence released a report that Putin had ordered an influence campaign in the US 2016 elections in the same way as they did in 2014 when Obama placed sanctions on Russia over Ukraine issues. The US Intelligence report refers to Russian influence not being a new thing but as far back as 1981 Russia was using disinformation, media influence, blackmail and other political influence to interfere with USA policy. It's not too far fetched to imagine Trump or a Trump-like person being identified and groomed by Russia.
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