I wish writers would keep their political opinions out of their books.

[raccoon]

Unless there is a REASON for it, such as the book deals with a political issue or election.

I refer to Rita Mae Brown. I'm close to the end of CAT OF THE CENTURY (So-so, not one of her best) and when her characters lecture about taxation, government regulation, etc., I find it very tiresome.

[LetsgoWings13]

1. Like watching some movies ;)

[Richardo]

2. That character gets a verbal smackdown by Vice President Biden on the second-to-last page.

:thumbsup:


OK, not really. I've never read Rita Mae Brown.

[panader0]

3. It seems like that would eliminate a lot of great books.

How about 'The Grapes of Wrath' or 'The Jungle' etc.?

[raccoon]

8. In those cases, it had to do with the theme of the book. not so in the case I mentioned. nt

[The_Commonist]

4. Well that's just silly...

Says the guy writing a novel chock-full of political opinions.

[AngryAmish]

5. like Ayn Rand

OK, if the political stuff was out of her books the Fountainhead would be ten pages long.

[sui generis]

7. I like Ayn Rand

warts and all.

I don't agree with her end-state philosophy, but there are elements of her early work that have merit.

[uncommon]

18. And it would be ten pages of rape fantasy.

That book is garbage.

[sui generis]

6. the sign of really good writing is that the character

demonstrates their views, rather than says them.

If I tell you I'm mad about taxation it's not nearly as interesting *or true to life* than if I DO something to show the audience that I'm mad about taxation.

In real life we don't usually go around preaching our talking points. I mean, look at teabaggers. They hastily throw together a mispeeled irrelevant sign, and you KNOW their stupid. They don't even have to tell you. If you want them to demonstrate how mad they are about how scared they are just say the magic word "o-ba-ma" and watch them demonstrate.

[pinboy3niner]

9. Yours is a legitimate gripe

Aside from books that have a political theme, politics has no place . It's OK to take nonpartisan shots at government, but injecting partisan politics into pop fiction is just wong.

I'm with you. Even when the author takes MY side, politically, I'm disappointed.

[asjr]

10. I am sorry to hear that because I have been

a fan of Rita Mae Brown for ages. I love her Mrs. Murphy books.

[RaleighNCDUer]

11. Are you sure that is HER political opinion? Might it not be her character's

political opinion?

Brown has written a LOT of books, and knows better than to put politics in for its own sake - if she has a character spouting politics I should think it would be to apprise the reader of the character's mind set. Particularly a mystery writer, who sprinkles clues to motivation throughout the novel.

Then again, maybe with the economy as it is she's just writing for the check, and isn't taking time to carefully delete extraneous material.

That's the good thing about a book - you can just set it down and walk away, and nobody will think the worse of you for it.

[Jim__]

12. Political opinions are part of life.

As such, they belong in books. Of course it depends on how it is handled. In a book, a character expressing a political opinion is perfectly valid; an author using a character to preach usually doesn't work.

Phillip Roth includes graphic sex scenes in most of his books. But, sex is part of life; and the artificial thing to do is to avoid the sex scenes. Same for characters expressing legitimate political opinions.

[hippywife]

13. This opinion is closest to my own.

It's their art, who's to tell them what they can put in and what they can't. Read it or not, I say.

:hi:

[raccoon]

14. never mind nt

[MicaelS]

15. I don't, I like writers who inject politics into their work....

I find I may not always agree with what they're writing, but a change of viewpoints can make a person think.

[Curmudgeoness]

16. I think about all of my favorite novels, and it seems that all of them have

a political statement somewhere in them. From my childhood favorite Black Beauty to The Jungle, there is some reason that they book was written---to challenge the reader in some way.

[petronius]

17. I think it's great if the book makes a statement, but it's less great when the book is

suspended so that a character can make a statement on behalf of the author. Kind of like those pithy little conversations that pop up in Law and Order all the time, where it's so obvious that they might as well just turn to the camera and make a speech...

[raccoon]

19. Exactly, Petro! Well said. nt

[TZ]

20. Most books have some political opinion in them.

Hell one of my favorite series, Darkover, is pretty much based the illustration of gender inequalities that exist in our society. However some series do get ruined by overly obvious heavy handed political preachiness. For example Terry Goodkinds "Sword of Truth" series. The first books are incredibly good (they've even made a syndicated TV show about them) but the later books are over the top in Libertarian preachiness. In one book the bad guys are obvious versions of Bill and Hilary Clinton and in one book the character is battling a group of people who are thinly modeled versions of pre-Iraq war protestors in 2003.