The world is changing faster than you can
write - technologically, politically, environmentally etc. How do roll with the
changes in your fiction?
- from Susan
By taking the
easy way out. My stories are all set right now. Where technology is concerned,
that means no need for historical research into things like flat screen TVs and
cell phones, like pal Cara Black has to do for her mid-1990’s series, or
Sue Grafton has to do for hers. The problem with near history is we’ve
all lived it and can spot anachronistic errors instantly. Remember the blinking
green c-prompt on the dark screen (shudder)?
Politically? I
avoid the topical political environment since it changes daily, as in “Breaking
News: The White House has …” But my characters live in a world that is shaped
by national and local political realities, even if I don’t enumerate them. In
the third Dani O’Rourke novel, the slippery ethics of Silicon Valley and
anti-social acquisitiveness of the one percenters play a major role in the
story. Tim Hallinan’s Poke Rafferty series stands out for me because he
shines an unblinking light on the corruption of the Thai government without sacrificing
one iota of gripping story.
In fiction, I
haven’t tackled the environment in the U.S. or France, where my new series is
set. I wonder if I could do that without turning my traditional mysteries into
angry screeds or dark stories about greed, collusion, and tragedy? I think,
even if I could avoid that, my books would take a different turn and I’m not
sure I could do that well. Could I hold a reader’s interest or would I turn her
off if I had a character researching the garbage gyre(s) in the Pacific Ocean
or the shocking loss of avian species since 1900? Maybe I can figure out a way.
I suggest you read Kirk Russell’s Deadgame
as a prime example of the best environmental crime fiction.
I have read some
crime fiction that handles some or all of these issues brilliantly. But as
often as not, the inclusion of a major plotline about politics or the environment
falls with a thud as it morphs quickly into lightly or vastly paranoic lines –
a protagonist fighting Them (and They are frequently dark government forces who
want to kill anyone trying to save the planet). Not sure that does much good
for reforming real political landscapes or protecting the fingerling salmon in
California from drought or polluted waterways.
The question is
a good one though, and it may make me a bit more conscious of the need and
value of reminding readers of what we stand to lose when we don’t bring these
issues into our daily lives and deal with them.
Susan, it's hard to deal with politics sometimes in fiction because A) it's so topical and B) it often turns into a polemic diatribe. And when that happens, even if I agree, it turns me off and stops the action dead.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Susan, that it is best to leave politics to the news media. Readers usually chose fiction so they can escape the political swamp swirling around them. Good post.
ReplyDeleteI agree as well about heavy politics. Crime fiction is in ways about prompting change, but only through the characters' actions.
ReplyDeleteI see we're all on the same page vis a vis incorporating any contemporary politics into our writing. I think I'd feel a lot differently if I were writing historical fiction/ How do any of you feel about that?
ReplyDeleteSusan, my novel White Heat, which takes place during and partially in the middle of the Rodney King riots, deals with politics and/or culture to some extent. But first and foremost it's a mystery-thriller.
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