tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22165230.post6398388101183841544..comments2023-12-16T16:50:25.810-08:00Comments on The Heart of the Matter: That Power of Accurate Observation Is Called Political By Those Who Have Not Got ItBarry Eislerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17785333622697500192noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22165230.post-30792867934922509632013-07-15T22:02:28.120-07:002013-07-15T22:02:28.120-07:00It is not my purpose to get into a religious discu...It is not my purpose to get into a religious discussion here, I only site the on top of because it tends to illustrate my earlier point of a gay lobby and a strong <a href="http://www.webuyhomesfastnyc.com/" rel="nofollow">"gay agenda</a>.<br /><br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09562695683928262293noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22165230.post-8639200328092993412013-05-07T17:53:15.436-07:002013-05-07T17:53:15.436-07:00I was once accused of "promoting the gay agen...I was once accused of "promoting the gay agenda." Well, duh, I'm gay. What should I do, knock the gay agenda...if there even is such a thing as a gay agenda? I'd rather think of it as equality. <br /><br />I'm going to make a point of reading this book now. ryan fieldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13361694356025572544noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22165230.post-5581518382329912262013-04-03T14:45:38.941-07:002013-04-03T14:45:38.941-07:00To be honest, while reading this story, I was incr...To be honest, while reading this story, I was increasingly surprised by what I thought was your lack of bias. I am very well aware of your political views, and agree with the vast majority, but felt that you did a superb job of not favoring one viewpoint over another, or even presenting a viewpoint other than a character's.karthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09214757879334925142noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22165230.post-33034777550978011572013-03-30T20:38:42.284-07:002013-03-30T20:38:42.284-07:00Barry,
I agree with your politics. I'm a Glen...Barry,<br /><br />I agree with your politics. I'm a Glenn Greenwald-reading Wikileaks-supporting left as left can get.<br /><br />But when I listened to your read of The Detachment (I'm recording my own audiobooks, and was curious about your audio work) I felt preached at.<br /><br />What's the Hollywood phrase? Too "on the nose"?<br /><br />I have to agree with David Mamet in Three Uses of the Knife. The writer of satisfying drama must accept his inability to change the world before he can touch our souls.<br /><br />THE CRUCIBLE is a fine example of this. A political play attacking Joe McCarthy would not only have flopped at the box office, but would probably have gotten Miller blacklisted.<br /><br />Instead, he dug deeper, and explored the human trope to witch hunt. And in so doing, unearthed something mysterious and terrible about being human that transcended the petty details of 1950s America.<br /><br />Do I practice what I preach? No. But I try. And when I fail I consider it a failure.<br /><br />Tragedy -- and here I'm thinking about THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD -- is about admitting our inability to change the world, and allowing ourselves to mourn.<br /><br />I would love to see you write a novel like that.<br /><br />JensAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04618699730116944461noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22165230.post-85458159790605745402013-03-27T13:25:42.077-07:002013-03-27T13:25:42.077-07:00Fully one-fourth of the US population is authorita...Fully one-fourth of the US population is authoritarian. That is to say, they prefer a fascist-style form of government and a retrograde social ethos (sexist, prude, bigoted, anti-intellectual, anti-union, pro-crony). In addition, their personalities can be described as such:<br /><br />1. Poor logic and reasoning skills<br />2. Poor integration of ideas and beliefs (beliefs come from different sources but don't fit together)<br />3. Double standards (heavy use of rationalization to justify conflicting opinions)<br />4. Hypocritical (want standards for themselves and their beliefs that are different from "others")<br />5. Poor self-awareness (tendency to overestimate own abilities and strengths)<br />6. Ethnocentric (the belief of "in" groups and "out" groups based on their personal belief system)<br />7. Dogmatic - unjustified certainty, opinions not able to be backed up with facts but they don't care<br /><br />I am not aware of any recent surveys, but most experts predict that the one-in-four statistic is rising. They are certainly becoming much bolder, if not in number. <br /><br />For more info, see research and findings:<br /><br />home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/RaisedbyWolveshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15805980784482514527noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22165230.post-25772921796853589852013-03-26T05:44:46.877-07:002013-03-26T05:44:46.877-07:00I find it odd that these same people don't cry...I find it odd that these same people don't cry foul the other way. As former special operations and a thriller writer, I wince at the constant presentation in novels and film of soldiers as single-minded, patriotic automatons who believe America is always right and the other side always wrong. <br /><br />Tom Clancy, a former insurance salesman, has no clue what it means to serve other than to swallow the company line that is fed him by DOD. If he were as patriotic as he pretends to be, he would have enlisted many years ago.<br /><br />The drone issue is extremely disturbing. Many people are extremely naive-- we are at war, and if a foreign power was flying aircraft over our head and firing missiles without warning, I imagine most Americans would be incensed, yet they pay little heed that this is exactly what we are doing, often paying no attention to national sovereignty or even the citizenship or guilt of those killed. When a country begins to kill its own citizens without due process, it's a very, very slippery slope.<br /><br />Frankly, as an author, I'd rather have people upset with what I write than apathetic. At least they are engaged.Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17030209378371995304noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22165230.post-58456467580768523412013-03-25T13:07:55.917-07:002013-03-25T13:07:55.917-07:00Thanks for the thoughts, everyone.
Sheff, I agree...Thanks for the thoughts, everyone.<br /><br />Sheff, I agree that at least some of the time, "what people may be responding to is the feeling they're being preached to rather than being entertained." But that's exactly what I'm talking about -- people don't typically feel preached at when a story's politics mesh with their own. It's when the story's politics challenge their own that people typically cry, "preachy!"<br /><br />Likewise, agreed on how people read to escape, and I can see where reading a story with elements that don't mesh comfortably with the reader's politics would make escape impossible. But it doesn't follow from this that the books a given reader can escape with aren't political; it's just that these books are comfortable for that reader and so the reader doesn't notice their politics.<br /><br />To put it another way: the day my Dox stories start getting criticized by gays for being too "pro-straight" is the day I'll revise my opinions on all this. Similarly, I tend to pay more attention when someone who agrees with the politics in one of my stories suggests I might have been heavy-handed in the way I executed (I think there was some such heavy-handedness at one point in Inside Out, and I learned from it). But someone offended by the politics in my stories criticizing the stories for being "too political" is, I think, not making a coherent claim.<br /><br />To be clear: if someone were to say, "I read to escape, not to be confronted by disturbing issues of the day or by politics I disagree with," I would absolutely respond, "You probably shouldn't read my books!" But I'd say the same to someone who said, "I don't like books with edge-of-your-seat action, exotic locales, realistic spy craft, and steamy sex." :)Barry Eislerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17785333622697500192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22165230.post-35061353382539971032013-03-25T13:03:53.180-07:002013-03-25T13:03:53.180-07:00Hi Barry: This is a phenomenal post. Why haven&#...Hi Barry: This is a phenomenal post. Why haven't I read more of you? (And FWIW, folks who are disturbed by "gayness" are often quite in favor of two women getting it on--perhaps they think it's all for the guys observing?)<br /><br />I've sent the link to your post to Andrew Sullivan of The Dish. He always writes provocatively on issues of politics, as well as same-sex love. <br /><br />Patrice<br /><br />P.S. If your fans want a light political thriller that is definitely on the liberal side, I invite them to check out my first novel, RUNNING, about two women vying for the Presidency. No sex between them, though! Hmmm... maybe in the next book.Patricehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01526130858885611254noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22165230.post-69499366768543060082013-03-25T10:16:41.509-07:002013-03-25T10:16:41.509-07:00Barry,
you know I've been a tad busy, of late...Barry,<br /><br />you know I've been a tad busy, of late, so I haven't been able to get to your work.<br /><br />However (there's always one of those, isn't it?), if I may, some years ago I went to watch "V, of Vendetta" with a butch acquaintance of mine (could have been friends, but it didn't work out). Yes, butch. To the narrow. She considered it (along with GLAAD, IIRC) a great pro-gay movie.<br /><br />Er... _why_?<br /><br />Also, "What I am is pro-equality-before-the-law." Well, that makes you an activist judg... er, writer.<br /><br />Take care. Ferranshugyoshahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04437800091500543886noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22165230.post-50427585762357929002013-03-25T09:36:59.891-07:002013-03-25T09:36:59.891-07:00Every story is a collaboration between the author ...Every story is a collaboration between the author and the reader. And reviews usually say more about what the reader brought to the experience than what the author wrote.<br /><br />The reaction you've gotten to London Twist seems to be a fine example of this.Ann Voss Petersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15141783064748972033noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22165230.post-31531020057771531882013-03-25T09:28:43.568-07:002013-03-25T09:28:43.568-07:00Hi Barry,
Disclosure: I haven't read London ...Hi Barry,<br /><br />Disclosure: I haven't read London Twist yet. <br /><br />I think what people may be responding to is the feeling they're being preached to rather than being entertained. The sensation sometimes when reading a piece of fiction, especially one drawn from current headlines is that if the author has a clear position about where they stand on a particular issue, the implication is that the reader should as well. <br />People sometimes read to escape, not to be confronted with things that are ugly and real. You might argue that if someone really wants escapism, they should read something else.<br />While reading The Detachment the first time, I felt this way. I felt that I was being urged to take a position on the Presidential hit list and attacks on personal liberties. While I have since formed an opinion about it, I didn't want such a thing introduced to me when I was expecting to be entertained. The second time I read the Detachment was far more entertaining than the first. <br />However, reading some of the early negative reviews put me off from buying London Twist when it first came out.<br />I think the best parallel comparison to this might be to be watching the news and witnessing a story about a sexual relationship between a teacher and a student that leads to a murder. Then immediately afterward watching an episode of Law & Order which is a story about a sexual relationship between a teacher and a student that leads to a murder. That kind of blurring of the lines between reality and entertainment can lead to fatigue. I suspect I enjoyed The Detachment more the second time around was because some time had elapsed. It was also after Sandy Hook that I reread it. So now there's a prescient quality to The Detachment that wasn't there when it first came out.<br /><br />I do intend to read London Twist. I enjoy the quality of your writing even though I don't always enjoy confronting the issues that you bring up.<br />Sheffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15906854636987712971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22165230.post-11162374058595048532013-03-25T09:06:51.857-07:002013-03-25T09:06:51.857-07:00Erudite zinger. Thanks from a bookseller.
Erudite zinger. Thanks from a bookseller.<br />melbovhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11145813724912102999noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22165230.post-1375490779381217022013-03-25T09:03:40.753-07:002013-03-25T09:03:40.753-07:00I'm sure I don't have to tell you that if ...I'm sure I don't have to tell you that if you're getting the hairs up on folks like that reviewer, you must be doing something right. I'm intimately familiar with people who are blind to their own political stance because it's the only way right-thinking people could possibly think, and therefore if someone thinks differently they're not thinking right. The loop is as closed as their minds. When one quoted G.K. Chesterton on the subject (“The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid.”) to show that close-mindedness was a virtue, I felt any chance to prevail on that subject, as well as all hope of future discourse, was lost. Bridget McKennahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03551190428721385000noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22165230.post-70749561177709633092013-03-25T08:57:46.552-07:002013-03-25T08:57:46.552-07:00All I know, or even thought about, was that it was...All I know, or even thought about, was that it was a damned good, and well written, story. Period. <br /><br />people that cast their thoughts onto a writer's work may actually be looking into a mirror whether they realize it or not.<br /><br />But what do I know? I;m an old geezer anyway(sixty-four later this year).Randy Johnsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16627907086811387527noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22165230.post-69102926337837779042013-03-25T08:54:48.301-07:002013-03-25T08:54:48.301-07:00Barry, it never occurred to me that the book was p...Barry, it never occurred to me that the book was pro gay, anti-drone, whatever...<br /><br />Case in point: I used to read Brad Thor, but stopped. His stories were still interesting, but it got to the point that I had to read fifty pages of Fox News hysteria to get five pages of plot.<br /><br />As it is, you're the only writer of the political thriller genre who ever gives a different viewpoint. So keep doing that.Jhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07122918163951149010noreply@blogger.com