Political correctness has been with us for some time, now, the phrase first coined, I believe, in the nineties by Hillary Clinton. Today, it has taken on a new form knows as "being woke," as in being aware of and sensitive to certain issues, but it's not just being aware and sensitive, it's being hyperaware and hypersensitive. It seems like every other day we see stories of someone getting so offended over such small things, offended to the point that they sometimes take measures against the offender, such as protesting outside their homes, trying to affect their careers, publishing their personal information on social media. If you voted for candidate A when they wanted you to vote for candidate B, they see you as an unforgivable mortal enemy who must be destroyed. The inability or refusal to get along with someone simply because they hold a different opinion than you is a mentality I find quite infantile; if I voted for candidate A and you voted for candidate B, I might find your reasons incomprehensible, but I won't hate you for it. But this mentality is running rampant, and people are nervous. They don't want their lives disrupted. They're afraid of saying something to piss off the mob. What's a creator to do? For someone like J.K. Rowling, who is catching flack for her stance on the transgender issue, it doesn't really matter; go ahead and destroy her career, she's already made her millions (and she's such a well-established creator, it'd be virtually impossible to destroy her career - she has far too many fans to allow that). But what about us up-and-comers who run the risk of never getting our careers off the ground because of one little thing we said?
"If you want to send a message, use Western Union." I've seen that quote attributed to several personages in the film and theater industries, so I don't know who originally said it, but I think it's a good general guideline. When writing fiction, my first and foremost goal is to tell a good story. Everything else takes a back seat to that. I'm not usually deliberately trying to send a message, so messages in my story tend to be side-effects of the story-telling process. Some have called my Sisters of the Storm books feminist. I can certainly see why a reader would think that, but that wasn't my intent. My intent was to give a realistic portrayal of things from the viewpoint of female characters, and since I'm not a woman, I had to read up on it. Based on what I've read and heard, things like not being taken seriously (and the prettier they are, the worse that gets, apparently), beauty inspiring either hate or unbridled lust, assuming they slept their way to their positions, are things women deal with, so I threw those in there to make a more authentic portrayal. As a creator, your beliefs are probably going to work their way into your work, regardless of how you try to prevent that, and that's certainly the case with me. I'm a firm believer that people are responsible for their actions and that one bears at least some (not necessarily all) responsibility for one's fate, so that tends to be a common theme in my stories. Likewise, the belief that some things are worth fighting for. I try to keep my political beliefs out of my stories, but some of it worms its way in there. A keen observer reading the Sisters of the Storm books might conclude I'm rather libertarian in my political outlook, and they'd be right, but I try to make sure the Artisan League isn't some libertarian utopia; all systems have their flaws, and a libertarian one is no exception, so I try to be realistic and throw in some flaws. Likewise, I try to keep my religious views out, but they're such a deeply ingrained part of me, some of them will find their way in there, and at least one reviewer correctly determined that I am, in fact, Pagan, even though none of the Sisters of the Storm books are meant to convey any religious message. So any of those messages a reader gets from those books are, as I said, incidental to the story - when I write, I'm focused on telling the story, not conveying those messages. However, I'm starting a new series where this could get more problematic. The Clann na Morrigna series takes place in our present-day world. It takes place in the fictional Colorado town of Nightshade, which is home to a large population of Pagans as well as conservative Christians, so naturally there's a bit of friction. The protagonists are Pagans, so the story is from their point of view; just as Christian fiction is infused with Christian beliefs, this is Pagan fiction and is likewise infused with Pagan beliefs. They occasionally have to deal with a fire-and-brimstone preacher who started his own denomination, the Apocalyptics, because none of the others were hard-core enough for his tastes, and a televangelist. Now, I have nothing against mainstream Christianity. I was raised in the Episcopal church. I left not as an act of rebellion but simply because Christianity wasn't meeting my spiritual needs. That said, in the story I mercilessly mock and criticize fanatical Christianity and televangelism because, in my opinion, they need to be mocked. However, as an egalitarian, I believe if I'm going to offend people, I might as well offend everybody, so I also mock the Pagan equivalent of Christian fundamentalists, generally known as fluffy bunnies. Religious affiliations notwithstanding, I find both groups to be remarkably similar, and both are crying out to be mocked. The protagonists do so. I also have characters who are Christians but not obnoxious about it. This balance works out because it's very, very rare in a situation where one side is totally right and the other side is totally wrong - there is almost always room for criticism of both sides. It's a more realistic portrayal and, like I said, I try to be egalitarian. So, given the volatility of the topic of religion, I'm sure to piss someone off with these books, but they're stories I have swirling about in me, demanding release. I think there's an audience for them and I tell them the way I think they need to be told. Admittedly, it's harder to hold back political commentary in these stories, since they take place in the here-and-now, and some things do find their way in there - the fact that I'm a huge supporter of gun ownership will be glaringly obvious. Combine that with my natural urge to educate people and I have to be careful not to veer off into a sermon on that topic, but I manage to rein it in. So my point is, to all creators of any sort, create as you see fit. Someone once said you will never do anything of any consequence without pissing someone off. This is especially true of the woke mob - they're so hypersensitive to offense that, should you encounter them, there's no way you're going to be able to create your art without pissing them off. I guess we up-and-comers have to make a choice: do we give in to the woke mob and let them bully us so we can hope to keep our careers by saying only what they allow us to say, or do we stand up to them and be true to ourselves and our art and create it as we, the Creators, see fit? Having learned valuable lessons by being bullied in school, I know what I'll do. I'm not surrendering my right to free expression. They will not silence me. They will not break me. As Kyle, Baezha's fight master, told her in Reckoning, "You're never truly defeated until you stop trying." If we are not free to express ourselves, we're not free to do anything. Good ideas don't need to be forced on people. If it can be destroyed by the truth, it probably should be.
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