J M McDermott, author of “Gods of the Spiderhole,” has very strong opinions about politics (and really, who doesn’t?). But how do authors who want to convey that nugget of political philosophy in their writing do so without turning their audience off? As the author says, “it would be about as effective as influencing change as a fart on a crowded bus.” In this week’s Puppet Strings: Behind the Story, J M McDermott meditates on how he accomplished it with his tale.
My first task at attempting to write good polemic fiction was to find some way to make the stink less stinky. I had to mask it in something really overwhelming and interesting, so the readers don’t know they were in the middle of some polemic writing. Since I write fantasy novels, I used magic. You may not have realized you were getting a heavy dose of political writing, because you were ingesting all sorts of symbols in the spiderhole walls. Imagine a fart disguised in all sorts of incense and spices. You’ll breathe deep before you realize you just inhaled a fart!
My second task was to make sure that my characters were actually characters, and true characters. As I am not, at this time, Hispanic, nor have I ever been to San Diego, exactly, I read urban anthropology books wherein characters from this world were allowed to speak freely, and entire transcripts of conversations were recorded. I tried my best to keep the issue rooted in true people, with true concerns.
My third task involved caffeine and alcohol and sacrificial donuts and the less said about this task, the better.
My fourth task involved editing out every single ounce of political writing in the story. Remember the Faulknerian quote to kill one’s darlings? Exactly what I tried to do. If any of my political beliefs remain, they are veiled inside of the actions and true natures of these situations and magicks and characters.
I researched and wrote a political story. Then, I actively attempted to edit all of the politics out of it.
Talking politics is the fastest way to get people to close their mind. Keeping people’s minds open, and letting their minds work out the problems might not change the world, but it might change the way people think just a little bit. Then, someone else changes the minds in question a little bit more. Then, someone else does with something else. Then, before you know it, a political message might be listened to exactly as if you had left in all that overt material in your own writing.
I know how unpleasant it can be to do that instead of firmly arguing your politics all the time, but that’s really the only way I’ve found that produces art instead of opinionation.
Despite all the manueverings and editings and posturings to keep my own true opinions to myself, I suspect that all writing, whether we intend it to be or not, is political. We are all political animals. We have cliques in high school. We play favorites unconsciously with our kids and pets. We express — intentionally or not — our morals, our prejudices, and our unconscious desires whenever we express ourselves in the realm of ideas. All of these steps I have taken to cloud politics are actually not going to work, and were merely my way of prioritizing the craft of fiction over the TRUTH YOU OUGHT TO IMPLEMENT AND EVERYONE SHOULD LISTEN TO ME.
Thoughts? Disagreements? Caffeine and donuts? I’ll be in the comments all week to discuss craft.
1 • J M McDermott said:
August 11th, 2008 at 2:57 pm, permalink
I’ll take the half-day-long deafening silence as utter and complete agreement in all things that are my idea.
Also, just a note to say that my original essay has gone live at 1:45 PM Central Time, and will probably be my only blog entry for the week.
Go to my website at http://jmmcdermott.blogspot.com/ if you would like the full gale force wind of my political opinions.
2 • J M McDermott said:
August 11th, 2008 at 3:54 pm, permalink
I hope the world feels enlightened.
Also, of note, is the original essay I wrote that was deemed incorrect for this publication.
I posted that essay to my blog:
http://jmmcdermott.blogspot.com/
Come by and ingest more of my hot, breezy prose.
3 • catrambo said:
August 12th, 2008 at 11:38 am, permalink
I’m finishing up a novel that has some political content right now, so this was very interesting to me. Thanks!
You may well be the first writer I have seen compare their writing to farting surreptitiously.
4 • J M McDermott said:
August 12th, 2008 at 2:33 pm, permalink
Thanks for the comment.
Farts can be musical, and dangerous. I once knew a guy – his first name was Kevin, but his last name eludes me – who could make his fart have the sonic properties of jazz music, with loops and twirls and all sorts of strange undertones and belltones. I admit, that I was impressed at the time. I was 13, and have not encountered a musician of the methane of his abilities since.
I also have heard countless stories about people badly burning themselves or their friends by trying to light fire to their farts. I suspect, farts can be quite dangerous.
Humor aside, I posted the original article I wrote that was deemed inappropriate for Fantasy Magazine at my regular blog. I would have posted it in conjunction, but I simply did not know when the article and story were going to be live on the site.
If you want to talk straight politics, try there.
http://jmmcdermott.blogspot.com/
5 • Straka said:
August 12th, 2008 at 5:37 pm, permalink
Hey Jim,
Interesting article that reminds me of a question I’ve been pondering recently. In terms of themes, lief motifs and such, is it important for an author to talk about their work to the public? I remember during college in my photo class, I would critique someone and say “I liked this, and it reminds me of that…” Then when it came their time to speak I was very often disappointed by how much little thought when into their work.
So is it better to stay silent and mysterious? Or talk about your work in hopes of generating interest?
6 • J M McDermott said:
August 13th, 2008 at 11:31 am, permalink
Regardless of your ability to sell your work and/or yourself as an artist, the work has to stand on its own. Nothing in the world is more funny/awful than encountering a self-published author with a truly inferior product (not all of them are, mind you) working hard to promote themselves as “authors” with stories and theories of fiction and stories of where and how they compose their art. If the work of art cannot stand, you cannot stand as an artist.
Now, if your work is good enough to stand on its own merits, the next question is whether or not you are a capable promoter of yourself. If you are not comfortable talking about your work, and get panic attacks before book signings, and clam up on camera, and whatnot, well maybe you would be better served staying silent and mysterious and letting people interpret your agoraphobia as “silent and mysterious”.
If you can talk about yourself and your work in a way that doesn’t make you sound like an asshat, than it’s probably a good idea to do it. Lesser authors than us have built solid careers out of self-promotion. Of course, remember that it only works if you can keep yourself from looking like an asshat.
Also, and this happens quite a lot, so please don’t feel like an asshat for it… My name’s actually “Joe”, not “Jim”. When I was looking at publishing my first book, I noticed there were already a couple very notable and prominent guys named “Joe McDermott” in the world. One is a children’s music performer in Austin. The other is a Senator from Washington. Thus, J M McDermott was born.
Why do find disappointment in the amount of thought that went into the work, Straka? If you could explain it easily, why would you need the art to do it for you?
7 • CharlieDawn said:
October 6th, 2008 at 8:52 pm, permalink
I enjoy writing with current commentary seasoning it. Mixed in well, there is no way to avoid it and yet, we wonder, what is that taste? I seriously believe fantasy, modern or tradition, must include political comment. Society is political; Politics is created and maintained for people to live together, kill each other and make history. I totally loved the Spiderholes!!
8 • Matt’s Bookosphere 8/11/08 « Enter the Octopus said:
August 28th, 2009 at 12:22 pm, permalink
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