Liberals and Conservatives

In an interview with New Forum Forest Fire, the journal of the University of California, Irvine’s undergraduate creative writing program, Alexander Chee had this wonderful advice for aspiring writers:

Know that what you think a story or novel is will determine what you will write–you will write to fit the shape of what you think a narrative is. So to be free as a writer, read as widely as possible, and expand your sense of that, as these books will set you free in a way you would never have thought to be free. And know that your eventual book will help someone else do that, and so on.

So, so wise. And I would add to that: Approach everything you read with an open heart and an open mind.

I’ve met quite a few writers lately who think they’ve learned it all. Already. They start reading a book, only to realize that it doesn’t fit into their rubric for fiction. Rather than allowing a different approach to influence or inform their aesthetic, they spend the entire book fighting it, looking for ways to refute every choice the author has made. And when they’re done with it: “Oh, I didn’t care for that book.” “That book was too out there for me.” Or worse: “That book was too experimental.” For these writers, reading has become only an exercise in reinforcing the way they’ve already committed themselves to write. They’ve memorized their credo, and they look everywhere for confirmation that that credo is just and right.

This outlook on reading, on writing, and on life in general seems so damn Conservative to me I can’t stand it. Conservative, as in: narrow-minded. Conservative, as in: unadventurous. Conservative, as in, yes: Republican. Since when do we know everything already? Since when are the Old Ways the Only Ways? Since when is taking risks a taboo? Since when is questioning our beliefs a sin? As writers, these acts are what we must do every time we pick up a pen, every time we open up a new book.

Far better for writers to be Liberal. To learn, always. To understand that fiction can be anything, do anything. To seek out literature that is wholly different from what we’ve decided is Our Thing. To allow our viewpoint–our aesthetic–to be always in flux. To read, as Chee says, books that “will set you free in a way you would never have thought to be free.”

Cuz if we’re not free, then what the fuck are we?