{"id":8141,"date":"2011-04-12T13:05:02","date_gmt":"2011-04-12T17:05:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=8141"},"modified":"2011-04-12T13:05:02","modified_gmt":"2011-04-12T17:05:02","slug":"issue-fiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2011\/04\/issue-fiction\/","title":{"rendered":"“Issue Fiction”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today’s the birthday, per The Writer’s Almanac<\/em>, of an author named Gary Soto<\/a>. I haven’t read anything by him, but the Almanac<\/em> provided an interesting quotation.\u00a0 This is the whole thing, including the question which prompted it, from a 2007 interview with papertigers.org<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Are there issues which you think are particularly relevant to young adults and which you try and get across in your writing?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In my writing I don’t even think about issues. In fact, I think that fiction which sets out purposely to exploit a particular contemporary issue is not a good enough reason to exist. If I read a review that says something like “a timely issue handled with sensitivity,” I would know to avoid it. The book will be awful, yet awarded with prizes!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(He got himself into a little bit of grammatical tangle there in that second sentence, but the point is plain enough.)<\/p>\n

What’s the dividing line between exploiting<\/em> an issue and, well, I don’t know — maybe springing from<\/em> one? Don DeLillo’s Falling Man<\/em><\/a> could not have been written — possibly at all — if the 9\/11\/01 World Trade Center attack had not played out a certain way: it depends on<\/em> 9\/11. Does it exploit<\/em> it? Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner<\/em><\/a> doesn’t just take place in a generic Afghanistan; it takes place in an Afghanistan familiar to us because of current events. What about, uh, well, The Grapes of Wrath<\/em> (at the time it was published, anyhow)?<\/p>\n

Or maybe I’m focusing too much on events<\/em> rather than issues<\/em>. Looking through Amazon’s current list of “blockbuster spring fiction,” for example, #8 is Jodi Picoult’s Sing You Home<\/em><\/a>. Some review excerpts:<\/p>\n

Popular author Picoult tackles the controversial topic of gay rights in her latest powerful tale. When music therapist Zoe Baxter\u2019s latest pregnancy ends in a stillbirth, her husband Max decides he can\u2019t handle any more heartbreak and leaves her. As she picks up the pieces of her life, Zoe is surprised to find herself falling for a school counselor who happens to be a woman.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Booklist<\/em>)<\/p>\n

Picoult treats all sides of this complex morality tale with honesty and dignity, which is what readers have come to expect from her.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(St. Louis Post-Dispatch<\/em>)<\/p>\n

I guess those would be red flags for Mr. Soto. But what about you? Do you read “issue fiction”? For myself, sure, I don’t exactly seek out fiction which is flat-out didactic or argumentative in nature. But I don’t think it would put me off, either.<\/p>\n

(Btw, note that I’m not trying to refute Mr. Soto or challenge his taste in fiction, just curious. )<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today’s the birthday, per The Writer’s Almanac, of an author named Gary Soto. I haven’t read anything by him, but the Almanac provided an interesting quotation.\u00a0 This is the whole thing, including the question which prompted it, from a 2007 interview with papertigers.org: Are there issues which you think are particularly relevant to young adults […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[94,5,36],"tags":[305,1423,1563,2316,2317,2318,2319],"class_list":{"0":"post-8141","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-02_in-the-news","7":"category-06_writing","8":"category-reading","9":"tag-the-writers-almanac","10":"tag-don-delillo","11":"tag-gary-soto","12":"tag-issue-fiction","13":"tag-khaled-hosseini","14":"tag-john-steinbeck","15":"tag-jodi-picoult","16":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-27j","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8141\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}