Blog Post

Some Not So Upbeat Thoughts

  

about much of what is being published these days

One of my intentions when starting this blog seventeen months ago was to spend  time sharing/discussing what is positive and healthy about what we read, and how it shapes us as an individual.

     But a great deal of what is out on the market these days doesn't ring that cord at all with me. And it is indicative of our society as a whole. We have lowered our standards.  And I'll hone in on fiction in that regard.

     The first response one can expect if making the above statements from some people is, "well that's your opinion."

     It certainly is, but there has to be absolutes or there is chaos. Period. And much of what we are seeing today IS chaos. That bodes very ill for our society. 

     You may recall a mention in earlier blog posts that during the first three years or so of introducing my own mystery series to e-book readers, I would read and review the books of other authors just getting started. New lifestyle patterns in western society was an issue.

     For sure some people think a light cozy mystery where the heroine and the guy she has a first date never make it no further than the bedroom is hilarious. My take is that casual sex is not funny at all. It is demeaning. There goes a whole lot of choices for reading material right there. Upbeat? Funny? I think it's cheap, and my opinion of the main fiction character as To their character, sinks.

     Having given up steamy romances (my definition of steamy being what it was quite some time ago) for decades, I was shocked and saddened to hear what constitutes some romance novels these days. I won't even go into the situations that were mentioned. That's just filth. What's uplifting about filling your mind with it? Yet it can be addictive, and consume you. Just ask someone who has battled addiction with pornography.  

     Am I a prude? Some would say so. In my defense my response is I seek reality in what I read and write, not high idealism.  There is a big difference between realism and glorifying behavior and situations that lead only to heartache and destruction. 

     Some of the materials recommended here have portrayed lifestyles I don't believe in or language I don't use.  But it is reality and as a backdrop for the plot an adult reader can expect it to be featured in the lives of the characters. It isn't lauded or over emphasized. And as the writer it is my decision to take the responsibility for what is put up. Certain standards are followed with the goal being enriching over debasing.

     I'll use the book Running the Rift as an example. Strongly based on the slaughter of the Tutsis by the Hutus in Rwanda in 1994, Naomi Benaron does just what Publishers Weekly said she did. She accomplishes "the improbable feat of wringing genuine loveliness from the unspeakable horror." 

     It was a story I'll never forget, and very reminiscent of the victories and healing individuals who survived the holocaust spoke of later in their lives. Such overcoming is very uplifting and very inspiring.

     So let the story present its share of wrong doing and wrong decisions, sadness and defeat. Let it be humorous or frustrating, and let the main character be seriously flawed. But don't present destructive behavior such as illicit drug use, prostitution, or cruelty as okay or even darkly funny. 

my question for the author would be,

It sells? You're making a nice profit out of it? Maybe. But are you part of the problem?

 

 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B009PAZ6Q4/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1 

*** currently priced at $1.99