By K.P. Gresham
When I start a new mystery novel, there are a lot of decisions that must be made. Is someone going to die? Who’s the murderer? Who’s the victim? What is the setting for the book—location? Era? Is the book intended to be an escape from the world or immerse the reader in a world of reality, using the current (or historical) goings on to push the story forward?
Many authors (past and present) are fearless in their desire to delve into reality and what they have to say about it. They refuse to hide or camouflage their belief system in the telling. Sounds like freedom of expression, to me. So what’s up with all the following authors (living and dead) whose books are being banned?
George Orwell was such an author. His novels Animal Farm (1945) and Nineteen Eight-Four (1949) made very clear Orwell’s admonishment of communism, censorship and surveillance. Using phrases such as “cold war,” “newspeak,” and “Big Brother,” Orwell introduced terms that are now prevalent in our world.
Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), chooses to shed light on her view that the males subjugate females. Presented on stage, in opera and on film, the book was given new life as the widely popular 2017 Hulu series which brought the novel back into the limelight.
Ayn Rand’s most popular books, The Fountainhead (1943) and Atlas Shrugged (1947), spoke to her belief in the morality of rational self-interest. Rand described her philosophy “Objectivism”, as “the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.”
I chose to highlight these authors because they were very clear in expressing their thoughts on the world, but there are many authors who fit this bill. Consider Harriet Beecher Stowe’s book Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Lincoln referred to her as the lady who started the Civil War. John Steinbeck’s book The Grapes of Wrath showed the shocking poverty and problems of thousands of immigrants. Even Charles Dickens wrote about the plight of the poor in Oliver Twist.
The author walks a tightrope when it comes to controversial content. In present day, people seem to be more divided on what is right and what is fair and what subjects are forbidden territory. Most writers do not write to be controversial, but on other the hand, writers must be true to themselves as to what they put on the page.
The decision belongs to the writer. Consequences, good or bad, will follow. But hopefully the author has the grist to hold their heads high, knowing they’ve told their own truths. As Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet, “To thine own self be true.”
Seems to me that is exactly what freedom of expression is all about.
K.P. Gresham is the award-winning author of the Pastor Matt Hayden Mystery Series as well as several stand-alone novels. Active in Sisters in Crime and the Writers League of Texas, she has won Best Novel awards from the Bay Area Writers League as well as the Mystery Writers of America.
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Books by
K.P. Gresham
The Pastor Matt Hayden Mystery Series
Austin Mystery Writers 