On this Independence Day July 1, 2019, I’m reminded of how important, especially now during these turbulent times, are writers. Without them, the world would be less colorful, less adventurous, less exciting. The independence of writers is necessary for a free and just society. Without our First Amendment Rights we would be a less vibrant democracy.
Independent writers need to follow their hearts, take the road less traveled, wake up the sleepy, get the comfortable uncomfortable and share their visions for the future. There have been and are many free-spirited writers: Kerouac and Salinger come to mind immediately. But I’m interested in the female free spirits: Virginia Woolf and her stream- of-consciousness fiction, or Ursula Le Quin’s speculative fiction, also Alice Walker’s epistolary novel, and of course, my favorite, C J Cherryh’s Downbelow Station, as well as, the mind-blowing Jeannette Winterson’s nameless, genderless protagonist.
I decided in 2017 to take independence to a new level (for me) and created a business and decided to finish the three novels I’d been working on for a decade. When I submitted my application through the Secretary of State in my home state of Idaho, I had so many reasonable arguments against going through with it. I considered tearing up the papers several times. Money. Big reason not to go through with a startup business. Time. Would I ever have fun again?
Most important to me was my concerns about the demands of writing and all the little irritating stuff that needs to be done to start a business. Would the racing here and there and everywhere interfere with Abby Playtime? She hates to cuddle in my lap while I’m writing. Must be all the pulsing light beams shooting into her closed lids from my monitor. How can she get any sleep with the light telling her doggy brain wake up, wake up, it’s morning?
Just as bad is playing fetch while writing which leads to some strange paragraph constructions. Obviously, the most dangerous part of writing is driving while composing or driving while thinking of an ending. Oh, hell yes. You’re lucky not to have an oncoming vehicle plow right into your door or drive your car into the lake because you’re crying over the imagined loss of a favorite character. It’s true. Just ask any writer and they will tell you that the characters are alive, maybe not literally alive. Ah hah, gotcha.
Oh, the transformation of the word – literally or literal. Who cares? Now we say “literally” instead of “actually” alive. How about just using the word – alive? If you add a condition to your aliveness what does that mean? Today you are half-alive? Tomorrow you might be alive?
The word “literally” has been confiscated by the people or as some snobs say the meatgrinder of the uneducated masses and might as well be as misspoken as “schizophrenia” is for sufferers of Multiple Personality Disorder now referred to as (DID) Dissociative Identity Disorder. And of course, the antipsychiatry movement claims such suffering is a condition of our culture’s moral depravity.
What does psychiatry say about the characters in a writer’s head? They sure feel as real as gravity. Since gravity prevents us from flapping our arms and flying away, are a writer’s characters alive? Or are writers suffering from DID?
Hold on.
Where was I?
Oh, yes. Independence Day and what independence means for writers. I’ll give you an example of why I’m terrified and traumatized by the current POTUS’s attacks on the press and our First Amendment Rights. My favorite writer (among many) is Janet Frame. She was the subject of a movie – An Angel at My Table. You may have heard of her. Well, she made an innocent remark to a professor in college (because she loved him and wanted to be noticed) which led to her internment in a loony bin, think 1948’s movie Snake Pit. It was about a woman sent to a mental institution and the conditions were horrific.
Well. I believe, the reason writers sometimes are accused of being “unstable” is because they have so many characters fighting for attention inside their literal brains. I know this to be true. There are days when I’m in a situation and wish my fictional character Leona Keys Navan, an empath, in my first book The Pentagram Woman could tell me what my boss is thinking or what the annoyed customer really wants from me. Maybe Leona Keys Navan wanted to be alive and has taken over my body. Don’t I wish. I would love to be twenty-four again.
Anyway.
What terrifies me the most is the possibility that our First Amendment Rights will be taken away from us, and this could lead to dissidents aka writers ending up in American gulags forced to write propaganda, or just as bad, mental institutions like the snake pit, all because we talk to our fictional characters who may or may not be literal or literally alive. It is my dream that writers never have to fear their government or their POTUS or the threat to their freedom to write. Therefore, I pledge allegiance to the truth, to write freely without fear of the gulag or the snake pit, because I love my country and my First Amendment Rights. Literally.
On this Independence Day, I hope everyone puts their hands on their hearts and recites these stirring words from George Carlin–
When you’re born, you get a ticket to the freak show. When you’re born in America, you get a front row seat.
Books By K McVere 