Writers: Just Effing SAY It!

Over at Dear Author is a post and discussion about the merits/demerits of writers voicing their opinions.

This bit really got under my skin:

Women have to work twice as hard to gain respect as men do. This is as true in the real world as it is on the internet.

And so, of course, I left a Comment.

Really, if there are readers out there who are going to drop your books because you're a thinking human being who dares to have independent thought, well, those readers can just go fuck themselves.

I don't give a damn whether a writer supports Bush, McCain, Obama, or Nader. Whether a writer is pro or anti abortion. Whether a writer favors government regulation or sees government as a stifling force that distorts free choices. It's the art that matters. I can even appreciate bits of self-alienated drug-addicted psychotic Ayn Rand, for crying out loud, and there's probably very little we would have agreed on as people.

If a writer worries about offending someone, then that cowardice is bound to show itself in the work too. "Oh my god, this would be so great for this scene -- but wait, what will people think?!"

Fuck. That. Shit.

I think it was Ayn Rand herself who once stated (loosely paraphrased): "Afraid of what? Being disapproved of by people you despise to begin with?"

Readers come and go. They always will.

Writers fall into and out of fashion.

Readers sometimes outgrow writers or writers leave readers behind.

There never will be -- can't be -- a perfect balance with either art or life.

I've ripped people apart left and right in this blog. I stood before one in person whose firing I called for in this blog.

I ripped another two and even told them not to Follow me on Twitter. They now Follow me on Twitter -- and I them -- and we get along just fine.

It's about ideas, not individuals.

Any reader who can't stand a writer being a different human being is a reader all writers can do without.

I'd rather have a small group of discerning, intelligent readers over a fat wad of the scared masses any day.

So should you.

Previously here:

Some People Ignore Hints
Today’s Advice For Writers
Charles Bukowski: Outsider, Writer, Poet
This Made Me Snort