Week Four: Social and Political Views

Out of all the writers who make their debut each year either online or in Waterstones, there’s always at least one who tries to shove their social and political views down your throat.

And we all know how annoying this is. They’re abusing their freedom of speech, making us realize why Hitler band such an act.

But this doesn’t mean a writer can’t write about the social and political views of their time. They just have to do it in a way which only informs readers of the issues, and not try and forcibly make the readers agree with them.

It isn’t entirely necessary for a writer to write about what’s going on at the time; it’s not their firm duty to do so, and there’s many other non-fiction writers doing this for them. But sometimes these issues will come out in their writing self-consciously, and many writers don’t know this – at least, I don’t half the time.

For example, Emily Dickinson wrote a lot about the American Civil War in her poetry. Whether or not she meant for these implications to show from the start is unknown, but she most likely did; the imagery in the poems is too obvious for it to be accidental or coincidental.

So perhaps it depends on the writer. Some writers will choose to include these issues of the time, while others won’t – and sometimes these issues will work their way in self-consciously. I think it doesn’t matter – so long as the issues aren’t shoved down my throat.