Thursday, March 29, 2012

Social Justice

Who publishes novels about social justice?

I know they’re being written, by Tony Christini and others like him. Do the bigs ever touch them?

My new novel will have a chapter or two devoted to social justice. The book’s theme is character. It’s centered on a single personality. A subsidiary theme is revolution, but that’s a plot motif. A reason for plot activity.

By social justice, I don’t mean work like Franzen’s “Freedom,” which is a diatribe against freedom and against poor people.

I get the sense that in this country, those who control publishing and media tolerate only those books and ideas which conform to their pre-formed beliefs. Work that fits with the assumptions of their class. Don’t kid yourself. Intellectual and cultural thought in America is dominated by a single social class. A solitary mindset. Nothing allowed which they might possibly disagree with. That’s certainly been my history. But I wonder if the thinking has changed. If they’ll someday reverse the blackballing. My new novel is very, very good, and I’d like people to read it.

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