A Call to Pens–Writer as Social Activist
By Jan O'Hara | June 15, 2015 |
In the back yard of a Canadian middle-class home, a ten-year-old child plays with his neighbor while the supervising adult works in the garden. “What are those?” the visitor asks, pointing to freshly unearthed carrots, their ragged tops still attached. He’s an accomplished eater of store-prepared vegetable trays, with their polished and uniformly rounded “baby” carrots; nevertheless, when the adult provides the answer, it seems beyond ridiculous to him. Later, when he bites into one root, cleansed with sun-warmed water from the garden hose, his face lights with discovery.
Another child orders his favorite meal at McDonald’s. Though he’s uttered the words hundreds of times, until today they’ve been nothing more than a constellation of blended, meaningless sound. Chickenmcnuggets. Like the bag of frozen, pre-flavored “drummettes” his family purchases in the grocery story, he’s drawn no connection between his food and the clucking, pecking creatures he admires in the zoo. He is twelve.
An almost-ninety-year-old woman cries as she visits her family doctor and recounts the trials of the past four months. She has suffered two hip fractures—the first almost certainly due to a new medication, the second from post-surgical frailty. Ongoing mobility and memory problems mean that she’s been forced to bid farewell to her home of fifty years and seek assisted-living accommodations. During the interview, the physician is noticeably distressed by the woman’s tears and offers a solution: a prescription for antidepressants.
I promise I’m going to connect this all to writing, but first, can you spot the common thread within these true vignettes?
For me, they’re about what happens when you take human beings and, in the quest to make modern life efficient, full of ease and pleasure, lose meaningful connection to the natural world. Perhaps lose connection to what it means to be fully human.
What This Blog Post Is Not:
- a rant against efficient food production. Mechanization and industrialization have freed millions, if not billions, from the drudgery and back-breaking work of manual labor. With the world’s population estimated at 7.32 billion and climbing, we have many mouths to feed.
- a screed against psychiatric medications, because when used properly they save lives and alleviate suffering. (At one point, I myself was a poster child for better-living-through-modern-pharmacology.)
- a call to suffer for the sake of suffering. I hold no truck with the romanticism of pain.
But We Pay a Hefty Price for the Disconnect
Unless things change, the first kid has lost the opportunity to know the pleasure and satisfaction of a hobby that contributes to thriftiness, fitness, self-sufficiency, and food security.
Both children are missing vital elements of food literacy. Unless corrected, they will likely pay with their health.
Also missing: a visceral understanding of environmental and agricultural issues, impacting the quality of their future citizenship. How can people make wise decisions about personal consumption and public policy when they lack fundamental information about how the world works?
In the case of the elderly woman—the example which chaps my hide and was the prompt for this blog post—the cost might well be her life. Tax a failing brain and struggling body with another chemical, and you’ve all but pushed her into the next fall, which will likely be her last.
A Looming Problem
The 2014 census estimates that there are 76.4 million American baby boomers headed for their twilight years. Over the next few decades, our society will cope with geriatric-derived issues on an unprecedented scale. (Among them, problems with: estate planning, accessible housing, loss of independence, physical and mental decline, elder abuse, etc.)
What happens when that grey tsunami meets the medical system?
Considering the elderly woman, do you think her doctor’s response is unusual? What likelihood is there that she will refuse the prescription, or that if she does so, she’ll be supported by her family and caregivers the next time she dissolves in tears?
Based on my experience as both former prescriber of antidepressants, house-call-maker and nursing home attendant, I’d opine the respective answers are no, and less than 10%. This is fairly standard care in North America.
What do you think of this response, though? Is there anyone here who believes that a grief reaction or existential crisis—natural, if unpleasant aspects of being human—can or should be healed by a pill?
The Call to Pens—Where You Come In
If we want our society to be different, there are many avenues of attack, but one of the most basic lies within your purview as a writer: change the dominant narrative around the aging process. Take us away from stories in which the only alternative to despair is the medicalization of natural emotional challenges.
Instead, cast the elderly in the role of (reluctant) hero. Position their health troubles as a call to adventure. Weave narratives in which they gather mentors and allies. Have them engage the enemy and fight their way to solutions which are respectful, holistic, empowering, and which won’t create more problems than they solve. (Or not. Show us how the system must be changed to make these solutions possible.)
Take advantage of fiction’s back-door method of presenting options, and keep going until these narratives become part of our culture, until you’ve altered our constructs. Work from the grassroots up until you’ve reached future patients, their loved-ones, and eventually the conservative medical establishment.
If you will do this, then the day may come when another caring physician, upon meeting another crying patient, will make use of an entire toolbox of non-pharmacologic treatments. I’d like to think that toolkit will contain a referral to counseling, to spiritual advisors, to support groups, and so on. But also? A library card and prescribed reading list.
While I am directing your social activism, remember our food-challenged youngsters? Why not kill two poultry with one butcher knife? Invite them to read about hip, geriatric gardening ninjas. Make it cool to possess hand calluses and grey hair. Inspire them to mimic cultivar-loving protagonists, so that as they pass through the fiction-inspired toy aisle, they’re nagging their parents to purchase hoes and seeds in addition to archery sets and sheriff badges.
That way, when our youth sit next to their grandparents at the Thanksgiving table, the words of grace will hold additional meaning and context. They’ll understand the origin of the energy contained in their food, and that it once resided in the sun before wending its way from cosmos to earth to platter to lips.
BTW, If You’re Thinking I’m Nuts, My Son Agrees
It’s not that he disagrees with the premise of this post, but he believes there’s more than enough published literature tackling these themes. He might be right, but when I’ve searched my memory and the bookstore for high-profile books, I found only memoir, romps and satire, or novels feature youthful protagonists. Nevertheless, here are a few options:
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green—fiction; though the main characters are dying teenagers, they cope with existential pain and the challenges of being forced to care-give their caregivers.
Still Alice by Lisa Genova—fiction; a 50-year-old Harvard psychology professor and her family cope with her diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. (Book was initially self-published).
Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom—memoir; the author learns life lessons from his former professor, now dying of ALS
Still Here: Embracing Aging, Changing, and Dying by Ram Dass—memoir about dealing with the aftermath of stroke, including the requirement to embrace humility and accept help.
Now, Unboxeders, I’ll turn it over to you. Please add to my woefully short reading list. Also, if you could invite all fiction-writers to tackle one society-shifting theme, what would it be and why? Does your fiction embrace that topic? If not, care to make that change?
A USA Today bestselling author, former family physician and academic, Jan O’Hara (she/her) left the world of medicine behind to follow her dreams of becoming a writer. She writes love stories that zoom from wackadoodle to heartfelt in six seconds flat: (Opposite of Frozen; Cold and Hottie; Desperate Times, Desperate Pleasures). Her latest Christmas novella, The Cowboy’s Comeback Christmas, is part of a 9-author-strong anthology (A Cowboy This Christmas: A Sweet Romance Anthology). She also contributed to Author in Progress, a Writer’s Digest Book edited by Therese Walsh.
Jan,
I love this post!! I have an aging mother whose list of ailments could be mitigated by a shift in lifestyle; i.e., eating real food, walking outdoors, connecting with other human beings. And the subject of connecting children to the natural world is big with me, and vital to the future as far as I can see. Growing one’s own food, or even knowing the people who do, is a prescription for well-being on all levels. Kids with their hands in the dirt are happy kids. Kids next to grandparents with their hands in the dirt…even better. I could go on for days about all this, but suffice it to say that I support your call to all pens. I know a lot of people who have had their eyes opened by Michael Pollen and Frances Moore Lappe. Ficiton-wise, I just read a novel by Ruth Rendell called ‘the Girl Next Door’ in which all the main players are gone seventy and falling in and out of love.
My own work, it turns out, centers around the idea of magic being a way of working with the real energies of the earth. Science as magic, magic as science, and fairytales as our cryptic ancient textbooks. But I think anyone who has the urge to tell a story is working from a deep need to say something to humanity. It might be as simple as ‘tell the truth’ or ‘be nice to your mother’. But its a message just the same. Thank you so much for this potent message today.
Susan, when you’re talking lifestyle changes, you sound like a kindred spirit. It’s not surprising that you’d carry an earthy sensibility into your writing.
Thank you for the reading recommendations. I have read Lappe and skimmed one of Pollen’s, but hadn’t heard of The Girl Next Door. Thank you for that recommendation.
Great post, Jan. Yes, being closer to nature and its cycles gives one such an appreciation for how we are tied together. I’ve written books for the youngest botanists and I like doing workshops with children on gardening. Planting seeds, harvesting the fruits. What joy!
William Brennan wrote Confronting the Language Empowering the Culture of Death. And so in my stories I like to celebrate life in all its glory.
Some published children’s books that do just that: WONDER by RJ Palaccio; MOON OVER MANIFEST by Claire Vanderpool; and the old classics GREAT BRAIN BOOKS by John Fitzgerald and LITTLE HOUSE by Wilder. Read, read, read great books to your children.
I love that you’re both actively teaching and writing about the natural world, Vijaya. A complete package.
And thank you for the reading material. That Brennan one sounds particularly intriguing!
Jan, thank you for this post! You have nailed my mission as a writer: to tell stories that help readers see beyond the stereotypes. My hidden agenda is, as you say, to change the dominant narrative one mind at a time. I believe that when, through the wonderful magic of reading, we experience another person’s reality, our compassion comes to the fore and makes us demand better solutions.
My focus is slightly different, but related. I tear open the stereotypes around poverty, which of course includes the elderly. _Innocent_, my memoir of my time on welfare, has successfully changed many minds (and earned me a letter from Hillary Clinton-woot!). I hope my novel-in-progress and short stories can continue this work.
I love your term “the grey tsunami”. Given the low rate of savings and other economic pressures, more and more aging boomers are going to learn about poverty first-hand. I can’t wait to see the reading list that emerges from these comments!
Wow, Barbara. We’ve chatted many times online, yet why is it today I feel like I’ve finally met you? What a worthy subject for your advocacy. And Hillary Clinton as an admirer? Fantastic.
I don’t know the legalities of quoting from her letter, but if you can pardon a little unsolicited advice, that would make a fantastic blurb to include on your Amazon page among the other positive quotes.
Brilliant post, and thank you for writing it! As an aging baby boomer who’s been publishing for 35 years, and now a grandmother introducing little ones to how things grow in DIRT, not the grocery store, I laughed and moaned along with your post. I’m over 60 now, and it’s been a shocker to me how often my doctor has prescribed stuff for me “for life” that I showed her I didn’t need (after making dietary changes and taking certain supplements) and using a couple of multi-faceted approaches to problems that disappeared without her drugs. I had never thought of making a book character out of this stuff though, but I will now! Thank you for the idea and for such a well thought out post. Best thing I’ve read in a while.
Kristi, thank you for both the kind words and your work on multiple levels. The medical world needs patients like you. Can’t wait to see what happens with your fiction.
“Take advantage of fiction’s back-door method of presenting options, and keep going until these narratives become part of our culture, until you’ve altered our constructs.”
I’m going to take this sage advice and internalize it, Jan.
My grandma, she is 85 and only recently stopped driving. She raised 13 kids and even a few grandkids. The family just threw her a “quincenera” which is a young latin girl’s coming out party, because they said that’s how young her heart is. She still walks around on her own, dyes her hair, and tells great stories. And yes she gardens.
My mom is going home this summer and asked (again) if I wanted to come along. Id already said no, but you’ve changed my mind. My kids have never met their great grandma…
Aw, Celeste, if you’d calculated a response to delight me, I don’t think you could have done better. Your grandmother sounds like a delight, and you clearly embody some of her bad-ass attitude.
A recent estimate said that only 5% of people are truly well – ie, don’t have any ailments.
Another estimate says that if everyone who has something wrong with them would unite, all the ‘minorities,’ there would be far more of us than there are of anything else.
Unfortunately, TV and advertising and the gestalt of perception of what is ‘right’ and ‘good’ gives us the impression, individually, that we are substandard. Coupled with the evolutionary trait of putting yourself on top of the heap by putting everyone else down, we have skinny models who are further and unrealistically ‘slimmed’ by photoshopping – and we almost all fail by comparison.
This is the perception I try to fight in Pride’s Children.
It is false. If you can, go watch people on the streets of NY (I can’t – that would take too much energy). 99% of them don’t see themselves in fiction.
Alicia, I agree that our culture is obsessed with youth and external perfection. It’ll be very interesting to see if that alters in the next few years as there are fewer people who can even appear to fit the ideal model. Will we adopt a page from Eastern societies and begin to reverence our elders? I don’t know. But in the meantime, as the #diversitymatters hashtag implies, it’s important for all of us to see people we can relate to in fiction.
Brilliant, insightful post.
And reading the responses reminds me that it takes a village — to cure what ails ALL of us. We all suffer and that’s why some of us are storytellers — to help others on the journey in some way, be it offering holistic approaches to living or merely the freedom to tell their story to listening ears.
You raised an important point, Melanie! If I’m going to call writers to wield their pens, then it’ll be important for readers to wield their eyes, if you can bear an odd metaphor. Otherwise it’s just more shouting into the void.
Wonderful post, Jan. A real encouragement for me this morning!
Seems easy enough to view (any) issue from a distance–until we find ourselves in it or living through it.
What better way to embrace the aging process than for those of us to share what we are learning and support others in their journey. Experience provides a wealth of insight and understanding that can empower and embolden. Embed all of this in a great story and our readers may discover–blessedly too late–they have been inspired and enlightened in ways they never anticipated. Regardless of the number of their years. Or ours.
To the keyboard we go!
Yes, we’re in need of wise mentors, Micky. Please provide us with some!
Jan-
Lately I’ve been reading summaries of research into the effect of media on individuals. Also, why people turn to entertainment.
Among other factors, people seek entertainment to validate their perceived identity. They also seek connection to their social group, affirming membership as entertainment portrays their group’s defining, mostly positive, characteristics.
More disturbingly, people look to entertainment to affirm the negative characteristics of other groups. We see this in negative stereotypes. People tolerate negative stereotypes because they validate their beliefs about, and boost their superiority to, other groups.
However, research also reveals some interesting things. What causes people to connect to and feel for fictional characters is founded on assessment of moral behavior. Simply put, “good” characters cause us to identify with, cheer and hope for their good outcomes. “Bad” characters cause us to feel the reverse.
That pictures shifts, though, with the portrayal of complex characters. They are more difficult for people to assess, but in the realm of “narrative texts” (novels), complexity is part of what readers consider “good” entertainment.
Readers of fiction also seek greater challenge (within limits) and because of identification, empathy and “transportation” (being imaginatively swept away), they are more open to emotions, “excitation transfer” (carrying involvement forward), learning and remembering.
Stories can also modify people’s attitudes, which brings me to your post. To change people’s minds and tear down stereotypes, they key is to portray as good people who we normally, for whatever reasons, think of negatively.
Take seniors. Make them frail and helpless and we’ll see them that way. Portray their strength, resilience, acuity and pro-active sides and we’ll see them that way. The Golden Girls were popular for a reason. Miss Marple endures for a reason.
Counter-acting stereotypes and promoting better values (like garden carrots) starts within ourselves. Extend our new attitudes to the page and we’ll all be healthier for it.
Science says so not just about carrots but about our stories. As a doctor, I’ll bet you agree.
Amen, Don. Thanks, as always, for deepening the discussion. I’m glad you’re a carotinoid-lover, too.
Mr. Maass:
There are some 109 million people in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Australia and New Zealand who very occasionally find a novel that validates their perceived identity.
When these baby boomers do find one–The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, About Schmidt, Tuesday with Morrie, Still Alice–they open their wallets and prove their enthusiasm for the books and the films. When they stumble on other, much lesser-known books, they write readers’ reviews full of praise.
But their choices are sparse because there is a very large gap in the publishing world.
At the other end of the spectrum of age and experience, literary agents, publishers and retailers have established five genres: picture books, juvenile, middle grade, young adult and new adult. What agent specializes in Boomer Lit? It exists only as a Wikipedia listing.
As we all know, identification of genre is one of the first things agents want to see in a query. How can writers of Boomer Lit escape this catch-22? Is there an agent or publisher willing to risk creating a new genre?
Authors of Boomer Lit know their books validate the interior beliefs of baby boomers through characters that are active, caring, funny, sometimes sexy and as foible-ridden as any other generation. These characters face challenges more fraught with danger than many have seen at any other time in their lives. Their success in meeting them reflects the lives, without the boring bits, of some 109 million people in five countries.
What literary agent is actively looking for them?
Best regards,
Barbara Bond
I am right now struggling with a short story about an elderly person (based on personal family experience). To an outsider the character is in a negative position. The character herself has to struggle to find the positive. The trouble I am having is avoiding a sappy or too-romanticized ending!
Susi, perhaps you’re looking for an ironic ending. Have you read McKee on how that differs from an up-ending or a down-ending? Here’s an article which explains the principle. https://www.motleyvision.org/2009/robert-mckee-irony-audience/
Jan, I love this post. I think of imagination as a superpower whose best result is often compassion. Sure, we can imagine things that will increase our fear and isolation, but we can also use it to increase our courage and connection. You’ve given me a new group to imagine about, and write stories about. Thank you.
Natalie, I adore your comment, particularly this sentence. “I think of imagination as a superpower whose best result is often compassion.”
That should be a quote, m’dear. Put it on your website as your tagline or make tee-shirts from it. I’d buy one.
Can I say “Amen, Sister!!”
Forty years ago, I had to change doctors in order to have a natural childbirth. And I was in the minority when I breastfed. Thankfully, a lot of that has changed, though there is still a lot of unnecessary interference when it comes to having babies. I’m appalled that, in the last couple months, both of my pregnant daughters had to endure a three-hour glucose test that cannot possibly be good for them or the baby. And I question the immunizations they were given.
But what I would really like to see change is people’s attitudes toward mental health issues. I would like to see more understanding and less judgment. If a person or someone in their family doesn’t have mental health problems, reading about it may be the only way they’ll be enlightened. And fiction is the spoonful of sugar that helps it go down.
Carmel, every time there’s another mass shooting I cringe, because the stereotypes and misunderstandings about mental illness only worsen. Seems like you have a clear “call to pens” issue. Good luck!
Wow, Jan, you have challenged us in a powerful way. Your background as a physician provides even more insight into some standards of care that miss the individual person and perpetuate channeling the elderly into a very small space.
My blog Boomer Highway was created during my mother’s tenure in a senior facility due to dementia. I wrote and fought for her dignity until she died in 2013. The last story in my book A Mother’s Time Capsule asks the question WHEN DID MY MOTHER DIE? Because sadly medicine and our society carves away at the strengths of the elderly until there is little left. (I must add here though that hospice, should you ever need it, is a blessing.)
I am also in the process of writing a nonfiction piece about my husband’s journey fighting a chronic form of leukemia. All of this is to say that writing continues to be a way that I communicate to help people and also to relieve the frustrations that I often feel.
Both fiction and nonfiction can change society’s viewpoints. YES we need more novels like STILL ALICE. And we need to throw our arms around our people as they age, encouraging them to grab on to life. When we are at that stage, that’s what we will want others to do for us.
Thank you, Beth. You’ve been doing important work. Sounds like you might well have written this post!
Hi Jan
In “The Passionate, Accurate Story,” Carol Bly recommends listing one’s values when generating story ideas because “values are emotional . . . they are how we feel about the given subject.”
Social activism should be a part of our stories.
This raises questions: does my writing avoid those subjects I feel strongly about? Do I write what I believe others want to hear, or give watered-down versions that won’t offend?
I applaud your post, Jan, for addressing this. Despite strong personal feelings about many things, including the subjects in your post, (in particular, the over-medication of nearly every age-group of our society), I tend to avoid including them in my stories. As you state, there are many sides to these issues, and they should be addressed and explored.
I’ll take your post as a wake-up call and heed Carol Bly’s “values” suggestion to write what I feel strongly about, and take on the role of social activist which writers should proudly profess.
Vincent, I hadn’t heard of Carol Bly before your comment, so thank you for that. It’s an interesting idea, to crystallize your values before writing a piece. I’m familiar with the advice to jot down sensory details in a scene and block out the action, but it seems like this would be another way of keeping the intent in the foreground. Neat. And good luck with the writing.
Jan —
Lo and behold, I made it over here (and even better, commented) on the actual day you posted. Will wonders ever cease?
I do want whatever I write to make a social difference (for the better) and try to craft complicated characters, truly flawed with great moral obstacles to overcome. We are such complex individuals, to write any other way would be, to me, two-dimensional. I see the good qualities in even the most villainous characters/people, and try to portray accurately.
Not to bring the big “H” (Hitler) into every discussion about villains (it’s just so convenient, especially now when I don’t feel like taxing my brain), but didn’t he once pursue painting/art? Ooo…could you imagine a time-traveling protagonist meeting Hitler pre-art school, befriending and directing him down a path of art and free love and hippiedom and the Holocaust and WWII never happens? Score one for promoting the arts! :) “The Boys from Brazil” would be about a commune of artists.
Great post, and as always, leaves me with something to think about.
It’s a red-blooded miracle, Mike. I’m honored you’d spend your precious online time here. In fact, you were top-of-mind as I wrote this piece because I wondered if it would speak to you.
You should write that story. I’m quite serious. An interesting idea!
Of course it spoke to me, and so insightfully, too. I’ve been in a pickle feeling like my writing should be more than “writing” — how I can be the change I want to see — and how to best go about crafting that. I do feel that our words should teach more than one thing…make more than one statement…get people thinking.
Thanks again for your wisdom. :)
Jan,
This is an empowering post. There is nothing more powerful than a pen wielded to change POV.
I attempt to make these quotes below part of my writing mantra:
“The pen is mightier than the sword. ” -William Shakespeare
““I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept.” -Angela Davis
“You catch more bees with honey than vinegar.” -Old English Proverb
“Never criticize a man until you’ve walked a mile in his moccasins.”-Native American Proverb. (who better than a writer to communicate a different POV?)
As writers we can accomplish the gist of each of the proverbs above.
As writers, when we hone our talents into ability, we are accepting our higher calling.
As writers we are enabling the change we want to see in the world, our hearts channeled through our fingertips and words.
Great quotes, Bernadette.
In those dark nights of the writerly soul, I think it can be helpful to have some sense of writing as a calling. It connects to this Victor Frankl quote: “A man who becomes conscious of the responsibility he bears toward a human being who affectionately waits for him, or to an unfinished work, will never be able to throw away his life. He knows the “why” for his existence, and will be able to bear almost any “how”.”
Nothing pisses me off more than to sit down to read for enjoyment and have some author use my money to cram their agenda down my throat.
Officially, 22 veterans commit suicide every. single. day. That’s 7,832 veterans a year who can’t deal with it anymore and take that final step. And it’s been happening for years.
The number is higher because only 21 states were polled to get that number and of those states, not all list veteran status on death certificates.
While I have been a huge proponent of troop support for years, I am not using my books as a platform for activism. I have a scene in my fantasy that deals with ptsd, but not because of my support for veteran mental health care, it’s because it would be totally stupid for her to have been tortured for weeks and not have problems.
Julie, if you heard that I believe readers should be force-feed with hidden agendas, I’ve failed to communicate a few principles.
Story comes first and last, IMHO, and precisely because we serve it, rather than the other way around. We also serve readers, who didn’t give up their precious time–and as you point out, their money–so that they could be schooled on some pedagogic matter.
That said, every story, whether the author intends it or not, makes a statement about how the world works. (Soldiers lives are frequently made harder by PTSD, for instance.) I see this post as a call to be intentional about what you’re choosing to say.
A few films, for instance, which had important things to say about the medical establishment, and what it means to be human. I’d argue that they were effective, and became part of this culture’s mainstream understanding, precisely because they were rollicking good stories:
*One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
*Patch Adams
*Awakenings
Hope that makes sense. And thanks for allowing me the opportunity to write a clarifying comment.
Julie, I understand what you’re saying. The older I get, the less it takes for me to put down a book. Hopefully, in our stories, all the reader ‘hears’ is a good story that touches her heart and opens her mind.
Exactly, Carmel.
This a terrific, thought-provoking post. Thank you. In my second novel, 2 of the main characters were in their 80s. Readers loved these characters, and their story really was the heart and soul of the book. Yet when I started my next novel, my agent said, “No old people, please.” She’s a terrific agent; she was trying to tell me that books about old people don’t sell. But I agree we can write by our conscience, and I love having elderly characters in my books.
Kathleen, well, that’s discouraging to hear! Pardon my skepticism, but I also wonder if it’s true, particularly with the population’s changing demographics. It wasn’t that long ago when we were told readers weren’t interested in reading about college-aged protagonists, and that’s been proven to be patently untrue. Might “grey-lit” or “geri-lit”–or whatever term we’d use for stories featuring protagonists of a certain age–be the next hot genre?
With the success of books like “The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared”, I wonder.
PS: Thank you for the kind words!
I think all of our writing should be thought-provoking, and yours hit the mark as always, Jan. And it must be fueled by passion or else we won’t have enough fuel to go the distance. I like novels whose characters are orchestrated around a premise that allows you to explore all sides of the issue. John Irving’s Cider House Rules (I prefer the movie version, which to me stayed more on point) gives a great example of many different ways to think about abortion. You may think you feel one way and then BAM, something happens that makes you question it. Love that! Wielded well, fiction can show us all the shades of gray in issues that too many perceive in black and white. In that way it makes us wise.
“I like novels whose characters are orchestrated around a premise that allows you to explore all sides of the issue.”
I so agree, Kathryn. Because of the WU Book Dissection Club, I’m developing an increasing appreciation for books which do this well.
Jan, first of all I love the idea of changing our perception of the aged. My mother is a case in point. The mantra in my family is “we can’t grow up until she does” and at 84, this doesn’t seem likely to happen any time soon. She was a very traditional housewife and mother, but found her inner strength when she lost my father 20 years ago. Now, she never thinks of limitations; she thinks of possibilities. Walks miles on the treadmill every day, plays video games with the grandkids and races other cars off the mark at stop lights (much to our embarrassment). She dresses every day as if she’s going somewhere special and still manages to entice the grown grandsons over to her house on Friday nights for Australia’s Top Model (of all things) and Thai food. What 20+ year old men do you know give up Friday night with friends to be with their grandmother? Not because they feel sorry for her (I think she has a more active social life than her daughters) but because she’s fun.
As for the books, I can’t think of anyone who changed my world view on food more than Michael Pollen, particularly THE BOTANY OF DESIRE. And I’m especially glad for the numerous documentaries and little videos we all share to bring awareness to the intelligence, empathy and sentience of animals previously thought of as a nuisance, if we thought of them at all – for instance, crows, bats and rats. This awareness extends to finally doing something to protect farm animals, which reminds me of another book, the hilarious HOME TO WOEFIELD, in which I learned more about fancy chickens than I ever thought possible, and fell in love with a depressed sheep.
Deborah, sometime I’ll tell you about my (abandoned) website idea which would have featured interesting older women. Your mother sounds like she’d have been a prime candidate.
I haven’t read that Pollen book, so thank you for the recommendation.
Susan Juby is fantastic, isn’t she? Another example of how fiction can accomplish sideways education while achieving the primary objectives of entertainment and side-splitting laughter.
Jan, there is inspiration—and it can be contagious—in a conscious life, well lived. My mom, at 93, has had to move into assisted living, which she dreaded at first. But now she’s taking part in the exercise classes, the movies and the talks they have there with gusto, and as I knew she would, is making new friends. Happiest for me, she is looking ahead; that’s a lesson I need repeated.
She’s an old farm gal, so she knows the qualities of good food, and where it comes from. (Unlike her son, who knows only the qualities of good ice cream.)
I agree that writers should be voices for change, or at least be burrs in bonnets. Of course, that directive should never be at the expense of story, since no one wants to be lectured, but we all want to be told tales. Some of those might even make a difference. Thanks for another good post!
Tom, I am so pleased that your mom is thriving in her new accommodations. To some degree we’ve been on a parallel track in this; her success gives me hope regarding my Aged P, who is likewise becoming more enlivened as she settles in and makes new friends.
We are agreed, also, about the need for story to be the king to any teaching point’s…prince.
Hi Jan –
I just read Kent Haruff’s last book, “Our Souls at Night”. It’s a little book, a one night read, but its protagonists are a widow and widower, both seventy-somethings (as I recall). It deals with the growing loneliness and isolation of people as they age, as the world changes without them, their children move away, more of the people in their lives die, etc. It’s a little different, and it’s that difference I enjoyed.
I expect we’ll see more books, in all genres, marketed to boomers in the next few years.
Gosh, CK, that book sounds exactly on point. In my local library it’s got 4.5 out of 5 stars and has a goodly number of holds. (One more after your recommendation.) Thank you for this.
Excellent read, Jan! very interesting.
Love that picture on the top, really suits the post.
Thank you, Pimion. And that picture is from the Microsoft site. I found it through serendipity after writing the post and thought it captured the theme quite elegantly. Glad it worked for you.
Good post. George Orwell only wrote social-activism works. Two of them–Animal Farm and 1984–turned out to be classics. John Steinbeck was partly a writer of social-consciousness fiction as well.
My work-with-beta-readers deals with addicts and health care, kind of. Lots of good writing was done about AIDS in the 80s and 90s, though I haven’t seen too much since. (This strikes me as worrisome.)
A good novel is waiting to be written about veterans coming home with PTSD and other issues and finding the U.S. health care system unable to help them. A friend of mine is an optician who works at the VMA, and he says the care there is woefully inadequate–and expensive, and mostly uncovered.
Very true about Orwell and Steinbeck, Steven. I suspect their work will be around for a few more centuries at least.
Addiction and healthcare in fiction? I’m intrigued!
And yes, I’d agree that the HIV epidemic isn’t topical anymore, which always is worrisome in terms of risk-taking behavior. Interestingly, seniors are an increasingly high-risk group for STIs now, including HIV. They’ve got the drive and the medication to remain sexually active but not necessarily the street smarts of younger people.
There is a great deal of room for improvement in how we take care of people. I’m not sure we’ll ever run out of material.
What a courageous post and how timely. I spent over 20 years as my mother-in-law’s caregiver until her last breath at age 94, and many of the issues you touched upon were ‘ours’. I had no qualms about including a professor of entomology who’d regressed into dementia, quickly losing his prestigious post, his identity and becoming homeless in a recent (though still unpublished YA). The main character a teenage albino artist losing her vision was able to identify with him when her random act of kindness brings them together. Their friendship very much shaped her in the subplot of the book which is how it should be when we allow ourselves to be empathetic in the real world. Selfishness is unacceptable yet sometimes seems rampant.
Now that’s a long-term commitment, Hanna. Holy smokes, you must be a resiliency machine. (I want to say thank you for your caring!)
And how lovely that your fiction reflects your philosophy. Here’s hoping you’ll find a receptive ear in the publishing world.
Hi Jan,
To follow up on the “writer as activist” theme, even through fiction, someone just directed me here to your blog because I just started an initiative to help free young children working long hours in carpet factories in Nepal. We’ll create an anthology of short stories to help fund an organization, GoodWeave, that frees these young kids and provides them with a stable life, food, shelter, an education, friends, care, playtime, and a future!
I’m calling for writers to write short stories based on the lives of many of these children, as described on the GoodWeave website. 100% of the book sales will go to GoodWeave to free more children and help with the education and care of the ones they’ve already freed.
Any interested writers can get more info on my blog: : https://jodierennerediting.blogspot.com/2015/06/call-for-stories-for-anthology-to-help.html
Thanks!
Sounds like a worthy cause, Jodie. Best of luck in attracting participants and funding!
Jan, this is a wonderful post. I’m enmeshed in getting a novel up and breathing, so am not allowed to spend long replying, but I couldn’t let this go.
I started writing in the genre where I began because I wanted to speak directly to women about issues that mattered, in a way they might not see as “persuasive.” I’ve always been political and engaged in trying to make the world better. So yeah. Great post. thank you!
I love how solid you are in your priorities, Barbara.
You’re a perfect example of how to do advocacy in an effective way, IMHO. Any of your readers would know how you feel about the Earth, gardening, and the natural world, but your books are an invitation to share in that reverence, not a cudgel over the head.
Dear Jan,
I have enjoyed reading all 57 responses. Clearly, you have struck a nerve.
I would like to take a few minutes to share my experience. I am traditionally published and have just completed a novel which was initially conceived for the age group called ‘Boomers.’ I can’t say I am fond of that moniker but it is much better than the term used in England, my home for the past 30 years – OAP – old age pensioner.
My hope was to encourage women where confidence was lacking, inspire where imagination had dried up, and above all, to entertain. I am referring to that illusive second or third chance of finding happiness late in life once a marriage is over.
Attempting to be faithful to the story, I included some awkward moments of intimacy as well as challenges facing mature men and women who were willing to take risks for romance. My protagonist is no Jane Fonda, neither is she portrayed as a cuddly grandmother. Just a woman wanting, deserving, and seeking more in life.
Sadly, I have now stripped away all reference to age, as I was assured my market would be greatly diminished if I did not. I am not on a crusade, this is my trade, so naturally I have to take advise.
Thanks for generating this discussion. I hope, in time, a new genre will blossom for all of us. We deserve support.
Lauren
Lauren, of course you have to do what is best for your career, but I have to wonder if that marketing advice is accurate, or if it will change going forward. Do boomers get frustrated when they don’t find protagonists reflecting their struggles, or do they vanish from the reading market because of health issues? I don’t know but I wonder if anyone does, or if they’re making assumptions.
This reminds me of the women’s shoe market. As a person with pontoon-sized feet, it’s been years since I’ve been able to find attractive, feminine shoewear, particularly of the type that would be suitable for formal occasions. IF a manufacturer makes shoes of the right size, they’re either sold out before I get there, horrifically uncomfortable, or ugly. So I shop exclusively in the men’s section. I’m not alone. But the shoemakers have no idea they’re missing an entire market because they don’t ask.
Since publishers don’t do surveys or work with focus groups on things like cover art or marketing strategies for specific books, I doubt they’re asking boomers what they want to read.
Anyway, thank you for permitting another soap-boxy moment. Best of luck with your book finding its audience!
Jan-
There are some 109 million people in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Australia and New Zealand alone who very occasionally read a novel that validates their perceived identity–as Donald Maass suggests readers seek and respond to.
When these baby boomers find one–The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, About Schmidt, Still Alice–they open their hearts and their wallets for the books and films. But their choices are sparse because there is a very large gap in the publishing world. There is no Boom Lit. genre or category of fiction that agents and publishers recognize.
At the other end of the spectrum of age and experience, there are five categories: picture books, juvenile, middle grade, young adult and new adult. Agents list their eagerness to find manuscripts from authors in these genres.
What agent specializes in Boomer Lit that reflects a healthy, positive attitude to a huge demographic? It exists only as a Wikipedia listing.
Until agents and publishers recognize the demand for novels that speak to people who see themselves are active, caring, funny and as foible-ridden as any other generation, the stereotypes will prevail.
I have challenged Donald Maass, based on his response to your post, to suggest an alternative.
I sincerely hope that it fosters some debate.
Best regards,
Barbara Bond
Hi, Barbara. For the sake of efficiency, I’ll address both your comments here.
With the advent of self-publishing, if there is a market for older protagonists–and I’d agree with you that Hollywood seems to think there is–then it’s only a matter of time until someone carves out their niche in Boomer Lit (Grey Lit?), both on the part of authors and agents. It could be another exciting trend to witness! It sounds like you have a head start in this area and I’m delighted to hear that word-of-mouth is helping your book find its target audience.
One thing’s for sure: If the sales come, the publishing world will respond, as it did with the New Adult genre.
You make fantastic points about the availability of developmentally-skewed writing at one end of human life. Seems only commonsensical that there’d be a market at the other end.
BTW, should anyone be interested, I found this Youtube clip of Lisa Genova discussing her 100+ rejections for Still Alice. She was told Alzheimer’s was too depressing a subject and that she should be writing non-fiction instead of a novel. Obviously anecdotal, but still fascinating and encouraging for those who are writing about important-and-unfashionable ideas. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXl8OJHN288
Thanks for stopping by and commenting. This is obviously a subject near and dear to your heart.
My gosh, do you have a topic or a snowball rolling down Mt. Robson?
I have been a social activist writer for some 30 years. I’ve found a home in Canadian, U.S. and U.K. magazines and newspapers but now face a wall of self-imposed genres/categories when attempting to query literary agents about novels that take things deeper.
Despite the astute observations of Donald Maass to your post, there are no agents or publishers who list themselves eager to receive queries on novels that appeal to the 107 million aging baby boomers in the English-speaking world. What a shame!
It is a gap in the publishing world that writers confront while trying to find homes for their of novels that speak to the perceived, positive identity of those millions.
At the other end of the spectrum of age and experience, agents and publishers have created five categories: picture books, juvenile, middle grade, young adult and new adult.
Is it time for a new category that opens the door to writers who know their baby boomer readers?
FYI my first inde book appealing to boomers sells well by word of mouth. My second, a satire that addresses a specific political woe and published by a small house is doing so-so. I have a sequel to the first in production and am working on the fourth book, based on the true story of the only gutsy community in North America to stand up to the asbestos industry to protect its water supply–Woodstock, New York. Yes, that Woodstock.
I hear what you are saying, but the systemic problems in publishing stand in the way of delivering the positive validation that aging boomers seek. There are scores of writers, maybe thousands, working in this They can be addressed by agents and publishers willing to We need to address them.
Barbara Bond