I’m raising my head from the work chambers to say hello. I’ve been deep inside revisions on my next novel, and yeah, it hasn’t been going smoothly! There are quite a few distractions in the air. Everyone I know is going through it. The amount of yelling per capita is on the rise. Get your catharsis while it’s hot!
One question I’ve gotten a lot in the last week is what the point of writing is. In better times we know that the arts have many reasons to exist. Debating the merit of the humanities becomes a frigid chore when we’re all heartbroken. But there is one reason I keep coming back to.
Since Election Day, we’ve all taken a moment with some piece of art. A couple who lives near me started binge-watching Star Trek. A peer of mine went back to the Murderbot books for a re-read. I know at least one lady who’s been screaming it out with European Metal. Some fans have messaged that they’ve actually been re-reading Someone You Can Build A Nest In.
I myself have been listening to Volkor X, as well as Ishii Yasushi’s Raid and Ruins. It’s all music that makes me want to move. It makes me want to get up. I’ve had some numbing art, too, as somehow the five-hour documentary about the Child’s Play series called The Doc of Chucky puts me in a trance, and I found myself totally engrossed in the repulsive world of Brandon Cronenberg’s Antiviral when some friends showed it to me. But mostly, I find myself grabbing art that makes me want to do something. The inspiration is to move. To work, to check in on people, and see what I can do next. They’ve helped me process a little of the stress before confronting more planning and mutual aid support with other disabled people in my networks.
Which brings me to the point: in a time of crisis, people need the arts. The arts both help us escape, and to confront uncomfortable things. No book or album is going to solve everyone’s problems. That’s not what they’re for. If they can get us to keep going, then they’re magic.
This is also why I’m increasingly disdaining gatekeeping in genre fiction. Dark fiction isn’t defeatist, and cozy fiction isn’t denial, and literary fiction isn’t empty. If it doesn’t work for you, leave it to the people it’s helping, and reach for the next thing.
There’s something else in that objection, “How can you write in a time like this?” Something that’s easy to miss, an optical illusion of logic.
Where do you derive meaning from? In hard times, it is easy to see bad things done to good people and to give up because it’s a bad world. That is the classic portrait of despair. It’s human, but it’s also flawed thinking. We derive despair from such events because we view the good people as the source of virtue, and them being harm means a loss of it. But it’s the person that matters. Saying harm done to good people means everything is bad is an insult to good people. If they are what matter to us, then we don’t give up on their behalf. We rise and help. Feed them. Shelter them. Remind ourselves that we don’t act (or fail to act) because of treatment of the good people around us, but because we care about those people no matter what happens.
This is why I write the way I do. At least in part, I write to try to make others feels less alone. I also try to live my life to have that effect on some folks. I would’ve written this newsletter to y’all a lot sooner, but I’ve been visiting and supporting the most vulnerable people in my life, trying to sure things up for them.
I’m not going to tell you what to do. Just know that there are so many things you can do. Some people can donate money and resources. But we can also cook meals, or deliver them. You can phone bank, or proofread for someone. You can design a website, or give tech support, or just do a disabled person’s laundry. If someone has a long trip for healthcare, you can go with them to make it easier and safer. Plenty of organizations are eager for volunteers.
I’ve done some of the above over the last week. I also donated one of the last remaining ARCs of Someone You Can Build A Nest In to an auction for the Trans Lifeline. This is a printing from back before my novel was available for sale. I’m going to sign it, and add whatever personal message the winner pleases.
Leigh Harlen is organizing over a hundred such auctions with items spanning a wide spectrum, from bespoke clothing to wall art to consultations with fight choreographers.
Whatever you do, bring art with you. The humanities make it easier to be human.
Yes!!!