Sometimes people ask you why you write. The answer, I’m sure, is different for each
writer, probably different for any given writer on any given day. Society as a whole sometimes asks why writing
is important. Why, given all the pain
and wars and death and prejudice, all the children orphaned and all the men forever
scarred in body and soul, why should we care about words on a page, on the
triumphs and failures of people who don’t exist outside the realm of imagination?
Fiction matters because of all the wars and the hatred and
the anger. Fiction matters for the hope
of honor and beauty and peace. I write
because of songs like Willie McBride
and River and There Were Roses that have made me cry for all the pain in our
world that we humans inflict on each other.
I truly believe that there are young men and women who read Harry Potter as boys and girls and are
more likely to recognize the beginnings of fascism before it’s too late, just
as I as a child read To Kill a
Mockingbird and learned the importance of standing up for what you believe
in, read The Lord of the Rings and saw that true heroes do not cast aside
their principles when they go to war.
One of the purposes of fiction is to, in the words of
Shakespeare, “hold as 'twere the mirror up to nature: to show virtue her
feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and
pressure.” I would argue that things in
the mirror are seen more clearly. Studies
have shown that reading fiction increases compassion and empathy, and that we
are more likely to have positive feelings toward people of other races, creeds,
genders and orientations after having read books in which a member of that
group is a POV character.
If even one person out there reads my novel The Stolen Luck and starts thinking
about where they draw their own moral lines they will not cross, reads Ravensblood and learns to believe that
it’s never too late to find a conscience, reads my upcoming novel Where Light Meets Shadow and begins to
question their own prejudices and take a hard look at what is and isn’t worth
killing for, than I feel like I’ve done something to make this world a better
place for all of us.
While I salute all of those who have risked life and limb in
defense of their people and their principles, the best way to honor veterans is
to find a way to avoid the next war.
Links to the songs I mentioned in
this post. Warning: If these songs don’t
make you cry, you have no soul.
Willie McBride (AKA the Green Fields
of France) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kqba0IUdiBk
River by Susan Mckeown, performed by
Hanz Araki and Kathryn Claire mislabeled here as Blackwater (Not the best
resolution/sound, but I was at this concert and couldn’t resist linking here) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WRCHURp6IY
There Were Roses
Author website: www.Shawna-Reppert.com
No comments:
Post a Comment