Relevance

[loquax]

It struck me that a lot of the "great novels" in our history address the world issues apparent at the time of their writing - think social/political/philosophical. In English Lit classes, when analysing a novel, you'll invariably raise the question of "why is the text relevant to the time in which the author lived?".

Whether it be through metaphor, or more directly, the best novels always seem to give insight to the then current issues, and express the author's feelings towards them. Not all of the best novels, but enough of them.

Is this:

1) Because these issues influence the author subconsciously, and so come out inadvertently in the author's writing,

2) Because the author injects their own opinions into the text, and seeing as they grew up around these issues, their opinions are automatically influenced by them, or

3) Because novels that address current issues just tend to be better?

or 4)other?

And if the answer is 3, should we try to make our novels relevant in some way? Is anybody here writing a novel that is relevant to current issues (terrorism, globalisation, the informational revolution etc)? Do bear in mind that through the use of metaphor, this is possible in any genre.

P.S. Yeah, "it just comes down to a good story and good writing", but I'm interested in discussing the aspect of relevance. Let's assume the story and writing are both amazing. Will relevance excel the novel to a higher level?

[Codger]

loquax, I'm not sure that I understand your questions?

Are you describing books where authors use wars, historical events and politics as part of the setting? E.g., "Red Badge of Courage"

I personally feel that many current authors try to inject their politics into stories (boring soapbox) and these diatribes fit no better than the many gratuitious sex scenes that have become de rigueur.

But I guess that this is what the readers of current fiction want. Sigh.

As for myself, I prefer to develop my own distorted view of the world. I try to avoid foisting my half-baked views on an unsuspecting readership.

[swvaughn]

Relevance to current issues will sometimes raise a novel's performance in the market because of the "hook." If a novel deals with issues that are in the news, the media has a good reason to pay attention. Therefore, the novel gets more exposure -- more people are aware of it, and the chances more people will buy it get higher.

Without a current, relevant hook, novels must stand on the basis of the writing. This leaves marketing largely up to word-of-mouth... often irregardless of the publisher's promotional efforts. Novels revolving around current issues are an easier sell (providing, of course, they are well-written).

After the novel becomes successful because of its relevance, it is then a known quantity and will often continue to realize success in its future. This may be one reason why the classics, which dealt with relevant issues of the time, are still classics.

I work in marketing. Can you tell? :D

[loquax]

Codger: Think To Kill A Mocking Bird's commentary on racism in the 60's. Dickens' works as social commentaries, criticising poverty and Victorian society. To a lesser extent, Tolkien's works as reflections of the second world war.

[Codger]

Codger: Think To Kill A Mocking Bird's commentary on racism in the 60's. Dickens' works as social commentaries, criticising poverty and Victorian society. To a lesser extent, Tolkien's works as reflections of the second world war.

I'm not belittling the efforts to include social consciousness into a story. My objections are with those who sacrifice the story and the overall quality of the writing in order to expound on their half-assed political views. This practice has become too common for my tastes.

The examples you cite are not what I'm referring to. They make their points while telling compelling stories, through interesting characters.

[Garpy]

My 2nd book LAST LIGHT was deliberately about a topical issue. It's a sort of Peak Oil novel...but deals specifically with how utterly reliant we are on that one resource, and how quickly this world would unravel if tomorrow the flow of oil stopped. (Check out the link to the trailer - see my sig below)

The issue came first, the story/characters second. It's an issue I wanted to write about since 2001, and my editor let me go for it for my second book. Because of the instability in the middle east, global warming etc etc, it is VERY topical and will undoubtedly do much better than it would have done, simply because of the subject matter.

[CheshireCat]

It struck me that a lot of the "great novels" in our history address the world issues apparent at the time of their writing - think social/political/philosophical. In English Lit classes, when analysing a novel, you'll invariably raise the question of "why is the text relevant to the time in which the author lived?".

Whether it be through metaphor, or more directly, the best novels always seem to give insight to the then current issues, and express the author's feelings towards them. Not all of the best novels, but enough of them.

Well, "best" is always an arguable term, isn't it?

Is this:

1) Because these issues influence the author subconsciously, and so come out inadvertently in the author's writing,

Yes.

2) Because the author injects their own opinions into the text, and seeing as they grew up around these issues, their opinions are automatically influenced by them,

Sometimes.

3) Because novels that address current issues just tend to be better?

I don't think so but, as I said, it's arguable and largely a matter of taste.

And if the answer is 3, should we try to make our novels relevant in some way? Is anybody here writing a novel that is relevant to current issues (terrorism, globalisation, the informational revolution etc)? Do bear in mind that through the use of metaphor, this is possible in any genre.

P.S. Yeah, "it just comes down to a good story and good writing", but I'm interested in discussing the aspect of relevance. Let's assume the story and writing are both amazing. Will relevance excel the novel to a higher level?

I think if you're "trying" to make your novel relevant in terms of society or politics or whatever, you're most likely trying too hard. You want to speak to today's audience, yes, but whether history will judge your work better for it is going to be left up to history.

Which, I believe, answers your final question. "Relevance" is not going to "excel" your novel to a higher level, but history may -- or may not -- judge it by a different yardstick because it said something relevant or profound about the society and times in which it was written.

Here endeth the lesson. :D

Personally, I just try to entertain my audience, especially since I won't be around to see how, or even if, history judges my work.

[ClaudiaGray]

I think answers 1-3 can all be true, for different works.

[Judg]

Just like plots, there are a limited number of issues when you get right down to it. Prejudice will always exist in some form, for example. A story that makes a meaningful statement about a significant issue and does so in a compelling story will probably transcend the immediate issue adn become universal.

To Kill a Mockingbird is about heroism in standing up to the corrupt values of a majority, which sounds pretty timeless to me. Fiddler on the Roof is about the clash between tradition and changing times and a man's attempt to deal with it without completely losing his bearings and/or his family. Again, sounds pretty timeless to me. Sure it was a Jewish family in pre-Revolutionary Russia, but variations on the theme have been constantly played out throughout human history, making it a powerful story for many cultures and many times.

So a really good "timely" and "relevant" story is likely tapping into something much broader.

[Novelhistorian]

I agree with Judg. You don't need to write about the exact time and place to strike a universal theme, and there are many levels on which to work. If you wanted to say something about terrorism, for instance, you wouldn't have to mention current politics at all, because terrorists have existed throughout history. Just pick a setting and go with that. Or the terrorism could be tangential, with the focus on the lives of people just trying to get by, interrupted by a single, horrible incident. No speeches necessary.

I love novels in which the frame of the book is itself a metaphor for what the author is trying to say. If you've read Isabel Colegate's novel, The Shooting Party, you've seen an example of what I mean. She sets the book on an English country estate not long before the First World War, and the action revolves around a bird-hunting party over a weekend. But it's really about the violence in English upper-class society, prefiguring the war's arrival. The killing of hundreds of birds (and the blinding of a gamekeeper by a selfish, arrogant, overly competitive hunter) say worlds about class differences and cruelty, without a soapbox in sight. (The movie, a pale imitation of the book, is noteworthy mostly because it was James Mason's last film.) I happen to be fascinated by the First World War, but you can read this book as a discussion of present-day society.

BTW, writing about current events isn't always a surefire formula. I've seen writeups by at least two agents in which they say, "Please, no more novels about 9/11." There may be others who want them, and the taste for them may be a long time fading, but take it for what it's worth.

[Joe270]

I agree with Chesire, don't push your agenda.

The story comes first. If you're inspired to write it because of current events, then that fact will show through.

Don't preach, that's just boring. Get your story out effectively, and the subtheme will show through.

[loquax]

I'm never for "pushing agendas", or theme over substance. Of course, if this is all a novel is then it's going to be crap. I was hoping to diffuse this point being raised with the P.S in the original post.

Talking about timelessness... yeah, I agree that all of these themes happen throughout history. But surely a novel written about the class divide is more powerful when in the context of being written in the late 1800's. And a modern novel about public fear and the infingement of liberty would be more relevant today than if it had been written a hundred years ago. Of course, a class divide still exists, and fear existed back then, but not to the same extents.

[CheshireCat]

Talking about timelessness... yeah, I agree that all of these themes happen throughout history. But surely a novel written about the class divide is more powerful when in the context of being written in the late 1800's. And a modern novel about public fear and the infingement of liberty would be more relevant today than if it had been written a hundred years ago. Of course, a class divide still exists, and fear existed back then, but not to the same extents.

Well, again, it depends. I would imagine that those living during, say, the Inquisition could have said an awful lot about public fear and the infringement of liberties.

In a hundred years, there may be another reason for the subject to be relevant to those living in this or another society.

What feels compelling and relevant to us, of course is -- now. We may discover profound truths out of our experiences. We may not. Those truths may resonate with readers a hundred years from now, or they might not.

Your story is going to be informed by your feelings and experiences; as authors, that's something I don't believe we can escape or avoid. Some authors are able to be objective in print regarding things about which they have strong personal opinions, of course, but over a body of work, what you feel and what you believe is going to show through.

That said, of course if a particular story you believe is especially relevant and meaningful for yourself and for today's readers is calling to you, tell it. But don't step up on a soapbox to tell it, and don't expect your work to be "elevated" in some way because you're speaking to fear in a fearful society or the loss of liberties in a society struggling against just that.

Lots of authors are telling stories that are, at their core, about our society and our fears. We always do; we all get our ideas from the same media, the same societal and political awarenesses, the same pop culture.

I don't believe it's usually a conscious decision to write about all that, I think it just seeps in.

[josephwise]

In a lot of cases, these novels aren't necessarily addressing these world issues. They aren't "about" war, or terrorism, or the Great Depression.

A lot of them are merely about the characters...and the characters happen to be affected by the current state of the world.

[Rob B]

Any student studying literature in one form or another is likely in the throes of pedants who have spent their respective lifetimes re-analyzing ever sentence they have ever read that they feel is of consequence.

Very few works are so devoid of definition that they can't be assigned to some cultural or social moray. And as others have stated, there is no need to let this concern influence (sic, hinder) one's creativity. It we take a look at Pulitzer Prize winners over the last ten years, many people might feel the social and cultural issues of much of these works far out way any specific historical references.

I think it's always important to separate in our minds what the academic community holds in high regard for syllabus material. And the "why" relates
specifically to what I'm implying. My favorite example of this is BILLY BUDD
and the name Waite as the sobriquet for "the white man's burden." And what about the abundant social metaphors in LORD JIM? A book several times the size could be written (and many have been) analyzing Conrad's meanings, yet how much of this is pure speculation on the part of the parser?

In line with what the poster right above me stated, a work will reflect currency inherently through characters and their setting(s).

[brokenfingers]

I think writers have a natural tendency to write about the world around them and often this includes the issues of the day. Often they’re a natural source of conflict, which we all know is like manna to a writer.

I also think true relevancy is something assigned later when future generations decide that this work in some way illuminated certain important historical events and/or situations taking place at that time while also being entertaining, enjoyable, enlightening or thought-provoking.

And I don’t agree that the “best” novels do this. It’s really a matter of personal taste.

I just think that schools, universities and other places of learning tend to promote these types of books more than others because they feel that these books maybe shed light on the human condition in some way that a student can understand and maybe utilize, as one of their primary goals is to try and educate a future adult as to the ways (and possible perils) of the world.