The author who has basically become the byword for this, as far as I'm concerned, is Ayn Rand. I actually think Rand is a rather fun author when she remembers that she's, y'know, writing a book, and isn't getting caught up in trying to get her characters to Declaim All About How Collectivism Is Bad. I actually think The Fountainhead is a great bromance-dysfunctional-romance book, very readable and entertaining (if highly dysfunctional -- seriously, the misogyny of coming up with a character like Dominique Francon would make me think Ayn Rand wasn't female if I didn't know better), when she's not lecturing. Atlas Shrugged, of course, is all about the lecture and not about the characters at all, and I find it all but unreadable. But I laugh a lot to myself when reading her books. And roll my eyes a lot.
I recently read Little Brother (Cory Doctorow), the second Doctorow I've read; I get a similar feeling from his books (although he, at least, doesn't have his characters go on thirty-page rants). I enjoy his rants too: don't let the government (or other centralized institution) have power over you! Information wants to be free! The book is clearly an excuse to Preach The Gospel of Anti-Authoritarism; the characters, while not quite as one-note as Rand's, are still, um. Primarily important for how they feel about The Man?
Oh, and there's Unwind (Shusterman), which is All About How You Should Be Pro-Choice, Dummy. Because apparently the alternative is killing 16-year-old kids! Like Rand and Doctorow, Shusterman is a good writer, I think. But wow, the anvils!
Are there other extended fictional rants you know about that you do or don't enjoy?
The question of religious dogma vs secularism - His Dark Materials. I liked the first book, wasn't sure about the second, didn't pick up the third. Might have to review them at some point.
ReplyDelete!! His Dark Materials, how could I have forgotten about that? Yes! And I did read the third... and it's much worse than the first two in that respect. Rather disappointing, really.
Deletewell, that makes me feel better about not having finished :-)
DeleteI find that most dystopian novels are rants in a way. This is a great topic though. I think I may have to answer in a post of my own. It's going to be my Saturday Shoot the Breeze post
ReplyDeleteHeh. Yeah, it's true -- many dystopian novels are rants against The Thing That Made The Dystopia.
DeleteThe particularly dangerous thing about rants (though, as an author, it's VERY tempting to go off from time to time) is that they distract from the narrative and make the reader aware of the author's presence behind the book. Everyone who writes is a puppet master, to some degree, but rants reveal the strings in the most heavy-handed way. And once a reader has seen the strings, it's hard not to wonder how else the author is manipulating things.
ReplyDeleteI'll be intrigued to see what other YA rants folks come up with. I'm sure I've been guilty of soapboxing!
I really like this, because it is very true. And I think for an author (...as someone who has written very little, but enough to have to think about these issues) the challenge is to always stay true to the character... and because the character isn't, or really shouldn't be, the author, the character is going to think differently and not have exactly the same soapbox opinions the author would have...
DeleteI have a hard time with books that are basically a tool for the author to push an agenda. I tried to read Rand but couldn't stand how ham-fisted the whole thing was. It doesn't take long before I was yelling l know, I know... I get it already! Since then I tend to stay away from 'message' fiction.
ReplyDeleteAhahahaha. Yeah, I have a much higher tolerance for 'message' fiction than (say) my husband, who refuses to read it at all, but I can only take so much. Rand, I can only get through Fountainhead, and only because I skip whole pages (and sometimes tens of pages) whenever someone displays the tendency to monologue.
DeleteI had someone tell me once that the only way to read Rand was to skip the monologues. I may have to try that only to finally say I read one of her books. The thing is, I'm sure she makes some worthy points, but it gets lost in the repetitive nature of the writing.
DeleteBut politics is tricky. I call it one of my "deal breakers" because authors so often get sidetracked off the story by the points they're trying to shoehorn into their work.
Thank you for an interesting post. It can be quite easy for any writer i think to 'rant' or describe their strong feelings on a particular subject in their work, i.e whether that be about immortality and death in the later works of Harry Potter where JK Rowling expresses her views (in particular towards the end), and in Tolkein's Middle-Earth where he describes passionately his feelings towards visioning his creation, the world beyond, such as with The Undying Lands; that there is always something out there to 'live on' as it were.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it is a negative thing at all. Writer's are unique and it is their thoughts, ideas and what they are passionate and enthusiastic about that makes them stand out in the literary world. I think one should embrace this in their writing and let them (as you put it) 'rant'.