So Can A Book Be Dark & Still Add To The Positives?
On August 14, I talked about some of the “why’s” of being a writer, like wanting to tell great stories that capture something of the ache of the human condition, as well as entertaining readers, and also creating something that adds to the balance of positives in the world. (No pressure!)
A potentially counterbalancing reflection is that a considerable body of great literature addresses the world’s darker and seamier side, whether in terms of war (Catch 22, All Quiet on The Western Front, The Ghost Road), oppression (One Day In The Life of Ivan Denisovich, Lord of the Flies, Beloved), deprivation (The Grapes of Wrath, Oliver Twist), and more general social and cultural illumination (To Kill A Mockingbird, The Good Earth, Owls Do Cry), or straight-out dystopia (The Road, The Handmaid’s Tale, Brave New World.) To name just a handful of books.
Unquestionably, from looking at even such a small handful, great books undoubtedly address difficult subjects. Which raises the question: can a writer tell a story that is dark, or grim (or even “grimdark” to quote a popular SFF subgenre) and still, to use my phrase, contribute positively to the world—even if the material their work canvasses is uniformly negative?
I believe the answer to that question is a resounding “yes.” The sorts of stories I’ve cited above undoubtedly capture aspects of the “ache” of our human condition, as discussed on August 21. But I think they go further by illuminating our understanding of human nature and the world(s) we both create and inhabit. President John F Kennedy, in his eulogy for the poet, Robert Frost, alluded to this when he said that “we must never forget that art…is a form of truth.”
The poet, Emily Dickinson, also addressed this when she said that we must, “Tell all the truth, but tell it slant.” But also cautioned that, “The truth must dazzle gradually//or every man be blind.”
That gradual dazzling which results, nonetheless, in the telling of both Kennedy and Dickinson’s truth, is the business of literature. And telling all the truth, however gradual or slant, and however dark the subject matter, is unquestionably an addition to the positive side of society’s ledger, even if it not infrequently makes both the society and individuals within it uncomfortable.
Which may be why literature was the only one of the arts that Alfred Nobel selected for endowment as a Nobel Prize.