I took a speech class once—you wouldn’t know it by the way I talk or don’t talk, but my topic was a smart one—Academic Freedom.
The subject
sent the professor into a rant, the class became involved, discussion ensued and
soon my dumb speech was lost in the fervor.
This morning
I read Steven King On Writing which
spurred the memory of that ancient speech class. I wondered about the writing equivalent
of my speech topic.
King said: “There are lots or would-be censors out there, and although they may
have different agendas, they all want basically the same thing: for you to see
the world they see…or to at least shut up about what you do see that’s different. They are
agents of the status quo. Not necessarily bad guys, but dangerous guys if you
happen to believe in intellectual freedom.
The other
day a girl friend said she wanted to know how I thought, felt, and how I saw
the world. I was stymied by the question—I had my hand on the door handle, about to leave, and
so was saved for the day, but I will think on it, and we will meet again, and I
am thrilled to have a friend with such an inquiring mind.
Have we been
taught to think for ourselves—given data of course, or have we been taught to
sit down, shut up and memorize what it says here in the course curriculum?
Some people
want to know, others don’t. Most people defend their belief systems as though
the spinning of the earth depends on it.
Steven was
encouraging writers to use an authentic voice. He said that not a week goes by
that he doesn’t get a pissed-off letter from a reader accusing him of being a
bigot, foul-mouthed, homophobic, murderous, frivolous or downright psychopathic.
What are they responding to? His
dialogue. These are the voices of his fictional characters. He is trying to
show who THEY are.
Steven
quotes his mother as saying, “Yes, profanity
is the language of the ignorant,” but even the most staid—Christian or heathen
alike--says an occasional ”Fuck,” when they hit their thumb with a hammer or
the dog barfs on their shag carpet.
I wonder why
those critics are reading Steven King.
“Talk,
whether ugly or beautiful, is an index of character; it can also be a breath of
cool, refreshing air in a room some people would prefer to keep shut up. In the
end, the important question has nothing to do with whether the talk of you
story is sacred or profane; the only question is how it rings on the page and
in the ear.”
