Don't Hit Me on the Head

I had lunch with a friend this week and we both happened to be reading books by famous authors who have discovered their personal agenda and think of themselves as educators of the (blind, stupid) public. My friend's reaction was the same as mine: Stop hitting me on the head!

The author I am reading wants me to know how dysfunctional our government, media, and way of life is. That's not unusual. Many modern novels portray the corruption of politicians, the greed of corporations, the slantedness of journalism, and the complacency of Americans in general. Being able to read nonfiction as well as fiction, I get the hint and either agree or disagree as I enjoy the progression of events in the novel.

But when the action in the story stops for long periods while the characters discuss these problems, or worse, when the main character THINKS about them for paragraph after paragraph, it isn't a novel anymore. It's sermonizing. As a kid, I remember reading Sinclair's THE JUNGLE and loving it...until the end, where he lambasts the System for its ills. Even at sixteen, I recognized that the author had stopped caring about the story and was at that point simply expressing his opinions. I resented his assumption that I couldn't see his point from the story itself, that he had to spell it out for me. When an author's agenda interferes with his understanding that he is writing a novel, it offends the reader. I don't care how famous the name on the cover is.