The right to represent

When it comes to writing, a fairly important question is what to write about. What do I have the right to write about? What do I want to write about? What doesn't get written about, and why?

I don't have the answer, but do believe that representation in the form of stories has power. It can influence perceptions, beliefs, and the way in which we experience reality. Old news you might say, and it is, but knowing this doesn't alter the unremitting struggle that goes on to win hearts and minds over to a particular cause through persuasive rhetoric. It seems like a never-ending competition.

During an election, the stakes are high, and it's difficult to know what is really motivating particular politicians, and if they win power, what the effect of their ability to control the wheel will be. Those big things, policies and laws do matter, because they change lives, the trajectory of lives, and sometimes even whether those lives will continue or not. That's a lot of power in the hands of a small number of people who are sometimes lacking a little bit of insight, who might have vested interests that conflict with those of the people they purport to represent, and who are sometime less than kind. On the other hand, there are some good and dedicated people in there, in the mix. I think, hope, they are mostly that. We can't rely on the old media to tell us which is which, because they too have vested commercial and personal interests. Perhaps we all do.

I don't want to get big "P" Political here. It's not my place and I don't have a crystal ball. I don't know what is best in the grand scheme of things. The machinations are complicated and sometimes the counter-intuitive leads to good outcomes for people. My own vote will go to the parties that I think care for the people and for the world. But we each have a right to make up our own mind about these things. Each time. They're political parties, not football teams.

So, what is the place of a writer in all of this? That is a question we can presume to ask. What kind of issues and characters can we explore in our works of fiction? Do the issues need to be those that directly affect us? Do the characters need to be of our group, our class, gender, race, nationality, experiential base? Some might say yes - write about what you know, and how can you really know unless you have experienced something? Polemical writing in fiction is bad writing, some might say.  There appear to be some unstated no-go areas, which act as a way of closing down any further understanding.  And if you write about love, good outcomes, for example, don't expect to be taken seriously.

My concern here is that the tools of representation are not evenly distributed, although the Internet might be helping. Even so, formal education and the space and support in life to write, maybe even the luxury to consider the bigger picture, is not evenly distributed. This is the problem with saying we need to write what we know. Who will speak up for those whose voice is absent? We are all connected after all, and we can write about our relationships with others. A related question - what responsibility do we have to be conscious of the likely outcome of the words we send out there?

My feeling is that ethics matter. What we write about matters. Our responsibility as writers is to try to tell the story well, with good research, and with a good heart. And to listen and be prepared to change our views.