Many
years ago I asked my good friend, an endocrinologist, if he ever thinks about
the people he treats, whether they are good or bad people and whether he’d
refuse medical treatment to anyone. He told me that he can’t allow his personal
feelings to interfere with his professionalism. He’s a doctor and he treats
people in need, sometimes saving their lives.
But I wonder, in promoting books and encouraging everyone to write books
and to read the books of others, if I have an obligation to promote the books
of people I think morally bereft or to encourage others to read bad books, even
if penned by good people.
My
general belief is that books themselves are good – ethically so – and that most
writers are well-intentioned. Those who
want to do illegal or unethical things don’t tend to write books but rather
they just go out and act on their impulses, desires, or needs. But there are many books that contradict or
undermine humanity’s long-term goals.
On
the extreme side, you have Mein Kumpf by Adolph Hitler and books that espouse potentially harmful financial and
political systems, such as a Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto. You have people
penning books of hatred – racism, sexism, homophobia – and books that support
issues you may not agree with, on hot-button topics such as gun-control,
abortion and population control, the environment, animal rights, religion, and
dozens of others. Should these books be
shunned by booksellers, the media, libraries, universities, or consumers?
To
be an educated person, one must consume a lot of information, analyze it
properly, and expose one’s self to all ideas, even if offensive or hateful
ones. Why? Because once exposed, he or
she is armed with ammunition, shooting down disturbing premises with facts,
sound judgement, compassion, and moral reasoning. But to simply ignore and
dismiss others without reading firsthand of their ideas, experiences, and
views, is to leave you in the dark, a dismissive elitist without the ability to
learn from others.
The
more repulsed you are of certain people or ideas, the more exposure you need to
them. Somehow you must come to understand them well enough to use their own
logic against them. But from all of that
exposure to what you feel is reprehensible you must also discover what you can
negotiate on. If you can’t simply avoid
those you oppose, you have to find common ground to work with them, to at the
very least, find a way to live with mutual respect and division. Otherwise all that we are left is with two
sides who hate each other and fail to see the good in one another. We owe it to all to read the books on
subjects we know little about, of authors we disagree with and find
interminable. Who knows, maybe as we
seek proof of their wrongful thinking we may even come to adopt some of those
ways, recognizing that they may not be 100% bad, wrong or mean.
On
the topic of bad books – ones that are boring, not well written, poorly edited,
or just plain stupid, do we have an obligation to expose ourselves to them?
Yes, of course.
Why?
Because
some books may have weaknesses, significant ones, but they also could offer
some real moments of pleasure, truth, and justice. Besides, in order to appreciate the good or
great we have to read a dud every so often.
Maybe
the books that annoy or even frustrate and offend us need to grow on us. Maybe
we need to consume more – not less of it – in order to find its redeeming
qualities.
There
are movies that I felt like walking out of and then, after sticking it out, I
felt satisfied, sometimes leaving me days later to still think about them. There are take-aways from all books, even bad
ones, that may justify reading them.
Of
course, realistically, our time is precious and our minds valuable, so we won’t
want to overly expose ourselves to polluted books sharing bastardized views
from repulsive individuals. But we must
try, on some occasions, to expose ourselves to the virus of unintellectualism
in order to strengthen our own immunity.
DON”T MISS THESE!!!
Which pros - -not prose -- will you need
to succeed this year?
How can all authors blog with impact?
Big Marketing Lessons From My All-Time
Top 10 Blog Posts
Enjoy New 2018 Author Book Marketing
& PR Toolkit -- 7th annual edition just released
Here are best
author-publisher-publishing pro interviews of 2017
How do authors get on TV?
Study this exclusive author media
training video from T J Walker
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.