We get three newspapers on Sunday, so often I don’t get around to reading them all until later in the week. But Monday morning I noticed that a new novel was getting a lot of press in the New York Times. It received front page in the Book Review section, and front page treatment in the Style section.
I’m not going to give you the name of the novel because I don’t want to give it additional publicity–frankly, two front page pieces in the NYT is enough.
Anyway–this novel is about a fictional American president’s wife . . . but the character’s background just happens to be identical to Laura Bush’s. The novelist, who happens to be a “liberal Democrat”, says that she “loves Laura Bush,” but then her novel goes on to detail the fictional wife’s randy extra-marital affairs, etc., and portrays the president husband as an idiot.
All right–I’ll just say it. This is rude. This is wrong. Fiction is one thing, but dragging real people through fictional mud is something else. We celebrate free speech, but there’s a limit. We are not to use our freedom of speech to infringe upon the rights of others.
How would others feel if someone wrote a “fictional” book and portrayed Michelle Obama as a primly-dressed slut? How would the Obama children feel? How does she think the BUSH children feel?
You may have read that within the last month, a novel written about one of Mohammed’s wives has been pulled from the publication schedule of a major publisher–for fear of offending Muslims. I’m having trouble understanding why it’s okay to ridicule the American president’s family but not publish a historical novel about one of Mohammed’s wives.
I think it’s telling that the writer of the NYT piece reports that as she left the author’s house, the author called out, “Be nice to me?”
I can think of only one question: why should she be? Common courtesy? Kindness?
The irony runneth over.
~~Angie
When I first heard about this a couple of months ago it made my blood boil. These folks are shrewd because they hide behind the “fiction” veil, yet they know many people will read it as truth.
Thank you for being a voice of reason! And for standing for what’s right.
Voice of reason, indeed.
The double standards are so frustrating, aren’t they? Pull something because it offends one person, but then publish smut defacing our CEO of the country and his family.
I think the idea of common courtesy has gone out the window in this last decade. Sad, but true. So, I guess that means we must work extra hard to be lights in this darkness, right? Jesus did say we’d be persecuted because of our faith in Him, right?
I’m glad you blogged about this, Angie. My post today was on what the liberal media is trying to pull with VP nominee Sarah Palin. While they aren’t doing it under the official guise of fiction, a lot of what they are writing is nothing but fiction.
Remember when our moms told us, “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.” Too bad more people aren’t following that advice today.
Robin
That is horrible! You are right had it been someone of a different party or religion it wouldn’t have been tolerated. Unbelievable!
And, to take it one step farther, why is it a good thing to avoid irritating Muslims, but Christianity can be mocked night and day?
Slander is slander in any genre. When we intentionally malign someone for our gain…it will not fare well.