Saturday, July 14, 2007

RIght-Wing Novelist Contest

You may recall some months ago this site hosted a right-wing rocker contest to pull together a list of bone fide right-wing rock stars with great success. Aerosmith, Ted Nugent, uhhh, uhhh, well, go back to the archives - oh yeah, ZZ Top.

I'd like to do the same for novelists. I am asking you, smart and well-red reader to help me cobble together a list of right-wing novelists that we then can use to make our library / bookstore choices with.

So what makes a novelist right-wing? Well, here's one clue - look at the protagonist.

The Protagonist.
In left-wing land, the heroes of a novel have complicated family histories (e.g., abusive fathers) and this family history is impossible for them to overcome.

In right-wing land, the heroes have stable families who love them. When they don't, they get over it and do not let the book get sapped by a whole bunch of heart-breaking pining for that perfect daddy.

In left-wing land, the heroes make struggle is against the cruel and unfair nature of life, the pitiable and weak nature of her or his own person (and by extension, all humans).

In right-wing land, the heroes struggle against evil, knowing that life hold the possibility of both and her or his efforts will lead to the triumph of good. The heroes do not spend time navel gazing at their own weaknesses and searching for someone to blame those weaknesses on.

Okay - so, my contribution to this contest is the following:

Tom Clancy
Tom Wolfe

As for Canadian content, there is but one right-wing novelist in the history of Canadian literature. This, for the PC diversity freaks out there, should worry them tremendously and they should be demanding that the Canada Council of the Arts put a minimum quota on right-wing literature to ensure diversity in Canadian literature. (Think Yanny Martel would do that?)

Robertson Davies

Now, to you....