Why should a would-be author even bother to concern themselves with Political Correctness?
Let’s use ivory as an example. Would it be okay for an author to write about the brutal killing of Elephants and the Black Market in ivory? Would there even be an audience for such a book?
Similarly, would it be politically incorrect for an author to create a magical object partly made of ivory in a fantasy or magic-realism novel.
Authors have the same problems if they choose to write about race, ethnicity, class, religion, or crimes committed by a particular group - and of course politics.
What should a book contain to be Politically Correct?
Must it have Black, White and Asian characters? Must they all have to be from the same social class and background? Must it have left-wing and right-wing characters? Should there be an equal mix of Heterosexual, Lesbian and Gay characters?
Of course not, that would be incongruous.
A writer should write what he or she knows about and stick two fingers up to those who object. Why some of you may ask? It’s because we live in a democracy in which freedom of speech plays an active part in our daily lives – and long may it do so.
Under good old Joe Stalin, it was the death knell for creative artistic expression. Artists, Writers and Classical composers, were killed for not toeing the communist line. Russian art suffered severely as a consequence.
How dumbed-down and dull books would be if authors concerned themselves with every aspect of Political Correctness.
As much as aspects of Political Correctness have helped to civilise society, it is darkly oppressive at its core. At its worst, Political Correctness represents a virtual gagging filter placed between the thoughts of an individual and the vocal expression of them.
It is a social conditioning designed to seriously limit free expression and exchange of ideas.
@ Adrian: Some time ago, you posted the Q 'Why do you write?' I read others' answers, but wasn't inspired to answer myself.
Today, while working outdoors and mulling over the debate on the Q before this one, the answer to your question came to me: I write for children. Children are the sun around which my world rotates. I write children's stories. I also write things for adults. But today i think that I realised for the first time that EVERYTHING I write - whether aimed at a child or an adult readership - is an attempt to make the world a better place for children.
And probably my favourite novels by others share that aim with me.
Say what you like about 'PC' being 'darkly oppressive at its core'. That's your opinion and you're welcome to it. I certainly don't want it. For me, any writing without a moral core (I do NOT mean a moralistic one!) is as a withered leaf, blown in the wind.
@ Adrian: I am guessing (just guessing) that your question was inspired by the raging debate on the Q that I posed just before this one.
I agree with you that a novel that reads like a political pamphlet would bore me to tears... or - more accurately - to sleep.
I confess that I have never read Mein Kampf, Das Kapital, or The Communist Manifesto. None of them are novels, it's true, but if I started to read a novel that preached its author's political views at me, I'd soon put it down.
HOWEVER
My older brother was a big fan of Ian Fleming's James Bond books. I followed in his footsteps and read all of them that I could get my hands on... until I read John Le Carré's The Spy Who Came In From The Cold. It burst Bond's glamorous-spy bubble and I decided that I need never read another spy novel: because I'd already read the best one possible. Years later, I read Graham Greene's The Human Factor, which I placed on a level with TSWCIFTC. If we can consider Le Carré's The Constant Gardener a spy novel (it does have spy elements), then those 3 are tied for #1 in the spy genre... as far as *I* am concerned.
All 3 share a moral purpose (what you might call 'political correctness'). All 3 beat the SHIT out of Fleming for quality writing.
You can read a novel for distraction, for fun, to while away a rainy afternoon, or for titillation.
A GOOD novel can change your life.
I don't think Political correctness has ever been a matter of banning certain subjects - I think it's more about how those subjects should be treated.
I see nothing wrong about writing about the ivory trade - in fact, I think that, as writers, it's important to bring things to the world's attention, to explore the rights and wrongs of certain subjects. I think it's the job of artists of any kind to try and understand the way humans work - all humans, even the nasty ones! - as one has to understand, in order to try and solve a problem.
But if you were to write a book glorifying the Ivory Trade, or domestic abuse, or drug trafficking, then you might have a problem, especially if it were aimed for children. As writers do we not also have a moral duty to our readers?