A Conservative Journey Through Literary America – Part 8: The Way Forward

This series of essays was not intended to be a laundry list of conservative literary authors – laundry lists are always boring and never helpful.  Instead, they were intended to be an investigation only, examining the dearth of conservatives in literature with an eye toward discovering the reason for this curious state of affairs and formulating a course for its possible correction.

As to the first, we have reached a tentative answer: A combination of temperament and values in the conservative mind combine to make the writing life both less suitable for, and less attractive to, conservatives.  The question remains:  What is to be done?

Let us state the obvious first  – conservatives who are so inclined must write, write often, and write well.  But that is not enough.  They must submit their work to literary magazines, publishing houses and agencies, large and small, again and again if need be.  Getting your work to market is a long, disappointing slog, with no guarantee of success for even the best of work.  Liberal writers know this and engage the process nonetheless; conservatives must do likewise. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: books, Conservatives, literature, magazines, novels
Posted Jun 7th 2009 at 7:13 am in Entertainment, Featured Story, Politics | 152598No Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/mpatterson/2009/06/07/a-conservative-journey-through-literary-america-part-8-the-way-forward/A+Conservative+Journey+Through+Literary+America+-+Part+8%3A+The+Way+Forward2009-06-07+14%3A13%3A35Matt+Patterson

A Conservative Journey Through Literary America – Part 7: A Question of Temperament

In our interview, Michael Blowhard had this to say about conservatives and their temperament: “Conservatives are often practical, non-theoretical people with an aversion to flossiness and silliness. And the American literary world as it’s currently constituted is pretty damn pretentious and silly.”

My musician friend Martin has similar thoughts.  He feels a vast gulf separates the liberal and conservative mind.  He describes conservatives (again, generally) as serious in thought, and more apt to value personal responsibility and spiritual-based morality, while artists, he says, tend to have, and maybe even need to have, more lax work and personal ethics.  Creative people, he tells me, want to push the envelope, move beyond the status quo, an attitude which they tend to apply to all aspects of life.  Again, it comes down to messiness.  Conservatives don’t like a mess; liberals love ‘em.

The lifestyle of Bohemia is a prefect example – late nights, sundry substances, many partners; these and other staples are less likely to tempt the conservative temperament by definition.

But even granting that conservatives are temperamentally less inclined to participate in the Bohemian lifestyle, it is a vile (and destructive) myth that Bohemia and artistry necessarily go hand in hand.  Many writers and artists, many great writers and artists, have lived stable, relatively tranquil lives consistent with the conservative temperament. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Aeneid, Bohemia, Bohemian, conservative temperament, Conservatives
Posted Jun 6th 2009 at 7:11 am in Entertainment, Featured Story, Politics | 1525862 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/mpatterson/2009/06/06/a-conservative-journey-through-literary-america-part-7-a-question-of-temperament/A+Conservative+Journey+Through+Literary+America+-+Part+7%3A+A+Question+of+Temperament2009-06-06+14%3A11%3A40Matt+Patterson

A Conservative Journey through Literary America – Part 3: To Write or Not to Write

Mr. Blowhard gives us several juicy bones upon which to gnaw.

First, the point about closet conservatives.  They come in one of two breeds: 1) those who hold conservative views but keep them quiet, preferring to avoid discussing politics altogether for fear of being sniffed out, and 2) those who not only hide their political views, but openly and falsely profess liberal views.

My good friend Martin, a professional musician, admits to me that he is among the former.  “When I’m at social events, or any gathering of entertainers, and they start talking about Bush is evil, blah, blah, blah, I just bite my tongue, because I know that even if I say something, I’m not going to have time to correct all their stupid errors and assumptions, and even if I did, there’s no damn way they’re gonna listen to me anyway.”  It sounds like you think artists are dumb, I say.  “They are,” he answers with a sigh.  “Incredibly.”

For Martin, and those of his breed, I have genuine sympathy.  An artist in his position is surrounded constantly by people with whom he must work, with whom he must get along for work to both keep coming and run smoothly.  Many of these co-workers are personal friends.  This last is no small matter – artists are intensely clannish, and form tight personal bonds.  So in my friend’s case, why jeopardize friendships?  Why jeopardize income?  Perfectly understandable, it seems to me, that he lets his friends and co-workers prattle on.

The latter breed, however, the ones who affect a liberal bias, projecting a false beard to the world, are a different matter.  This is truly insidious, because the aim here is not just to protect one’s income by muting beliefs, but to gain income (and friends, I suppose) under false pretense. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Conservatives, literature, Mr. Blowhard, Philip Terzian, Poe
Posted May 23rd 2009 at 6:58 am in Entertainment, Featured Story | 140054No Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/mpatterson/2009/05/23/a-conservative-journey-through-literary-america-part-3-to-write-or-not-to-write/A+Conservative+Journey+through+Literary+America+-+Part+3%3A++To+Write+or+Not+to+Write2009-05-23+13%3A58%3A51Matt+Patterson

A Conservative Journey Through Literary America — Part 2: A Conversation With Michael Blowhard

Michael Blowhard, of 2Blowhards.com fame, describes himself as “…. a blogger who has lived and worked in the NYC arts and media worlds for 30 years, and who worked in and around the NYC trade book publishing world for 15 years.”   Surely, I surmised, this is someone who may have some answers.  Mr. Blowhard was gracious enough to answer at length a series questions via email.

Do you think that there are fewer conservatives (artistic, political, or both) in the arts generally, and literature in particular?

A two-part answer.

Part one is that I have a super-inclusive view of “culture.” We’re all immersed in culture whether we know it or not, and whether we want to be or not. We clothe ourselves, we watch TV and movies and flip through magazines, we eat, we listen to stories and jokes, we drive cars and have opinions about airports and restaurants … That’s all culture. So from that point of view we’re *all* “in the arts.”   (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Andrew Sullivan, Bruce Bawer, Conservatives, Henry James, literature
Posted May 17th 2009 at 7:11 am in Entertainment, Featured Story, Politics | 1352143 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/mpatterson/2009/05/17/a-conservative-journey-through-literary-america-part-2-a-conversation-with-michael-blowhard/A+Conservative+Journey+Through+Literary+America+--+Part+2%3A++A+Conversation+With+Michael+Blowhard+2009-05-17+14%3A11%3A57Matt+Patterson

A Conservative Journey Through Literary America — Part 1: Introduction

Big Hollywood is a unique and long needed institution – a place where conservatives can gather and talk about pop culture and entertainment, the ultimate goal being, as I understand it, to encourage conservatives to engage in the culture war through the arts.

While the best tactics to achieve this goal are open to debate, its ultimate worth and necessity are indisputable – for too long, conservatives have ceded the most influential segments of society, from academia to Hollywood, to the Left with nary a fight.  The current sorry state of our movement is in no small measure the result of this refusal to engage the battle of ideas where it impacts people the most- the culture that they absorb every day through radio, Internet, television, and movies.

The piece which will appear in eight installments, one chapter each Saturday and Sunday, over the next four weeks, however, will deal more specifically with the literary world, and the conservative’s place therein.  For contemporary literature (by which I mean drama, poetry, and written fiction) is also more or less the exclusive province of left-wing thinkers and practitioners.

Some may argue that literature these days is not nearly as influential as movies, say, or television, and therefore perhaps not as worthy of conservative efforts to engage.  On the face this is true – far more people watch Sex and the City, for example, than read The Kenyon Review.  But in a larger sense, this argument misses the point and dangerously underestimates the influence of literature as a vehicle for poisonous ideas to enter the cultural mainstream.   (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: big hollywood, Conservatives, fiction, Kenyon Review, literature
Posted May 16th 2009 at 7:03 am in Celebrity News, Entertainment, Featured Story, Political Humor, Politics, Reviews | 1351902 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/mpatterson/2009/05/16/a-conservative-journey-through-literary-america-part-1-introduction/A+Conservative+Journey+Through+Literary+America+--+Part+1%3A+Introduction2009-05-16+14%3A03%3A03Matt+Patterson