Does anyone else wonder if 2025 will change the nature of mystery and crime novels, as well as literature as a whole?
Where to stand during an earthquake is one question, how to write during and after one is an entirely different question. Readers gravitate to the genre of mystery and crime novels for many reasons and, though the novels vary from the slow unraveling of puzzles, to the fast paced action to save the innocent or capture the dangerous, at the core of all of them is a world where there is right and there is wrong, where justice is served or, if it's not served, then it still exists as a beacon to light the way and where Orwellian newspeak is called out in the plain language of truth.
Rather than dwell on specifics, because goodness knows we've been inundated with them, I'd rather focus on principles that are often lost in the noise. If someone is convicted in a court of law, then serving their time in jail is something we expect, we rely on. If they are released for no legal reason but, rather, on a wish and whim, is there still a rule of law? If the free press, a pillar of democracy, faces retaliation for printing facts in a democracy, then is it still a democracy when this pillar falls? If the most sacred role of democratic governments - to keep their citizens safe - is eschewed by defunding and inserting an anti-science control over the health science that keeps citizens safe - what other roles no longer matter? If a democracy embraces the Latin term imperium, which originally indicated unrestricted authority of a single person, is it still a democracy?
If all this is changing - how do you write that? Literature must be reflective of the times. Will post-2025 mystery and crime writing, as well as literature in general, change by incorporating - by the osmosis that writers are famous for - the new world we find ourselves in? If settings and characters remain impervious to change, then the literature becomes irrelevant to readers who live in the setting of the day and are, indeed, the characters who live there. If literature ignores the changes in society, it inadvertently becomes historical fiction.
It is not merely the United States that has changed. The world is changing. As the U.S. withdraws from crucial health organizations like the World Health Organization and threatens – for the first time – to take over the countries of allies, the world is realigning. Long time alliances are being questioned. Many thrillers involve international settings and international law enforcements and one must ask, how will those change?
We've seen many authors of mysteries and thrillers become political – some of the biggest names in the business, from James Patterson, Don Winslow, Stephen King to Celeste Ng, have spoken out. Authors speaking out politically in such large numbers is something that we haven't seen since the 1930s. Given the rise of book bans, it takes courage to speak up and the muzzling of authors will also be something all genres will have to contend with. To become irrelevant or be silenced is the question that authors will have to grapple with and, many will speak out knowing that book bans are temporary but valuable literature lasts for generations. Further, history has shown us that, in times when there is much harm being done, those who are silent are judged harshly.
All these changes feel new and we'll have to see how they play out - it's only February for goodness sake! – but I truly don't believe that the genre will be the same after this. It doesn't feel like a blip in time but, rather, a fundamental change – an earthquake beneath our feet that is reshaping the literature of our time.
Sadly those with lies and fantasies seem to have the big megaphones at the moment.
ReplyDeleteIt’s so shocking…
DeleteIt's sickening, absolutely sickening.
ReplyDeleteStill knowing mystery writers, someday, someone will write a Bernie Gunther-type series about this era. Question is, how long do we have to wait before we take it on?
I suspect some are taking it on now. Others might wait. Thoughts, Eve?
DeleteOh, I think some are working on it. What we see is simply the corruption (terribly common) in small towns writ large, writ nationally, with Musk as the rich kid who's always gotten away with everything, and has enough money to burn anything he wants, and our President the sheriff who still thinks he's in charge.
DeleteI have been feeling as I read novels and watch shows portraying a "normal" state of and attitudes toward democracy and law and order that they seem peculiarly irrelevant, "period pieces" about an age of relative innocence when not only rules and laws but facts and evidence had legitimacy. On the other hand, there's a case to be made for writing as if this is still true and the current folly a madness that can and will end. On the other hand, superimpose this political image on that of the other current paradigm shift, AI's assault on our formerly human-directed society, and what happens next will indeed be very different from the past. Not every crime fiction writer will or needs to write about that directly. But the trend of cross-genre is already happening. I suspect we'll see more and more historical fiction (passionate nostalgia, and that's okay) and speculative fiction (passionate proposals for a future that's better, not worse).
ReplyDelete"Where to stand during an earthquake" - Mary, that is the image I have been waiting for. Your third paragraph is the best I've seen to describe the unraveling of the rule of law, etc. I agree with you, that it's not a blip but a fundamental change. Curiously, I am dealing with that in my own current series, which takes place 1928-1930, through three books so far. Fundamental change, and in book four, the seismic change brought about by the market crash. Another time when greed changed everything.
ReplyDeleteWould love to read your book!
DeleteCrime stories have a moral code, and mysteries build on clues and logic. When capricious whims replace them, the world becomes irrational and more threatening. Our essential moral code is based upon the idea that doing something "bad" will lead to punishment and doing "good" will lead to a reward. It's a cause and effect relationship.
ReplyDeleteThe rule of law was designed to resolve differences without violence or bloodshed. When you remove that mechanism--the courts--the only means of resolving issues becomes violence. The current administration is undermining fairness and legality and morality, which means there will eventually be a bloodbath. After that, we might have a second Nuremberg with severe penalties for "wrong"-doers. Or not. There have been revenge-driven stories for years, and they've been fairly popular. Andrew Vaachs comes to mind, and films like Mister Majestyk, or the older western The Magnificent Seven.
Whether the new writing follows suit or not, I think of political novels of the past that involved a coup or swift takeover, and hope we learn from them. My current fantasy is that a group of trained professionals is targeting most of the current administration and orchestrating an operation that will be executed (deliberate word choice) swiftly. And soon.
While I think Trump and his allies are horrible subhuman people, I am even more unhappy at the level of hatred they have uncovered in me. Ten years ago, I could still tell myself I was a nice person. Now, I just want the people in power wiped away without a trace. That's not who I believed I was. And it has definitely influenced my recent writing.
Steve, I so appreciate your last paragraph. How it is changing us to people we didn't think we could be. As a Canadian, it helps me to know that there are Americans fighting for decency like you and those on here.
DeleteSteve, "Ten years ago, I could still tell myself I was a nice person. Now, I just want the people in power wiped away without a trace. That's not who I believed I was."
DeleteOf course you're a nice person - being nice means you want bad people to go away. If you wanted them to stay, then you'd be something else...