Revolutionary Writing?

[Keroin]

So, I'm writing a speech for Friday night. My crowd will be writers but I'm specifically addressing part of this to the young (teen) writers in the crowd. I want to talk about how writing can be a revolutionary act and I'm trying to find examples in literature - words that had a serious impact on society. They could be non-fiction based, but I'd prefer something from a work of fiction.

I have some ideas of my own but nothing that's really making me excited, yet. I know this is a well-read crowd so I'm hoping maybe you guys have some suggestions that I've overlooked?

Anyone?

 

[DemianBiros]

Look up some of the works of Henry Miller,John Steinbeck,etc.Nothing like the classics.

 

[Keroin]

Look up some of the works of Henry Miller,John Steinbeck,etc.Nothing like the classics.

Thanks.

Yeah, I guess I'm looking for a quote. A paragraph or a single line.

Or, meh, I'm considering shifting my focus now. But it's still an interesting topic.

 

[Ropebunny]

When I think of revolutionary writing I think of George Orwell, purely because everytime I venture near one of his books I am consumed with day dreams of worldwide political revolution for weeks. I feel his words have had a reasonably significant impact on society, and absolutely on me personally.

I like "Being in a minority, even a minority of one, did not make you mad. There was truth and there was untruth, and if you clung to the truth even against the whole world, you were not mad." George Orwell, 1984

or

"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." George Orwell, Animal Farm

It's hard to say whether either of those would be useful without seeing the rest of the speech though.

Wishing you luck anyway.

 

[midwestyankee]

Consider President Lincoln's second inaugural address, in particular the final paragraph:

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.​

Among works of fiction, consider Uncle Tom's Cabin. It's reported that when President Lincoln met Harriet Beecher Stowe, he said, "Well, if it isn't the young lady who started the war." or something quite close to that.

Rachel Carson's Silent Spring also had a dramatic and revolutionary impact.

 

[Netzach]

Vaclav Havel. Writing can critique your society, get your ass in jail, and transform your society and inspire its transformations until playwrights become presidents.

 

[Stella_Omega]

I am so sorry, I cannot believe how blank my mind is here!

The rabbi Hillel quote in my sig, maybe. I first read it back in the seventies, printed on a bottle of Dr. Bronner's soap.

There is Walt Kelly's Pogo; "We have met the enemy, and he is us."

 

[cfuhrer]

When I think of revolutionary writing I think of George Orwell, purely because everytime I venture near one of his books I am consumed with day dreams of worldwide political revolution for weeks. I feel his words have had a reasonably significant impact on society, and absolutely on me personally.

I like "Being in a minority, even a minority of one, did not make you mad. There was truth and there was untruth, and if you clung to the truth even against the whole world, you were not mad." George Orwell, 1984

or

"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." George Orwell, Animal Farm

It's hard to say whether either of those would be useful without seeing the rest of the speech though.

Wishing you luck anyway.

Gah! Ropebunny took my suggestions!

 

[BiBunny]

This probably ain't what you're looking for, but the first thing that came to mind was Upton Sinclair and The Jungle, although what came about because of that book was not what he was hoping to accomplish.

 

[Sir_Winston54]

The phrase for me brings to mind Kafka, Samuel Beckett, Doctorow, Saul Bellow in "classical fiction"...

as well as "Doc" Smith, Heinlein, Asimov, Niven in science fiction...

and in alternative history, there's really only one (IMNSHO): Harry Turtledove.

 

[Stella_Omega]

And let's not forget Ayn Rand.

OH how we all wish Atlas had never motherfucking Shrugged.

 

[rosco rathbone]

The 95 Theses. More consequences than any other written thing in history.

 

[DemianBiros]

And let's not forget Ayn Rand.

OH how we all wish Atlas had never motherfucking Shrugged.

HA!Well,while I can agree that Rand's writing has indeed been used as a rationalization for uncounted crimes and tragedies,the basic tenants of Objectivist thought(drive yourself to be the best at what you enjoy,abandon religion,meet others always as an equal) do have some things to say for themselves.Now if we could only ditch the revenge dreams with which Rand cluttered up the writing........



ps,stella;like the new brim.........

 

[Desiremakesmeweak]

Stella Omega - for that line about Rand, all your sins are forgiven (there are at least three popes in my ancestral family so I can do that...).

 

[Desiremakesmeweak]

Hey, the world is totally littered with non-fiction books that started revolutions so it just isn't any challenge to use those. Although let's mention a few to underscore the obvious - Mao's
Little Red Book, The Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer (smarter when she was younger and not a sell-out), Mein Kampf by Hitler, alternatively anything by Freud, the entire works of C.G. Jung, Karl Marx.

Whether these books STARTED revolutions or were just the symbols and rallying flags I'm not sure...

Religious books of course - Old Testament, Gospels, Koran (to be fair all have to be classified separately from either 'fiction' or 'factual...')

But the real challenge is to look at those books that are clearly meant to be works of fiction and which have indeed raised armies or overthrown rulers. The BIG problem here is that not many people even today choose to accept or to admit that these works are or were that powerful. For many modern anti-establishment ideologues (because that's what they are) Crowley's 'And do What Thou Wilt' is the motto for every careless act they commit and claim as part of a philosophy.

Edward Bulwer Lytton, in my own view, was responsible for Nazism, quite possibly without actually intending to achieve this. And all of his stuff was ENTIRELY fictional - even now it appears on various Fox 'History' programs as if the ideas were factually generated by Nazi thinkers and even some of it is presented as having actually happened (therefore 'factual') in the Nazi era, whereas it is all entirely fictional.

 

[DemianBiros]

Hey, the world is totally littered with non-fiction books that started revolutions so it just isn't any challenge to use those. Although let's mention a few to underscore the obvious - Mao's
Little Red Book, The Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer (smarter when she was younger and not a sell-out), Mein Kampf by Hitler, alternatively anything by Freud, the entire works of C.G. Jung, Karl Marx.

Whether these books STARTED revolutions or were just the symbols and rallying flags I'm not sure...

Religious books of course - Old Testament, Gospels, Koran (to be fair all have to be classified separately from either 'fiction' or 'factual...')

But the real challenge is to look at those books that are clearly meant to be works of fiction and which have indeed raised armies or overthrown rulers. The BIG problem here is that not many people even today choose to accept or to admit that these works are or were that powerful. For many modern anti-establishment ideologues (because that's what they are) Crowley's 'And do What Thou Wilt' is the motto for every careless act they commit and claim as part of a philosophy.

Edward Bulwer Lytton, in my own view, was responsible for Nazism, quite possibly without actually intending to achieve this. And all of his stuff was ENTIRELY fictional - even now it appears on various Fox 'History' programs as if the ideas were factually generated by Nazi thinkers and even some of it is presented as having actually happened (therefore 'factual') in the Nazi era, whereas it is all entirely fictional.

Lytton,let me guess"The Coming Race",right?That man was also guilty of that horror of horrors,the line"It was a dark and stormy night......"

 

[Netzach]

HA!Well,while I can agree that Rand's writing has indeed been used as a rationalization for uncounted crimes and tragedies,the basic tenants of Objectivist thought(drive yourself to be the best at what you enjoy,abandon religion,meet others always as an equal) do have some things to say for themselves.Now if we could only ditch the revenge dreams with which Rand cluttered up the writing........



ps,stella;like the new brim.........

Agree. Also "weak idiots will self destruct sometimes no matter what you do, do not go down with them" and some good critiques of marriage.

You don't have to define said weak idiots as she does (mine usually have a copy of ATLAS on hand) to actually benefit from this. I found the book tremendously comforting at a time in my life, without swallowing the conservative kool aid, and still do.


I'll throw out Freud. Fairly important turning point.

But it's all contextual. Are these kids younger? Avid readers? Nerds? Non-nerds? Bored out of their minds in history class? Are they oversaturated with the US as the center of the world? Canadian? Are they people who were saved through school by Harry Potter, or even some kind of media thing - maybe the writing portion of film or TV is something that needs to be given props as real literature too.

 

[Ahlam]

Ooh fun! I hope you find what you're looking for.

John Locke was kind of a big deal. And Thomas Jefferson's writings are interesting, too. Jean-Paul Sartre has the occasional pearl. Harriet Beecher Stowe was mentioned already...Mary Wollstonecraft had some good stuff to say.

"It is time to effect a revolution in female manners..." --Mary Wollstonecraft

"Revolution sounds very romantic, you know, but it ain't. It's blood and guts and madness; it's little kids killed who get in the way, it's little kids who don't understand what the fuck is going on. It's your whore, your wife ripped in the belly with a bayonet and then raped in the ass while you watch. It's men torturing men who used to laugh at Mickey Mouse cartoons." --Charles Bukowski

I'm with Bukowski.

 

[Stella_Omega]

HA!Well,while I can agree that Rand's writing has indeed been used as a rationalization for uncounted crimes and tragedies,the basic tenants of Objectivist thought(drive yourself to be the best at what you enjoy,abandon religion,meet others always as an equal) do have some things to say for themselves.Now if we could only ditch the revenge dreams with which Rand cluttered up the writing........

That's the "shrug" isn't it? Like Glenn Beck is expounding on right now haha and am SO looking forward to watching that happen!

ps,stella;like the new brim.........

Thank you-- someone else asked me if I would please eat my hat!

 

[IrisAlthea]

"Start with what is right rather than what is acceptable." - Franz Kafka

"A state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny." - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

"The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants."
Albert Camus

And of course Orwell as others have mentioned and Huxley too.

 

[Stella_Omega]

keroin, I think that LOTR-- the novel-- had a revolutionary impact on the world. It inspired an enormously influential fiction genre, and the incredibly lucrative gaming industry-- and it modeled the racist, eurocentric imagery that is fantasy mainstream.

And it hijacked the Renfaire.

Some good things, some things not so good.

 

[Scotsman69]

Burns. 'A man's a man for a that'.

 

[Keroin]

Awesome answers everyone, thanks! I did decide to take a different slant with the speech but I still may incorporate one of the quotes here.

To answer your question, Netz, I will be addressing a mixed-age audience. 13 year olds up to 90 year olds. All are open minded, most are well read, definitely not America-centric, lol. I did want to address a portion of my speech to the younger writers in the audience, though.