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07/30/2004 Archived Entry: "It's only fiction, but is it legal?"

Posted by steve @ 01:17 AM EST [Link]

LET GO OF THE HATE PEOPLE: Imagine an author writing a novel which was essentially a dialogue about one man plotting to kill Bill Clinton for the sins that character felt were necessary to be expunged from the heart of America. Imagine also the controversy that would have arose. The left would have went purple with rage. There's that vast right-wing conspiracy and their irrational hatred of Clinton!

Well, don't worry, the novel by Nicholson Baker is about a gunman clipping Bush because of the Iraq war. That means its free speech and we should all lighten up the hell up!

The 115-page novella is framed as the transcript of a conversation between fictional characters Jay and Ben at a hotel a few blocks away from the White House in May 2004. Jay claims that he wants a record of his motives for killing the president later that day "for the good of humankind."

The two men apparently haven't seen each other for several years. While Ben has been enjoying some success in life, Jay has lost his job, left his family, and grown obsessed with President Bush's actions in Iraq. He often sounds mentally unbalanced.

Through much of their conversation, Jay recounts real stories lifted from news reports about the horrors endured by Iraqi civilians in both accidental and deliberate military encounters. The book's title comes from a particularly gruesome tragedy in April 2003 when US soldiers at a checkpoint near Najaf opened fire on a family of 17 Shiites. Eleven of them in their 1974 Land Rover, including six children, were killed.

Read on.

Replies: 2 comments

As an author, I have mixed feelings about this, as I did with the "Hitman" case years ago. As a poet, I think I/we should be able to write whatever we want about whoever we want, esp. since critics of controversial books often miss the book's entire point (see the all-heat, no-light ho-ha about Lynn Crosbie's experimental novel about Paul Bernardo, and ongoing battles about Huck Finn, Lolita, etc.)

On the other hand: can we just have people (ok, fictional people) threatening the President? What if anything can and should the Secret Service do? Presumably, nothing much:
http://cox.house.gov/html/release.cfm?id=683

Posted by Kathy @ 07/30/2004 08:36 AM EST

For the record I agree with you Kathy. Nicholson has the right to write about anything he likes and I would defend the creation of this work. It's the quiet acceptance of this work that has me tired. As I stated, had this been about Clinton the media and pundits would have exploded.

Posted by Steve Martinovich @ 07/30/2004 10:01 AM EST