The following has been adapted from an article I originally published on Medium on July 22, 2014. While the information and opinions expressed herein were accurate at the time of original publication (and still apply today), readers should note that circumstances may have evolved since then, and some of the cultural references may be outdated.
Ten years ago, Adam Bellow, the editorial director of HarperCollins’ conservative nonfiction imprint, wrote about conservative counterculture for National Review. According to Bellow, conservatives “are making their own culture. They are writing and publishing their own books, recording their own music, and making their own videos and films. It is Breitbart’s Revolt.”
The late Andrew Breitbart understood the importance of popular culture and was determined not to neglect it. “Politics is downstream from culture,” he famously said, and he continually called upon conservatives to quit griping about liberal media bias and do something constructive instead. Write your own books, he exhorted. Record your own music. Make your own movies. Everyone agreed that this would be a great idea. But no one knew how to go about making it happen.
Well, guess what: Andrew was right. The conservative counterrevolution is coming. Indeed it is already here. It’s just that most conservatives haven’t noticed it yet. It came to my attention only because of the position I occupy in the New York publishing world.
Bellow notes that mainstream popular culture “is still largely driven by books,” and I agree. As a conservative who reads a lot of fiction, I have to say that conservative-leaning fiction may not be rare, but it’s virtually impossible to find in the mainstream. If you seek it out, I have no doubt you can find something, even if it is an obscure work by an obscure author. It’s out there… just not on bestseller lists.
But, as a conservative who just wants to read a good story, I’m not screening books based on the author’s politics. I just want to read a compelling story that keeps me interested until the last page.
Naturally, conservatives want to find conservative counterculture wherever they can. They’re so eager that they often find it in places where it may not exist. Whether it’s Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, or the Divergent series, there’s typically someone on the right who can find conservative themes within their pages to align the latest pop-culture phenomenon with “our side.” Classic books are not immune to this either, as the conservative movement has adopted books like 1984, Atlas Shrugged, and Brave New World as essential reading.
But the counterculture war (what Bellow has dubbed “Breitbart’s Revolt”) will not be won if we keep citing Ayn Rand and George Orwell as the best examples of writers whose work conservatives should read. Where’s the new fiction?
When searching for conservative fiction online, I find dystopian novels, science-fiction and fantasy, political thrillers, Christian fiction, crime thrillers, and military stories. The title and imagery on the cover leave no doubt they are meant for conservative readers to consume because they are written and designed to appeal to them. These books tend to have overt anti-Hollywood, pro-military, anti-Communism, or pro-Second Amendment themes splashed right on the cover. Words such as “liberty,” “freedom,” or “patriot” can sometimes be found on the cover somewhere, too. It’s not working so far. Conservative novelists shouldn’t brand their work as conservative. The best thing they can do is not intentionally appeal to just one side of the political spectrum.
“[W]e are not talking about what is sometimes called ‘cause fiction,’ or, more bluntly, literary propaganda,” wrote Bellow. “That is simply a right-wing version of socialist realism — the demand that the arts advance a particular social and political agenda. Such works are indeed being written on the right, but that is not what most conservatives are doing.”
He’s right. We don’t need conservative fiction as much as we need fiction written by conservatives. Fiction without an overt political agenda or a metaphorical right vs. left plot. We need good stories with likable characters who happen to be conservative without being reminded about it on every page. Conservatives need to write novels that everyone (liberals/conservatives/moderates) will want to read.
The tables need to be turned.
Of course, there’s room for political thrillers, dystopian, and science fiction novels in conservative counterculture—but conservatives won’t win the counter-cultural revolt on those genres alone. Ultimately, contemporary, literary, and young adult fiction is where conservatives have the best chance to influence popular culture.
Some, if not most, of my favorite authors, are liberals, but that hardly means their novels are liberal propaganda. They are books written by liberals, and that worldview naturally finds its way into the prose, but politics plays no pivotal role in the plot. And that’s why they work. As a conservative, I can read and love these books for the stories, not despise them for the underlying political message. As a conservative reader who would love to support some conservative fiction writers, I am not interested in any story that is so obvious with its conservative politics. If the plot sounds compelling, I’ll read it. If the plot sounds intentionally liberal or conservative, I’m turned off immediately and won’t bother.
Conservatives need to write for everyone, not just for readers who agree with them politically. They need to create likable conservative characters with stories that aren’t driven by an agenda. Writers like Stephen King can get away with Republican-bashing in his novels because he’s Stephen King. Conservative fiction needs to achieve mainstream success first, and that won’t happen if “conservative fiction” is so blatantly conservative fiction.
The conservative movement needs to be supportive of this cause. Talented writers who can’t make it in traditional publishing are not only in desperate need of the help of bloggers who can help promote their work but also of conservative-leaning creatives. Quality writing is not enough. The whole package has to be on par with traditional publishing quality. Much of the conservative fiction I’ve discovered that is self-published looks self-published. People judge books by their covers, and if the book cover is low quality, potential readers will likely think the writing contained inside is low quality. Conservative creatives can help writers design or illustrate a book cover, help edit their novels, or create a website for them.
It’s time for the conservative movement to be more supportive of the counterculture revolt. At the moment, it is not. Andrew Breitbart must be looking down at us, wondering what we are waiting for.