ONLY AUTHORS SHOULD BE AUTHORITARIANS

 

DICTATORS OF THEIR OWN WORLDS

 

There is a lot of talk, buzz, worry, concern, hand-wringing, and general if, for the moment, gentle panic about the ugly heads of authoritarians rearing up everywhere. 

Gentle panic? 

I just wrote it, and I’m not sure I know what it means. Maybe it’s the kind of panic where you are not yet screaming and running out the door, but you are holding your breath and hoping to hell you will be able to breathe easy sometime sooner than not. 

This is a worldwide condition. Or at least in those countries governed by some form of democracy. But even in democracies, some would seem to prefer a strong, unbound hand at the tiller of state. As I said in my Old Curmudgeon’s Book of Questions video on YouTube fourteen years ago, 

“If we all agree that democracy is the best form of government then why is it people are so quick to support a dictator—if they agree with him?”

 

In thinking about this recently, I realized that my concerns about authoritarian dictators running things (usually into the ground) have found their way into many of my novels. That’s certainly true of my latest release from Magpie Press, IMP: A Political Fantasia. 

"Steven Paul Leiva is a very bad man. His version of U.S. politics Trumps anything the real world has to offer. Hell, you thought the orange one was the only homunculus America had to worry about? You thought wrong. There's always the nuclear option." — Steven Savile, New York Times & USA Today Bestselling Author. 

It’s the story of an accidental president of the United States who suffers from wanting everyone to toe the restricted line of his personal view of what constitutes true virtue and proper morals. My model for this short novel was Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, wherein a stubborn miser is shown the error of his ways via visitations from some fantastic entities. Several ghosts, in Dickens’ case. 

In my case, one annoying little imp who often dresses just like the president. 

The imp crawls out of the president’s ear and begins to wax, if not elegantly, then quite surreally. Both stories are infused with the comfort of hope for redemption, as unlikely as that may be in reality. But then, this is why both books are fantasies. 

 

Two of my early novels, The Fixxer Adventures, Blood is Pretty, and Hollywood is an All-Volunteer Army, are ostensibly thrillers and satires of Hollywood, where I spent an inordinate amount of time in my innocent youth. But their antagonists are men and women who wish to have power over people, possibly for profit, possibly for ego, or possibly just for the thrill. 

"Steven Leiva not only promises but delivers.

Beautifully written. Bravo!" — Ray Bradbury.

In Blood Is Pretty, the bad guy that my hero, The Fixxer, must thwart is a film executive, Andy Rand, who chases after a virtual reality program more powerful and effective than the ones we have today. Veritas is its name, and it can quite literally control minds and give them whatever “truth” the controller wishes to give them.  That film executives enjoy having power over people’s lives in Hollywood is not, I think, a surprising idea. So why wouldn’t they want power over people outside of Hollywood if they could grab it? Is it a personality type? Or a drug hard to kick—until they are kicked out. 

"Leiva's immense gifts for mystery and suspense
are matched only by his wry, biting wit in skewering
the Hollywood he clearly knows so well."
— Paul Provenza, author of ¡Satiristas!, director of The Aristocrats,

 

In Hollywood is an All-Volunteer Army, The Fixxer must deal with a cabal of up-and-coming Hollywood executives under the sway of the mysterious ex-gunrunner Maxwellton James and prominent film executive Sara Hutton, the child of a famous clown. Max and Sara are plotting to develop an “army” of film executives. They will be groomed to launch through the media that they will eventually control a propaganda campaign to beat back the coming wave of Have-Nots from the Southern Hemisphere, who are coming up to pollute the Northern Hemisphere, the natural abode of the Haves. They must be stopped! Sound familiar? I wrote Hollywood is an All-Volunteer Army in the late 1990s, but it was obvious to me that some people worldwide would love to “build a wall” at their southern borders to keep themselves “pure.” It is, of course, an unrealistic task. But that doesn’t stop them from trying or giving power over to the worst people who promise to fulfill their dreams.

 

My science fiction satire Traveling in Space is a first-contact novel written from the aliens' point of view. 

"Traveling in Space's humor and refreshing
perspective is thoroughly enjoyable"
— Diane Ackerman, New York Times bestselling author of
 The Zookeeper's Wife and A Natural History of the Senses.

One day, these alien explorers and scientists stumble across the earth. As they had always believed that they were the only life in the universe, they are understandably surprised. And some of them are not a little annoyed. Some vote to move on and try to forget this mote of dust, crawling with primitive creatures. They neither want the Earth’s water nor its women nor do they want to uplift the denizens of Earth to some angel-like state of wonderfulness. Let them do that on their own if they can. But being explorers and scientists, most of the aliens feel compelled to look closely at our planet and us, the odd characters that populate it. Authoritarianism becomes an issue when the aliens' leader—known quite logically as “Our Leader”— colludes with the President of the United States in a truly awful endeavor, but one that they believe will turn Earth into a true paradise and a lovely planet to have authority over. Do they succeed? You will find out when you get to the end of the novel. 
 
My recent novel, The Definition of Luck or The Post-Modern Prometheus, is a contrarian science fiction novel that takes a skeptical look at the potential of mind or consciousness uploading to a non-biological platform. 

"I thoroughly enjoyed The Definition of Luck."
— Stephen Webb, Physicist, Author of
New Light Through Old Windows: Exploring Contemporary Science
Through 12 Classic Science Fiction Tales.

Whereas much of science fiction takes a non-skeptical, even giddy, assumption that it’s just around the corner. A true shuffling off our mortal coils, releasing our newly immortal minds to dance among the digital ONES and ZEROS. Which, of course, has nothing to do with authoritarianism. However, an issue in the novel revolves around the political situation in Kenya of the near future, which has had a problematic relationship with democracy. But the father of one of my protagonists is a staunch democrat and fights for democracy, even while realizing that it is not always a perfect system. He tells his son, “The greatest asset of democracy is the demos. But then, the greatest liability of democracy is the demos. That son, is the paradox of democracy.”

 

In Journey to Where, which I call a Contemporary Scientific Romance, having been inspired by the novels by H.G. Wells and Jules Verne, authoritarianism is plainly in view. 

"A deftly crafted, inherently interesting, and thoroughly

entertaining read from cover to cover…

unreservedly recommended,”

— Midwest Book Review

Due to a sabotaged experiment into a sought-after element of time, a group of scientists finds themselves on an Earth where sixty-six million years ago, a meteor did not strike the planet, leading to the extinction of the dinosaurs and the rise of mammals. So, two dinosaur species evolved after millions of years into bipedal, intelligent creatures rather than mammals doing so. Our scientists find themselves in a world that was once far advanced from our own—these dinos had a hell of a head start. But now that world has fallen into a dark age ruled by a big fist, which hoards not only the land’s riches, controlling a class system of Haves and Have-Nots, but any knowledge his struggling scholars manage to discover. Including these strange scaleless and downy-less creatures that have wandered into the land of Anaraquan. Which translates as Where the Great Quan Rules. The scientists' dilemma is whether to, as they say, go along to get along or fight against the Quan, who rules them all.

 

Creature Feature: A Horrid Comedy was built on the question, where do the creatures of horror books and films come from? 

"CREATURE FEATURE is a weird, funny, twisty romp through
the creepier parts of the American landscape.
Highly entertaining and highly recommended."
— Jonathan Maberry, NY Times Bestselling
Author of ROT & RUIN and V-WARS

Why do ordinary and sensible people create such characters as cobbled-together monsters, wolfmen, vampires, giant gorillas, giant two-legged lizards, gelatinous blobs, and zombies who most definitely do not exist in the real world and, unlike creatures of ancient mythologies, are not trying to explain natural phenomena?  I figured I could get some humor from that, and many readers have told me I succeeded. But, of course, I couldn’t leave well enough alone and had to make the novel a political satire as well. For the creatures that feature in my book, led by a demon of a decidedly authoritarian bent, decide not to stomp and tramp and tear down and fire-breath our world—but to form a political party!

 

I have always felt that if there were justice in the world, the only true authoritarians that should exist are me and my kind—authors. We create worlds and characters and can do with them as we wish. It’s quite god-like and usually hurts no one, nor prevent other people from being happy. Unless they don’t like your work, but that’s hardly life-threatening. But such god-like powers in the hands of one or a few flesh-and-blood humans over a mass of other flesh-and-blood humans have rarely led to good times for all. Even if you think you agree with a dictator, there is always the chance that he or she won’t agree with you. Then—watch out!

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You can check out all of my books on the MY BOOKS page on this blog. Or you can go directly to my Author's Page on Amazon.

Cheers, Everyone!

The Grand and Exalted Leiva.
 Dictator Over His Imaginary Worlds.