In Extremis

I recently wrote a post about writers who like to preach.  I know several, and I think they get off more on being controversial and self-righteous than they do on selling books.  No, not everyone who I know that both writes and has powerful opinions, but several.  Either way, it makes things interesting when I get accused of associating with extremists.

The funniest part is that if you peruse my associations on the blogroll(to the right of the screen), you’ll see “extremists” from every end of the spectrum.  For every Jon delArroz, there’s a Hugh Howey.  For those as outspoken as Sarah Hoyt, there are equally outspoken folks like Joe Peacock.

So what do these “extremists” all have in common?  They’re all really good writers.  In their set – some have tried branching out from what they do well, and the results are rarely pretty – they’ve kept me engaged and entertained.  Although I know a few would see associations on the other side of the fence as OMG THE WORST PEOPLE IMAGINABLE, none of them are Nazis or serial killers or cannibals.  They each hold strong opinions on what they think of the world, but nothing outside of what reasonable people would consider the mainstream.  And they write really well.

Barring some Jeffrey Dahmer type asking for your association, give people a wide berth on their views.  That’s not to say I haven’t run across some, from both sides of the aisle, that I had to ditch when it turned out they weren’t just opinionated, but true extremists, but those have been rare(rare enough where it has happened exactly twice – one from the far right and one from the far left).  However, if we limit our reading and writing associations too much, we can’t find writing that truly challenges us.  Plus, strongly opinionated people are usually the best writers because they can translate that passion to a great story.  And great stories are what we really want, aren’t they?