Living in the age of clamor
COEUR d'ALENE - The success of novelist Sara Paretsky speaks for itself. Her 20 books are international bestsellers, and appear in 30 languages.
But the stellar storyteller is an equally interesting speaker, as more than 300 people learned Friday night at The Coeur d'Alene Resort.
Paretsky, the speaker at the Idaho Humanities Council's annual Distinguished Humanities Lecture and Dinner, entertained the crowd by weaving amusing true personal stories, guilty pleasures and sometimes somber moments, with social commentary. She called her talk "Writing and Reading in an Age of Clamor."
Paretsky humorously criticized television's endless reality shows and often vapid movies. Although, she admitted to being a fan of Agent Gibbs, a crime-solving military-type, the lead character on the television show "NCIS."
"Agent Gibbs makes me feel safe," Paretsky said.
She believes that might be one of the reasons the character she created, V.I. Warshawski, a tough female private eye, appeals to many readers.
"She has the same doubts that I have, perhaps that you have. But unlike me, her doubts don't get in the way of her caring for or protecting the most vulnerable people around her," Paretsky said.
Paretsky is best known for her 14 books featuring Warshawski.
"We live in a time of great instability and uncertainty, dubbed sometimes, the age of fear," Paretsky said. "We're kept on the edge of our seats by the threat of terrorism and by the hysteria induced by the 24-hour news cycle."
She said there are days when the talking heads and online news bytes exhaust her.
"I can't cope with high voltage screeching about creeping socialism, volcanic ash, high unemployment, Tiger Woods, abortion threats, genetically modified crops, earthquakes, terrorism and Sandra Bullock's marriage, all jumbled together as if they were equal weight," Paretsky said.
She noted the loss of reliable news, and considers it one of the most serious issues facing the American public.
Paretsky said she wonders if today's vampires on the American cultural scene aren't a reaction to the age of fear and clamor.
She talked about how her creation of V.I. Warshawski grew out of her own emotional fears and life lessons, from growing up in rural Kansas to moving to Chicago in the late '60s as part of a national service project.
Paretsky said through her writing, she is able to express her own conflicts and concerns about people and society.
While fictional stories are not true, she said they have many truths in them.
Her own novels have her female private eye dealing with social justice issues, and crimes that mirror society's today, like discrimination and corporate or political corruption.
"I'm not interested in writing propaganda novels any more than I want to read them, that is books written only to make a point, to show that four legs are better than two or all males are testosterone-crazed villains, and women inevitably use their bodies to make good boys do bad things," Paretsky said.
She said we live in a world of secrets and lies, but are starved for truth, and can't find it in the blogosphere, the halls of government or hear it on cable news.
In closing, Paretsky quoted a poem written 2,600 years ago by Sappho, "Although they are only breath, words, which I command, are immortal."
Paretsky said she considers it her life's goal to stand in the shadow of poets like Sappho, and great fiction creators and storytellers.
"If my words sustain another reader, then I am greatly privileged," she said.