Book of Ideas

Some fiction authors have received, deserved or otherwise, the accusation that their books tell no true stories but rather turned into books about ideas. Characters and plots meant little. Or so I’ve read.

All fictional tales discuss ideas, though, don’t they? After all, the human reader has an idea about a book’s contents and may modify the thoughts around that idea while reading and contemplating the book. Romance novels, Westerns, science fiction, high school history…

As a teenager, I read classic science fiction novels like “Brave New World” and “1984” – clearly these two books deserve the admonition, “novel of ideas.”

My wife and I shopped at Unclaimed Baggage Center last weekend. We searched for hidden gems among the picked-over piles of clothes, electronics, and knick knacks. In times past we had found items that made our daily lives useful, including the Compaq Presario C501NR notebook PC I write this blog entry upon, purchased for $325.99 in January. This time, I had specific search criteria in mind – interesting books, especially the classics. Now, my pile of books to read includes, “The Fountainhead,” “Atlas Shrugged,” “Brave New World,” “1984,” “Don Quixote,” “I Am Legend,” and “The Dead Father.” I had already read some of Huxley, Orwell, Cervantes and Barthelme. I had yet to read Rand and Matheson. I have wondered about the writings of Ayn Rand for many years, only knowing her novels by reputation (e.g., that her stories talk about a utopian world where the laissez-faire corporate world makes society perfect, and that she developed a group of followers who worshipped her ideas despite her reputed aversion to god-type worshipping).

I know that reading these books will give me ideas. In fact, I had already decided that the two killers in my novel-in-progress, “The Mind’s Aye,” kill for the pleasure of attacking and eliminating ideas instead of humans. The killers and their victims will read some of the books I’ve read. The victims represent ideas that make no sense in the killers’ world. I hope that the characters’ descriptions will give the reader enough information to guess the ideas that the killers and victims represent. The plot itself represents another idea. The novel’s conclusion rests in the hands of the reader, much like life, with some randomness and uncertainty thrown in for good measure, to keep the reader wondering which parts of my other novels exist solely to point to the real conclusion of “The Mind’s Aye,” which wraps up some of the ideas presented in my previous novels. However, “The Mind’s Aye” exists in its own world so that readers can only read one of my works and feel satisfied they understand what my writing means. More curious readers can dig in to see the whole picture.