Conservative Novels and Novelists
John Yoo ·
Nov 21, 2011 at 10:08am
To continue the Shakespeare theme from the National Review Cruise (btw, when is Ricochet going to schedule it's own cruise? With Rob Long in charge, I foresee a three-hour tour on a boat named the Minnow), where speakers discussed the "conservative novelist." Are there novelists who are conservative? Are there any great novels that are conservative? Or is there no place for liberal or conservative in art (as one of the cruise panelists argued)?
Here is a chance to combine our discussions with Black Friday–I am interested if any great conservative novels will make for good Christmas gifts.
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Jun '10
Re: Conservative Novels and Novelists
Mr Tall: An author who's very conservative indeed but who has not come up yet is the incomparable Flannery O'Connor. Not light reading, but her two novels and many short stories strike sledgehammer blows at the veneer of 'sophisticated' modernity. No other fictional stories make me think more about sin, salvation, eternity and all else that really matters. · Nov 21 at 6:42pm
Edited on Nov 21 at 06:42 pm
I can't believe I overlooked O'Connor. Not only was she conservative, she could flat-out write. I also love the collection of her letters A Habit of Being, wherein she explores in much more explicit fashion the religion (she was a Catholic girl from Georgia) that is an element in everything she wrote.
I had tried to read her years ago but it didn't resonate. Just recently, I've read both novels and most of her short stories. Wow!
May '10
Re: Conservative Novels and Novelists
A new discovery for me is Michael O'Brien. I'm part way through his novel Father Elijah, and it's an utterly unique attempt to write high-toned, quality fiction utterly marinated in a devout Catholic world view. I admit to being provoked and convicted by this book in a way that straightforward works of Catholic piety have failed to do. (I write as a believing Protestant.)
This novel is almost insanely ambitious in its attempt to imagine the literal Apocalypse happening in the present day. It is not quite perfect (I wish he had spent more time polishing the dialog) but the ideas are fresh, yet grounded in Orthodoxy. O'Brien is a new Tolkien or Lewis, without the resort to fantasy or science fiction. Highly recommended.
Feb '11
Re: Conservative Novels and Novelists
I'd second the recommendation for George MacDonald Fraser's "Flashman" novels. Thery are very funny and are great escapism, but occasionally very serious.
May '10
Re: Conservative Novels and Novelists
Someone should also mention Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis. I'm not sure the author exactly fits our definition of conservative, and the story seems to exist in a universe with a severely skewed moral structure, but that's all part of the satire, and anyway, any book that so thoroughly skewers the higher education-industrial complex as this one cannot be a product of the left-wing mindset.
Plus, it's the funniest book not by Evelyn Waugh ever written.
Apr '11
Re: Conservative Novels and Novelists
Fredösphere: A new discovery for me is Michael O'Brien. I'm part way through his novel Father Elijah, and it's an utterly unique attempt to write high-toned, quality fiction utterly marinated in a devout Catholic world view. I admit to being provoked and convicted by this book in a way that straightforward works of Catholic piety have failed to do. (I write as a believing Protestant.)
This novel is almost insanely ambitious in its attempt to imagine the literal Apocalypse happening in the present day. It is not quite perfect (I wish he had spent more time polishing the dialog) but the ideas are fresh, yet grounded in Orthodoxy. O'Brien is a new Tolkien or Lewis, without the resort to fantasy or science fiction. Highly recommended. · Nov 21 at 7:50pm
I don't like the tone of using the word "resort" it makes it sound like they could think of nothing better. Fantasy and Science Fiction are the purest of literature, because they are works consisting entirely of ones imagination in which all things can be made possible. What better way to entertain, and stimulate than an unknown and unexplored world.
Aug '11
Re: Conservative Novels and Novelists
On some days I consider Terry Pratchett a conservative.
Jul '10
Re: Conservative Novels and Novelists
One writer I KNOW is conservative and darn good: Andrew Klavan.
Apr '11
Re: Conservative Novels and Novelists
Odin von Horvath: The Age of the Fish
Apr '11
Re: Conservative Novels and Novelists
Lucy Pevensie:
Now if only I hadn't read them all a hundred times. Is there anything similarly fun that someone can recommend to me? A lot of these recommendations look as though they would be fine if I were interested in reading something serious, but these days I am looking for escapism.
You might appreciate Jane Slayre, Bronte's novel updated by Sherri Browning Erwin. Because the framework is so strong, stuffing Buffy into it does no harm.
Apr '11
Re: Conservative Novels and Novelists
Not a novelist, but an essayist of merit: William Cowper Brann. (I should also mention right up front that he was a grade-A racist.) As a newpaper editor in post-Civil War Texas, he produced a tremendous volume of educated, very vigorous editorials. While I reject his views on race, religion, the rich, and (less-so) royalty, I find him to be a superb conservative writer.
I don't know if he and Twain exchanged letters, but they should have.
Re: Conservative Novels and Novelists
Solzhenitsyn's In the First Circle is an incredible work of art. I can't recommend it highly enough. (Be sure to get the fairly recent unexpurgated version.)
Aug '11
Re: Conservative Novels and Novelists
tabula rasa
I can't believe I overlooked O'Connor. Not only was she conservative, she could flat-out write. I also love the collection of her letters A Habit of Being, wherein she explores in much more explicit fashion the religion (she was a Catholic girl from Georgia) that is an element in everything she wrote.
Tabula Rasa and I must have very similar tastes. O'Connor is wonderful, and The Habit of Being a necessary companion to her short stories and novels. I guess she didn't come to mind here because I was thinking politics rather than religion, but of course she was very much a social satirist as well. I can't say I really understand Wise Blood, but The Violent Bear it Away is a fantastic and haunting novel.
(It used to be that all students got a taste of O'Connor through A Good Man is Hard to Find. Is that still part of the High School Literature canon?)
I absolutely recommend her short story Revelation, from Everything That Rises Must Converge.
Jul '11
Re: Conservative Novels and Novelists
Severely Ltd.
CandE
Great book, but I never really pegged it as a conservative novel. I'm curious about your reasoning.
-E · Nov 21 at 12:50pm
I shouldn't have mentioned the novel, but that's the only one of his I've read. I enjoyed it, but sitting here post-eggnog-&-bourbon, I'm not going to attempt a conservative analysis.
I was referring to the author. Card has taken a very conservative stance, he calls himself a disappointed Democrat. I see it's mentioned in his Wikipedia entry. And in case there's any doubt, I also see on Wikipedia that he's an avid Firefly fan. · Nov 21 at 4:55pm
If you liked Ender's Game then I strongly recommend the sequel, Speaker for the Dead. IMHO it is his very best book.
-E
Apr '11
Re: Conservative Novels and Novelists
DrewInWisconsin
(It used to be that all students got a taste of O'Connor through A Good Man is Hard to Find. Is that still part of the High School Literature canon?)
I dunno that "A Good Man" was ever part of the H.S. Lit. canon. (I vaguely remember her from high school 30 years ago, but not for that particular story.) I only came across it last year, not as part of the required college reading, but I figure if I'm paying a hundred bucks for a book, I might as well read it in its entirety.
Aug '11
Re: Conservative Novels and Novelists
Glenn the Iconoclast
DrewInWisconsin
(It used to be that all students got a taste of O'Connor through A Good Man is Hard to Find. Is that still part of the High School Literature canon?)
I dunno that "A Good Man" was ever part of the H.S. Lit. canon. (I vaguely remember her from high school 30 years ago, but not for that particular story.) I only came across it last year, not as part of the required college reading, but I figure if I'm paying a hundred bucks for a book, I might as well read it in its entirety. · Nov 22 at 7:21am
Eh, it just seems that A Good Man is Hard to Find was always the one that was put in the literature anthologies, and so when I've mentioned O'Connor to others they almost always respond "Oh, she was the one who wrote that story about the guy who kills that whole family," and they're convinced there's something wrong with her.
"Well, yes . . ." I say, "but there's more!"
May '11
Re: Conservative Novels and Novelists
I'm halfway through Jeffrey Eugenides's The Marriage Plot, set in the 80s, and enjoying it immensely. The main female character is led astray by postmod literary hokum (as was I); and one of the main guys, whose likable parents are Reaganites, is on serious path toward Christianity. Here's an enticing quote: "Most of what Mitchell read in college hadn't conveyed Wisdom with a capital W. But this Russian fable [Tolstoy's Confession] did... He thought about the people he knew, with their excellent young bodies, their summerhouses, their cool clothes, their potent drugs, their liberalism, their orgasms, their haircuts. Everything they did was either pleasurable in itself or engineered to bring pleasure down the line. Even the people he knew who were 'political' and who protested the war in El Salvador did so largely in order to bathe themselves in an attractively crusading light." Thrilling, right?
Oct '10
Re: Conservative Novels and Novelists
CandE
Severely Ltd.
CandE
Great book, but I never really pegged it as a conservative novel. I'm curious about your reasoning.
-E · Nov 21 at 12:50pm
I shouldn't have mentioned the novel, but that's the only one of his I've read. I enjoyed it, but sitting here post-eggnog-&-bourbon, I'm not going to attempt a conservative analysis.
I was referring to the author. Card has taken a very conservative stance, he calls himself a disappointed Democrat. I see it's mentioned in his Wikipedia entry. And in case there's any doubt, I also see on Wikipedia that he's an avid Firefly fan. · Nov 21 at 4:55pm
If you liked Ender's Game then I strongly recommend the sequel, Speaker for the Dead. IMHO it is his very best book.
-E · Nov 22 at 6:40am
Thanks, E, I'll try it.