Local news, and views from Pete Klein, author of Adirondack Hikes in Hamilton County, guide book, and erotic vampire novels:
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Why I write what I write
If someone were to ask why do I write what I write, my bottom line answer would be, "I write what I write because I am extremely tired of what passes for human morality."
I have always seen the hypocrisy between what humans say and what they do. This is most commonly seen in what governments and religions preach, and what they do in practice. The pattern is set and then followed by most people in their daily lives.
I have less of a problem with what people do because we are human. We react more often than we think and plan ahead. We act and react to a given situation. When it comes to our actions and reactions after the fact, we are very good at explaining why we did this or that. But when it comes to actions of others, we are less likely to pay much attention to their explanations and call them excuses.
We have a bad habit of looking down upon others and do so as though putting someone down in some way elevates us. We are the good guys and they are the bad guys.
Claiming to be so shocked and offended is but another way for us to elevate ourselves while putting the other person down.
We like to be politically and morally correct so that we may be viewed highly by others. We treasure our "good name," whatever that is. In the process, we stray farther and farther from who we are. We become an image with very little substance.
In my vampire stories, I try to strip away the robes of civilization and dispense with what passes for human morality. My vampires appear human but are more primitive in their thoughts and actions. In making my vampires creatures created by God and not the product of sin or evil, I am trying to show a side of our selves we would rather hide.
In my recent novella, Confessions of an Online Male Prostitute, I try to expose some of our uncertainty when it comes to our own sexual identity and how the sexual drive is really about our need to connect with another human being.
We like to be known as intelligent. No one likes to be called stupid. But in the heart of our hearts we know there is far more that we don't know than we do know. We have trouble understanding others because we have a hard time just trying to understand ourselves.
Rather than admitting how little we know, we put on clothes, the fig leaves of civilization, and try to claim a morality for ourselves that will earn us a pat on the back for being the "good person" we suspect we are not.
I write what I write because it is more fun for me, and I hope for the reader, than if I were to write philosophy or theology and claim it as a scholarly work.
It's just fiction, people. But fiction can often get closer to the truth than what we call factual. I would not dare presume I am smarter than you.
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