In 2000, our readers loved….

Looks like I may have inspired a bit of reaction with my post but this Ask really was a good one. So, just a few comments back and excuse the length:

It’s not that outliers didn’t exist, but even those on the fringe had to find ways to live within their time and place. That’s what makes historical fiction and HR interesting to a lot of readers, not 21st century time travelers putting on costumes.

I agree with this POV and is something I have expressed so many times in the last 21 years here. However, I do agree, that some won’t like to read things that they find “hurtful”. OK, then don’t read it but don’t expect me to enjoy PC tinged HR so are we all agreed on that? I would not expect CR to have heroes who rape, pillage or keep the little woman in her box; nor would I like to see CR heroines who knit and have a baby every year. Modern times are just that – and things continue to evolve but the past is the past – it happened and we need to accept we can’t change it – we can strive to understand it and learn from it.

There are so many ways to write interesting plots, and so many interesting nontraditional heroines and heroes in the world

Absolutely! You’ll find no argument from me about this. Unfortunately, these portrayals that could be fantastic are often bungled largely because writers are just plain scared to write anything even mildly out of line with current political thinking. 

Again, agreed in full. But let’s not think that all HR can be that way though, IMO, it certainly needs more of the non-traditional characters, wider geographic settings and usage of events often overlooked. I’d love to see HR set in, say, the Boxer Rebellion in China or the First Afghan War or maybe something incorporating the work of John Muir or Eleanor Roosevelt – lots of things to use out there. However, you can’t, for example, write about, say, the US Civil War without pointing out that there were both good and bad white folk and that there were more arguments being fought over than slavery. Or the Roman Empire – so much to exploit but there were folk like Nero and those who were settling the far-flung wider world and establishing an influence that lasts to today, tomorrow and far beyond. The old saying of you can’t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs is so true so, again, some will feel hurt, others outraged but honesty is the most important thing for me.

Obviously, reading taste comes down to personal opinion. That’s why I always say, “The more books, the better! Read what you want and write what you want!” But cancel culture is a real threat to members of the artisan class

Cancel culture worries me a lot. Freedom of speech, the ability to make up one’s own mind, the ability to travel where you want, when you want, have the friends you want, the access to books or media from everywhere is vital. I lived (on a work secondment) in a former Soviet bloc state that continues to suffer and endure many troubles so I have seen up close and personal what the loss of these freedoms means. I never carried a camera, made sure I was in the right setting when speaking my mind and kept my head down when out in public. You just never knew. One of my colleagues, a British man of Asian heritage was regularly stopped and searched and sometimes locked up by the police until he phoned us to get him released. We had close connections to the British Embassy, thankfully. I would not like to live like that forever. But it certainly was a 6 month eye-opener. And my female colleagues (non-British) used to ask me bring back M&B and other CR/HR for them when I was back in the UK for a home visit. These were unobtainable for them.

Grammar – &*+@~% !!!