On the question of whether authors should be weighing in on politics, writer John Scalzi gets himself an opinion. It's an awesome one, and it includes this quote, which I'm thinking of having tattooed on my ass.

"The reader who believes a fiction author should keep his or her opinions to themselves is effectively (if generally unintentionally) saying 'You exist only to amuse me. You are not allowed to do anything else.' To which the only rational response is: blow me."

I almost never write about politics, mostly because I try to keep things pretty light around here, and anything involving the words NRA, anti-abortion rights, health insurance conglomerates and trickle-down economics makes blood ooze out of my ears, which is only funny after the really good painkillers have kicked in.

But I will defend to the death the right of other authors to contribute their generally pretty darn educated voices to the national dialogue. In fact, if they didn't, I think it would be a great loss. The voice of the artist should, in my opinion, be as loud as that of the lobbyist, the politician, the policy wonk. They are our thinkers and our imaginers. We should hear even if we do not agree because they hold up the mirror into which our best selves and our worst selves are reflected. And I, for one, don't want to turn away.



Okay, that got all serious for a second. This is a funny rabbit.