Dressed to impress

Artistic Freedom: Are We Really Free?

On the occasion of these Independence Day festivities marking the whooping of British patooties and the rejection of unjust and undeserved rule, I’v been considering (strokes  long and imaginary goatee) what it means to be a free and independent writer. Even though I write many posts/rants lamenting the state of the publishing industry and literature, I realize that I have it easy. In many ways, I am freer to write what is in my heart than many writers in the world.

Countries like North Korea and Iran still censore speech for political reasons and no artistic freedoms can prosper in such an environment. I am old enough to remember a time in Nigeria’s past when the sound of marching boots struck real fear into people, a time when the military government exiled (Wole Soyinka), jailed (Chris Abani) or executed (Ken Saro-Wiwa) writers for their words. Writers in places go through pains and make sacrifices that are far greater than I do.

Sometimes religion is the oppressor when it comes to artistic freedom. The murder of Theo Van Gogh, the controversy over Philip Pullman’s novel, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ and the kerfuffle over South Park’s portrayal of Mohammed are all examples of religion censuring art. The default response from all sides is to prevent the proliferation of opposing opinions.

Artistic freedom and independence are of little consequence in the poorest countries in the world. These societies must deal with greater concerns like food, accommodation and healthcare before tending to the more ephemeral benefits of artistic freedom. In places like these, there is little or no incentive to write and no infrastructure to move the written word to the people.

Even in the wealthiest country on the planet (good old US of A), writers are not entirely free. It is here that distribution wields the most power over art. Publishers and booksellers wield so much power that an entire class of professionals (agents) emerged to help writers deal with them. Money decides which books get published and how well their published. Sadly, money sometimes decides which stories a writer will put to paper.

I’ve been thinking then about what it means to be free as a writer and an artist, about the rights every writer should have in an ideal world. So here they are, the artistic parallel of the unalienable human rights:

1. Freedom from persecution as a result of artistic output.
2. Freedom from the influences of distribution.
3. The right to control artistic output and benefit from its production.

What rights do you think every writer should have?

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