A couple of years ago, I was
pitching my first novel, WOLF (KAOS press June 2016), in New York City, and
when I told a group of young women authors about the subplot and themes of date
rape, party rape, and rape drugs, and I said it was a humorous mystery, some of
them were appalled. They didn’t see how
rape could ever be funny. Obviously, I
agree. Rape can never be funny. Books, on the other hand (even books that
take on serious topics like rape), can be funny. In fact, humor often helps us deal with
difficult subjects that might be too hard to face without it.
I’m of two minds about
graphic descriptions of situations where women are harmed, included rape, human
trafficking, murder, and domestic abuse.
I suppose realistic descriptions of these horrible crimes may bring
awareness to women’s issues. On the
other hand, in my opinion, graphic descriptions also risk pandering to prurient
interests at best and giving folks terrible ideas at worst. I prefer to read and to write novels that
leave more to your imagination when it comes to the gory details of women’s
abusive experiences and focus on ways women can be strong and fight back, at
least in the world of fiction--not always so easy in the real world. This is not to say that my novels take rape
or abuse lightly. To the contrary. But, who doesn’t like a feminist revenge
story where the fraternity boy would-be rapists get their butts kicked and our
heroines prevent another campus rape?
My second novel, COYOTE (KAOS
press August 2016), takes on human trafficking and drug addiction on the
Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Browning, Montana. You can’t get much more depressing than
that. But, some of my characters are
funny, others are witty, and most of them (at least the good ones) are women! And,
of course, the bad guys, those arsehole human traffickers, are punished by our
vigilante posse of tough, no-nonsense, women protagonists who show them who’s
boss.
You’re probably catching on by
now, I like a good feminist revenge strong on plot and even stronger on
character. In my novels, I want to
create strong women characters who can take care of themselves and each other.
My main character, Jessica James, is a former cowgirl who not only rides and
shoots with the best of them, but also quotes Nietzsche and is the queen of
witty comebacks. Her best friend, Lolita Durchenko, may be a Russian beauty
running a high stake poker game that earned her the knick-name “the poker
Tsarina,” but she’s also a black-belt in karate and doesn’t take shit from
anybody. Then there’s a whole host of
fun and funny secondary characters like Amber Bush, the rescue-remedy dropping
hippy hacker from WOLF or Madge Blackthorn, the Blackfoot tribal police chief
who keeps a big bag of candy in her squad car, which she distributes liberally,
along with slugs from her Beretta Storm shotgun.
A lot of my nonfiction work
has dealt with some of these same women’s issues. And, for my fiction, I’ve
done a lot of research, and much of it has been very depressing. I hate to say
it as a self-professed feminist, but I’ve found the stereotype of the overly serious
feminist with no sense of humor is occasionally true. It is important to have a
sense of humor about serious issues, not just in order to live with them and live
through them, but also to read and write about them—at least for me. Humor and comedy allow us to face and process
difficult issues that we might otherwise avoid or deny. A heavy hand is not going to be able to bring
these issues to light and reach as many readers as a comic touch. As my grandmother used to say, “you catch
more flies with honey than with vinegar.” I guess in my novels, I’ve taken that
advice to heart and I sweeten the pot with humor and wit even as I take on
issues of date-rape, human trafficking, and in the next installment….the hidden
world of IVF and egg harvesting.
Kelly Oliver is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at
Vanderbilt University and well-known feminist philosopher. She is the author of
fourteen nonfiction books, most recently, Hunting Girls: Sexual Violence from The
Hunger Games to Rape on Campus
(Columbia University Press, May 2016). Her work has been translated into seven
languages, and she has been featured in the The New York Times and
on ABC television news. Kelly is releasing a new mystery trilogy featuring
kickass heroine Jessica James, a Montana “cowgirl” and philosophy grad student
taking on ripped-from-the-headlines crimes like date rape drugs on campus, sex
trafficking, fracking and more. The adventure begins with trilogy debut Wolf
(Kaos Press, June 2016) and Jessica’s adventures
continue in Coyote (August
2016). Read more about Kelly and the Jessica James Cowgirl
Philosophy Mystery series at www.kellyoliverbooks.com
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