Commentary Corner: Deep Cave Guru, Bandwagon Rider, and Used Car Salesman: The Wave of DEI in Fiction Is Cresting

It's normal these days to read a book that highlights, or goes out of its way, to identify characters which do not fit Western demographic norms.

“Alex ran around the corner, slipping to catch his balance. Gun in hand he pushed off again, yelling at people on the sidewalk to get out of the way. “Move, move!” Ahead the thief barged forward, knocking bodies aside like bowling pins. “Stop!” Alex shouted. But the thief didn't stop. Amid cries of surprise and pain he crashed ahead toward his getaway car. Alex was black and gay and knew he had to do something, and fast...”

I exaggerate, but there are some writers who are not much more subtle. Gender, sexual orientation, race, culture—these and other facets of being human increasingly often earn spurious mention. It's clear much fiction is attempting to align with a broader cultural movement.

Before jumping further in, let's take a short step back to look at any cultural movement. Foremost, they are products of their time. Hippie counter-culture is a period in Western history, for example. With its own style, ideas, and contrasts to cultural norms, it is identifiable. And while some of those ideas live today, the hippie movement is an element of history. Hairy armpitted-women, beatnik poetry, beads, Bob Dylan, and bell bottoms are not norms. The legend of Jimi Hendrix lives on, but goats and off-grid communes just never took off.

The culture wars of today will someday also be a part of the past. There will be books, artists, musicians, cultural icons, etc. which people will use to identify the period. Inevitably one of those things will be the added focus, sometimes more, sometimes less, on character demographics in fiction. Readers will encounter a paragraph of text from an “old” book which goes out of its way to point out how character X doesn't feel male or female, and remark to themselves “Oh, that was an early 21st century thing...”. Because of course, by the time that book is “old”, there will be a new zeitgeist, other ways for writers to express socio-political ideals and/or sell fiction.

This leaves us with inevitable, unfortunate questions in 2022. When you see an author highlighting DEI demographics, how should you take this?

1. Deep Cave Guru: an author who has the sincerest of moral intentions; they believe they are doing their altruistic part to make the world a better place. They wear bell-bottoms yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

2. Bandwagon Rider: an author caught up in the times echoing a trend. They buy bell-bottom jeans because many people around them are also buying them and they too believe they look cool.

3. Used Car Salesman: an author for whom demographic signals are simply a means to print and profit. Why not sell bellbottoms and earn a buck, also?

Moving forward, I'm working with the assumption A) used car salesmen are people whose intentions are individually rather than altruistically motivated, and B) bandwagon riders are people caught up in the times of today and can just as easily be caught up in the times of tomorrow, even times of morally opposite focus. (Hitler, after all, was able to convert a society to fascism, such is the bandwagon malleability of the human psyche.) In other words, both are roles whose moral integrity can be questioned.  And the guru, regardless whether we agree or disagree, we at least respect them.

And I hope we all agree that authors themselves are not the right people to ask which role they fit.

“So John, did you you include lesbians in your new book because you thought it would sell a few extra copies and earn you praise from LGBT+ groups?”

“Yes, Bob. Yes I did.”

It's just not likely to happen, at least publicly. More likely is that the author will say something to the effect of: “I was looking to explore new territory in my writing.” or “I support the representation of minorities, and therefore include them in my fiction.”

There is nothing inherently wrong with these statements or beliefs. But the cynic too easily responds: “Seems terribly timely given there are so many other authors around you doing the same...“. In other words, why do DEI elements not appear in the author's earlier work? More broadly, why do DEI elements not appear in such quantity across the spectrum of fiction just a few years ago?

We should thus ask: what are the intentions of an author who aligns with cultural movements in a capitalist environment? How do we separate deep cave gurus from the rest? It's impossible to answer.

To summarize, the ubiquity of DEI elements in fiction is a sign that the cultural movement has shifted from counter-culture toward cultural norm. It can be found in many, many novels and short stories. The wave is cresting. Whether it sticks around to permanently inform the landscape of mainstream culture or washes back to sea is another question. (Will it be bell-bottom jeans or Jimi Hendrix? Goat farming or anti-war sentiment?) Regardless, in the coming years we will start talking about DEI in the past tense more often. The counter-culture movement which comes next, whatever it may be, is already building off shore, ready to take shape and arise... to form new moral high grounds, bandwagons, and ideas to exploit.

I'm hoping compromise, common sense, and respect of the individual over identity politics take the forefront, but I'm not holding my breath...