Off the Cuff / My Other Journal

Writing and Influence

So many writers have influenced the flow of events through their writings and imagination. Many writers, mostly novelists, have changed things concerning public opinion or they have evoked feelings of compassion and empathy. There are many examples to this, like Grapes of Wrath revealing the decrepit life-styles of the migrant workers,

I have been thinking about the public option of medical insurance lately, and it dawned on me that Citadel incited the establishment of the National Health Service in the United Kingdom. National Health Service began on July 5, 1948. The Citadel was published in 1937.

"Cronin served as a Royal Navy surgeon during World War I before graduating from medical school. After the war, he trained at various hospitals including Bellahouston and Lightburn Hospitals in Glasgow and Rotunda Hospital in Dublin, before taking up his first practice in Tredegar, a mining town in South Wales. In 1924, he was appointed Medical Inspector of Mines for Great Britain, and over the next few years, his survey of medical regulations in collieries and his reports on the correlation between coal dust inhalation and pulmonary disease were published. Cronin drew on his experiences researching the occupational hazards of the mining industry for his later novels The Citadel, set in Wales, and The Stars Look Down, set in Northumberland." From Wikipedia

In my earlier years, I was an A. J. Cronin fan so much so that I thought, as a teenager, one had to be in the medical profession to write well. In addition, a relative who has influenced my life the most was an MD who was in the profession only for the sake of healing people.

Luckily, I have enlarged my vista since. I now think any good writer with a good idea and good intentions can make an impression on the way we live. There are tons of opinion pieces out there, but I think none of them can succeed as well as what literature accomplishes in its roundabout way.

And as my warped mind brings me to our day and to things that matter to me the most, I am hoping (praying, expecting) that many of the WdC writers will address our present-day issues through their poetry and fiction.

Haven't I said this umpteen times, before?