by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
The wild thing about the Trump Era is that to date, on a creative level, it’s completely value free. It’s like it didn’t happen. And, yet, it fucking did happen. As such, here I am plugging away at a novel that wallows in Trump Era tropes after, well, the Trump Era is, for the time being, over.
The interesting thing is this was not the case with Watergate. There were several really good movies in the 1974-1977 era that obviously were in, their own way, a reaction to Watergate. The one that pops into my mind is Network. The movie is both timeless and representative of a very specific moment in time.
And, yet, not only did the actual Trump Era produce no such art, as far as I can tell, Hollywood is going to act like the whole thing was a bad nightmare. When I’m really delusional — and maybe drunk — I find myself scratching my chin and wonder if the novel I’m working on in itself might be the piece of Trump-related art I’m looking for.
But that’s being really delusional, even for me. No cares. And never will. I just really like this novel, even if there’s a real risk it may seem dated by the time I try to sell it.
