Visionary conservatism vs. reactionary conservatism: Another Kingdom by Andrew Klavan

Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.

Proverbs 29:18, KJV

In my last post, about C.S. Forester’s Mr. Midshipman Hornblower, I mentioned how most conservative fiction these days—or indeed, most conservatism generally—is more reactionary than visionary, really only seeking to conserve all the things that the radicals had successfully pushed onto society twenty years ago, for the sole reason that it’s not what the radicals are pushing on us today.

It’s lonely, being a conservative in the arts. In all ages, conservatives tend to be drawn to more stable careers, like accounting or banking, than the type of career where people immediately ask “so what’s your day job?” when you tell them what you do. This is not because conservatives are inherently less creative—after all, there is (sadly) no shortage of creative bankers and accountants in this world—but conservatives do tend to create differently than liberal or progressive types. Thus, in fields where “new ideas” are celebrated over timeless values—basically, any genre that’s been taken over by “anti-___,” “___-ism,” “___-ality,” or “___-ology”—conservatives tend to bow out in disgust.

Which is a shame, because the reason conservatives are perpetually losing the culture war is because of how they perpetually cede the arts to their ideological enemies. Thus, the radicals are able to repackage all of their worst and most pathological ideas for the rising generation and make them seem new. This is the reason why Karl Marx’s utterly discredited economic theories are still culturally relevant, Lenin, Stalin, and Mao are viewed by many young people as heroes, and almost no one thinks of Hitler as a socialist. But hey—at least we got President Trump.

This is something that Andrew Klavan has been shouting about for a very long time. Unlike most conservative creators, who are little more than con-artists working a grift, or else (wittingly or otherwise) are merely conserving bad leftist ideas that are old enough to have fallen out of fashion, Andrew Klavan is the real deal. He is not just a reactionary, but a visionary, with a deep understanding of conservative values that don’t just go back to the ’00s, or the ’50s, but the 1850s and the 1600s.

Another Kingdom is a really fun read. Even though it’s technically fantasy, it reads a lot more like a thriller, with lots of action and suspense, and a conflict that spans not just the portal fantasy kingdom, but modern Hollywood and the powers that run our world. The main character goes from a dumpy, washed-up wannabe screenwriter to someone who is willing (though not yet able) to stand up to one of the worst billionaire globalist types trying to lead the world into a new age.

It’s an interesting read, though, because even though Klavan is a conservative Christian, the story doesn’t read like something that only Christian conservatives would want to read. In fact, there’s so much violence, sex, and language that most Christian conservatives are probably put off by it. But if Klavan had toned all that down to try to appeal to that particular audience, the story would have suffered quite a bit… because let’s face it, you can’t really write a story about the evils of Hollywood and the billionaire class without acknowledging the raunchy and violent parts. And of course, since the portal fantasy aspect functions as a foil to our own world, it’s a nasty, violent place as well.

In other words, Klavan had an artistic vision for this book that was informed by his conservative values, but he didn’t let his conservative values (or his conservative audience) compromise that vision or water down his story. There’s a fine line between depicting evil and glorifying evil, but if you want to write about evil then you have to be willing to walk right up to that line. Klavan does that, but his conservatism keeps him from crossing over and outright glorifying in it, the way that a lot of grimdark tends to do. He doesn’t balk from showing evil, but he also shows it for what it is, contrasting it with goodness. And because his characters are flawed humans, it doesn’t come across as preachy, either—even though some of those character flaws are the kind that more prudish conservatives tend to find offensive.

It’s not the kind of book that everyone will enjoy, but I thoroughly enjoyed Another Kingdom. The sex, violence, and language didn’t bother me at all, because the story itself felt firmly grounded, and never veered into glorification of those things. Moreover, the book is just plain fun to read—the message, such as there is one, never comes before the book’s primary purpose, which is to entertain. And Another Kingdom is a highly entertaining (and surprisingly rereadable) thriller / portal fantasy. You should give it a try.