“We, the undersigned writers and all who will join us, support Occupy Wall Street and the Occupy Movement around the world.” Hundreds of writers have lent their names to the website Occupy Writers to support the Occupy Wall Street movement and others like it spawning in cities across the globe (including Melbourne).
The list is a literary who’s who and includes names like Margaret Atwood, Russell Banks, Tariq Ali, Ann Beattie, Noam Chomsky, Michael Cunningham, Junot Diaz, Jennifer Egan, Barbara Ehrenreich, Sasha Frere-Jones, Nell Freudenberger, Neil Gaiman, Naomi Klein, Jonathan Lethem, China Mieville, Rick Moody, Salman Rushdie, Gloria Steinem, Donna Tartt, Alice Walker, Ann Patchett and Naomi Wolf. Australian writers on the list include Alison Croggon and Paddy O'Reilly.
Some are going a step further, penning work for publication n the Occupy Writers website. Daniel Handler, better known by his sobriquet Lemony Snicket, the author of A Series of Unfortunate Events, has published a list entitled, ‘Thirteen Observations made by Lemony Snicket while watching Occupy Wall Street from a Discreet Distance’. It’s a plea for social justice made in typical Lemony Snicket style. We especially liked points 4 (“4. People who say money doesn’t matter are like people who say cake doesn’t matter—it’s probably because they’ve already had a few slices”), 10 (“It is not always the job of people shouting outside impressive buildings to solve problems. It is often the job of the people inside, who have paper, pens, desks, and an impressive view”) and 13 (“99 percent is a very large percentage. For instance, easily 99 percent of people want a roof over their heads, food on their tables, and the occasional slice of cake for dessert. Surely an arrangement can be made with that niggling 1 percent who disagree”).