Dec 05, 2023 09:00:00

Why did a scholar who served as a university professor for 40 years resign and start writing a novel?

H.N. Hirsch, who turned from a university professor to a mystery writer, talks about the significance and appeal of creative writing as ``Why I quit my job as a university professor after 40 years and started writing novels.''

From Academic to Crime Writer ‹ CrimeReads

https://crimereads.com/from-academic-to-crime-writer/

Ms. Hirsch researched and lectured on constitutional law and law, contemporary political theory, and gender and sexuality. A professor emeritus at Oberlin College, Mr. Hirsch has 40 years of experience as a university professor and researcher, including director of the law research program at Harvard University and chair of the political science department at Macalester College and the University of California, San Diego. He had a career spanning more than a year. However, in 2020, Hirsch left his career as a university professor to become a mystery writer. At that time, academic colleagues and friends turned to Mr. Hirsch with suspicion, asking, ``Are you serious?''

Mr. Hirsch cites two main reasons for his transition from university professor to mystery writer. The first is that I wanted to spend a long time in my creations carefully portraying the LGBT issues that I had been talking about in my research and university lectures. Mr. Hirsch specializes in researching gender and sexuality, and the mystery works released by Mr. Hirsch also center on ``gay detective duo''.

The first book, “

Shade ,” published in 2022, is set in 1985, the second, “ Fault Line ,” is set in 1989, “Rain,” which is currently in preparation for publication, is set in 1994, and the fourth book is in production. is set in 2004. During this period, the gay community was in the midst of the AIDS crisis, there were efforts in the U.S. military to forbid people from discovering or revealing their sexuality, and same-sex marriage was recognized in some regions. did. 'I felt that fiction was the best way to essentially capture the subjectivity of gay men during this period. Fiction allows us to explore emotions and longings in ways that are not typically represented in traditional scholarship. , can express regrets, ambitions and prospects,” says Hirsch.

Mr. Hirsch stated that the second reason he began creating was to ``challenge the rigidity of American academic life.'' According to Mr. Hirsch, the premise of American universities is to discover 'new' knowledge and publish and share that knowledge in books and articles. However, in some fields of study, the challenge is not discovery but interpretation and criticism, and in such cases it is difficult to say something truly new, and even in Mr. Hirsch's field, it took 10 years to write one academic paper. It seems like it's gone. Some scholars sometimes write in words and sentences that are so difficult to decipher that they can't decipher them in order to express their originality, and as a result, their articles often end up being read only by a small number of experts, or rarely read and gathering dust. Mr. Hirsch points out that many new books will be born.

Because of his commitment to academics, Mr. Hirsch sought out a different kind of creativity and chose to write. Also, since Mr. Hirsch's field of expertise includes knowledge of politics, the legal system, and criminal procedures, he thought it would be interesting to utilize that knowledge in mysteries.

Even readers who cannot follow or are interested in academic books and articles can generally enjoy works of fiction. Also, fiction has truth in a different form than academic truth, and it can have a lasting impact on readers. “How many academic studies can convey an argument as well as a popular novel? All studies and articles are valid and useful, but novels are better understood by many people. Even if the thesis no longer makes sense, the characters live on in the work, which is why I continue to work on fiction,'' says Hirsch.