In this discussion, three writers—Daniel Aaron (author of "Writers on the Left"), Caryl Rivers (a journalist with a focus on feminism and women's issues), and Tim O'Brien (Vietnam veteran and novelist)—offer widely diverging perspectives on the question of whether writers should have a social role, whether they should participate in politics or use their work to influence public opinion. This event occurred shortly after Rivers refused to cross a picket line at Boston University, where clerical workers were striking, and Rivers discusses the impact of that decision, including the experience of finding herself on the other side of the news camera and discovering that she herself had become a publicity item wedged between, as she memorably puts it, "the Puppy of the Week and Arnold Schwarzenegger."
