Archive for the 'Rants' Category
Politics In Fiction
Lois Tilton over on Deep Genre has a problem with libertarianism in stories. Though I think in her reaction, she’s a bit heavy-handed herself in two ways:
- She implies that getting too political or philosophical in fiction makes the reading less enjoyable, and more a rolling-of-the-eyes.
- She oversimplifies libertarianism as an Ayn Rand-ian, anti-social, “greed is good” selfishness, and in the process shows her own true colors a bit strongly — see number one.
Speaking of tautological knee-jerk reactions, I played the Bioshock demo and noted much of the same. The antagonist in the fictional underwater city of Rapture is one Andrew Ryan (Ayn Rand - Andrew Ryan, get it?) and of course the player is lambasted with sound bites that echo of Gordon Gecko in Wall Street.
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College Destroys Readers?
I was reading M.J. Rose’s explanation on why college kids are a bad market for your novel, and it reminded me of when my wife was in college. She was always studying. And when she wasn’t studying, she was working to pay for books, tuition, and other bills.
Novels were the absolute last thing on her list of priorities.
Worse though, her required reading during college made it so that reading was transformed from an ‘enjoyable leisurely activity’ and instead became ‘work.’
Although she’s no longer burdened by the task of studying, one of the long-lasting effects of college on her is that reading is still just another form of work. It ranks up there with doing the dishes, and other mundane chores.
I have heard of other people who were similarly burned out on reading by their journey through college. The very idea of it gives me chills.
Do colleges destroy reading and readers by turning the very act of reading into an agonizing chore?
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Are Lit Snobs a Figment of a Persecuted Imagination?
Matthew Cheney doesn’t believe that lit snobs exist. What do you think?
While I agree that claims by sci-fi fans of the genre being snubbed are probably overwrought, and certainly exaggerated, so too is Matthew’s rebuttal. I have met people who were condescending towards genres like sci-fi, or hardboiled pulp.
As to what I think about that, well I don’t think I could go wrong by agreeing with Heinlein when he said, “Obscurity is the refuge of the incompetent.” Of course, this might incite the wrath of many yet-to-be-successful creators, but let’s not misinterpret things.
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