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Serious writer stuff.
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fashionista_35 has some very interesting things to say about writing "the book of your heart" as opposed to just writing "what sells" and self-censorship.I have to confess that I agree with the principle, but I sort of hate the phrase. I agree that you can't just write something on the sole basis that it'll sell.
Writing something just for commercial purposes and writing it because it's "the book of your heart" is like the difference between having a one-off with a cheap hooker in your car and making passionate love to the partner of your dreams. Or, if you're not into the sexual metaphors, microwaving a TV dinner and taking the time to cook a gourmet meal.
In either case, the latter is infinitely more satisfying and meaningful than the former.
But I don't like the idea of the phrase "the book of your heart" for two reasons.
1. The word "heart" is completely deceptive and oversimplifying the issue. When we say "heart", people think of raw feelings and emotions. I think that may be what some people are reacting to when they oppose the phrase.
But it's not just about writing your feelings, but a level of authorial honesty. It's about coming to the table because you actually give a crap about what's being served for dinner. About having a justification for asking for someone's time and attention that you can give with a straight face.
It's about not writing write what's easy, what's throw away, what's just a cheap. Writing the "book of your heart" is actually about being brave and dedicated enough to put in the mental, emotional effort. Writing for sheer commercial purposes is like serving someone reheated leftovers when they came to a five star restaurant and then expecting them to pay top dollar for it. It's insulting and a waste of everyone's time, especially yours.
2. My
The human heart, both literally and metaphorically, can be ugly. We don't just keep the warm fuzzy feelings in there. We also (metaphorically) we keep our -isms there, our racism, sexism, ablism, and all the others. Our heart is the home of our hatred, our pettiness, our prejudices. I think it behooves any writer to be acutely aware of this.
fashionista_35 cited the example of a friend, Alyssa Day, who was told that she used too many prime numbers in her books. And yes, I think that is beyond the pale. There's nothing a writer can do about that. It's part of the inherent risk that both reader and writer take when they pick up books. But - again, I have 'but' face! - there's also a point where criticisms become valid. When a reader says, "this thing you wrote hurt me, treated me less human, disrespected me, added to my pain and lack", I think the author has some obligation to really consider it. Maybe not to accept it, but to put down the defenses and consider it.
I see authors who respond to those kinds of criticisms with, "Well, I'm the author, I can do what I want!" or a whole mess of irrelevant, point-missing TL;DR. I don't believe that kind of response is appropriate in the face of someone telling you your book - yes, the book of your heart - did something hurtful.
If I ever get published, I hope that someone will let me know if I do something hurtful like that, if I've been racist or sexist or homophobic or (insert prejudice that I inevitably do have). More than that, I hope I will have the good sense, decency, and grace to accept that criticism, to take it to heart and let it impact the books that follow.
In the end, I think it comes down to this. Writing, like life, is complicated. No phrase, or witticism, or piece of advice is one size fits all - but I do think that in writing, it's important that whatever you're doing, you care deeply about it. As deeply as you want your readers to care.
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Be it on your own head what you think you are and are not obligated to do. It's a free country, and everyone has to make decisions about what they think is best. I obviously disagree quite strongly on this point with you. I think that if my way is insanity, your way is blindness. Try not to take that personally, but as a writer, I think it's my job to be keenly aware of the feelings of my potential audiences and to make sure my writing reflects that.
Not necessarily to make everyone comfortable or to avoid any possible offense, but to be aware when my own shortcomings as a human being and an artist may interfere with a reader being able to interact with my story.
You yourself say: "My sole responsibility as an author is to create something of as high a quality as I am capably and that both Entertains and Provokes."
But both of those things, entertainment and provocation, are reactions. They are feelings. In order to cause them, you have to have awareness of reader feelings and context. You have to be aware of what a reader will find provocative and what will be completely boring. You have to be aware of what words mean, what they evoke.
So, it would seem (if your words are any judge of your writing style) that you do pay quite a bit of attention to what a reader might feel. It seems, however, that there are certain feelings you do not value and do not feel an obligation to attend to and some that you are keenly interested.
And as I said, be that on your own head.
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The 'feelings' meme that is being addressed here in not the reaction to words that make people think and feel. Hell, what's the point of writing if not for that? The meme is The Whining of Victimstm, as you put it "this thing you wrote hurt me, treated me [as] less human, disrespected me, added to my pain and lack". Ugh.
That is passive/aggressive manipulation aka Emotional Blackmail and my response is "Learn to become responsible for your own feelings." Giving in to that type pressure...well, in The Addiction Model it's known as Enabling and is considered a form of mental illness.
If someone does not like what I'm saying, they can tell me to go fuck myself and proclaim to the world what an asshole they think I am. Like you said, it's a free country. [It's really not, but that's a whole other kettle of fish] But do not whine to me about your tender feelings being hurt by my art. I'll likely just hurt them some more.
~M~
..found a typo..
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Telling you "go fuck yourself" would just reinforce the storyline you've got going there. I don't really have any interest in your fucking, auto- or otherwise. But you should know that you're coming across as a very boring writer of a very familiar type.
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Orwell considered judging an artist by their personality to be an intellectual crime of the first order. In that regard, I directly challenge you with the link you'll find at the bottom of this comment window.
I don't think you can choose to own, to regard as your handiwork, just select reactions, once you admit that you're aiming to stir up reactions.
That does rather tends toward sophistry. I never said anything here of that nature. I am only rejecting being Obliged to be responsible for how various individuals – nearly all unknown to me – react to my fiction. So, yes, I can Pick and Choose how, and with whom, I shall interact.
It seems that none of you has really thought this through. To even contemplate taking on such a massive responsibility is simultaneously a gateway to madness and the height of arrogance, for such a responsibility would have to be God-like.
No, sorry, even I am not that much of an egomaniac.
It certainly makes you come off poorly in comparison to (to cite three authors I've quoted from this last week and therefore have stacked here on my desk) William Burroughs, K.W. Jeter, and Richard Kadrey, all of whom have written well about the author's responsibility for the power of her work.
Cite specific examples, please.
Telling you "go fuck yourself" would just reinforce the storyline you've got going there. I don't really have any interest in your fucking, auto- or otherwise.
You just did. lol NPL* refers to that as an 'embedded statement', saying something by claiming you're not going to say it. [*Google it] Tricky biscuit.
But you should know that you're coming across as a very boring writer of a very familiar type.
Could you possibly use a more vague cliché? And actually, as I am an Autonomous Being, I do not have to know anything of the sort. =)
http://community.livejournal.com/e_speaks/51655.html
~M~
(frozen comment) Edited Reply (LJ cut off my response)
And I'm very uncomfortable with you using the term the "Whining of Victims" and "emotional blackmail" when talking about this topic, and I think it's unfair to say that someone who speaks out against literature that is hurtful to them is somehow being abusive or irresponsible. Asking for them to change hurtful behaviors is not passive aggressive. I don't think you really understand what the term means, either.
Saying that someone ought to be responsible for their own feelings when many of those feelings are evoked by - for instance - endemic racism, sexism, and homophobia (to name a few prejudices) in literature and media that surround them and have affected their daily reality is like telling someone who's been punched in the face to be responsible for their own pain.
The "fuck you" response really is what's passive-aggressive and whining. The belittlement of what others are telling you about their experiences shows that, actually, it seems that you're making this about your hurt feelings rather than about your art.
(frozen comment) Re: Edited Reply (LJ cut off my response)
I agree with the comment that
I suspect you might be. =)
And I'm very uncomfortable with you using the term the "Whining of Victims" and "emotional blackmail" when talking about this topic, and I think it's unfair to say that someone who speaks out against literature that is hurtful to them is somehow being abusive or irresponsible. Asking for them to change hurtful behaviors is not passive aggressive. I don't think you really understand what the term means, either.
I have earned the right to say such things and am fully aware of what they mean. You can review my bona fides here (http://nebris.livejournal.com/161805.html). Warning, it is very triggering material.
I've been in Al-Anon and AA for over two decades and I am also a trained psychotherapist, so I also know a few things beyond my own personal damage. Note that I could get all offended at you for 'not reading my mind' before you dismissed my 'feelings'.
What I speak of here is the Victim as Victimizer, the person who feels that since they have been brutalized in some genuinely awful way, they now have Carte Blanch to abuse others, usually through some “Your Words and Feelings Make Me Hurt” paradigm and whether or not said 'words and feelings' had anything to do with them at all.
I have seen this pattern so many many times. And seen so many people allow themselves to be guilted and shamed by these types of individuals, who are “not taking responsibility for their own feelings”. They are NOT responsibly for what was done to them, but they ARE responsible for how they deal with that.
Given that paradigm, if I write something fictional that specifically attacks you, well, yeah, I am responsible for hurting you.
But if write something, no matter how hateful or offensive, that hurts, angers, and/or repulses you, no, I am not responsible for your 'feelings', no matter how much of a evil bastard I may be for what I wrote. You are free to tell me I'm an evil bastard, but your feelings are you own property.
These things are called Boundaries and they are the cornerstone of both mental health and good self esteem.
Saying that someone ought to be responsible for their own feelings when many of those feelings are evoked by - for instance - endemic racism, sexism, and homophobia (to name a few prejudices) in literature and media that surround them and have affected their daily reality is like telling someone who's been punched in the face to be responsible for their own pain.
Okay, first the socio-political. All that which you listed above are the markers for Class, the thing we supposedly do not have here in America. Please note that I am not responsible for it's existence, though I am doing my bit to expunge it from the face of the earth.
Second, in this context, the 'punch in the face' metaphor is a strawman and to that I say “Poot!” /smirk
Third, as I noted above, we may not be responsible for our pain and damage, but we most certainly are responsible for how we deal with it.
If you punch me in my face for no good reason – or for any ol' damned reason – and then I shoot you in yours, well, I will go to jail then, won't I? “But they hit me!!” don't cut it, ya know.
The "fuck you" response really is what's passive-aggressive and whining. The belittlement of what others are telling you about their experiences shows that, actually, it seems that you're making this about your hurt feelings rather than about your art.
The demand that I or any other writer of fiction be Obliged [aka required] to be emotionally responsible for the vast audience of strangers is not only belittling of us, but is a form of psychic bondage that I passionately reject. If you wish to take on shackles of that nature, that is your choice, but trying to impose such upon others is not only somewhat fascistic, but even smacks of grandiosity.
Goethe said, “If everyone swept in front of their own door, the whole world would be clean.” I politely suggest you reflect upon that.
~M~
(frozen comment) Re: Edited Reply (LJ cut off my response)
1) You're derailing and thinking it's clever. It's not, just so you're concerned.
2) Your bona fides don't really mean anything in the context of this discussion and has the worrisome tone of "my pain trumps your pain". I'm sorry for whatever happened to you. It was tragic and horrible and shouldn't have happened.
But there is no such thing as earning the "right" to say, absolutely and for everyone, who's feelings are and are not valid. Especially don't think that because you think you have some kind of calling to Art that somehow you're exempt from considering what kind of pain and abuse your writing might be dealing out.
3) All that which you listed above are the markers for Class, the thing we supposedly do not have here in America.
What, are you Will Shetterly in disguise over there? I have no desire to do the "it's all about class, not race/gender/sexuality etc" dance with you because it's not productive and as far as I'm concerned, it's wrong.
I remember seeing pictures and stories about the signs above doors that would say "Whites Only" or "No Colored People Allowed". I just have never seen or heard of a sign that said, "No Middle Class allowed". Which sways me to the side of "Yes, there is racism, and yes, you're kind of missing the point deliberately."
There's a long history of abuse towards people of color, women, GLBT folks, and a lot of others in this country - and when someone is being abused you don't tell them to "suck it, be responsible for your own feelings", you tell the abuser to STOP WHAT THEY ARE DOING.
Asking someone to stop abusive behavior is not in and of itself abusive.
4) Freezing the thread, because we're not getting anywhere and you're being rather rude. Not to mention completely illogical.