My cluebat is shaped like 1984

[lokifan]

GRUMPY LOKIFAN IS GRUMPY.

Not enormously so, because I haz a kitty, and he makes all things better. But still. I am BATTLING with this fic. And it’s really, really late, and meant for someone I both admire and like a lot, and ARGH. I AM SO CLOSE I CAN TASTE IT. But I keep forcing more words and they’re just not good words. I am okay with forcing out a few hundred words if I’ll keep them mostly the same, and I’m okay with just splurging out a thousand words that will be mostly rewritten. Forcing stuff that’s no good anyway is just the worst of both worlds.

BUT I’M SO CLOSE I CAN TASTE IT.

Also, Eastercon is happening right now and I am not there. Which is a sad. Especially since there’d be no better place to discuss Christopher Priest’s HILARIOUS epic meltdown over this year’s Arthur C. Clarke Award shortlist.

Speaking of literary snobbishness, I generally like the Guardian’s literary stuff. But OH MY GOD FUCK OFF.

That article is full of the worst kind of “genre = downmarket, bad literature, formulaic, doesn’t engage the brain, you can just finish one and leap into another which is a bad thing because you should SIT AND PONDER GRATE WORKS OF LITERATCHUR when you finish them.” It literally SAYS genre fiction can’t include ‘future classics’. YOU NEED TO BE HIT WITH A CLUEBAT. A CLUEBAT SHAPED LIKE 1984. AND PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. AND MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS.

It’s not LAZY to read genre fiction and it wouldn’t matter if it was. “In digital, dross rises” indeed! The snobbery is incredible in its unabashedness.

UGH. I don’t make a great distinction between LITERATCHUR and trash anyway - I somehow escaped being contaminated with that distinction and worries about writing GREAT AND ORIGINAL WORKS as a kid/teenager, and I don’t intend to fall into that trap now. And even if I did, the idea that genre fiction is automatically not LITERATCHUR, the rampant classism and sexism, the whole idea of reading as a guilty pleasure, the ‘confession’ that sometimes the author does read something not-literary BUT HARDLY EVER BECAUSE IT IS NOT GOOD...

SHUT UP GUARDIAN.

AND ALSO SHUT UP “GROWN-UPS SHOULDN’T READ CHILDREN’S BOOKS” GUY, BEFORE I BEAT YOU TO DEATH WITH TOM’S MIDNIGHT GARDEN. WANKER.

My rage in the face of literary snobs, it is mighty. And I am armed with the Bartmimaeus trilogy in hardback. Don’t mess.

Comments

[meredyth]

You are very cute when you're grumpy - just sayin'

;)

[lokifan]

WELL THANK YOU. Better that than like, a bit scary.

[crunchysunrises]

I have to confess that genre = bad types always amuse me.... mostly because their classics (Dickens, Shakespeare, whatever) were popular genre crap written to make a dime when they were first published. All of that classic-ness gilding came later.

I did, however, take offense to the idea that no one would read the Iliad or the Odyssey unless they were showing off their cleverness. Unlike the writer, some people just genuinely like adventure stories.

As for your fic... are you looking at it from the right angle? Sometimes, when a fic is feeling awful and forced, it means I'm not writing it from the right perspective or plot point or whatever. Or maybe a plot point needs to be changed? Just... let it alone for a bit and maybe the reason it does not fill you with glee will show up all on its own, hat in hand.

*waves and scampers off*

[lokifan]

MEH. This knowledge just furthers my annoyance, tbh. Like, there is so much genuinely harmful classism and sexism in the way this is discussed that I lose all sense of humour :(

I THOUGHT THAT re: the Odyssey etc. There's always a vibe with these articles that they don't actually like 'classics'. It's very "these stupid people have GUILTY PLEASURES, but I am clever and thus get no pleasure at all when I read!"

We'll see... I like the fic overall, it's just the last bit of scene that's not coming.

[woldy]

Good luck in your battle against the fic!

[lokifan]

Thanks!

Um, I went off on a rant of my own. Sorry.

[angelbabe_cj]

You know what, idiot Guardian writer (not you, obviously), I do not currently own a physical e-reader, but do read e-books on my computer. I also read physical books. In general terms I think neither of these things say anything of me but 'I like to read,' and the variety of works which I read reflects the multiple facets of my personhood. Sometimes I like to delve into centuries old books like The Odyssey because I'm interested in the story and how it fits in with what I know about that period of history, I wish I got around to reading it properly at university, and okay, a little bit because want to finally be able to say I've read it. But on the other hand I also read fantasy novels, historical fiction, Young Adult fiction (which, before you start, is not some pile of dross which is rotting the brains of young people and corrupting their lives - although who am I to deny that some of it may do. What YA constitutes is a look at a world seen through the eyes of a young narrator, no more, no less. The world which that person sees could be the world of our reality or the world dreamed up by the imagination of the author, it's simply giving the Young Adult reader a way to more directly empathise with the narrator and often deals with themes as complex or even more complex than supposedly adult books.).
My apologies, I was derailed from my argument. My point is that I am not an automaton. I like to read many things, some of them are Classics, which you appear to put some sort of shining golden halo on as works of perfection. Some of those works are classified as romance or chick-lit stories. This does not make me any less intelligent, give me any less of an interest in the world around me, or stop me imagining people complexly. Maybe you should try it.
Oh, and by the way, I do like books with sex in them, I'm a woman in the 21st century with a libido, get over yourself. And if you think erotica lacks story, creativity or intelligence you're clearly reading the wrong books.

And now for you, lokifan, good luck with fic-wrestling. Sorry about my rant not at you, I found a pet peeve and couldn't stop the thoughts swilling around in my head.

Re: Um, I went off on a rant of my own. Sorry.

[lokifan]

YES! I SUPPORT ALL RANTING! ESPECIALLY WHEN IT REFERENCES 'IMAGINING PEOPLE COMPLEXLY'.

I am so so sick of the scorn heaped upon romance. SO MUCH OF IT is stuff that could be said of almost all genre fiction (at least, if you wanted to ignorantly dismiss genre fiction) but romance just gets an extra measure of IT IS GIRL BOOKS FOR GIRLY GIRLS WITH NO CRITICAL FACILITIES disdain.

Re: Um, I went off on a rant of my own. Sorry.

[angelbabe_cj]

Imagining people complexly is one of those vlogbrothers things I latched on to and basically said 'YES, YES, that is exactly how people need to do things, always.'

Oh I so understand your annoyance. Romance isn't my favourite thing, but I like it more than, for example, true crime or quite a bit of science fiction, and I DO tend to use it as a lighter thing to read between the heavy-going books I often gravitate to. But, and here's a big but, just because it might be marketed at girls and contain a somewhat inevitable endpoint (usually), it does not mean the WRITING IS BAD or not worthy of thoughtful reading. I have learned things from romance books: one involved a plot centring around the making of fireworks, another talked a lot about bridge building which are quite frankly things I'm not sure I've ever have gone looking for information on independently.

And you know, just the term genre fiction is so flipping annoying. How are you supposed to classify any book without it having a genre. Yes it may fit into several, but there are very few, I'd imagine, that don't fit any because it's kind of the point of genres. (I mean, I know the dismissive term genre fiction isn't geared towards that thought process, but it still pisses me off.)

Re: Um, I went off on a rant of my own. Sorry.

[lokifan]

Oh me too, absolutely. And having finished them all, Paper Towns is my favourite Green book :)

just because it might be marketed at girls and contain a somewhat inevitable endpoint (usually), it does not mean the WRITING IS BAD or not worthy of thoughtful reading.

YES. EXACTLY. The scorn romance gets from fantasy fans is extra-annoying - we know the villain will be defeated in fantasy, after all. It's the how, not the what. But romance is 'girl books for girls' and thus silly and brainless and boring.

YES. QUITE. And I actually really like 'genre theory' as a form of lit-crit, and the thoughtful process... so it's annoying to have 'genre fiction' be this dismissive code for 'trash'.

Re: Um, I went off on a rant of my own. Sorry.

[angelbabe_cj]

So far I've only read The Fault in Our Stars, and my reading pile is large enough that I'm not sure I'll get to any of the others this year, but I'm really looking forward to it. I like his style of writing.

Yes the fantasy v. romance thing also ties into the boy books v. girl books thing which also makes me want to rage at everyone who tries to defend the separateness. It is marketing which books for women and books for men a thing, and stupid society not getting the fact that a book is a book and the fact that someone wants to read it is fantastic and they should NEVER be belittled or in any way because they chose to read something not traditionally marketed to them. For fuck's sake the fact people are reading is a good thing, let them do it in peace without policing what they choose to read because of its genre.

[kabal42]

Ugh, fic-wrestling… so frustrating! I wish you luck in wrangling it into its place.

Also, as much as I share your ARGGHH! about lit. critics, I am a tad bit relieved that literature has this inane idea too. Musicology sure as fuck does have it's "high" and "low" very firmly set - and it's VERY sexist - and classist.

[lokifan]

Thanks!

Oh, yeah. Even people who think they're out of all that Establishment rubbish - the sheer scorn romance gets from all sides fills me with rage. Even in that article, you get the stuff about how the non-literary reading public are 'lazy' and the snide remarks about paranormal romance.

[jack]

It annoys me because the genre=second-class is IN MY HEAD and I don't want it to be, but it hasn't gone away yet!

Also, I too, love GIANT RANTS :)

[lokifan]

Ack, it's always so annoying when you've internalised stuff like that - consciously you know it's dumb, but it's still THERE. Until it's not :)