I suppose it's kind of ironic coming from a blogger, but I've been interested in the concept of authors and their readers for a while.
It seems that for a lot of very bad writers, writing is a self-involved activity. I've edited my fair share of essays (and one pornographic science fiction novel). With a bad writer, you have to spend a lot of time saying things like, "I totally see where you're coming from, but you might want to try a transition..." or "I'm not sure if your readers are going to get where this tribe of big breasted amazonian women came from..." With a very bad writer, you have to actually beat the concept of a reader into the writers head. It's not that very bad writers don't have a concept of a reader--its an unrealistic concept. They picture their readers as people who get them in every way and who won't demand petty things like editing, character development, and transitions. It's the reader as alter-ego for the author.
One of my favorite contemporary authors is Billy Collins who is fairly obsessed with the reader in his poetry. An interesting interview from Powell's is available here. He gets dinged by the critics for being accessible. (and probably for accepting a poet laureate appointment from GW) I'm not sure how I feel about the poet laureate thing, but I do think that if something is fun to read it is more likely to be great literature and not less likely. If your contemporaries can't understand you, I don't think there's much hope of standing the test of time.
To me, if you are an author, the central question is who are you an author for? If it's not about talking to yourself, then you have to think about, struggle with, and take into account your readers in some fashion. I suppose that's pretty old fashioned and not all that radical but it's amazing how many books get published that are just a slog to get through. It makes me wonder if authors have editors any more. Or maybe the authors just have too much power and the editors aren't allowed to really edit. It's a puzzle.
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2 comments:
The more shocking issue, in my view, rather than the dearth of editors, is the sheer output of the
book industry. At the end of time we will fall exhausted at the foot of our giant libraries, full of idiotic screeds, and memoirs of misanthropic twenty-somethings. . .and submit this record to hell, for surely god will not accept it
Please start a new thread. I'm bored, and when I get bored I drive my tanks around, and conquer things. If you don't start a new thread I will continue to be bored. . .
--Mao
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