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More Writerly Thinky Thoughts
Jun. 26th, 2014 08:52 amWarning: overgeneralizing ahoy.
Last night I had an insight into some of my struggles with fiction (and genre fiction in particular). Basically, it comes down to the fact that fundamentally. I do not believe in the efficacy of individual action to change things on a large scale. I am a collectivist, at least in a political sense. (An egalitarian collectivist, thx.) In fact, I noticed last night that my stories are often to one degree or another about the inability of individuals to effect anything more than small-scale resistance to The Way Things Are.
Certainly there is space within literature for these sorts of stories, but they are rather against the grain of American literature in general and genre literature in particular, noir notably excepted.
I am also aware that a) this limits my audience, and b) explains some of why I am slow and blocky a lot. I suppose I could write a sprawling multicharacter epic about something-or-other someday, but I wouldn't count on it.
Last night I had an insight into some of my struggles with fiction (and genre fiction in particular). Basically, it comes down to the fact that fundamentally. I do not believe in the efficacy of individual action to change things on a large scale. I am a collectivist, at least in a political sense. (An egalitarian collectivist, thx.) In fact, I noticed last night that my stories are often to one degree or another about the inability of individuals to effect anything more than small-scale resistance to The Way Things Are.
Certainly there is space within literature for these sorts of stories, but they are rather against the grain of American literature in general and genre literature in particular, noir notably excepted.
I am also aware that a) this limits my audience, and b) explains some of why I am slow and blocky a lot. I suppose I could write a sprawling multicharacter epic about something-or-other someday, but I wouldn't count on it.
