KEEPING UP
I often read a rave review for something that I thought was poorly executed or out-and-out badly done and wind up scratching my head and thinking: “Huh. People think this is good. Did I miss something? Is there something wrong with me? Or is there something wrong with them?”
I admit I'm out of touch. Proudly so. I live under a rock, and sometimes it’s like I had to fight to get here.
I deliberately ignore a lot of things, because the struggle to keep up strikes me as a losing game. Are the TV shows this year that much better than the TV shows last year? If watching TV or going to the movies only agitates, discomforts, depresses and/or angers me, should I really feel required to take part in it? But by not doing so, am I doing myself a disservice?
Does living under a rock do me damage in so much as I want to be a popular writer? Is there a certain expectation of media saviness readers expect? Pop culture is the lingua franca of our times. Two absolute strangers can meet and have a deeply, emotionally charged conversation from the first sentence, if they both like the same show.
This isn't an anti-TV/Pop culture tirade. I don't currently own a television and might get one again in the future. But without one, there's a feeling of being at best untethered, at worst, someone's mentally defective backwood’s cousin. It's like being an American older than the age of 25 and not knowing how to drive (or not watching sports even when your hometown baseball team is in the Superbowl or whatever they call it).
With movies, it's the same. I have not been inside a movie theater (Metropolis, two weeks ago was the first time I came even close) since the opening weekend of V for Vendetta. The amount of entertainment for my dollar is slim, especially when compared to the discomfort I experience being in a large dark room full of strangers and being alternately pandered to, titillated, and bullied.
Am I simply getting old?
If I want to get in with the new readership and a future audience, shouldn't I better have some idea what they might enjoy? How about that blessed shibboleth of “knowing the genre” that gets touted about in writing workshops? My patience for work that I find poorly done is slight. If “knowing the genre” equals “disliking the genre”, then is it really constructive to read deeply in it? Wouldn't I be better served just following my interests? Right now, I am in love with pre-twentieth century supernatural fiction. I'm rereading Frankenstein and marking my place with my Mary Shelley bookmark. I might not read a book published later than 1920 for the whole month of October. Would this be a bad thing?
On the other hand, I don't want to become one of those folks who cling to such a narrow set of authors that they are practically blind to the realities of the marketplace, let alone the amount of good work going on out there. They remind me of Il Maestro, my friend from art school, who paints nothing but classical scenes and biblical pictures, and refuses to branch out beyond them while complaining about the state of the current art world. Is that any different from someone who wants George RR Martin fantasy, all day, every day and complains about the stories in Strange Horizons?
I would like to think that there is an audience for my work. Granted, I fully expect that audience is either sniffing glue or high on ‘shrooms right now; but still, those people are “my people”. We're simpatico... even though they might not be likely to buy books that often. :(
I doubt I’ll change; but I do wonder how much one is expected to take part in contemporary pop culture if they hope to have any relevancy to the future.
I admit I'm out of touch. Proudly so. I live under a rock, and sometimes it’s like I had to fight to get here.
I deliberately ignore a lot of things, because the struggle to keep up strikes me as a losing game. Are the TV shows this year that much better than the TV shows last year? If watching TV or going to the movies only agitates, discomforts, depresses and/or angers me, should I really feel required to take part in it? But by not doing so, am I doing myself a disservice?
Does living under a rock do me damage in so much as I want to be a popular writer? Is there a certain expectation of media saviness readers expect? Pop culture is the lingua franca of our times. Two absolute strangers can meet and have a deeply, emotionally charged conversation from the first sentence, if they both like the same show.
This isn't an anti-TV/Pop culture tirade. I don't currently own a television and might get one again in the future. But without one, there's a feeling of being at best untethered, at worst, someone's mentally defective backwood’s cousin. It's like being an American older than the age of 25 and not knowing how to drive (or not watching sports even when your hometown baseball team is in the Superbowl or whatever they call it).
With movies, it's the same. I have not been inside a movie theater (Metropolis, two weeks ago was the first time I came even close) since the opening weekend of V for Vendetta. The amount of entertainment for my dollar is slim, especially when compared to the discomfort I experience being in a large dark room full of strangers and being alternately pandered to, titillated, and bullied.
Am I simply getting old?
If I want to get in with the new readership and a future audience, shouldn't I better have some idea what they might enjoy? How about that blessed shibboleth of “knowing the genre” that gets touted about in writing workshops? My patience for work that I find poorly done is slight. If “knowing the genre” equals “disliking the genre”, then is it really constructive to read deeply in it? Wouldn't I be better served just following my interests? Right now, I am in love with pre-twentieth century supernatural fiction. I'm rereading Frankenstein and marking my place with my Mary Shelley bookmark. I might not read a book published later than 1920 for the whole month of October. Would this be a bad thing?
On the other hand, I don't want to become one of those folks who cling to such a narrow set of authors that they are practically blind to the realities of the marketplace, let alone the amount of good work going on out there. They remind me of Il Maestro, my friend from art school, who paints nothing but classical scenes and biblical pictures, and refuses to branch out beyond them while complaining about the state of the current art world. Is that any different from someone who wants George RR Martin fantasy, all day, every day and complains about the stories in Strange Horizons?
I would like to think that there is an audience for my work. Granted, I fully expect that audience is either sniffing glue or high on ‘shrooms right now; but still, those people are “my people”. We're simpatico... even though they might not be likely to buy books that often. :(
I doubt I’ll change; but I do wonder how much one is expected to take part in contemporary pop culture if they hope to have any relevancy to the future.