Maybe I'm a first-person snob.

[thoth_moon]

As in, I don't typically write (fiction) in the first person, and most--most, though certainly not all--things that I read in the first person, doesn't really impress me.  Mind you, I've read some pieces that were treated in first person and they were excellent.  Walk Two Moons, The Vesuvius Club, and Mary Gentle's Ilario books are a few examples

Comments

[thoth_moon]

I don't really follow what does and doesn't make best sellers. I was actually trying, while initially posting this, to think of some different first-person things I've read so that I could in turn think of some good first-person things to cite even while I made my complaint. It kept slipping my mind that the book I was reading up to earlier this week--long-ass, 900+-page book--is in fact written in first-person. Conversely, I sometimes have to remember that other things I have read, such as some of Faulkner's work, were written in the third-person, despite how very personal, very internal portions may get with specific characters. When things are done well, we sometimes forget how they have been delivered to us--so as you said, in the end it doesn't really matter.

For me that thing that is a first-person irritant but it hard to pinpoint exactly is I think a sense of ... hubris is definitely not the correct word, but a certain arrogance nonetheless, that I often discern from this person telling me everything from their one POV. Pretention or condescension are probably closer words to describing the vibe.