Am I the Asshole For Being Sick to Death of All the Mediocre Speculative Fiction Out There?

Hello there, dear friends! It’s once again time for Am I the Literary Asshole?, the advice column that’s kind of like your drunk uncle at a wedding who keeps forgetting that he already asked you three different times how school’s going. I’m your host, Kristen Arnett, and I finally finished moving into a new house. I’m still in Orlando, but now there is more room to “work” on my books, which technically means that now there’s a room where my wife can go shut the door when I decide to voice the entirety of my inner monologue aloud. I have a lot of thoughts about Bravo, ok?

But enough of that. The questions today are good! And you know what? I’m pleased as punch to be here! In fact, I’d love a swig of something punch related? Make it feel a little more like a party, and everyone knows I live for those! All you need is a bottle of liquor and a dream.

Let’s dust off the old punch bowl and freeze a ring of frozen fruit to float inside, why the hell not? Ladle a little for me, and then a cup for you, while we sip and catch up on ol’ mail bag:

1) I love… shitty suburban novels? Does this make me an asshole?

Short and to the point, I love it!

But I guess I’m not sure exactly what you mean by the usage of “shitty” here? Shitty as in poorly written? Are you describing the badly behaved people who populate these stories, i.e. shitty characters (morally speaking)? Or are you talking about a very specific period of literature when there were quite a few “suburban” novels populating the landscape? I’m thinking of the Johns specifically here, both Cheever and Updike?

Unless you mean the first consideration—poorly written novels—then I don’t think you need to feel bad about enjoying a style of writing. And even then, so what? Read whatever you like, even if it’s “poorly written.” Unless it was written by AI, then there’s really no need to worry.

Getting back to the suburbs of it all, many people like to read suburban novels, myself included! They are popular for a reason. I am a huge fan of rereading books and quite often list Rick Moody’s The Ice Storm among my yearly retreads. It’s a genuine pleasure to sit down with something that does something neatly and in a deeply enjoyable way.

Mostly I’m of the opinion that if you’re really enjoying the things that you’re reading, then there’s absolutely nothing shitty about it. Perhaps you’re giving yourself a hard time for enjoying work that’s very cis-white-male? But you know what? That’s why there are a million different styles/trends/genres etc. out there. We can read whatever we like, whenever we like. It’s good to mix it up, sure, because how else would we discover new favorites? But enjoying a classic suburban novel? Please, go right ahead!

Let’s dip back into this punch (it’s healthy, it’s got fruit in it) and check out our next letter:

2) There is nothing, and I mean NOTHING that I hate worse than watching a TV show or movie and seeing a “writer” featured. Why? Because it’s never what being a writer is actually like! Does that make me an asshole?

Hello, friend! Thanks for writing in.

I don’t think this makes you an asshole. What you’re describing is a pet peeve. It’s natural to collect these sorts of annoyances in our daily lives, especially if you’re in an artistic profession like writing. Why? Because inevitably this artistic act will be portrayed in a way that vastly differs from your own lived experience.

Sometimes this happens because the person on the other end (whoever wrote the script, a director, production, an actor, etc) assumes they already know everything about craft or simply doesn’t care enough about writing to find out how it actually works in the real world. I think we’ve all seen an episode of something on television and promptly did a spit-take when a character mentioned an insane amount of money they made for writing a book, essay, or even just a listicle (meanwhile we’ve all been offered “exposure” in lieu of payment on multiple occasions).

But I would say the main difference between the real world and tv/movies ultimately boils down to a single word: fantasy. That’s right, it differs from our lived experience because—generally speaking—most people don’t want to watch a four-hour film that’s just someone submitting a short story to a journal’s Submittable account and then waiting three to six months to ultimately receive a form rejection. It’s way more fun to see a character immediately find an agent, for instance, or watch a debut writer who has only written a text message receive a giant check for a debut novel they haven’t even written yet. People want to view the montage; experience the pain in small moments of flashback, pencil gripped in hand, overflowing wastebasket full of dead drafts, then poof! A finished document ready to make a zillion bucks! It’s an illusion, friend.

So yeah, go ahead and enjoy your annoyance! It doesn’t make you an asshole. But also understand that at the end of the day, it doesn’t impact writing or publishing in any real way. Anyone who’s working on draft 432,847,346 of their novel understands that it’s the day-to-day grind that really matters. But hey, it’s nice to dream!

I’m about to sip straight from the punch bowl! How about you join me while we check out our final grievance of the day?

3) Suuuuuper sick of speculative fiction. I guess I already know the answer to this, but does that make me the literary shithead?

Wow, we’ve left asshole territory and have traveled into the realm of literary shitheads! Incredible!

It’s an interesting batch of questions this week, and I think my interest is piqued by all of it simultaneously because people seem to be experiencing a real rash of personal annoyance. Everyone’s truly going through it!

It’s perfectly fine to feel “sick” of speculative fiction. That doesn’t mean speculative fiction is bad or not worth anyone else’s time. It might mean a couple different things for you, personally:

You’ve tried it out and you’ve realized you’re not a fan of it
You’ve read too much of it and now you’re dying to try something different
You’ve read some pretty bad speculative fiction and it’s soured you on the genre

Any of these reasons are perfectly legitimate when it comes to why you might just not be into it any longer. As long as you’re not going around telling everyone that they’re a shithead for liking speculative fiction, then I think you’re doing fine. Simply experience your feelings and go read something that brings you some real pleasure. Might I suggest some shitty suburban novels? You and the caller from question one could form a book club!

And that’s all the time we have for today, folks. Join me next week when we look at more of your problems and I also maybe wear the punch bowl as a stylish hat? All the kids are doing it!

And make sure to send me your questions!!!

Fashionably,
Dad

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Are you worried you’re the literary asshole? Ask Kristen via email at AskKristen@lithub.com, or anonymously here.