Tuesday, November 10, 2009

not saying only nice things

does anyone else have the feeling that one of the main injuries (to writers and readers) and stupidities (by writers and readers) inherent in the world of online literature, both lit mags and books coming from small, independent presses, is a lack of real criticism? almost every blog i read, every review i read of a new book from a small press, praises the work as if ready to canonize it (there are exceptions, but on the whole, this praising happens a lot). my problem with this: these books can't all be great, right? i mean, if we look back through history, there are so so few greats (whatever a "great" might be). yet it seems like every other week a new book is pedestaled up into the cloudy and merciful land of the beauties proven through time. so, unless the work shuts me up and makes me say only niceness and blue skys at it, i sort of want to start saying things, critiquey things, but not real critiques either because i'm not a critic and have no desire to be. my friend had this idea for a website called "Not One Nice Word," and the place would act as a kind of workshop. so so good. i'd like to apply this to stuff already published, stuff out there in the world that has been blindly praised and not really critiqued, but i don't know, it just seems like a terrible move. once i began thinking of this, i began thinking of the books i've read recently i would like to "critique." there are three: Paul Yoon's Once the Shore, Mary Miller's Big World, and Brian Evenson's Last Days. i liked each of these books, but then i kept thinking about the things which didn't work in the books, lines that were facile, plots that were contrived, an absence of emotional resonance (i just said "emotional resonance," fuck). now though, as if i'm about to actually critique one of these things, i don't feel i can or want to, because inherent in the critique is the ostracizing that comes next, right? i mean, everything i've read about each of these books is so completely positive and geared toward the "mind blowing" that i don't really know if i want to engage in something that looks vaguely like a critique rather than a long blurb or plug. this isn't to say that i want to rip on stuff to rip on stuff. the above books are beauties, in there own ways, but also flawed, and the flaws seem to be like air to people, there and taken in but not noticed or cared about. i don't know. everyone talks so much stuff about how writers have to push through, use language new, find that other ground, that other land, some art that wasn't or hadn't been art; i want to say that without real, honest looking-on of such stuff, no pushing, no newness can happen. maybe there'll be something like a critique coming. maybe i'm just reading the wrong websites.

7 comments:

J.W. Wang said...

I'm not feeling at all articulate or verbose at the moment, just want to say: I agree. The online writing community is very warm and encouraging, but the flip side is often it does feel like amateur workshops where people offer only effusive praise. That's not to say the praise is disingenuous; in fact I get the sense all that praise is actually quite genuine, and that's the problem. We are stuck in this mindset of trying to offer support to each other, and there just isn't much critiquing going on. Part of the issue, I think, is that it's a community where everyone knows everyone else, and everyone's a writer and possibly also an editor, so generally we are behooved to be pleasant to each other, lest we piss off a wrong person we may run into down the road. Add to that the fact that anything we say online 1) spreads instantly, 2) is viewable by the whole world, and 3) is on permanent record, and I don't see how the dynamic will really change.

You know how we REALLY get into how we feel after workshop, in private conversations at the bar or at a friend's house, something you share with a private few? We just don't have that kind of privacy here. We're speaking with megaphones (thank you, George Saunders), and so largely resort to bland platitudes.

Anyway, sorry I couldn't offer a solution. And apparently I'm more verbose-on-demand than I thought I'd be.

alan rossi said...

"Part of the issue, I think, is that it's a community where everyone knows everyone else, and everyone's a writer and possibly also an editor, so generally we are behooved to be pleasant to each other, lest we piss off a wrong person we may run into down the road."

yes, this is exactly it. and i don't know how to solve it, either. except, i think, at some point, someone's going to have step up and just say, nevermind the game, i'm going to critique stuff, really critique it, the good along with the bad. i feel like it's a major thing that's missing from the online, indie lit world. i wonder where/when it'll happen.

pr said...

I'm in complete agreement. Great post. I will add that as egregious an issue as this in the online world, it is also a problem with older, established venues. It's called "politics".

Run Big said...

If your friend starts "Not One Nice Word" I will join. Maybe that's the only solution--create a space for those who want, and are willing to submit to, honest critique. I think another problem is that you really have to know what you're talking about in order to critique something in a way that does justice to the writer &/or story. Honest critique takes way more thought, effort, courage, and compassion than praise. It's an issue of how much readers are willing to invest, finally, or so it seems to me...

alan rossi said...

paula, yeah, definitely happens with more mainstream venues as well. i guess that doesn't make me as sad though, for whatever reason. like we should be taking this into our own hands or something.

what up lindsay. and yeah, agreed. the problem with a good critique (or not problem, but like difficulty) is that it takes work to actually do a write a good one, to make the thing just as wonderful as a storyetc. i guess we'd all rather be making the thing rather than making the thing that talks about the thing. i don't know why i let myself write sentences like that.

alan rossi said...

kill that "do a" in the second sentence there. man.

Unknown said...

That's what's happened with the focus on best sellers versus really good writing.