Why is your writing so violent?
May 9, 2017 11:57 AM Subscribe
I think it was just a misunderstanding. They were only inquiring about the amount of music... "Willst du ein bisschen musik, oder dem Totaler Grieg?"
posted by DreamerFi at 12:44 PM on May 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by DreamerFi at 12:44 PM on May 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
One of the interesting things about feminism overall is that it works with two very different impulses which exist within women - lets call them the aggressive and the collaborative impulses. These are human impulses - near as I can tell all humans have them, and arguably most mammals - but depending on how one is perceived, one's expression of them is interpreted very differently.
The aggressive impulse is lionized and centered by and large, unless one is perceived as female and then one is somehow diseased or deformed. The collaborative impulses are discounted, considered unworthy of resources or attention, seen as signs of weakness and a reason for power to be removed from the person even if one is perceived as female, however people perceived as female are expected to identify with and embody those impulses.
Feminism has tried to act along two different axes - to encourage people perceived as female to accept and embrace our aggressive impulses, and to encourage all people to value the collaborative impulses more. These two axes sometimes reinforce each other and sometimes work at cross purposes, causing a lot of discord within feminism as women attempt to both gain power to accomplish things using the established method (aggression) while attempting to upset the central role of aggression in society at large.
I'm surprised at her apparent restraint. If people kept asking me why I kept insisting on writing about things that exist and if this was indicative of childhood trauma, I'd be hard pressed to remain polite.
posted by Deoridhe at 4:00 PM on May 9, 2017 [13 favorites]
The aggressive impulse is lionized and centered by and large, unless one is perceived as female and then one is somehow diseased or deformed. The collaborative impulses are discounted, considered unworthy of resources or attention, seen as signs of weakness and a reason for power to be removed from the person even if one is perceived as female, however people perceived as female are expected to identify with and embody those impulses.
Feminism has tried to act along two different axes - to encourage people perceived as female to accept and embrace our aggressive impulses, and to encourage all people to value the collaborative impulses more. These two axes sometimes reinforce each other and sometimes work at cross purposes, causing a lot of discord within feminism as women attempt to both gain power to accomplish things using the established method (aggression) while attempting to upset the central role of aggression in society at large.
I'm surprised at her apparent restraint. If people kept asking me why I kept insisting on writing about things that exist and if this was indicative of childhood trauma, I'd be hard pressed to remain polite.
posted by Deoridhe at 4:00 PM on May 9, 2017 [13 favorites]
''Would you ask that question of a male writer,''
Yes. Though in many cases, my assumption is crass commercialism, whether Stieg Larsson or Patricia Cornwell, therefore I would have no reason to ask. I suppose a John Irving or one of that ilk might be a JCO comparable, and I've wondered at times what's going on in his head.
posted by IndigoJones at 5:13 PM on May 9, 2017
Yes. Though in many cases, my assumption is crass commercialism, whether Stieg Larsson or Patricia Cornwell, therefore I would have no reason to ask. I suppose a John Irving or one of that ilk might be a JCO comparable, and I've wondered at times what's going on in his head.
posted by IndigoJones at 5:13 PM on May 9, 2017
My impression is that all horror writers get asked some version of that question. Why are you writing things that make people feel disgusted and/or frightened? I've only read a little Oates, but I seem to recall a zombie story which would be in that category.
On the other hand, I doubt that Lee Child (author of the Jack Reacher books) gets asked that question.
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 7:07 AM on May 10, 2017 [1 favorite]
On the other hand, I doubt that Lee Child (author of the Jack Reacher books) gets asked that question.
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 7:07 AM on May 10, 2017 [1 favorite]
the manifold curse of psychoanalysis: the assumption that the grounds of discontent, anger, rage, despair - ''unhappiness'' in general - reside within the sufferer rather than outside of him.
This is an awful, consumerist approach to Frued. She's not wrong, I think, and in writing, this issue ends up having to be confronted one way or another. Otherwise you end up with nothing more than a projection of the self. Which is what lay-people tend to think our finest fiction writers do.
Anyone familiar with her body of work would know, with certainty, that she couldn't have lived all that she's convincingly written about. Maybe it's just too much faith that fiction writers are a different breed.
Oates is easily one of the US's finest. She hasn't received the kind of accolades she deserves. And I'm grateful I didn't miss this post. I almost mistook it for another political thread.
posted by Strange_Robinson at 8:09 AM on May 10, 2017
This is an awful, consumerist approach to Frued. She's not wrong, I think, and in writing, this issue ends up having to be confronted one way or another. Otherwise you end up with nothing more than a projection of the self. Which is what lay-people tend to think our finest fiction writers do.
Anyone familiar with her body of work would know, with certainty, that she couldn't have lived all that she's convincingly written about. Maybe it's just too much faith that fiction writers are a different breed.
Oates is easily one of the US's finest. She hasn't received the kind of accolades she deserves. And I'm grateful I didn't miss this post. I almost mistook it for another political thread.
posted by Strange_Robinson at 8:09 AM on May 10, 2017
Love this:
Occasionally, however, a woman writer is told gravely, ''You write like a man.'' Since this is the highest accolade, presented as a judgment from above and closed to any further discussion, it would be impolite to ask, ''Which man? Any man? You?''
posted by tuesdayschild at 11:59 AM on May 10, 2017 [3 favorites]
Occasionally, however, a woman writer is told gravely, ''You write like a man.'' Since this is the highest accolade, presented as a judgment from above and closed to any further discussion, it would be impolite to ask, ''Which man? Any man? You?''
posted by tuesdayschild at 11:59 AM on May 10, 2017 [3 favorites]
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posted by Cozybee at 11:58 AM on May 9, 2017 [10 favorites]