For the writer with many haters, consider "Should Writers Respond to Their Critics?" James Parker's take is witty and soothing.
Even the bad writer can laugh last and sit upon her mountain of money.
Even the bad writer can laugh last and sit upon her mountain of money.
But it is very good advice for how to respond to criticism, in general. As Zoë Heller concludes: "There will be other books, other nasty critics, and with them, a myriad of other opportunities to maintain a dignified silence."
This is so good. Yes, I agree that the best way to respond to mean critics is with dignified silence. I read all the Twilight books when I was a teen, I was totally obsessed with it and even got them signed by her. But as I got older I became sort of revolted by them, and all the negative criticism of her books made me dislike them even more so. I was disillusioned and mortified that I ever liked them. Looking back on it, I'm glad that Stephenie Meyer wrote those books. Even though they're not that good, not that creative, and essentially the preteen addition of Fifty Shades of Grey, I had a lot of fun reading them at the time. There are a lot of really basic guys movies that fulfill their girl fantasies like Jennifer's Body for example, so it seems only fair for there to be a series that fulfills all the girl's most basic guy fantasies, if that makes any sense. Sorry if this comment was long. XD
ReplyDeleteThe comment is not at all too long!
ReplyDeleteI also have had that shameful feeling about literature I adored when I was a tween (Regency romances, cough cough, mousy girl gets swept off her feet by dashing guy) but then I realized why should I be embarrassed of a genre that encouraged me to read?