When does good fiction become pulp fiction?

[HarryT]

Hi Steven,

I have to say that I disagree with your point of view. Writing is not some "higher calling" - it's a job, like any other, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with writing for money, in order to pay the mortgage, and put food on the table, any more than it's "wrong" to do any other job for money. I used to write textbooks, and those were straight commercial jobs - a fixed price contract to do the job.

People who write for money aren't worse writers because of it. Would you think that a plumber who fixes your leaking pipe and charges you for it is a worse plumber than someone who fixes your pipe for love of fixing leaks?

I would say, in fact, that someone who writes for money has to be a better writer, generally speaking, than someone who writes as a hobby. If a hobbyist writes a bad book, he doesn't suffer any damage other than perhaps to his pride. If a professional author writes a bad book, he suffers from it financially.

[dadioflex]

Edit.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by HarryT

People who write for money aren't worse writers because of it. Would you think that a plumber who fixes your leaking pipe and charges you for it is a worse plumber than someone who fixes your pipe for love of fixing leaks?

Well, yes, normally that is the case. You notice that all the time. I notice it mostly in programming were people that really love to program are much better programmers than the ones that are motivated by money.

[Dusty Bottoms]

Originally Posted by dadioflex

Must say, I don't normally do this but I agree with the last paragraph of Moejoe's epic rant.

But, seeing as I like Subway and HP Sauce, it's fine by me.

If Steinbeck was alive today he'd be writing for HBO. What's the problem?

*Doubtful, highly doubtful. Even though I must admit HBO is about the only television produced anywhere in the world that is actually worth watching any more, still, Steinbeck wouldn't write for them. His greatest works were motivated by a sense of injustice born out of his experiences during the great depression and a passionate desire to communicate that injustice to the rest of the world. He was not just a storyteller, he was a social commentator, a journalist and a crusader (no wonder he associated himself with the Arthurian legends). His motivation, as far as my study of his life allows me to understand, was never money, but a sense of indignation at suffering under oppression (Grapes of Wrath) and interest in the human animal within a social setting (Cannery Row).

The decline of fiction mirrors the decline of mass culture almost perfectly. As mass consumption increased (a by-product of technological innovations and the increase in advertising) the level of comprehension needed to understand that work receded.. Compare the best-selling books pre 80's and post 80's and you'll see the radical shift away from intelligent and passionate adult writing towards the corporate, series based, genre specific, youth-focused tales that dominate most fiction now. It's not an undocumented shift either, as far back as the early 80's Barry Norman, the English film critic, coined the term 'juvenilisation' in relation to the works, and the audience expectation, of cinema in the post Star Wars, new merchandising age. Cinema shifted radically away from the gritty, adult orientated focus that had dominated in the 1960's-70's and turned, over the 80's and 90's, into a child-focused, special-effects laden, market tested experience we see today. In part this was due to corporate consolidation and the 80's drive toward profit as the be-all and end-all, but also in part to the Baby-Boomer generation abandoning the hopes and dreams of the 60's in favour of a more selfish outlook.

No surprise then, that we saw in this same period a rise in conservative values, censorship and the so called 'family safe' notions that reduced cinema, along with fiction and other forms of entertainment, to a castrated, PG-13 mess that would never challenge, nor engage the audience in any substantial way. Steinbeck's devastatingly human and ambiguous ending to the Grapes of Wrath would not pass muster with the modern, corporate publisher for fear that the 'audience wouldn't understand' or that it wouldn't 'sell enough'. The modern publisher would more than likely need Tom Joad to appear in a series of endless sequels where crime is fought and the status-quo is restored by the time the credits roll, and 'The End' is written on the page.

So then, as a culture the bottom-line is now sales, not meaning or cultural importance, not literary merit or innovation. The best-sellers of earlier years, the lengthy, time-consuming, individual stories of creators are replaced by rehashes, re-imaginings and novelizations of movies inspired by the comic book of a toy. Fiction that is written by ghosts for celebrities so paper thin in intelligence that they too might also be considered ghosts. The baby-boomer notion of profit-above-all is so engrained that anything that doesn't sell is considered illegitimate and abandoned by publishers without any of the nurturing that occurred with publisher/editor/author beforehand. We are left with a culture where adults read children's books that children don't read, and defend that simplistic fairytale world with venom. A world where all the men-children buy statues of comic-book heroes and attend conventions dressed in costumes that will soon lead to a generation of embarrassed children. Fan fiction written about fiction that is another form of fan fiction, only with the names changed.

But, saying all that, I'll add that my concerns may be short-lived. The torrent of childish, youth-focused, marketed to death, bland pabulum that spews forth every year from the content industries and now the independents (you broke my heart with that one, independent creators) will eventually make the younger generations sick to the stomach (if it isn't already). No, we won't see another Steinbeck soon, but it might come eventually, when the last of the baby-boomers is dead and they realise you can't line a coffin with dollar bills, nor make art on the bottom line.

*The views expressed in this lengthy tirade are that of my alter-ego, Moejoe. Any resemblance to Moejoe is purely coincidental and also completely understandable. If you would like to print these views on a t-shirt, please seek medical advice immediately and make sure the straps on the jacket are fixed tightly. Moejoe is not property of the Monsanto Corporation, nor can he be used to grow crops. Use Moejoe sparingly.

[Greg Anos]

I agree with DB (mostly - I mean, nobody ever agrees with anybody else 100%, except a mirror). That's why my reading list is pretty exclusively, pre 80's (in fiction). And there was a lot to read from that era.

[Steven Lake]

Wow, tompe for the win! I think he just summarized it better than I've been able to describe it. Which is ironic given how much tech writing I do, and the amount of explaining that comes with that. And I fully agree with him. In the places where people do their work because they love it, they do a much better job than those who are only in it for the money.

Yes, HarryT, I understand that it's just viewed as a product these days, but just like any artisan or craftsman, you either do it strictly for the money, or because you love what you do. So people who do it because they love it will always produce better quality stuff. Once you stop loving what you're doing, your quality goes down. And if you never really loved it to begin with, your quality will not be there in the first place.

It's one of the reasons why I keep trying to come up with new ideas, fresh stories, unique characters, etc to keep each new book fresh. Yes, I have a few commonly recurring character types (the jerkwad jack*** for one) which I think work well in quite a number of my books, but I in turn try to make each of them unique, even if their personality type is somewhat cliche. And no, I don't think this is some higher calling. But you still should love what you do.

But I guess if some people want to see a book as nothing more than a bunch of words slapped together to create a story, then so be it. To me, when I read a book, these worlds literally come alive. And if a book is poorly written, at least to me anyways, it becomes worse than a visit to the dentist.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Steven Lake

Yes, HarryT, I understand that it's just viewed as a product these days, but just like any artisan or craftsman, you either do it strictly for the money, or because you love what you do. So people who do it because they love it will always produce better quality stuff.

I must respectfully disagree with you there, I'm afraid. An equally strong motive to produce a good quality product can be to be successful in the marketplace and hence make more money. That is the basis on which most commercial businesses operate.

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by MV64

Like romance books? Working at a bookstore it drives me up a wall how cookie cutter those are. Even the titles are all copied from each other, just switching out a word or two. I can only imagine that the plots are similarly "updated."

Well, you're insulting a genre only because of covers or titles, without having read anything. A very good founded review, that's right.

[Steven Lake]

HarryT: Ok, we'll agree to disagree. ^_^