Oh Please...

[shipperx]

ONTD has a front page article whining about adults reading YA fiction like "The Fault in Our Stars."

I've seen rants like this before and they always boil down to self-important, pretentious whinging.

Read whatever the hell you want.

Frankly, when I read rants like that I wonder what kind of insecurity the person has about themselves that they make an issue out of what they are reading -- much less what else is.  It's like they feel that there is (or should be) some sort of checklist they have to meet to be 'acceptable.'

Are they trying to impress someone?  Are they trying to pat themselves on the back?   If they read something that's for pure entertainment it's embarrassing or something?  You should spend all your free time reading Kafka?  Even if you've had a hard day at work, you should be reading Dostoevsky?

Why should anyone care?

I wonder whether such ranters are either young or pretentious. (It's ONTD so I think there's a fair amount of overlap in the potential Venn diagram for that).

Seriously, guys, once you graduate no one on earth cares what you read but you (and if you're reading for entertainment at all, you're in a statistical minority these days).   Read whatever you want for whatever reason that you want. Read high brow.  Read low brow.  Read crap.  Read classics.  Read YA. Read genre.  Read comics.  Read lit.  Read best sellers.   No one cares.

Read whatever entertains your whims and interests.  Your summer reading list isn't going to be engraved on your tombstone no matter how impressive (or not) or edifying (or not) you think it might be.

Talk about stupid, frivolous things for people to criticize in others.

Comments

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

I think that's the problem with a lot of negative reviews and book rants - is people cross the line from stating why they didn't like something to oh, ghod, how can anyone read this piece of crap - they must be stupid or ignorant or whatever.

When writing a negative review, snark or a rant, you (generally speaking) have to be careful not to demean, criticize, or insult the people who are enjoying the books or tv shows or movies. Because you really don't know why they are enjoying them. Or what they are focusing on. It all goes back to that discussion we had about how differently people think or read or perceive things? Just because it seems horrible to you, doesn't mean it does someone else. I have to keep reminding myself of that - whenever I run into someone who loved The Twilight series. I don't get it. But does it matter? They loved it. And often it wasn't for the reasons I'd think.

50 Shades is actually what made me aware of that. I enjoyed the book, but I read it differently than everyone else did. I read it as a satire of the new adult genre. The whole contract bit in the beginning was hilarious - but I also negotiate and write contracts for a living. Everyone else focused on the silly sex scenes, the repetitive bits, and the whole inner goddess. While I was focusing on the absurdity - and finding it highly amusing. So, it really does depend on what you focused on, your mood when you were reading it, what you read last, what was happening in your life at the time, and what you do for a living. All those things come into play.

So when you write a rant or a review - you need, I think, to be careful to take all of that into account, and not project your dislike of the book onto others. ie. Respect the people who enjoyed it, don't belittle them or make them feel inferior. Which is easier said than done. It's a mistake I've admittedly made at times - with the aforesaid Twilight series.