Are the women so unloved? Are the men so lonely?
Is that why the bestselling novel is so popular? The last one I read all the way through was "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo," which was a real chore. The movie was great fun. Fast and furious and exciting. It had everything a popular movie should have.
But the novel was full of exposition, meaning it was mostly telling, not showing. It was slow and difficult to slog through. I would estimate that 80% of it was boring back-story. You know, how all this began, what the character was thinking years ago, old dry information, an interpretation so the reader doesn't have to think. Explanation without action. Like reading an encyclopedia.
Good novels don't have any of this. Good writing trusts the reader. Good writing is full of imagery and meaningful details, so the reader can picture what's going on and figure out what it means.
Why do many readers seem to prefer bad writing? Why would people rather read trash?
The answer, I believe, lies in the power of escape.
Most people don't want to think. They don't want insight into the human condition. They don't want to face themselves or face people like themselves. They want to pretend to be James Bond, or, in the case of the Dragon Tattoo books, they want to admire and sympathize with Lisbeth Salander and pretend to be Mikael Blomkvist. Or vice versa.
The popular novel, I believe, is not very different from the medieval romance, in which a knight in shining armor charges bravely into a dark cave to fight a dragon and rescue a princess.
As Michael Ondaatje says, "There is nothing more seductive to a man than a woman in distress.”
Years ago, the bestseller lists included "Presumed Innocent" by Scott Turow, an exceptionally well written popular novel. The story was much like the medieval romance, only instead of a dark cave the hero ventured into the inner city. Instead of a dragon there were black men with guns and various criminals. Instead of being a knight in shining armor, the hero was a middle-class white lawyer.
You get the idea. The hero represented the reader, who could identify with the hero and pretend to be him.
In the Dragon Tattoo books, the "knight" is a crusading reporter. The "dragons" are heartless, greedy rich men, and one of them is also a vicious serial killer.
The power of escape. We become that knight in shining armor. We fight the dragon, and we risk our lives, at least in fantasy, to do the right thing.
And when we finish the fantasy, we don't want to return to our humdrum lives. We want to go on living the thrilling life of the knight in shining armor.
After I finished reading the first Dragon Tattoo book, I had profoundly mixed feelings. On the one hand, I couldn't wait to read something good, something without all that boring exposition. On the other hand, I wanted to keep living the fantasy. I didn't want to return to my own life.
It was a strange feeling, and I fought it for about two weeks, when it finally went away. Even I was susceptible. Even I, who hates to read trash, wanted to buy the next two books and keep on being Mikael and saving Lisbeth or having her save me.
Well, guess what? I finally did it. I finally gave in and bought the books, back when I wanted to research bestsellers and learn from them. But I've got them now, and I plan to read them. Just hope I can eventually return to real life and good literature.
Wish me luck.
I'll need it.
It's hard to resist the power of escape.
Copyright 2011, Roger R. Angle
3 comments:
Thats why I read that stuff and not very often. Most of my reading is philosophy and sometimes it gets pretty boring but I enjoy it and it keeps the gears moving. Sometimes I need to get away and you had talked about the tattoo book so I got all three but they only let me escape for a few days as they are fast reading but it was a nice break. Anyway just enjoy and don't try to make them great literature because they never will be and they will probably be forgotten in the near future. As you said don't try to escape just enjoy life but you can take a short break.
Roger, you just keep asking questions and I need some answers as I already have plenty of questions.
But dude, that's my job, to raise questions. I'll you know if I find any answers.
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