Read on Twitter
"Well-written" and "deep literature" often hold hands but I don't think they're the same thing at all. The frothiest of rom-coms or thrillers can (and should?) do lovely things with language and form and character development. https://twitter.com/MeanieMary/status/1335599368360108033
I mean, what is "deep literature"? It's subjective, right? I think it's about scale.
Well-written novels change individual readers—many will enjoy them, and to some, they'll be formative in deeply important ways.
Important novels— "deep literature"— change the form, the world, the culture in deeply important ways.
Important novels— "deep literature"— change the form, the world, the culture in deeply important ways.
Saying that something isn't deep literature doesn't take away its importance to the individual. I might be deeply moved and changed by a, I don't know, a cereal commercial. It doesn't make the cereal commercial great, but it doesn't take away its effect on me either.
Likewise, a piece of "deep literature" might leave me personally cold, but it earned its subjective place by changing the greater culture at some point. It doesn't mean I have to like it. It doesn't have to even mean it's good. Or still relevant.
Really, when I give myself the talking-to about not taking myself seriously, it's me reminding myself that my goal is always to inspire and entertain the individual, and any bigger impact my work might have is incidental.
Is this the correct priority for writing? No, because everybody writes for different reasons. But my goal has never been the Great American Novel, it's been great American novels. Which means preciousness on my part while writing only hinders rather than spurs me.
*correct priority for all writing
It doesn't mean I'm not going to try to write as well as possible, using all the tools I have learned and am still learning. But at the end of the day, story and character have to be the carrot for me, not the hope of creating some exemplar novel that breaks the form.
/fin
/fin
(P.S. and let's be real, my last published novel had a floating cow in it and that is THE LEAST OF MY LITERARY CRIMES)
