Reflections of bad writing
19 Jun 2011 Leave a Comment
in Sort of a review, Thinking aloud
A few months ago, a creative writers’ club I joined (and never attended the meetings of, oops, time to fix that in semester two) was going to have a discussion on bad writing, and what it is. At that time, I was still planning on going to attend the meeting, and I was hence thinking about it — but at that time, I didn’t really seem to have any opinion on the matter. Over this weekend, my opinion has sort of solidified, and I want to share it with you guys. This post is going to be really long, because the issue I’m talking about is a bit convoluted, and the argument will most likely be unfinished and lacking in “the other side.” I’m probably going to write another post addressing this side as well. Anyway. Let’s go~
I recently re-discovered (or remembered, with simultaneous amusement and a sinking feeling) the Maradonia Saga once again. The idea behind this one is that the author triumphantly claims herself the World’s (though if I remember correctly, that word was lacking an apostrophe the last time I saw it) Youngest Author, having begun writing her first book “at the ripe age of ten” and then having been (self-)published at the age of thirteen. Among her other astonishing achievements are her ability to read “up to five different books in a week,” and to relentlessly create user profiles on various sites to praise and publicise herself. What I wonder is that why Ms Tesch, since numbers seem so very important to her, is not the World’s Youngest Mathematician instead.
In all seriousness, I haven’t read her books, nor do I have any intention to. Once upon a time, when I first discovered the Maradonia saga and my head stopped trying to implode, there was an excerpt of the first book on her website. Since then, I suppose she’s discovered that showing people what they’re purchasing probably hinders her sales, so she’s taken it down. If you want at least some indication of her writing, check this post here. I also remember that the books were significantly higher in price back then, so that probably gives you some indication for how all of this has been going for her. In short, and using Stephen King’s controversial words (though meant for another; I’m sure you know about this controversy): “she can’t write worth a darn.” But what’s even more than that, her ego is the size of a castle and she seems to have permanently moved to make-believe land, making websites for the production of a movie based on her series, and just generally pretending to be A Really Big Thing, healthily ignoring any criticism and countering it with the most aggressive, bad-mouthed comments (you might need to read the post above the comment to get the full context of the story).
So basically, she’s just like every other teenager ever, except that she has a specific hobby and her parents appear to have enough money to support her flights of fancy. One could perhaps even venture to say that she’s almost like every young writer ever — the only criticism she could have received on her writerly doodlings were from family and friends, meaning, of course, that she didn’t. Come on, every writer who’s sometimes had the fancy to publish and has researched it a bit has heard the advice: have someone outside your immediate circle read it, because those around you can’t take an objective stance to it. It’s just natural that Gloria thinks herself oh-so-brilliant — in a manner of speaking, in her small world, she is.
Of course, she’s in the wrong in trying to lie to her potential readers and customers with orchestrated pictures like this, and with claiming that there’s going to be a movie or that she was made an offer for a movie that clearly will never exist. But what I’m, as always, baffled about is the community’s response to this. Sure, I can’t really speak for myself, because I was fuming about it for weeks afterward and I still use the Maradonia saga to poke fun at when I’m overcome with my own, inevitable sense of entitlement, but… still. The response that arose from Gloria’s fantasy life made public was for the internet to call “bullshit”, but since pretty much everyone who had any interest in the issue were young writers ourselves, pissed about the prospect of this little kid putting no apparent work into her writing and then claiming to have been published and, essentially, implying herself the Best Writer Ever, the response was a bit more eloquent than what 4chan can achieve. We’ve been poking fun at her, tearing apart the little bit of text we got, and posting blog posts like this one about her.
What this points out, irrevocably, is that writers don’t understand what should be the first rule of the internet: Thou Shalt Not Feed the Troll.
Of course, we’re in the right. I don’t know anyone in my age group (late teenages, if someone had forgotten) who is an avid creative writer and who hasn’t been writing at least since the age of ten; we’re every bit as good as her (at least by her own measure; I’m not going to comment on any others), we know that there are millions of other people who are just as good as her, and we’re hurting that she, of all people, gives us such bad rep and tries to represent herself as something she is not. We’re fuming because, once again, some asshole brings herself to the spotlight and the people who really love what they do, the ones who really are important and who will always strive to improve, are left overshadowed by douchebaggery.
That’s fine. But I wonder, how much more quickly would Maradonia have been wiped from the face of the Earth if we had had the good sense to just look at it, have a good laugh and walk away? I suppose it was inevitable that someone point out how wrong she is, but… It’s a bit iffy. It’s the similar sort of knee-jerk hate response you see toward anyone who is inexperienced and gets published out of the blue, and whose work is perhaps not quite down to pat just yet. For more examples, see the hatred toward Stephenie Meyer, J.K. Rowling etc. There are perfectly valid reasons to criticise people’s work, but there is no real need to make it a sort of organised hatred the wide-spread dislike of some books and some authors appears to become.
This, too, makes me wonder: we hate on Gloria Tesch because of her misplaced sense of entitlement, but is our hatred toward her so strong only because in her, we see (though perhaps amplified into ugly proportions) echoes of our OWN entitlement, and our disappointment for doing exactly or more than she is doing, and for not getting nearly the same recognition?
Or perhaps I can only speak for myself.
Thoughtfulness and jellybeans and procrastination from studying for exams, everybody.
