an individual activity

There's something I've been thinking about a lot lately, and yesterday evening I realized I wanted to blog about it. I was thinking about the way - despite them being mass-produced, and often marketed as possessing "something for everyone" - books are art pieces created by individuals for individuals. Authors came from all backgrounds, from all nations and religions and communities, and so do readers. 

Duh, you're thinking. And yes, but...

I was rearranging some books on my shelf last night and, on a whim, pulled out Interview With the Vampire - as I'm wont to do on occasion - and stared dreamily at the cover a moment, remembering the way it felt to read that novel for the first time, and wanting to re-read it - as I'm also wont to do. But this time I opened the cover, and I did start reading, and whether I'll re-read the entire series, I'm not yet sure, but I felt instantly warm and comforted within just the first few pages. 

Reading is still largely an individual activity. Book clubs make it social; Goodreads makes it even more social, and provides an avenue for things to go viral, besides. But when you're reading, it's you and the words on the page, alone. No: it's you and the author on the page. It's your brain conversing with the author's brain, and how closely the two of you view the world is going to impact your enjoyment of the novel. When you read, you're looking at the typed-out insides of another human's imagination; at all the wild and dark little corners they probably don't show to friends and family. The wonderful weirdness that lives inside their heads. Readers ask "Which character is most like you?" And even if an author hasn't done an intentional self-insert, she's still been the voice of the murderer, of the monster, of the wicked, manipulative, clever person you've just spent 400 pages with. 

Our love of books is tiered. We don't love every book in the same way. Sometimes we love a book because of its perfectly-paced plot; for the gorgeousness of its prose; for a character we root for tirelessly. I hate the phrase that I see over and over in book reviews: this book wasn't perfect. Of course it wasn't; it was written by a human being, and humans are imperfect. I roll my eyes when a reviewer says, Well, I would have... Because the author wasn't trying to write a book for BKLVR32. The author was writing the truest, most honest and heartfelt version of what she herself imagined. For a mind like her own, out there in the ether; hoping a stranger would pick up the book and find exactly what she needed in it. Of course others would have done it differently; that's the magic of books: you're getting one person's take on an idea. Other takes exist, and you might like them better, but that's because you as a reader gel with that other author's voice. It doesn't mean the other takes are bad. 

Sometimes you don't care for a book because you and the author aren't on the same wavelength, and that's okay. 

I love vampires as a concept. I always have. I adore Anne Rice's take on them - it's lush, it's full of adverbs, her characters are dramatic, and every single thing about her prose and storytelling tickles my brain in a wonderful way. 

I read Twilight, and it wasn't my thing - but guess what. I get so tired of seeing people bash Stephenie Meyer. Leave her the heck alone. She wrote her own take on vampires, and it really worked for a lot of people. I'm an Anne Rice-vampire kind of girl. An Underworld and Dracula girl. But that's a comment on my personal tastes, and not a slam on others'. I really wish we didn't live in a society that needed to pick "the competition" apart in order to justify what we ourselves enjoy. Because that's just insecurity talking. "I feel self-conscious about loving this thing that's weird, so I need to destroy every other iteration of this thing in order to make myself seem more legitimate."

The thing is: I love books. I love fast-paced thrillers, and slow, ponderously-moving epics. I derive incredible joy from the language of a novel. I love an author who is witty, and clever, and well-versed. I love deep dives into a character's psyche. I love flashbacks, and seemingly-tedious moments of introspection. 

Poorly written books exist, sure. I can usually tell within the first 500 words of a novel if I can hang with an author's prose stylings. But I'll never Instagram a book that I haven't enjoyed in several capacities. And I hate this notion that there's a singular, unified standard of what constitutes good writing. That authors like me have to adhere to what has come before. That the money counts more than the art...

I know it does. To other people. People would celebrate anything if it sold enough copies. 

But I reject that idea. I reject the idea of "perfection." Writing is an art, and you won't always jive with an individual's art...but that doesn't mean it's "bad" art. It doesn't mean it won't be someone else's favorite. 

I suppose I just have the absolute hopeless wish that the creative world of fiction-writing was kinder.