/lit/ - Literature

>>23329751

Thoughts on Jonathan Franzen?

I read an interview with an author who says that, at a certain point in writing a novel, the characters "take over" and tell him what to do. Does this happen to you, too?

Mr. Filtered

>be me, pursuing a creative writing MFA at Iowa
>have a masterclass with an author who is highly respected on here and who is one of my personal writing heroes
>show him a draft of my novel that I've been working on for 6 years
>he reads it and hates it
>basically completely trashes it and actually tells me to quit writing
>says even though the piece was technically well-constructed, I'm missing something necessary to write well
>ask him what
>"A heart."
>"You write like you're avenging your childhood on the world."
>"You're a fascist, you're clearly a misogynist, your characters are hollow and are transparently mouthpieces for philosophical positions you dislike."
>"It's like you've never understood what gives other people their humanity. It's a solipsistic text."
>ends by urging me to go to therapy
I'm sitting here considering dropping out of the program. I've never received any other such reactions to my writing but this hit hard. How the fuck do you deal with a criticism like that? Pic "unrelated."

What’s his name again?

hard mode: no Dante or Rupi

This is Jonathan Franzen. Say something nice about him.