[ 3 / biz / cgl / ck / diy / fa / ic / jp / lit / sci / vr / vt ] [ index / top / reports ] [ become a patron ] [ status ]
2023-11: Warosu is now out of extended maintenance.

/lit/ - Literature

View post   
File: 89 KB, 500x300, jealousofjetpacks.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
3566517 No.3566517 [Reply] [Original]

Okay, /lit/. I’d like your opinion on a matter. Sorry for the long post.

A personal essay of mine was picked up by an affluent literary journal in late 2012. The piece was published alongside work by a former US Poet Laureate (who wrote me a letter saying he liked my stuff; neat experience). The professors at my college have been almost sucking up to me ever since the publication. It's like they think I know what I'm doing, or something. It's weird.

Anyway, unbeknownst to any of them, I really freakin’ love science fiction. Fantasy works, too. I grew up on Lovecraft and Matheson and Tolkien and Lewis. The Twilight Zone is still my favorite TV series. I’m a sucker for surrealism and weird fiction. The crowing damnation? I’ve been sitting on a high concept sci fi novel for quite a while now--years, even.

I recently confided this in my most trusted professor. He looked at me for a few seconds, face blank, and then he said: “Right now you’re teetering on the edge of a knife. I can see you falling on either side of the blade. The question is, will you fall into the literary world or the world of pop fiction?” He went on to inform me that writing genre fiction is tantamount to literary suicide and I should put my sci fi ambitions to rest in order to preserve my publishing name. He also said a pseudonym won’t save me; people, he says, will eventually connect any identities I care to assume. (Any idea if that's true, guys?)

I wanted to remind him of all the pieces of classic literature that contain strong (if not all encompassing) elements of science fiction, but I didn’t. I took his advice with a smile and a nod and I went home to work on my novel's second draft.

So, /lit/, I'm basically lost. To genre or not to genre?

((TL;DR—I’m a young published author of literary nonfiction, professor says publishing genre work is career/literary suicide, I want to write a sci fi novel, should I go for a pseudonym or just forget it?))

>> No.3566523

fallow ur dreams!!!!

>> No.3566534

>>3566523
You're a pearl.

>> No.3566546

>>3566534
thx... i think..... i didnot have completely what u are saying but u should fallow ur dreams!!

>> No.3566550

>>3566546
Of course. Thanks for the input.

>> No.3566553

Do it man.

Just do it.

Wanna be a one trick pony or a jack of all trades?

>> No.3566555

>>3566517
dude go with the sci-fi if it's what you want to do. Get popular, since you seem to be pretty talented. Then use that rep to do whatever you want with your literary career. Anyone serious will give all of your work a chance. Don't want to be typecast? Just refuse to be typecasted. Go for it man.

>> No.3566556

>>3566550
I concur with the previous scholar posting in this thread. Follow your dreams, my good sir, indubitably.

>> No.3566559

Write whatever "genre" you want, as long as it's good. I suppose the real question is whether to market it as sci-fi or not, but you can worry about that later.

>> No.3566567

Just write about what you want to write, man. There's no sense in spending your life writing works that you aren't into. The best you have to offer will flourish when you love what you're writing.

>> No.3566569

>>3566555
I can see where you're coming from. I fear, however, a situation like Steven King faces (not that I'll ever get to be as widely read as King, of course). He has written literary pieces, but he's so well-known for his pop fiction that the literary community doesn't take him seriously even when he does produce literary work. I guess I just need to take the plunge and go for it. Who care what people think?

...well, I do, a little. I guess that's the problem here.

>> No.3566572

>>3566559
Marketing does indeed make a difference. Great point.
>>3566567
Very true; excellent point. I think it was Bradbury who said writer's block is merely a product of not writing about what truly matters to you.

>> No.3566575
File: 53 KB, 1005x754, smiley-face.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
3566575

>>3566553
>>3566556
Thanks for the encouragement, everybody. I'm feeling a lot better about this thanks to you.

>> No.3566581

>>3566569
Also, I don't think using separate pen names is a bad idea. You probably won't get "found out" unless you become very well-known.

>> No.3566583

>>3566581
Glad to hear someone say that! Nice reassurance, haha.

>> No.3566585

>>3566556
STOP FUCKING DOING THIS

>> No.3566587

Honestly, OP, it depends on what your concept is.

Does it bring anything new to the table? If you can truthfully say that it does, then you should write it. Otherwise, you should work on your normal fiction until you are ready to change the world.

>> No.3566590

>>3566569
>but he's so well-known for his pop fiction that the literary community doesn't take him seriously even when he does produce literary work
The quality of your work is not determined by the opinions of people who would refuse to judge each of your pieces on their individual merits.

>> No.3566592

>>3566590
Yeah, Joseph Conrad wrote adventure stories for money later in life, but people still remember him for his masterpieces.

>> No.3566601

>worrying about what people will think of you rather than making good writing

stay pleb

>> No.3566605

That should be an inspiration for you- to write a sci-fi novel that breaks the barriers of how some lit snobs think of science fiction. Prove them wrong by making it art.

>> No.3566609

>>3566590
>>3566592

I agree that quality is not determined by others, but reception, unfortunately, is. I need to stop being so self-conscious of my work. That's my biggest problem here.

>>3566587
I hope I'm bringing something new. Hope being the operative word. :/ Good advice; thanks!

>> No.3566616
File: 17 KB, 388x255, 1240239271555_f.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
3566616

What journal, OP? Are we talking Ploughshares/Tin House/etc. tier? When? What piece?

>> No.3566618

>>3566609
What I mean is this:
>>3566616

You need to give more info. If you're writing a story that will have the same literary merit as Doctor Who... then don't.

>> No.3566822

>>3566618
No, not a Doctor Who clone. :) I'd use the word "dystopia" if it wasn't always thrown around so cavalierly.

>>3566616
It's in the upper tier of publications. Joyce Carol Oates, James Tate, Billy Collins, Jeffrey Eugenides, and others of similar ilk have been featured in this journal.

>> No.3566826

>>3566605
I love the way you put that--"prove them wrong by making it art." Will do, sarge. Will do.

>> No.3566830

>published

stopped reading there. Whore. Faggot

>> No.3566835

Good luck OP!

>> No.3566842

>>3566517
Artistic integrity has no tangible benefit. Selling out does however

>> No.3566843

>>3566517
Sounds like a really pretentious conversation. I've read tons of Sci-Fi and Fantasy that is significantly better than this "normal fiction" you speak of. Plenty of science fiction is considered classic. I mean Jules Fucking Verne and George Mother Fucking Orwell, bro. Most of the professors and English Lit students I meet are cunts who like to throw out big names so they sound smart, write science fiction, write fantasy, write fucking Breaking Bad fan fiction, but if it isn't good it doesn't matter. Your teacher and to some extent, you, sound like the cunts that talk about shit like Chaucer or Austen like its actually fucking good. Its shit but people think by writing boring nonsense they're somehow literary genious' with some sort of one up on people who read other genres.

BTW Stephen King laughs at those unknown literary critics while he rolls about in his mountain of money.

>> No.3566849

What does not being taken seriously by the literary establishment entail?

>> No.3566851

>>3566849
It means not having college professors command their students to like your work.

>> No.3566864

>>3566843
ok...and they might laugh at him because they derive pleasure from things other than money, which is of course a means to an end (happiness) which they have already found

>> No.3566879

Ask yourself this, OP?

Do you want to be admired for good writing, or for a bunch of pretentious 2deep4u purple prose?

>> No.3566880

>>3566843

Anyone who does not consider Verne or Tolkien a bastion of literature is a douche.

>> No.3566884

>>3566880
>bastion
You're not really a 'words' type of guy, are you?

>> No.3567284

>>3566864

>critics
>ever finding happiness

Pretentious is a one way road to hell.

>> No.3567322

>genre fiction tantamount to literary suicide
>ray bradbury
>philip k dick
>isaac asimov
Yeah see, this is why I dropped out of my English major. It's full of elitist jackasses who are too far up their own asses to enjoy good fun.

The hell with your shit professor, write whatever the fuck you want.

>> No.3567334

There's plenty of literary fiction set in speculative universes.
Market it as literary fiction under a pseudonym and by the time anyone eventually realises it's you, you'll have already had the opportunity to establish yourself literary world.

Whether or not he's right, recommending him science fiction books won't change reality.

>> No.3567348
File: 99 KB, 600x522, image.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
3567348

If you make it great, OP, it doesn't matter if its "genre fiction". However, OP, if you are actually a great writer, I implore you to transcend the boundaries of genre fiction and make a fresh piece of literature. Although I've never read any of his works, I do know that Thomas Pinecone incorporated certain "sci-fi"-like elements into his work while still maintaining literary applaud and making his ideas presentable as interesting and great. Definitely don't get published under a publisher like Tor or Baen that's going to slap a pulpy cover onto your work and make it look like any other modern scifi work. Even if your book is really great, it may be drowned in all of the other garbage published by those companies and drag you down. Also, will you please come up with a concept on the spot, I would like to see how good your ideas are?

>> No.3567356
File: 146 KB, 422x500, image.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
3567356

>>3567322
This.

>> No.3567357

>>3567322

This. Write what you actually want to write, don't write something simply because you want people to respect you more. Science fiction also isn't as awful as he's making out as long as you do it right - I recently started reading some of the works of Arthur Clarke and Jules Verne and they are probably some of the best books I've ever read. Don't just take your professor's opinion at face value, challenge it.