Over on Salon, Laura Miller bashes NaNoWriMo calling the whole endeavor “a waste of time of energy” that proves “that the cultural spaces once dedicated to the selfless art of reading are being taken over by the narcissistic commerce of writing.”
In response, Jacket Copy’s Carolyn Kellogg argues against Miller’s article point by point. She favorably compares NaNoWriMo to the MFA experience and defends the participants as savvy “cultural consumers” who are merely trying to express themselves.
And then Miller responded to Kellogg via comment thread while riding the motherfucking bus.
What say you, Rumpus readers? Is NaNoWriMo the END OF LITERATURE?! Or does it serve as a valuable outlet/exercise for writers searching for their own voice?
18 responses
Readers and the culture are better served when the written work is not merely an expression of the writer’s what have you. NaNoWriMo doesn’t threaten literature, but it does confuse the term. Miller is exactly right when she calls it narcissistic. The enterprise creates a false feeling of community, choreographing and rewarding this narcissism.
Seems again that people will look for any reason to get involved in pointless arguments when important issues like climate change, unlimited war, restrictions on civil liberties and economic inequities are not being discussed with nearly as much gusto. Write your novel, don’t write your novel: it doesn’t matter. Meanwhile, the world’s going to hell.
I just need to admit that that headline made me laugh.
Most people who run marathons have no illusions about winning; most people playing a guitar or piano in their home have no illusions about a concert tour; most people who draw have no illusion about a solo gallery show; most people write because – like kissing, singing, touching, conversing – it’s just another means of communicating the impossibility of it all.
Here comes the tidal wave of invective.
I’m not sure why NaNoWriMo participants are all bug-eyed and red-faced screaming over this Miller piece. It’s an opinion piece. Opinions are like assholes. Why shouldn’t there be a rational chat about the merits or problems with NaNoWriMo? 95% of the comments I’ve seen are either 1) nudge-nudge they’re a bunch of stupid housewives writing drivel, or 2) Laura Miller you fucking fuck I hope your career crashes and burns and you end up panhandling for work at BEA you fuck.
There are more important things to be furious over.
How does it create a “false feeling of community”? I’d say it’s pretty successful at creating actual communities. Like Stefan says, it’s just a hobby – like playing guitar or dancing or whatever – and this program does a good job of bringing like-minded hobbyists together. What’s wrong with that?
While I took offense at several of Miller’s statements (which she herself attempts to soften in her bus comment), it did give me an idea that I have no resources to see through:
Remember the MS read-a-thon in grade school? Something along the lines of: You would harass family members to pledge you a “per book” amount and at the end of the summer/month/whatever you collected the money and sent it off to the MS folks.
SO. How about a site where you could pick your charity, and people could pledge w/ paypal or a credit card, and then you’d link to all the books you’d read — with a brief synopsis/review? It could look like the MS150 or marathon pages where people can sponsor you. It would bring attention to book that are REALLY being read and also to charities that are important to the reading community. And there could be prizes, I suppose, and charities touting how many readers they had, etc. If anyone out there knows how to make this happen, email me… or you know, just make it happen.
Laura Miller’s premise seems to be that since she doesn’t benefit from NaNoWriMo, it’s a waste of time. She explicitly states that the time would be better spent on encouraging people to be more like herself. That doesn’t sound “selfless” to me. Quite the opposite, in fact.
And in Miller’s response, she states that she doesn’t admonish anyone not to participate in NaNoWriMo…. in a piece entitled “Better yet, DON’T write that novel.” I guess that means she doesn’t subscribe to the premise that no means no?
Of course, the important line of her piece is this one: “As someone who doesn’t write novels…” Any time someone who doesn’t do something starts giving advice on how to do it, it’s best just to move along.
I think Miller was speaking figuratively about getting off the bus. As in, “I’m almost done having this debate, but…”
Also, +1 to Michelle.
Meh, just one more intentionally provocative piece meant to garner page views — wonder how many of 160,000-plus Nanowrimo participants clicked? (I’m vomiting out words aplenty, but I’m under no illusion that this “novel” I’m working on will every see anything but the bottom of my desk drawer. I still think it’s a fun challenge, and though I don’t agree with Laura Miller, she hints at a few interesting ideas, and the ensuing conversation is fun to follow!)
Hey, does anyone know a place somewhere on the Internet where discouraging thousands of people from writing wouldn’t be cool?
Write like a motherfucker.
Laura Miller can bite me. I write because I don’t feel complete when I don’t. It’s the perfect way for me to get what I’m feeling onto paper. I’m not twisting anyone’s arm to read it, and if I do ever edit this crap pile enough to get it to a publisher, no one has to publish it, either. Hell, though, if Little Brown will publish Stephenie Meyer, they’ll publish anything.
Maybe Laura Miller could start NaDoWriNoMo. It would be a non-profit organization of literary critics established to persuade citizens not to attempt the completion of a first draft of a novel in the month of November. It would, of course, advise against the dangers (the profligate proliferation of pointless prose, meandering plots and not enough passages “in scene,” writer’s cramp). The symbol could be a sign hung over a gate, inscribed with the words “Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here,” and maybe there could be a page linked to data on the economic cost of carpal tunnel syndrome.
I didn’t read this article, but that headline kills.
Seriously, does someone want to design a NaDoWriNoMo site? I’ll help write the text. “Wherever there are unpublished novelists trying to complete a first draft in a single month, we’ll be there.” I now think the symbol should be of a torch lighting the darkness. (All in fun . . .)
I honestly don’t understand why people get their drawers in such a wad about this. I’ve done Nanowrimo a few years, I’m doing it this year. it’s not that big a damn deal. If you’re into it, fantastic. If not, fantastic. For the people doing it it’s valuable. For those not doing it, it’s probably not valuable like almost every other thing someone might do in their spare time in their lives.
I think literature does a fine job of ruining itself more often than not, Nanowrimo or no Nanowrimo. A lot of books suck and will continue to suck whether or not people are trying to cram 50,000 words into a manuscript that will probably suck or not.
Seems like people who hate Nanowrimo are in two categories:
1 – Jaded publishing industry people
2 – Frustrated writers who haven’t yet made it themselves (probably includes everyone in category #1)
Miller’s article says more about her than it says about Nanowrimo.
I have to copy this comment in from the LA Times article, it’s too damn good:
“A Salon columnist telling people not to bother writing because no one cares. There’s some next-level irony for you.
Posted by: Dan | November 04, 2010 at 01:19 PM”
Click here to subscribe today and leave your comment.