Why is it that when some people are calling out an author for being problematic with actual #facts (as my cousin likes to say) or theyre just stating that they dislike a book on any platform people immediately go on the attack? Is it so difficult for someone to just agree to disagree and move on with their day? Now I understand that people are going to come in here and say don’t post your opinion on the internet if you can’t handle the blowback. But that’s no excuse to be a shitty human and bully people or be unkind. So tell me how do you personally feel when people behave like this? Does it make you not want to be a part of this community anymore and just keep to yourself about what you’re reading, not reading, and what you’ve read?
Well, I think it might depend on what people are posting as a response. Nearly everyone is problematic, as I learned when I was doing my history degree. That doesn’t mean their art isn’t beautiful, their music isn’t sublime, or that their writing doesn’t help one transcend into an alternate universe.
While I might choose not to be friends with someone problematic, or might perhaps choose to purchase a living artist’s works secondhand so they don’t directly benefit; I’m not really willing to throw out 99% of the artistic products of humanity. And I think that we focus a lot on the problematic nature of artists (to include writers, artists, musicians, etc.), when we benefit daily from the inventions, resources, businesses, etc. of a whole world of exploitative, problematic individuals and corporations but don’t funnel even close to the same energy into decrying the issues of individuals or businesses because they help make our lives materially easier on a daily, even hourly basis. The phone I’m typing on right now, the conglomerates that develop apps and software, are all as dangerous for the world as a problematic author. But it’s easier to focus our wrath on the individual.
I think there are always some individuals responding online who are just truly heinous individuals, who live to make others as miserable as they are. But for the most part, I think Reddit and other modern forums are much less conversational than the forums of old, partially just because of the number of users, and partially because it’s not very often a back and forth conversation between users. Rather, it’s a user asking a question or stating an opinion, and the rest of us shouting our own into the void, hoping someone else catches our words as they hurtle outwards.
This sub can be frustrating for me sometimes because my opinions aren’t at all popular. I get a lot of pushback. But I usually feel that’s because other people feel as strongly about books as I do; they care. I get really good engagement, even with people who are truly upset with my opinion; people who are willing to discuss. It’s made me rethink my own opinions in several cases. That’s really rare these days; to find a community like that. So it makes it easier to put up with the vocal curmudgeonly minority.