Finchbearer
Istar
So I recently came across this quote by the brilliant Ottessa Moshfegh;
“I wish that future novelists would reject the pressure to write for the betterment of society. Art is not media. A novel is not an ‘afternoon special’ or fodder for the Twittersphere or material for journalists to make neat generalizations about culture. A novel is not Buzzfeed or NPR or Instagram or even Hollywood. Let’s get clear about that. A novel is a literary work of art meant to expand consciousness. We need novels that live in an amoral universe, past the political agenda described on social media. We have imaginations for a reason. Novels like American Psycho and Lolita did not poison culture. Murderous corporations and exploitative industries did. We need characters in novels to be free to range into the dark and wrong. How else will we understand ourselves?”
Now, to me that is a monumental quote that could be taken a thousand various ways, but not only do I agree with it, but her words seem to have ignited a fire within me to go ahead and create my art rather than be preoccupied with the perceived need to pander to a set of specific societal expectations that are constantly perpetuated across various media channels. While I’m not going to create anything stupendously controversial, there is something so freeing by realising that we are creating art - not media fodder.
I’m sure many of you have created your work without a second thought to this issue, but nevertheless, I think it’s an interesting conversation to be had.
What do you think of this statement?
How much do you implement this ideal into your work?
“I wish that future novelists would reject the pressure to write for the betterment of society. Art is not media. A novel is not an ‘afternoon special’ or fodder for the Twittersphere or material for journalists to make neat generalizations about culture. A novel is not Buzzfeed or NPR or Instagram or even Hollywood. Let’s get clear about that. A novel is a literary work of art meant to expand consciousness. We need novels that live in an amoral universe, past the political agenda described on social media. We have imaginations for a reason. Novels like American Psycho and Lolita did not poison culture. Murderous corporations and exploitative industries did. We need characters in novels to be free to range into the dark and wrong. How else will we understand ourselves?”
Now, to me that is a monumental quote that could be taken a thousand various ways, but not only do I agree with it, but her words seem to have ignited a fire within me to go ahead and create my art rather than be preoccupied with the perceived need to pander to a set of specific societal expectations that are constantly perpetuated across various media channels. While I’m not going to create anything stupendously controversial, there is something so freeing by realising that we are creating art - not media fodder.
I’m sure many of you have created your work without a second thought to this issue, but nevertheless, I think it’s an interesting conversation to be had.
What do you think of this statement?
How much do you implement this ideal into your work?