The Alien Heresy
Nov. 30th, 2012 01:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rinueThe title of my last entry is misleading if you don't realize it's ironic; the existence or non-existence of extraterrestrial life is something Ciro and I have discussed rarely, and not heatedly. It's in my mind because of conversations I had with James and C. Blacker in New York, about, respectively, a script we're working on and the different patterns of conflict in combined romantic and artistic relationships.
Many artists imagine that their romantic partner and collaborative partner will be the same person, and view this with either terror or a romanticism it doesn't quite support. I suspect Ciro and I disagree about as often as most couples, but manage to do it in ways that are esoteric and more closely resemble academic conferences.
Hence, my entry, which I considered writing in another way. That other way is this:
As an author, do you find you have any foibles that should interfere with your ability to work in your chosen genre, but somehow don't?
For instance, Cormac McCarthy has stated openly that he can't write female characters and can't imagine how women think. I would think that would be a problem for a writer, and yet it clearly isn't.
I'm a moderately successful science fiction author who will presumably become more successful, despite the fact that I don't believe aliens are possible, which would seem to be a stumbling block and a requirement of the genre.
What about you? I realize some people have trouble with first person, or with poetry, or with fiction, or with memoir, but presumably they get around that by writing something else. For instance, I am terrible at sex scenes, even fade-to-black sex scenes, but that doesn't matter, because I don't write romance novels.
Are you someone who writes successful romance novels who can't write romance novels? Are you someone who writes well-received mysteries without being confident about endings? Do you publish poems but have no sense of rhythm?
What's your thing? Do you have one? I kind of suspect that most artists do better art when they are slightly askew from their genre and have to find clever workarounds, but that's a pretty broad thesis.
Many artists imagine that their romantic partner and collaborative partner will be the same person, and view this with either terror or a romanticism it doesn't quite support. I suspect Ciro and I disagree about as often as most couples, but manage to do it in ways that are esoteric and more closely resemble academic conferences.
Hence, my entry, which I considered writing in another way. That other way is this:
As an author, do you find you have any foibles that should interfere with your ability to work in your chosen genre, but somehow don't?
For instance, Cormac McCarthy has stated openly that he can't write female characters and can't imagine how women think. I would think that would be a problem for a writer, and yet it clearly isn't.
I'm a moderately successful science fiction author who will presumably become more successful, despite the fact that I don't believe aliens are possible, which would seem to be a stumbling block and a requirement of the genre.
What about you? I realize some people have trouble with first person, or with poetry, or with fiction, or with memoir, but presumably they get around that by writing something else. For instance, I am terrible at sex scenes, even fade-to-black sex scenes, but that doesn't matter, because I don't write romance novels.
Are you someone who writes successful romance novels who can't write romance novels? Are you someone who writes well-received mysteries without being confident about endings? Do you publish poems but have no sense of rhythm?
What's your thing? Do you have one? I kind of suspect that most artists do better art when they are slightly askew from their genre and have to find clever workarounds, but that's a pretty broad thesis.
