Entertainment, Featured - by Jessica Roy on Wednesday, October 22, 2008 13:04 - 9 Comments
Are All Authors Assholes? Probably.
I had to read A Moveable Feast for my literature class recently and I accidentally fell in love with Ernest Hemingway without understanding the implications. Such are the ways of the heart. Upon hearing of my new found affair, my mother put it bluntly: How can a feminist like you read—and love—work by someone who was such a misogynistic prick?
Good question, Mom.
Bloggers are notorious for weaving details of their personal lives into long-winded diatribes analyzing everything from the taste of the soup at that Asian place down the street to the sad, complicated meaning of life. For this, we appreciate them, but we cannot separate their writing from their personalities. If we hate them as people then we are going to hate their writing, too—it is generally about them as people, even when it is consciously trying not to be.
But the thing about authors is that you can get away with liking their writing without actually liking them as people. Which is a good thing, because it seems like a lot of them were (and are) assholes.
There is a distance with the printed word that is lacking in the blogosphere. I really liked what Hemingway said about Paris, but after four wives and countless short stories involving women who are only there to provide moral and sexual support, it’s like, “God, Ernest, you are such a dick.”
Then, earlier today I was lamenting the fact that I will never get into the advanced fiction class that Jonathan Safran Foer is teaching at NYU this spring, mostly because I am lazy and did not even apply. My friend then turned to me and said, “His writing is beautiful, but I met Jonathan Safran Foer and that guy is a douchebag. I mean, it’s not his fault—he got famous very young, but he told everyone in my class that he thinks his books are more classic than novels like Catcher in the Rye.”
My heart sank a little because I cried for quite a long time after reading Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and I thought Everything is Illuminated was jarring in its poignancy, but that was kind of an asshole thing for him to say, right? And speaking of Catcher in the Rye, didn’t Salinger refuse to act civilly towards, um, anyone, and didn’t he also encourage Joyce Maynard’s eating disorder?
Maybe I am overgeneralizing. Okay, I’m overgeneralizing. But it certainly does seem like step one to becoming an author is to be an asshole, or at least have the capacity to be an asshole, and then unleash that capacity once your first book advance comes in.
I would like for someone to disprove this theory because there is nothing more disheartening than finding out someone whose words you swear were stolen straight from your soul wrote them one night after drunkenly giving his wife a black eye. So has anyone met any famous authors that were lovely? Please?
Photo by George Karger (Time Life/Getty)
9 Comments
This is true. There is a difference between “good” and “genius” and perhaps being an asshole is that missing X factor.
Well, I would say it’s a mistake to argue that being a dick is a prerequisite for genius. It’s true that many, maybe even most renowned literally geniuses have these ridiculous outsized personalities, but I think a lot of that might be a self-fulfilling prophecy. The way our culture perceives genius is so wrapped up in this romantic image of the asshole artist that I think being lauded as a genius makes some feel like they have license to (or maybe even an obligation to) unlock their inner jerkface.
For that matter, being told you’re a genius is probably going to do about as much, if not more, for your ego than actually being a genius.
Brett Sharetts
So, along the lines of great authors that weren’t complete assholes, I would point us to the late (and very dearly missed) David Foster Wallace. This was a guy who by all reasonable standards was a genius, even his professors in college told him so. And when he started to gain success for his novels, and then even greater acclaim and being called the voice of his generation and the next Thomas Pynchon after he published “Infinite Jest” he didn’t let the fame go to his head. He wasn’t a douchebag or an asshole and in many ways, he seems like the exact opposite: he eschewed the life of famous writer, didn’t whore himself out to sell books. He was so modest about appearing on t.v. that he was apprehensive about appearing on The Charlie Rose Show because he didn’t know if that would seem corny. So yes, the notion of the tormented genius (oftentimes an asshole) is ingrained into our culture (as Ned discussed) but it is no way a prerequisite for being a great writer.
Jake Fournier
Don’t worry Ned, you’ll always be a douchenozzle to me!
mike vilensky
bret easton ellis is a total sweetheart in real life, i bet.
Lily Q
@mike: he’s actually depressingly normal-seeming. hopefully it’s all an elaborte, bateman-esque charade.
Marshall Finch
I think it’s more of a Batman charade.
Sarah K
I met Jonathan Safran Foer at a reading/Q&A/book-signing at the Union Square Barnes & Noble two years ago. He was kind of awkward and shy in front of the crowd, hardly boastful– pretty self-deprecating in some of his responses. When I went up to get my books signed, he was really down to earth. I wanted to take a photo with him (he is my favorite author), and the B&N staff were trying to hustle me through, telling me he would say no. He said of course and invited me around the signing table for the picture, but the B&N staff said that I wasn’t allowed to be on the same side of the table as him, a rule he declared ridiculous. I’ll admit, I was positively gushing about his work, but he seemed honestly flattered, and he wrote very genuine, grateful notes in the books I brought. I’m sorry that his demeanor has changed by setting or time, or that your friend got a bad impression. In my opinion he is an incredibly lovely and talented person. I know how it feels to have an artist’s work ruined by finding out they are an asshole– maybe you can regain a little hope from my encounter with JSF.
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For the record, my brief encounters with John Hodgman, J Robert Lennon, and Neil Gaiman gave me the impression that none of them are assholes, and all three are, in fact, extremely cool dudes.
Granted, none of those three is Ernest Hemingway, but they’re all great at what they do. So maybe you don’t need to be an asshole to be a good writer, you just need to be an asshole to be a genius one.
I hope not, though. I’d like to be a good novelist, but I’d also really like to avoid being a total douchenozzle.