I enjoyed that article. I veer towards literary fiction over sci-fi but I’m certainly not averse to the idea that the former can be shite and the latter can be brilliant.
I think you’re right in calling out the snobbery of some aspects of it. Same can be said of certain types of theatre and poetry.
But more importantly, your article made me laugh, mate. Great stuff
Oh yeah, there's snobbery in poetry too, on both 'ends' (academia and the small open mics both have their fair share of elitism, though I tend to find the open mics more irritating because they don't give me free cheese at their events). I'm a poet myself and I do have some blogs in my drafts about my feelings on the scene, but they're not properly cooked yet.
Glad it made you laugh! And thanks for the comment, it means a lot. The goal with these is to make people laugh first, then maybe get them thinking. That's the general direction most of my work goes in
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My two debut poetry books will be 100% free on 30th July by the way. You can get them now on Amazon but if you want them to be free, just wait for the planets to align ;)
FALSE VACUUM and BRANCH DENSITY. They are serious books, but of course got some humour in them. The Amazon synopsis tries very hard to make them seem more normal than they are... I've been writing the first one since 2014, when I was at uni enjoying the academic side of things. I did do some comedy poetry back then, which I've not got in book form yet (I find comedy poetry takes less time to write, but longer to find one I think is actually printable).
Definitely agree on the humour point. Been looked down on before for using it too heavily in serious scenes, but if I was in those scenes, I'd be the one trying to add some perspective by cracking jokes. That said, some of the funniest people have no sense of humour, which is a shame as they'll never know how funny they are!
I enjoyed that article. I veer towards literary fiction over sci-fi but I’m certainly not averse to the idea that the former can be shite and the latter can be brilliant.
I think you’re right in calling out the snobbery of some aspects of it. Same can be said of certain types of theatre and poetry.
But more importantly, your article made me laugh, mate. Great stuff
Oh yeah, there's snobbery in poetry too, on both 'ends' (academia and the small open mics both have their fair share of elitism, though I tend to find the open mics more irritating because they don't give me free cheese at their events). I'm a poet myself and I do have some blogs in my drafts about my feelings on the scene, but they're not properly cooked yet.
Glad it made you laugh! And thanks for the comment, it means a lot. The goal with these is to make people laugh first, then maybe get them thinking. That's the general direction most of my work goes in
---
My two debut poetry books will be 100% free on 30th July by the way. You can get them now on Amazon but if you want them to be free, just wait for the planets to align ;)
Sounds like we might share some similair experianes of the poetry circuit; it's part of the reason why I started a Substack.
Humour is vastly underarted as a tool and often undermined.
What are the names of your collections?
FALSE VACUUM and BRANCH DENSITY. They are serious books, but of course got some humour in them. The Amazon synopsis tries very hard to make them seem more normal than they are... I've been writing the first one since 2014, when I was at uni enjoying the academic side of things. I did do some comedy poetry back then, which I've not got in book form yet (I find comedy poetry takes less time to write, but longer to find one I think is actually printable).
Definitely agree on the humour point. Been looked down on before for using it too heavily in serious scenes, but if I was in those scenes, I'd be the one trying to add some perspective by cracking jokes. That said, some of the funniest people have no sense of humour, which is a shame as they'll never know how funny they are!