Alt-Lit, the defunct online literary movement popularized by Tao Lin, has co-opted the term 'autofiction' to legitimize its narcissism as a literary genre.
Tao Lin's poetry and fiction is the introvert's Bible. The guy's serious talent is evident in the amount of copy cats the sub-genre created. His writing relied heavily on lived experiences as an NYU undergrad, and his pensive, introverted "character" resonated with the computer lit, bedroom dwelling, self-impoverished aspiring writer millennials. Loneliness, reference rich relationships, drug use and shoplifting all helped to romanticize this classic New York existence.
Creation is exhausting, and 'autofiction' is one of those pseudo-genres coined by critics to categorize the agonizing work of writers trying to create something completely unique. Uncreative millennial writers--focused more on their style than their substance--have discovered this convenient new term to describe their work, now that the Alt-Lit label is all but a reference to anything written between 2009-2012.
Critics collude with their writer friends to sell books to other wannabe writer friends. The writer friends live in an endlessly uncritical circle of other writer friends that all think the same and act the same, to further confirm their importance among themselves.
This collusion is human nature. It is only a problem for someone like myself, who looks inside the circle, but won't change opinions to be accepted inside of it.
Autofiction is flawed because the writers that write this stuff rely on reveling in their flaws. There is nothing in 'autofiction' that is unlike Alt-Lit except that the authors are older and have convinced legitimate publishers, through their small following of like minded wannabes, that they are the newest voice of a generation. They may well be, but it hardly speaks well of this generation.
Take Megan Boyle's Liveblog. I was a fan of hers for a long time, until I read the first 100 pages of her 'novel.' I am aware that personal growth doesn't always happen overnight. It is usually the accumulated result of bad decisions made over the course of years. (The less years wasted the better.) One might hope that if a person writes down exactly what they are doing and thinking every moment of every day for 6 months, they might see a pattern of self destruction and see exactly where they need to change their behavior. It takes courage to publish your life as a foolish (and clever) loser. But this is a circle where destructive behavior is encouraged for the sake of reality and good art.
Except that Liveblog is not good. (It might be an achievement.) Boyle does not change. She repeats the same actions over and over and over without showing any change in character or outlook. It is futile to believe that finishing the book would somehow yield a change within her.
The newest piece to receive this praise is Juliet Escoria's Juliet the Maniac: A Novel. The title itself so much a white lie that "A Novel" had to be included in its title! She couldn't go so far as to change the main character's name from her own! It is difficult to believe that this book is more fiction than auto.
The problem of course, is that all of these Alt-Lit AutoFiction writers think the same as one another. Their lived experiences, while differing slightly in the details, are neatly contained within their group of friends and masturbatory worldview. They live aimless lives of content introspection of perpetual loneliness, sadness, insanity, drug use and disappointment in themselves.
Besides, an author isn't read for their life experience. Biography and autobiography are reserved for those that have actually lived, learned and changed! Authors don't have that same kind of life experience; they sit around on their computers, writing all day. Writing is the opposite of experience! It is invented experience!
But these autofictioneers cannot invent life experience! That is really hard. They take inspiration from their impoverished and hedonistic lives, and then call it a novel!
As much as I like to buy books I never finish, I can't buy books I intend to hate-read, and I cannot support proud abortion apologists like Escoria and Boyle. I lost all respect for Megan Boyle when I read that she had an abortion in Liveblog. Made me sick that I even bought it, and had her sign it. For the same reasons I cannot support Juliet Escoria. Proud to defend her excuses, then profit from similar abominations.
Alt lit was always going to become autofiction, and the biggest names in Alt Lit were always going to realize that they only knew how to write about themselves.
Alt-Lit has aged, but it hasn't matured. It's authors are mired in their own obsession with their own lives and found a new, temporary label for its generational narcissism.
No comments:
Post a Comment