"H" Is For Hard

[cbertsch]

The piece I'm writing is making me enormously anxious. Even though I know it's likely that my subject will find fault with much of it, I still want him to like it. At the same time, though, it won't be worth anything unless I put my own stamp on it. I guess that's what makes this kind of journalism so hard. I keep thinking about how happy Dennis Cooper was to be writing a profile for Spin on Bob Mould, only to end up pissing him off despite the best of intentions. Being a fan isn't enough. In the end, I have to stand up for my own perspective regardless of the consequences. I just wish that I could once and for all renounce the dream of pleasing everyone. That's a shortcut to madness.

Comments

[kolakoski.livejournal.com]

Perhaps it's because I'm finally getting around to reading Theodore A. Rees Cheney's Writing Creative Nonfiction, but as I read your entry, I couldn't help thinking about the author's obligation to the reader, which, if I may go so far as to say, ultimately trumps his or her responsibility to the subject.

Of course, this makes it even more difficult to "renounce the dream of pleasing everyone."

[cbertsch.livejournal.com]

Yes. That's a helpful book, I think. Odd in places, but still helpful. As I think I said in class, it's almost more helpful when it's flawed.

You can't really try to please your reader, though. I mean, the same need to stand up for yourself applies. Who wants to read a pushover? I worry that I'm a pushover. I sound like Woody Allen. . .