A COUPLE OF MONTHS AGO I GOT A VERY NEGATIVE NOTE ABOUT THE FRONT PAGE OF MY SITE

[matt_zimmer]

As I do with every single note I get, I ignored it. It's amazing how pissed off this makes people.

The note was about how I warn on the very front page that The Un-Iverse is structured like a novel and needs to be read in its entirety in the proper order to properly be digested and appreciated.

This person, this published writer, thought that was an asshole thing to say. People sample comic books in and out of their runs and that specific "demand" will chase people off.

First of all, people can "sample" other comic books because they are NOT structured like a novel. And an Author wanting their work to be read as intended is in fact a reasonable want from a creator. I'm sure there are plenty of people who think Stephen King is an asshole for basically calling every single person who reads the last page of the book first an utter monster and a bad person. But he's allowed that opinion. And while my view is not nearly as extreme regarding spoilers (although I avoid them, I get why other people eat them up) I am confident people picking up the saga midway through will get almost nothing from it. It will not just be hard to follow. The character moments I've spent years building will not land and mean nothing.

As for scaring and chasing people off? Dummy, that's why the note is there! I'm warning people ahead of time that the saga is NOT for casual readers, and requires an alarming amount of commitment up-front. Does that chase people off? Yes! Deliberately! I don't want people to waste their time on a huge sprawling saga they'll need to pay attention to and reread several times without knowing that's the deal ahead of time. I would guess the front page of the site chases off a LOT of readers, especially casual ones. I am perfectly okay with that. The readers who are willing to delve deep after that specific warning are my kinds of people, and who this is actually for.

This person, a published author, they reminded me, was annoyed I refused to take notes, or change my story or approach via feedback. Almost all other writers do this, I'm told.

And you know what? Most fiction sucks ass. There are very few creators who are consistently confident in their own visions, at least enough that I actually trust them at the time.

I LIKE the way I do things. I LIKE that my saga is a mess. I LIKE that some people hate it. Hell, I LOVE that last bit.

I could be way off base here, but I always get the sneaking suspicion Jasper Hansen also utterly ignores notes and finds them useless, no matter who they are from. He can correct me if I'm wrong, but it's something I dig about his work, and it's why I feel our stuff vibes in spirit, if not content.

Comments

[jasperhansen]

Making people uncomfortable is a sign that you're onto something. It's not the goal but it's an important part of the process.

[matt_zimmer]

That is a true statement, but it's not necessarily universal. There are good artistic ways to make people uncomfortable and there are gross things that make people uncomfortable.

Gilda And Meek And The Un-Iverse makes people uncomfortable.

The Human Centipede also makes people uncomfortable.

And yet, I would never put them on an equal moral plane. Making people uncomfortable to challenge their own perceptions and biases is what the best art does. BAD art makes people uncomfortable by simply deliberately offending them. I detest shock art for this reason. It's hacky and lazy and artists with zero skill demanding attention for offensive reasons besides actual talent.

Listen to me rant.

[jasperhansen]

Which is why I say it's not the goal, it's just an important part of making a statement.

[matt_zimmer]

I hear you. I love talking about this stuff! Can you tell?

[jasperhansen]

Yeah, it's cool. I don't know how I feel about morality in the modern day and I kind of feel like distinguishing between good and bad discomfort will lead you down the road to bad censorship. There's a distinction to be made between porn and not porn but it becomes blurry with art that's made to explore sex and violence in a constructive way.

Getting back to the point of your post though I find that most people on the internet generally have useless advice. Weirdly it seems like there's an expectation that free content is illegitimate somehow and needs to bow to the reader for their attention even moreso than paid content which is already mostly hollow and pandering. You really need to build up a following before you have people who will take you seriously, and those are usually the people in your following and you'll still get shit from outside

[matt_zimmer]

That is a very interesting observation. I have not found that for the few fans of my work yet. Mostly because I think my fans get that everything is SO purposefully interconnected and planned out years ahead, even a minor tweak would unravel the entire thread.

I think most of my fans are under the (true) impression there is no constructive criticism they could give me that wouldn't change ten other things majorly.

I was super impressed about a note you gave me about the First Edition of "Enter Tork". You found Gilda dismissing Bernadette's very true concerns over Meek giving the Idol of Light to Vic Puff and blowing them off because she wants to go home and take a shower stupid and annoying.

I love the moment because that's what I'm trying to get across. I'm trying to get across Gilda often takes the fact that the Universe clearly likes her and puts its thumb on the scale for her for granted, and is sloppy and careless when she doesn't need to be. And the most obnoxious thing about it happening in that issue is she is right! The Universe doesn't punish her for it and in fact rewards her laziness.

One of the major struggles I show for Gilda is that she contains a level of unhealthy hubris that could eventually lead to a bad end for somebody, not the least of which is herself.

Is that moment badly written and not plausible? Yes. Definitely. Would it make Gilda's ultimate arc about her uncertainty over Universal Design better if I plugged the obvious hole and came up with a better resolution? No. Not at all.

Sometimes the bad things that have to occur in The Un-Iverse aren't merely a bunch of beloved characters randomly getting killed off. It's sometimes having the reader suffer through piss-poor writing because I value characters more than plot. The Un-Iverse is not solely designed to be enjoyed. Sometimes it must be endured.

[jasperhansen]

That's what I love about it and also why it's hard to analyze. I could spend all day taking shots in the dark and not hit on something constructive you actually ought to change. It's both wonderful and frustrating.

[matt_zimmer]

There are a LOT of shitty things in The Un-Iverse, like The Humans, Narf-Narf and Chirp, and Unkie Matty/Natty that NEED to occur. But I can't stop them from being shitty. More, I'm under the impression that the fact that they are shitty will make the reader love those parts MORE when they see their true purpose.

Their shittiness also stops people from looking too closely at them. Good. I want that.

[jasperhansen]

It's also the thing most likely to put people off and why it causes discomfort. The fact that you'll make this specific compromise tells me you are amazing

[matt_zimmer]

That is very sweet. I kind of needed to hear that. I've not been feeling very amazing recently.