3 ms·
1) Yeah, it's fiction. 2) It's written a little "higher" than modern popular young-adult-influenced fiction, mostly in that it sets up tension where the reader
by alabastervlog 2y ago
1) Yeah, it's fiction.
2) It's written a little "higher" than modern popular young-adult-influenced fiction, mostly in that it sets up tension where the reader shouldn't know what's going on, then resolves it somewhat later, and relies on the reader holding context for a sentence or two for a thought or idea or image to resolve. This used to how books even fifth graders were expected to read were written (i.e. this wouldn't have been regarded as challenging) but extreme preferences for ease-of-reading has driven shifts in fashions (as publishers desperately seek a market in a world where readership is already very low and still declining) and now lots of folks find once-easy works of fiction "hard" (even, and perhaps especially, native speakers) simply due to rarely encountering fiction that's not, as it were, pre-chewed, so not exercising those reading skills.
3) It's written in second-person, which is a bit unusual. (First-person also used to be rare, but has become common because young readers find it easier, and it is now taking over popular fiction—I expect narrative perspectives other than first-person are the next thing that will be regarded as "difficult" by the folks just becoming adults now, and know for a fact that many current teens and tweens are expressing that to teachers, that they find reading narratives in 3rd person difficult and so mostly just... don't read those)
[EDIT] I'm not asserting that 2 or 3 are the reasons you specifically are having trouble with it, but pointing out a couple observations about it that might be reasons someone would have trouble with it. There could be others.
- Applejinx 2y agoWell put. And second person is indeed unusual, to the point where it was quickly obvious that it wasn't some sort of LLM. It's kind of fascinating, when I think about it. This artwork does something I've also seen the GenX novelist Douglas Coupland do to striking effect: set up a vicarious mental state, through seemingly tedious narrative, to produce a state of mind which is then played upon for artistic purposes, modulating this state of mind to cause feelings. Coupland repeatedly does that by setting up thematic points without stating them, and then resolving not the surface details but the theme with a conclusion that targets the theme rather than the surface plot. The author here plays on the theme of meaninglessness, and then more or less makes a plea for meaningfulness at the end. It's pretty straightforward, except there seem to be a lot of people unable to experience a narrative at all, and so they're looking for 'the answer' and unable to experience the narrative in a human way. (not that you're required to have this particular human experience… but the whole point is to have this described experience, without having it) Pretty sure anybody who's frustrated by this would have an even harder time with Douglas Coupland's biggest works. This is really direct, theme-wise. If that's not enough to get you onboard (assuming you want to take that ride), there's a problem. If large numbers of people in the post-LLM world end up unable to decode these sorts of artworks, that's a loss to human nature.
- notevenreal 2y ago[flagged]
- rexpop 2y agoPity the rest of us who have to live in the world they make!
- FooBarBizBazz 2y agoYour point #3 is concerning. It is almost saying that people are now unable to assume other peoples' points of view. That the skill of empathy -- in a narrow technical sense, not even loading it with positive moral associations; hell, a scammer may use their ability to take another vantage point in order to mislead -- is disappearing. That people are losing a "theory of mind". Mass solipsism. Excellent, autistic sheep, confused by the people around them.
- mwigdahl 2y agoI think it's more just saying that second person narrative is not common and so it tends to throw people off. Not that your points aren't necessarily valid, but I don't think you can get all the way there just off of second person being an uncommon literary perspective.
- alabastervlog 2y agoI'd assume FooBarBizBazz meant my aside about the rise of the (once also fairly rare, if not so rare as second) first person narrative perspective in fiction, and increasing discomfort and difficulty with the 3rd person among younger readers. I'm not sure I'd assume this coincides with a decline in empathy, but do think it's worrisome that a huge body of literature, even recent literature, is harder for these folks to access than it was for those who grew up with 3rd person as the default and anything else being a notable stylistic choice.