i think we tend to forget that a big part of literature is about language… if you aren’t doing anything at least a little bit interesting with your use of language, are you really writing?
the worst part about a lot of commercial fiction isn’t even the plot or anything, it’s the language. writing is a skill. you can’t just do whatever
part of why i can't get into books for IPs I otherwise love is that every author avoids ever doing anything interesting with the language. its always incredibly generic, a stated list of events that happen rather than even taking the shallowest dive under a characters skin
yeah, i’ve realised recently that an author’s use of language is a way bigger factor in my enjoyment & appreciation of a novel than i initially thought. bc obviously language - writing - shapes the story being told, and is essential to the novel form (the literary form, more broadly speaking). the biggest affront to me with published (or unpublished) fanfiction, for example, isn’t the commercial exploitation of tropes, the caricature of people, the rehearsed plot. it’s the blatant disregard for what language is capable of, what language can do. and it makes everything else worse.
when i read a good novel, i’m always struck by how the sentences are constructed, arranged, metered, almost. i’m struck by the choice of words, the play of words, the relation of the word to the phrase to the sentence to the paragraph to the narrative as a whole. i’m struck by the attention to effect and affect, the intention with which a line is written a certain way. i’m struck by how the writer writes, what effect it has on me as a reader, the degree of care with which words are handled. just bc everyone can make a 280-word twitter post doesn’t mean they can write. just bc you can crack a joke doesn’t mean you can write a book. it takes skill and time and labour so no, reading should not be a frictionless experience. if you don’t want to be curious or challenged, fine, but you don’t have to be so loud and proud about it.
