“It feels weird to enjoy something but only give it three stars because I wanted it to be longer. In a way, it’s like, Maybe that should be 4 or even 5! Because if I wanted more of this, I must’ve been having a good time.
On the other hand, 3 is a good rating for me. People have their own relationships with stars on Goodreads, and mine is basically 3 and up is pretty good, I’d recommend it, and below that is bad, and a one-star is something I would go out of my way to dissuade someone from reading.
I try and preserve that same mindset for my own books. Someone gives one a three, and at first I’m like, What the fuck? But then I’m like, Well, that’s actually just fine.
Life is complicated, man.
I just recently read this in a column, and I have thoughts:
Art isn’t designed to be graded on a one-out-of-five star system. How absolutely repulsive.
The writer was talking about Goodreads and had some other choice things to say about it, but I mostly disagree with this specific part.
This is about to get very MFA program, so buckle up.
I agree, art isn’t meant to be rated. But commercial products can be. And when you take something you’ve written, slap it between two covers, solicit some blurbs, print it up on paper, maybe do some ad campaigns, the story crosses over from the world of art and into the world of commerce.
Commercial products are rate-able. That’s an okay thing to do.
The thing is, even if the person didn’t pay for it, like if they got it from the library or a giveaway or something, they still exchanged their time to experience the art. Especially in the case of books, this means something. And I do think readers expressing whether they felt that exchange was worthwhile is…perhaps saying it’s their “right” goes too far, I don’t think I’m prepared to take up arms and defend someone’s right to shit on Ready Player One, but I think it’s a less-than-repulsive thing to do.
More and more, I’m convinced that art isn’t “meant” to do anything. It’s not meant to accomplish something. If it is, then maybe it’s edging closer to being instructional and less artistic. I’m not going to say that Ikea instructions are “art.” They have drawings in them, someone had to use creativity to make them, but that doesn’t mean they should be evaluated in an artistic framework. Because the truth is, the bet version of Ikea instructions are the ones that most often result in the correct end product, which may or may not be the most beautiful, aesthetically-pleasing art.
However, when you share your art with the world, it’s not reasonable to expect that the world will view it a certain way. It’s not reasonable to expect, or even really desire, only positive reviews. One has to figure that people will feel ways about it, and that’s part of putting a book out.
I’ve often said it would be unreasonable to read someone’s diary and critique it like I would a published book. It’d just be a dick thing to do.
It’s when someone puts their book into the world that it’s opened up for critique or opinion.
Writers always have the choice. If you want to live in the world of art, you can leave your book in a format that is non-commercial. You can even put it up online, put it on a blog, make the pdf available, and that’s a little different from publishing and selling.
But if you decide to take the leap and sell, you have to be ready for the readers.”