Snobbery

[Jeremy Knox]

Have you ever noticed the snobbery that accompanies certain people after you tell them that you're a writer? I don't know about the reaction that actors, directors or artists in general get; but when you're a writer people just get very weird if you tell them what you do. They start acting like you were bragging or something.

The first sign that they think you're an artsy fartsy jerk is when they start asking about your novel (or screenplay). It's not enough if you tell them the genre and the general story. Noooooooooooooo... they want DETAILS! They start asking for all sorts of insignificant shit and if you dare tell them something like "Well, I don't want to talk too much about it while I'm writing since you can lose your train of thought you know?" you nearly get a temper tantrum.

First of all. NO writer in his right mind describes in detail his work to people he hardly knows. That's how you preserve copyright, by not showing every asshole on the street your work.
It's bad enough when someone comes up with something nearly identical to what you were working on by coincidence, that you don't want to start having gnawing doubts ON TOP OF THAT by having shown your work around to strangers.

Then there's loaded question #2 "What do you think of your work?"

I usually say I like it very much. To which MANY people retort "Oh, so you think you're better than <insert famous writer's name>?"

What? I didn't say that... ALL I SAID WAS I LIKED IT!!!!!!!!!

What am I SUPPOSED to answer? "No, I hate my writing. It's garbage. Let's use my novel to light to fireplace." It takes a little bit of ego to be a writer because there's so many naysayers in the world.

I dunno. People are weird enough, but they get soooooooo much weirder when they know you're an artist. I don't know if it's elitism or snobbery or jealousy or what. All I know is that it's annoying.

Anyone else have experiences like this?

JK13

[Furious D]

Originally posted by Jeremy Knox
I dunno. People are weird enough, but they get soooooooo much weirder when they know you're an artist. I don't know if it's elitism or snobbery or jealousy or what. All I know is that it's annoying.

JK13

The answer to your question is all of the above.

When someone asks me about my work, I tell them that my every artistic fart and belch is a masterwork of staggering genius that they should all fall down on their scrofulent knees to worship. That'll usually shut them up.

Often I find the most snobbish people in movies and literature are the folks who couldn't tell a story to save their lives. So they'd slather on the 'meaning' which actually means boring stories, dripping with pointless attempts at symbolism.

When I was in film school all the top movie snobs were into Michaelangelo Antonioni. He made very longwinded meandering films where characters wandered around talking about Nietzche and the architecture of Barcelona and NOTHING HAPPENED! When I'd tell people that I thought Antonioni was overrated and boring they'd look at me like I had two heads, one of them with horns.

I like to think of myself as a movie/lit geek instead of a movie snob. I like stories told with imagination, that generate excitement, and passion, not tedious pseudo-intellectual discussions of how the protagonist's hot dog stand was symbolic of fellatio and its relationship to the oppression of farmers in 3rd World Economies.

Then again, I might just be an different type of snob.:eek:

[fasteddie]

its hilairious u should bring this topic up. just last nite, im downtown having a few and meet this guy who says hes a writer. im a newbie at this so im geekin just to have someone to talk to about writing. the conversation invariably gets to 'so whats your screenplay about?' and i just start rolling into it. a few minutes into it this voice in my head screams 'SHUT THE FUCK UP!' luckily i listened. so i smile real big at my fellow writer and tell him, 'hate to be a dick, but i really dont wanna go into any further.' he understood, we laughed, and i still have my golden nugget all to myself.