So, is is just me, or over the past ten years, particularly the past five, men in literary fiction have been reduced to, for lack of a better term, "spineless wusses.". This is being done by both male and female authors. I don't think it's been done with a ton of premeditated malice. But the more I read modern literature, the more this trend seems to avail itself. I read quite a bit, and it's not like I've kept a running list of this, but off the top of my head, books like "The Ask", "Financial Lives of Poets" "Gone Girl" and "Next" follow a similar formula to create the "counter-hero" of the male persuasion. I should also say, I'm not bad mouthing these books, I enjoyed all four of them - I'm just commenting on a perceived (mine) trend and am curious if anyone agrees, disagrees, etc.
Here are some of their traits in no particular order that "new"men have; 1. they are always handsome enough to have a significant other and at least one waiting in the wings. 2. they blame problems in their life on either 9/11 or the financial meltdown in 2008. 3. they have a kid but are so inept they couldn't change a diaper without being hounded by their wife / girlfriend 4. they can't change a light bulb or know where the emergency oil switch is in their house 5. probably live in "cool" section of a city 6. def don't have a "normal" type job (honestly, is everyone in modern fiction an out-of-work newspaper or magazine man). 7. addicted to porn 8. has a shakey relationship with their father 9. is in no real rush to grow up, despite being in 30's and sometimes 40's 10. generally comes of like an asshole, but tries to save the day with occasional, magnanimous acts (that would be normal behavior by normal people in real life).
Honestly, if I was a women, and these were the "modern" men I'd have to choose from, I'd head straight for the convent. I don't want men to be written like cave-dwelling Neanderthals, but perhaps too much "sensitivity" has crept in. Kind of makes me wish their were a few more old school gum shoes and Supermans being written intelligently into modern fiction, not to be cliche. And I wish I had the skills to do it, because that is eventually where the pendulum will swing - men that are less philandering, more chivalrous, not afraid of their own carbon-footprint. So if you want to get ahead of the writing-trend curve, that's my free advice.
I can also live without modern writers who are so obviously afraid of "an office job" that it leaks into their fiction, barely concealed. Jeez, I work in an office, it's not a death sentence that you'd think it would be if you believed everything on the page of these books. I may not have the talent these guys have, but at least I'm not petrified to learn PowerPoint or host a WebX meeting.
So, again, the fiction is still good - but I think there is a noticeable trend out there that's been taking place for many, many years and I'm just curious if anyone agrees?
Thanks, Deets999
You should read more genre fiction, it will ease your mind.
I haven't noticed any of this in literature (but it may be what I am reading), although it is heavily featured in advertising and sit-coms.
I haven't really noticed it in fiction either, though I'll second what Sparrow said.
And honestly, office jobs are one of the worst, most soul-suckingly useless ways to waste one's life. I did it for the better part of 15 years and regret every single fucking second.
I don't understand what people don't like about office jobs. It's nice. Sure, I don't have a creative outlet in my work. My work isn't interesting, but so what? That's what everything else in my life is for. But I guess some people have this thing where they ARE their work. I don't have that.
Well, I think we'd all love to make enough money to support ourselves doing what we love. It's why people love sports stars so much--they get to PLAY A GAME and make MILLIONS! If your favorite thing in the world is basketball, writing, or making dolls from wire and discarded buttons, of course you'd rather be making money doing that than doing whatever it is you do to pay the bills.
But yeah, I've always found my job secondary to my interests outside my job, with a semi-exception for when I was on Active Duty, because the military really is a lifestyle when you are full time. But I liked the lifestyle, so... *shrug*.
I wouldn't care as much if every job I've ever had wasn't a mire of backstabbing, politics, and persecution. I was fairly decent at most of what I did, which made me a target in multiple ways. Forced advancement was one of them (being basically forced to promote when I didn't want to because it meant loss of freedom in exchange for money I didn't need), and backstabbing by people who thought I was a problem, too ambitious, or an obstacle to their plans. Money doesn't mean much to me. I mean, I like having money, having that security and cushion, but I don't care that much about being rich. As long as I've got a little extra spending money and a place to live, I'm pretty content.
But even without that, I still wouldn't enjoy it. Are there honestly people that enjoy repetitive tasks that never really result in anything? My work was always unsatisfying. The only thing that got me through it was the fact that I could ignore people and listen to music, sometimes audiobooks, podcasts, whatever.
The thing about work is that you spend most of your time doing it. If you aren't doing what you love, consider how many hours of your life are wasted by the end. I spent probably 4 times as much time with my coworkers than my wife. I got to write maybe an hour or two a day, at best, and this was on top of dealing with absolute exhaustion due to being overworked, tending to a wife with fibromyalgia (or whatever cocktail of awfulness it may really be at its roots), and not being able to sleep. I hated getting up in the morning, every day, and there was almost nothing in my life that made it worth it. I drank like a fish for a while. My marriage ended for a variety of reasons, but primarily because I just plain couldn't take it anymore. It was too much responsibility that never took me anywhere, a never-ending hamster wheel.
So yeah, if you get some satisfaction from going to work every day and filing papers, more power to you. I certainly wish I did. It's much, much easier. It's never worked for me, and it took me almost 30 years of heading in the wrong direction to realize that everything I'd been pursuing was everything I didn't want.
you could honestly be talking about a throwback to early 90's slacker types in pop culture. your rant IMMEDIATELY made me think of Reality Bites and Clerks.
i think the difference now is the sense of entitlement in these characters - the early 90's characters were content to stay poor and struggling because of their choices of lifestyle and opinions, but the characters now are resentful and pouty and still want all the Stuff, and think it should fall on them because of their righteousness in bucking the system.
It's because modern life is easy in a lot of ways and therefore the existential bullshit has more room to breathe. If the guy was a badass frontier pioneer or something, it wouldn't matter that he couldn't change a diaper, it would never be seen as a shortcoming.
This is nothing new; it's the story of 20th century literature.
And as JGB pointed out, there's plenty of tough-guy stuff out there.
It bothers me that people feel they are entitled to do work that fulfills them or whatever. This is my problem probably, not anyone else's. I was raised by my depression-era grandparents, and had I complained of not feeling fulfilled by working on the farm, they would have likely beaten me. The purpose of work is not necessarily to be fulfilling, in my POV. That isn't what it's here for.
I might be a miserable jaded person.
THERE ARE CHILDREN STARVING!
I don't know. I mean, yes, some people feel entitled to all sorts of shit, but most people I know just want better and aren't sure how to get it. I think it's pretty natural to feel like you are wasting your life if you hate your job and you spend the majority of your waking hours there. I think we'll see a lot more of this now that people in jobs that provide steady pay are going to feel like they HAVE to stay there because the economy just isn't going to support changing jobs and going back to get your degree.
I think it's pretty noble for people to want more. Isn't that what most of us are doing here? If you're submitting your writing and trying to get published, you must at least entertain the notion that you deserve pay and/or recognition for the work you do outside of your day job. Does that make us entitled? Maybe. I don't think so though.
And, of course, the purpose of work isn't to fulfill you--it's to feed you and house you. But if you have to do it for the majority of your waking hours it would be nice if it were also fulfilling.
Exactly. It has nothing to do with entitlement. Writing a novel is about a billion percent harder than the day job I had. The day job I had was easy, I could do it with my eyes closed, but it made my daily life a misery. I sometimes found myself wondering if it wouldn't be easier to just step in front of a truck, because the job was easy, but living that kind of a life isn't. Had I been outside mucking stalls, I'd have been much happier. At least I wouldn't have been trapped in that tiny grey, tasteless, lifeless hell.
No, work certainly isn't there to entertain us. But if you have to work, why shouldn't that be toward something you value than at something which actively devalues your life?
If you aren't doing what you really want to do, you don't really want it bad enough. If you don't make it happen, it's your own fault. The benefit of living in a first world country in unbelievable luxury is that you have the comfort to even aspire to do what you want. Take advantage of it and make it happen!
Reading the original post, this stood out to me
8. has a shakey relationship with their father 9. is in no real rush to grow up, despite being in 30's and sometimes 40's
Which in turn made me think of this quote from Fight Club
We're a generation of men raised by women.
Yeah, I know. I'm quoting Fight Club. Stone me why don't you. Anyway, again, this made me think of that age old writing advice "Write what you know."
What this generation, as well as recent generations, know, is that many of us grew up with only one parent present most of the time. On top of this, the image you're talking about, while I don't think it's some sort of literary pandemic, it pervades all media, not just books. Flip on the TV. Watch a recent movie. This image you're describing has been popular for a while now. It's just the evolution of culture. While I don't agree totally with that Fight Club quote up there that we've all been raised in single-family homes, you have to admit it's a lot more common than oh, say, 30 years ago. I think it contributes in part to the portrayal of men in fiction and media. But only when coupled with a ton of other factors. Changing political and social climate, a decrease in censorship, the eschewing of "traditional" American values, and the blending (or abolishing) of archaic gender roles. On top of a million other things, I'm sure.
I have a million thoughts floating in my head on this subject, but I'm way too tired to put them together into a clear post. I don't even know if this post was clear. Deal with it.
So, I guess I agree with you to a point. I just haven't seen it in fiction as much as in everything else.
It's because modern life is easy in a lot of ways and therefore the existential bullshit has more room to breathe. If the guy was a badass frontier pioneer or something, it wouldn't matter that he couldn't change a diaper, it would never be seen as a shortcoming.
This is nothing new; it's the story of 20th century literature.
And as JGB pointed out, there's plenty of tough-guy stuff out there.
that ^ pretty well sums it all up, i think.
