An Open Letter to Laurell K Hamilton

[naomi_jay]

Dear Laurell,

I get that the whole, “woe, my angst is what drives me” thing is, well... your thing. You work very hard at presenting an image to the world of being dark, gothic, misunderstood, possessed by personal demons, driven by the ghosts of your past, and only able to create when you’re suffering. How much of that is true and how much is simply an image, I don’t know, and whilst I’ve speculated about it in the past, I don’t really care anymore. It’s what you do, it’s what you want the world to see; your reasons are your own, and I’m sure the presentation of this image satisfies something in you. That’s fine. I don’t read your books anymore, I don’t follow you on Twitter or Facebook, so I can ignore it as I’m sure you ignore the constant criticisms that come your way because of it.

But then I stumbled upon this:

 
And it made me very angry.

I am not a believer in the trope that Arte = Pain, that creation can only come through suffering, or that the only worthwhile writing authors can produce is rooted in angst and misery. I am not a proponent of bleeding on my keyboard. I am not a fan of the concept of the Muse. Yes, of course I believe writers should feel for their stories. Yes, I know that the act of writing is a hard one, and that sometimes we write something that hurts us or surprises us, or conjures up old wounds for us. But I do not believe we need those wounds in order to produce great books. I do not believe that the only good writer is an unhappy one.

And I do not like it when people who should understand the impact their words can have make cracks about mental illness. Creativity isn’t a mental illness and you don’t need one in order to be creative. More than that, mental illness – particularly psychosis, which you blithely joke about to your 25000+ followers – is serious, scary, life-changing, difficult to live with, difficult to treat, and incredibly misunderstood. Joking about medicating away the voices completely undermines and belittles the experiences of people who do live with those voices, and the long, painful path they walk to recovery – or even just balance. Equating the act of writing a book with managing a serious mental illness is, for me, not just immature and silly, but dangerous.

It spreads the message that Arte = Pain, one I believe to be potentially damaging. It adds to the idea that those crazy people with their voices are not worthy of real support in a society that is already too quick to throw tablets at people instead of trying to treat them. It tells writers who are just starting out that unless they suffer, they are not good enough to make it. Or that if they suffer and let it get in the way of their writing, they’re not good enough then either. The idea that we should embrace mental illness to fuel creativity is also dangerous, and again belittles exactly how serious these conditions can be.

Am I overreacting? Possibly. I have my reasons for being overly-sensitive to this kind of thing. But I don’t apologise for that because this is something I’m passionate about – both writing and the treatment and understanding of mental illness. Conflating one with the other, or saying you need one to feed the other, is aggravating to me to say the least. If I am a good writer, it’s not because I’ve suffered from depression. It’s because I’ve studied hard and worked my ass off, and continue to do so, to produce the best writing I can. If I am a bad writer, it’s also not because I’ve suffered from depression or failed to use it to my advantage.

And for those of us who do struggle with mental illness, take the meds, see the counsellors, and still produce awesome books, well, we’ve done that despite those voices, that pain, that doubt, that anxiety, not because of it.

Look, I’m writing this from a place of anger. I know I can’t speak for every writer or every person with a mental illness. But this is what I believe, and again, I won’t apologise for it. I’m sure I’m not the only person in the world who thinks some of the stuff you come out with is... misguided and I’m sure I won’t be the last. But when I see people chirping that statements like yours above are “the sign of a very talented writer,” I despair. I wish you, as an NYT bestseller would be more aware of the effect your words can have.

Yours,
Naomi

Comments

[nathreee.livejournal.com]

*applause*

[muninnhuginn]

Well said.

[shinryou.livejournal.com]

Yes, and it should be said more often...

[dwg.livejournal.com]

If you think you're angry now, well...this in from my Twitter search field: "As a nurse I've long believed that most schizophrenics r really just artists lacking the patience, skill or motivation to create."

I CAN'T EVEN.

[naomi-jay.livejournal.com]

I can't even begin to unpack all the idiocy in that.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

I am so hoping it's a troll/sarcasm. The alternative gives me headsplode D:

[azhure.livejournal.com]

*adds to the applause*

[six-old-cars.livejournal.com]

Hear hear!

[alex-beecroft.livejournal.com]

Ah, the "I'm more hardcore than you" game, whereby you get to claim you're more special than the plebs by virtue of [whatever]. If only everyone saw it for the egotism it is, rather than being all sheeplike and nodding along.

[mermaiden.livejournal.com]

Right fucking on.

Your articulation above is perfect, and I can not add anything to it, so I'm going to go in the opposite direction:

What the flying fuck. :////////////// Good gods, Hamilton. GOOD GODS.

[naomi-jay.livejournal.com]

That was pretty much my first reaction. I had to delete a lot of very angry tweets.

[sanguinepen.livejournal.com]

I've met LKH a couple of times at signings, and she always came across as cheerful with no angst or anything like that. If anything she seemed pretty boring for someone who self-avatars everything she writes. I don't think I've ever respected her as an author, and if it's remotely possible, I might think less of her now. (But that would be hard.)

She's a pretentious princess who got lucky, and now she's raking in the money, trying to sound like she matters. I haven't heard anyone say they liked one of her books in YEARS, and if they read a new one, it's out of obligation and curiosity like watching a car accident.

*highfive*

[naomi-jay.livejournal.com]

She's a pretentious princess who got lucky, and now she's raking in the money, trying to sound like she matters

Sums it up perfectly!

[intothenyght.livejournal.com]

Everything about this post is a gargantuan WIN.

I have absolutely nothing to add and you are absolutely right.

[naeko.livejournal.com]

I don't actually see anything wrong with joking about anything no matter how harsh, insensitive, serious, ridiculous or painful it is. Humor is there to cheer us up and not everyone has the same sense of humor, which means that every joke has the potential to insult, annoy or make laugh. Trying to put limits on what can be turned into a joke doesn't help anyone.

However, I don't think LKH is joking at all, which is really sad for her. I believe she's just so tragically ignorant about the world that she doesn't understand that voices in one's head are a serious issue that cannot be ignored except when you need to write a shitty book or paint an ugly picture. I honestly believe that she has the emotional and social maturity of a fourteen year old and that she thinks saying things like this makes her look deep to everyone and that those who complain are just jealous. She has enough moronic followers and clearly surrounds herself with enough yes men that this idea is getting reinforced, which is very sad.

I don't thinks he has any concept of ever accidentally insulting anyone, which is really just another example of her emotional immaturity.

[naomi-jay.livejournal.com]

I had a knee-jerk reaction to that tweet, I know. It's not that I think some things are off-limits to joke about. It's more a matter of intent to me, and I think authors who are as much in the public eye as LKH (or anyone who's in the public eye to that degree) should be aware of the effect their words have.

We know/believe she's tragically ignorant and unaware of how she sounds and appears, but those yes men and idiot followers don't, and that's what bothers me. Even if just one moron on Twitter now thinks mental illness is a cool way to be creative, or that leaving mental illness untreated is fine and dandy, well, then that annoys me.

[naeko.livejournal.com]

She's not creating problems or ignorance, she's just a vocal part of it. She doesn't make her followers believe one thing or another, they have to be on a similar path of ignorance in order to do that. If they have actual experience with mental illness, they likely know better. If they don't have the experience with it, then they are ignorant anyway, and her comment isn't really making any change in that.

Yes, she should be using her visibility (I hesitate to call it fame) to make a positive difference, but the fact is she's not responsible for what her retarded followers believe or what they take it upon themselves to learn. Her comment, whether serious or not, has a very, very slim chance of making anyone who read it immediately believe that everyone who suffers from mental illness is just a creative genius who's too lazy to do something about it.

I don't believe she's any sort of positive influence and I don't think it's right for her to be talking about all the things she knows nothing about as if she's the only expert ever. Believe me, if I had any say in the matter, she would at least use less definitive language in her comments, and make it clear that they are HER OPINIONS and NOT FACTS. But, I also believe the only people who really care positively about what she says think she's a genius, and so they're lost to all logical thought anyway :/

[naomi-jay.livejournal.com]

You know, I agree with you totally intellectually, but emotionally I'm still all "this is wrong and you should get why!!!" (You being Laurell, not you, lol). This got under my skin more than her usual inane prattling.

[crystal waid (from livejournal.com)]

I FINALLY figured out how to leave comments over here! Dang Google wont let me thru my account. Anyway, good post today. I am VERY disappointed in LKH and haven't read much of her in years. And the mental illness comment? Damn, she and her ego need to go take a hike...