{"id":180,"date":"2014-06-02T13:38:35","date_gmt":"2014-06-02T18:38:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bobwaldnerbooks.com\/?p=180"},"modified":"2014-06-02T13:38:35","modified_gmt":"2014-06-02T18:38:35","slug":"likeability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bobwaldnerbooks.com\/?p=180","title":{"rendered":"“Whether it’s good or bad, it is sometimes very pleasant, too, to smash things.”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fair warning:<\/span>\u00a0 this post contains some discussion about the personality of the\u00a0main character of Peripheral Involvement<\/em>.\u00a0 There’s nothing here that I would describe as a spoiler, plot-wise, but if you haven’t read the book, and if you’re the type of person that likes to read things with a totally clean slate, then maybe stop here (and go read the book)!\u00a0 For everyone else, please continue…<\/p>\n

The title of this post is a quote from one of my all-time favorite works, Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground<\/em>.\u00a0 I’ve been thinking about it lately,\u00a0since a reviewer remarked<\/a> on the fact\u00a0he didn’t find\u00a0the main character in Peripheral Involvement<\/em> to be\u00a0very likeable.\u00a0 I didn’t perceive his comments on Jack’s (lack of) likeability as a criticism, but it got me\u00a0pondering the question of how much an author should care about readers liking his or her protagonist.<\/p>\n

Dostoevsky didn’t seem to trouble himself much on that front.\u00a0 The nameless narrator of Notes from Underground<\/em> is about as far from amiable as one can get (in the first\u00a0two sentences\u00a0of the story, he descibes himself as “sick,” “spiteful” and “unattractve,” and he gets less sympathetic from there).\u00a0\u00a0Underground Man is probably not the guy that you want to take on a road trip to Vegas, but for my money he’s one of the most interesting characters I’ve ever run across in literature.<\/p>\n

Of course, writers of the stature and talent of Dostoevsky tend to be able to pull things off that might be difficult for writers\u00a0like, say, me.\u00a0 During the writing and editing process, I worried a fair bit about how my readers would react to Jack.\u00a0 I always understood that\u00a0he wasn’t going to come across as a\u00a0particularly likeable guy.\u00a0\u00a0You can\u00a0fairly describe him\u00a0as self-centered, arrogant, lazy, entitled and at least a little\u00a0misogynistic.\u00a0\u00a0He smokes\u00a0constantly, drinks heavily and\u00a0abuses an\u00a0array of illegal drugs.\u00a0\u00a0And those are\u00a0just the\u00a0shortcomings that come to mind off the top of my head.<\/p>\n

A fair number of Peripheral Involvement’s 282 pages are spent inside Jack’s head.\u00a0 I was afraid that if people found him truly reprehensible, they might have lost interest in\u00a0his story.\u00a0 On top of that, I was a little\u00a0apprehensive about the fact that so many of Jack’s experiences were taken from my own life.\u00a0 If people recognized chunks of me in the character, would they attribute all of those negative traits to me as well?\u00a0 After all, my mother was going to read this thing…<\/p>\n

I\u00a0thought about\u00a0trying to\u00a0smooth some of\u00a0Jack’s edges, and I\u00a0played with\u00a0a few additional\u00a0scenes here and there that would have shown off\u00a0some of\u00a0his more redeeming characteristics.\u00a0 In the end, I scrapped most of those edits.\u00a0\u00a0 I don’t regret it, because I think what’s left are the elements of Jack’s character that I wanted to explore, and that fit with the story.\u00a0 But I am curious to see what you think.\u00a0 Did you dislike Jack?\u00a0 Does it depend on whether you know me personally?\u00a0 I’d love to hear some thoughts on this!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fair warning:  this post contains some discussion about the personality of the main character of Peripheral Involvement.  There’s nothing here that I would describe as a spoiler, plot-wise, but if you haven’t read the book, and if you’re the type of person that likes to read things with a totally clean slate, then maybe stop here […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing"],"yoast_head":"\n"Whether it's good or bad, it is sometimes very pleasant, too, to smash things." - Bob Waldner<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bobwaldnerbooks.com\/?p=180\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""Whether it's good or bad, it is sometimes very pleasant, too, to smash things." - Bob Waldner\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Fair warning:  this post contains some discussion about the personality of the main character of Peripheral Involvement.  There’s nothing here that I would describe as a spoiler, plot-wise, but if you haven’t read the book, and if you’re the type of person that likes to read things with a totally clean slate, then maybe stop here […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/bobwaldnerbooks.com\/?p=180\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Bob Waldner\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-06-02T18:38:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"rjwaldner\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"rjwaldner\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bobwaldnerbooks.com\/?p=180\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/bobwaldnerbooks.com\/?p=180\",\"name\":\"\\\"Whether it's good or bad, it is sometimes very pleasant, too, to smash things.\\\" - Bob Waldner\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bobwaldnerbooks.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-06-02T18:38:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-06-02T18:38:35+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bobwaldnerbooks.com\/#\/schema\/person\/59b9730d45fdb7634b83d08ca746366a\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bobwaldnerbooks.com\/?p=180#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/bobwaldnerbooks.com\/?p=180\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bobwaldnerbooks.com\/?p=180#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/bobwaldnerbooks.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"“Whether it’s good or bad, it is sometimes very pleasant, too, to smash things.”\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bobwaldnerbooks.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/bobwaldnerbooks.com\/\",\"name\":\"Bob Waldner\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/bobwaldnerbooks.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bobwaldnerbooks.com\/#\/schema\/person\/59b9730d45fdb7634b83d08ca746366a\",\"name\":\"rjwaldner\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bobwaldnerbooks.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e31fd206b04136bddc4411a59fdbca4cb749c30d116864e0d8eb303fa8063ba7?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e31fd206b04136bddc4411a59fdbca4cb749c30d116864e0d8eb303fa8063ba7?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"rjwaldner\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/bobwaldnerbooks.com\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\"Whether it's good or bad, it is sometimes very pleasant, too, to smash things.\" - Bob Waldner","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/bobwaldnerbooks.com\/?p=180","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"\"Whether it's good or bad, it is sometimes very pleasant, too, to smash things.\" - Bob Waldner","og_description":"Fair warning:  this post contains some discussion about the personality of the main character of Peripheral Involvement.  There’s nothing here that I would describe as a spoiler, plot-wise, but if you haven’t read the book, and if you’re the type of person that likes to read things with a totally clean slate, then maybe stop here […]","og_url":"https:\/\/bobwaldnerbooks.com\/?p=180","og_site_name":"Bob Waldner","article_published_time":"2014-06-02T18:38:35+00:00","author":"rjwaldner","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"rjwaldner","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/bobwaldnerbooks.com\/?p=180","url":"https:\/\/bobwaldnerbooks.com\/?p=180","name":"\"Whether it's good or bad, it is sometimes very pleasant, too, to smash things.\" - Bob Waldner","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/bobwaldnerbooks.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-06-02T18:38:35+00:00","dateModified":"2014-06-02T18:38:35+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/bobwaldnerbooks.com\/#\/schema\/person\/59b9730d45fdb7634b83d08ca746366a"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/bobwaldnerbooks.com\/?p=180#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/bobwaldnerbooks.com\/?p=180"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/bobwaldnerbooks.com\/?p=180#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/bobwaldnerbooks.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"“Whether it’s good or bad, it is sometimes very pleasant, too, to smash things.”"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/bobwaldnerbooks.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/bobwaldnerbooks.com\/","name":"Bob Waldner","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/bobwaldnerbooks.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/bobwaldnerbooks.com\/#\/schema\/person\/59b9730d45fdb7634b83d08ca746366a","name":"rjwaldner","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/bobwaldnerbooks.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e31fd206b04136bddc4411a59fdbca4cb749c30d116864e0d8eb303fa8063ba7?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e31fd206b04136bddc4411a59fdbca4cb749c30d116864e0d8eb303fa8063ba7?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"rjwaldner"},"url":"https:\/\/bobwaldnerbooks.com\/?author=1"}]}},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4mwfo-2U","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bobwaldnerbooks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bobwaldnerbooks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bobwaldnerbooks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bobwaldnerbooks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bobwaldnerbooks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=180"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/bobwaldnerbooks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":186,"href":"https:\/\/bobwaldnerbooks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180\/revisions\/186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bobwaldnerbooks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bobwaldnerbooks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bobwaldnerbooks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}