David Simon > Quotes > Quote > C liked it
“My standard for verisimilitude is simple and I came to it when I started to write prose narrative: fuck the average reader. I was always told to write for the average reader in my newspaper life. The average reader, as they meant it, was some suburban white subscriber with two-point-whatever kids and three-point-whatever cars and a dog and a cat and lawn furniture. He knows nothing and he needs everything explained to him right away, so that exposition becomes this incredible, story-killing burden. Fuck him. Fuck him to hell.”
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You really think the average reader in America can comfortably ascertain A Tale of Two Cities.You asked me if I hate the average reader. The answer is no. That question has no bearing on whether or not someone like David Simon should write FOR the average reader.
Maybe the average reader of the 19th century was capable of a higher standard of reading, since radio, tv, cell phones, video games, weren't constant distractions.Since David Simon isn't writing for a 19th century audience, I stand by the claim; which again, has no bearing on whether or not I hate anyone.
Its an exclamation of who he hates writing for, not who he hates in regards to welfare programs, day to day walks in the park, government census, or chats in the checkout aisle of a grocery store....I hate trying to teach philosophy to people sleeping in my classroom. But I don't simultaneously hate the person sleeping in my classroom.
I already talked about this in my first response.
Of course the time and place has a bearing on the concept of the average reader. Let's discuss the average reader of cromagnon man....? If I remember correctly, when Dickens was writing maybe half the population was literate? They also weren't bombarded by tv, radio, video games, bill boards the size of planes, iphones, ipads, PCs, laptops, etc. All of these things, as you well know, help to mitigate concentration and focus, and lead to rewards through fast paced rapid stimuli. Ergo the average reader of Dickens's time and Simon's are going to be different audiences, with different comprehension levels, different attention spans, and expecting different stories.
To say the average reader, today, is highly incompetent at reading is not irrelevant. If that's the average reader, than that's who someone needs to consider when they write a book.
Levels of reading competency help determined what stories one can and cannot follow, and understand what is being said. I have zero doubt comprehension of Shakespeare has been higher at previous times than it is presently in America.
Dude. Can't I like a quote without you turning it into an academic discourse on the most tedious minutiae. We clearly disagree. And the conversation is getting you no where.
I don't hate the average reader, but I see no possible way a writer could both be a genuine success and appeal to them.