"Please don't pick the most provocative thing in an article or post to complain about in the thread. Find something interesting to respond to instead."

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

That does double when the provocative thing isn't even in the article, but has been imported because of some generic association.

I would not say that it was provocative, news is about lecture from author, so I provided my opinion and additional context on author. Is it provocative to mention dislike for author based on what she says and back it with evidence? In context of novel writing I find it highly relevant to understand who is author, so I can choose if I want to learn more.

not sure if this is lost in translation or this is difference in how we understand her words, but she doesn’t want to limit her books to some kind of “chosen” people, it’s more that she is against over simplifications - for the sake of popularity over quality. So she is writing assuming that reader has some background, if not - to encourage they to gain some and then read her novels with full understanding and pleasure.

Thanks. Appreciate the additional context.

I love to read, fiction almost exclusively, and I strongly believe that the written word damn well is for everybody. Tastes will differ but why set out from the beginning by trying to exclude people? It just strikes me as snobbery and I don’t like it.

I have tried to say more on the subject but it just upsets me that this author is saying the average person is not good enough to enjoy their work.

I have more than enough material to consume already and while I was excited to find another author whose work to read, I simply won’t bother after reading the article you have linked.

For several years through some of the media and people and thoughts I have been exposed to, I had come to the belief that one should compartmentalize their feelings and respond to them individually as appropriate. X stimulus deserves X’ reaction, Y stimulus deserves Y’ reaction, don’t cross the streams etc. Recently I saw an interview with Ada Limón, the current poet laureate in the US, and she spoke about how that is simply not the way of human life and it fucking clicked for me (I believe this was nearly a throwaway statement for her, but it affected me deeply) we are feeling beings and the things interact; I am not going to waste my time on a snob at this point in my life. Might have been different if I’d read her work and found it beautiful but you got there first and I am grateful.

https://www.pbs.org/video/poet-laureate-sot-1658960090/

She’s a novelist that wants to write challenging novels to progress or push the medium. If they are read by every Tom, Dick and Harry then she’s failed. I don’t understand why this is obscene.

I might be in this case strict on being humble, but you won't hear that kind of comment from person that tries to share something good with world. Why should we judge good novelist based on being too novel to understand for average person? Should I call myself better than others, because some don't know Kubernetes? That would be poor way to judge in general and for me, it's not ok to gatekeep knowledge in any way.

> you won't hear that kind of comment from person that tries to share something good with world.

First, not every literary thing worth sharing with the world needs to be at the intellectual level of Donald Duck magazine.

Second, some folks may want to challenge the world to rise above mediocrity.

If not, we'd all still be programming in BASIC with line numbers.

In general I agree, but details are important here. I don't disagree that progress is important, I don't disagree that everything requires some prerequisites, but I don't agree that being novel or hard to understand is positive on its own.

I also don't agree with her mentality "I don't write it for average people, because they won't understand it, so deal with it", because even most complex and advanced knowledge can be understand by average person, if that person puts effort and someone offers support, but instead she prefer to put herself in group of people that believe that their work is so great that only greatest minds can understand it and others should find something more ordinary.

You can either create "great" content and brag how great, hard and mystic it is or support others in understanding it, let them formulate their own opinions on your work and create positive community around it.

Pynchon would probably say something worse.

Fwiw, while I only know a bit of Kubernetes, I definitely liked myself more before I knew it. :)

I have mixed feelings about it

On one hand I do understand that not everyone will read her masterpieces 'correctly' (for me what she said in OP's link was boring)

and she's straight about it that entry level is not low and that's fine, it works the same way with e.g "Fermat's Last Theorem proof" - you cannot just wake up, start reading it and understand it (or even recognize symbols)

But on the other hand she's pretty snarky about it, but she's Polish after all, so it is in genes I guess :)