It can become an exercise in trying to get the reader to like and admire you instead of an exercise in creative art.

I think serious art is supposed to make us confront things that are difficult in ourselves and in the world.

I think TV promulgates the idea that good art is just art which makes people like and depend on the vehicle that brings them the art.

The reader becomes God, for all textual purposes. I see your eyes glazing over, so I'll hush.

We're not keen on the idea of the story sharing its valence with the reader. But the reader's own life 'outside' the story changes the story.

This is nourishing, redemptive; we become less alone inside.