Why all the first-person hate?

[christinex1001]

Lately, because the IT department here at work is completely lame and I still don't have a functioning version of CS3 on my Mac, thus forcing me to spend my mornings surfing the Net because I have nothing else to do (yeah, OK, I could be writing, but I think between the cancer-diagnosis and impending surgery for my father, rat-chewed A/C ducting [which means even though it's getting hot here, I can't run the air conditioning], the dead garbage disposal, the mold growing in my basement, the plumbing to the apartment over the garage that still hasn't been fixed, the leaking radiator on my car, and attempting to prepare for a party this weekend, my concentration is sort of shot to hell, ya know?), I have been hanging out on the AAR (All About Romance) boards. And one thing I've seen crop up enough times to trip my WTF sensors is people saying they won't read a book if it's in first person, or, maybe, grudgingly saying they'll try something by an author they like "even though it's written in first person."

Um...what?

I happen to love first person. Some of my favorite books in the world are written in first person. I grew up reading tons of stuff written (well) in first person. So why do so many people have such an aversion to that particular p.o.v.? Is it that they're uncomfortable being in just one character's head through an entire story? (Personally, I'd much rather have a tight first person than the head-hopping I've seen in some of the stuff I've had to edit.) Do they like to project their own psyche onto the lead character and have a harder time doing so if a book is written in first person?

Maybe I'm feeling defensive because the book I'm writing now is in first person, but I do find this whole thing rather perplexing.

Comments

[mustafear.livejournal.com]

Way too many people attempt first person (*cough* Twilight *cough*) that aren't good at it- they turn it into a completely introspective and dull read. I hadn't read much bad fanfic when I started (got lucky, I guess) so I didn't realize this until I started getting comments on my story like, "Wow, I only read this because my friend told me to and I didn't expect to like it because it is in first person but... blah blah blah etc."

[christinex1001.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah, we all know my feelings on Twilight. :-P

It's too bad, because I think it's such a fun way to tell a story when it's done right.

The funny thing is, of all my stories on ff.n, the one that has the most reviews is No Return, which is told at least partially in first person. Go figure.

[starshield.livejournal.com]

I wonder if perhaps it because of the rash of carbon copy chick lit (not that all books labelled chick lit are bad, but there has been a proliferation of mediocre chick lit recently) is in first person and the whole POV is getting a bad rep? Dunno...

Looking through my bookcase, I tend not to buy 1st person POV, but that is mainly because what I read is rarely in it. It doesn't bother me though, although when I write I personally do better in third.

[christinex1001.livejournal.com]

Maybe. I actually haven't read ANY chick lit, so I wouldn't know. I guess that's sort of odd, since lately I've tended toward writing romance that has a chick-lit flavor to it, but maybe it's a good thing that I haven't done a whole lot of market research. :-P