content: "Unlikable Characters" So I'm writing something and I'm uncertain as to whether the main character is unlikable or not. And I read this little blog thing this woman wrote https://www.writersdigest.com/writing-articles/by-writing-goal/write-better-characters/unlikable-characters-case-study And basically what she says is that, for some reason, unlikable characters are celebrated in film and television but they're pathologically hated in literature. For example, you get that person complaining endlessly about what a total piece of shit Holden Caulfield is and how Holden Caulfield ruined Catcher in the Rye and "I hope I never have to read that stupid book again." Now, one example from my own experience was Grendel in John Gardner's masterpiece of the same name. I hated the main character back in high school. I found him gross, depressing, evil, etc. But I eventually grew to love him when I opened my mind more to the ideas of the book. I think the reason why this is the case is because with television, it's really dumb stuff -- the content is sort of forced into your system without any effort, whereas with a book you actually have to do work and concentrate. So perhaps it has something to do with the amount of work that you're willing to invest in a character -- most people who hate Holden Caulfield frankly don't know anything about him, and if you were to ask them, they would go "oh well it was just a bunch of blah blah blah I'm depressed, blah blah blah everyone sucks." Hot take: people who just dismiss literature because "the main character is shitty" are probably of the low IQ variety