And now I read that three of the top ten books sold in the UK at the moment are something called "Misery Lit" which appear just to be "waaaahhh! I was abused as a child, my life sucks like a convict at the gas chamber door1, waaahhhh". Now call me odd if you like but I really cannot see why anyone of sound mind would actually want to read something like this; I can see why someone would want to write a book about it as some sort of catharsis (hey, I like to moan on this blog - makes me feel better and hopefully some of it is a bit funny) but who on earth would want to actually read page after page of someone describing how daddy used to come to their room every night and to keep what went on as "our secret"... hells teeth just typing that made me feel uncomfortable!
I'd like to think that it's mainly people who have less than optimal lives reading this stuff: "well I may never ride through Paris in a sports car with the warm wind in my hair but at least my life wasn't the complete shit casserole hers was so that makes me feel a bit better."
However I rather suspect that, as Gary Feehily points out:
these books are popular because they flatter readers' sense of moral outrage while also secretly titillating.
i.e. the same reason that goat story is up there in the top 3 read news articles.
1 Hat tip to my fellow grumpy mythological friend 2 Gryphon for that one.
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