Review: My Father, the Pornographer: A Memoir by Chris Offutt.

 

This is an odd one. I just finished this audiobook during my commute last week: My Father, the Pornographer: A Memoir by Chris Offutt.

I put off reading this one for years because the father in question, Andrew Offutt, is the creator of one of my favorite fantasy characters, Hanse Shadowspawn, in the superlative Thieves' World shared world setting. I'd already discovered the troubling background of another of my favorite writers from my teen years (David Eddings) and Marion Zimmer Bradley's issues are also well known (thankfully, she was never a favorite of mine). 

So I was apprehensive about what this would reveal about Offutt. It wasn't shocking that he had made a living writing pornography, that was common amongst many different sorts of writers in the 1960s and 1970s. It was a way to pay the bills, and many were "true believers" in the sexual revolution. But previews of the work hinted at darker revelations and Chris Offutt seemed to have a chip on his shoulder regarding his father. 

It was not as bad as I had feared. First, the work really is a memoir, but its Chris Offutt's memoir. His relationship with his father was obviously troubled - emotionally abusive would seem to be the best description from the son's point of view. and that's the only point of view we really get. This father and son never seem to have quite reached a meeting of the minds. 

My father was not a talker, but he was extremely supportive even when his son was following obsessions he didn't really understand. I was blessed when it came to parents, and I realize that. So I am very reluctant to judge other's views of their parents. They lived that experience, not I. I felt this was a one-sided account, but that doesn't make it wrong or inaccurate. Other readers have spoken of the empathy they felt Chris display here towards his father. I didn't really get that, but I certainly didn't get hate either. 

A specific passage, about Chris being sexually abused by an older man while a teenager, abuse his parents were never aware of, illustrated how crazy people of my generation are when they extol "free range kids" as a parenting style. Chris Offutt definitely grew up "free range" and he suffered a horrific assault because of that. It certainly filled me with guilt and doubt about my own child rearing. 

In general, this work made me question myself as a father. I know I have never belittled or berated my children, but passages describing how Andrew Offutt would "destroy" people in debates hit far too close to home for me. :( 

This work also left me frustrated. Andrew Offutt wrote in the genres of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Phonography (crossed with the other two, quite often). His son covers his porn career exhaustively, and he describes his early science fiction career, which he seems to have felt showed great promise that his father "betrayed" by turning to porn. but he doesn't discuss his fantasy writing at all. Andrew Offutt was the editor of an important Sword & Sorcery anthology series, Swords Against Darkness. The series was curated, not simply slapped together, and included Offutt's comments and analysis of why the tales mattered. It made the argument that S&S was not only fun, but that it could matter, and his son barely mentions this seminal work (which earned Offutt a spot on the famous Appendix N list). And in the '80s, as the porn market was drying up, Offutt was the creator of Thieves' World's most popular character and one of its most consistent authors. 

Offutt never even mentions Hanse in his work, and that is frustrating because the corpus of short stories about Hanse is a bildungsroman of uncommon clarity and insight. He may have been a poor father, but as a writer, Andrew Offutt showed in the Hanse short stories (and two novels) remarkable insight into the adolescent male, as well as a realistic view of young love. Did Chris never read any of these? Given the nature of his memoir this part of his father's writing should have been given at least a little attention. 

Further, for both Andrew Offutt and his wife, in the 1970s and 1980s the fan convention culture seems to have been a big part of their lives. And their children were apparently dragged to it without being made a part of it. I understand why that would make one angry and resentful - I imagine it would provide a similar feeling in later years as those children who were forced to attend church services and bible school. But Chris Offutt's contempt for the fans at those conventions was more than a little off-putting. Of course, it was also a rather stinging indictment of "free range" parenting. 

In short, Offutt seems to be shamed by his father's porn writing, but he seems to be perhaps even more ashamed, or at least contemptuous, of his "genre" writing. As a result, this memoir give us no real insight into Offutt's fantasy writing or his place in the genre's corpus. The work simply ignores the area where Offutt very likely had his biggest impact as an author and editor. 

I finished this book feeling melancholy and sad, but also very lucky in my own familial relationships. On the other hand, I have to admit Chris Offutt is a brilliant writer, as other reviewers have noted. This isn't a fun read, but I am glad I read it.

All views in this blog are my own and represent the views of no other person, organization, or institution.