There’s been a big to-do on those darn argumentative internets regarding George R. R. Martin’s treatise on how he should be allowed to have his own life and not be forced to simply churn out book after book like some sort of novel-writing automat. Several notable authors have hopped onto the bandwagon to defend Martin’s quest for peace, including John Scalzi, who delivers (what I think is) the most damning essay of them all.

Now, it should be noted that I agree with them. Authors are human beings, with their own sets of wants, needs, and desires, and they should be allowed — or, more appropriately, expected — to chase after them.

But I’m not here to defend them, because then I would be just one more small, meek voice on top of an enormous pile of much louder and more prominent voices, and that would just be silly. No, I’m here to try and explain how we all got here in the first place.

It’s actually pretty simple: it’s the consumer mentality. We have built up here in our wonderful little capitalist society a consumer mentality that people who buy things (i.e., consumers) are always right, should have their every whim catered to explicitly, and must at all times be happy about every aspect of their consumerism, or else. Just read the Consumerist for a few minutes, and you’ll see just what I mean. If our happy meal doesn’t come with a toy, if our download speeds are not acceptable, if our paint is eggshell instead of off-white, we complain. Loudly. And make serious demands of the corporations that in turn (sometimes) treat those demands seriously. It’s what we do. We’re consumers, and we feel we have a right to make sure companies know when we aren’t happy with something they’re doing — or NOT doing.

I’m not even trying to say that that’s wrong. We should demand the world from companies that promise the world, especially if we’re paying for the privilege. It’s not necessarily wrong, it’s just where we are right now as a society.

Unfortunately, this consumer mentality has leaked into our artistic leisurely entertainment devices, as well. Let’s face it, authors (in most cases) can be just as faceless as the faceless corporations we scream at in disgust on a daily basis about our tall cafe grande double mocha whip that was made with — gasp! — 2% milk instead of skim?! Oh, the humanity! Call the authorities. They must be stopped.

And so authors become victim to the dreaded consumer mentality just like the McDonald’s, the Starbuck’s, and the Comcast’s of the world. People begin to make demands and have expectations about books being of a certain quality or delivered within a certain timeframe. They complain when the roles of favorite characters become diminished in a sequel, or when a highly-anticipated novel is late. Again. They are consumers. They know no different.

Now, once again I reiterate: I am not attempting to excuse the behavior of those angry and nonsensical fools that think folks like Martin should be writing them their books and doing nothing else. I hope to someday be one of those marvelous authors that is so wildly popular, people will actually beg me to write my next novel. I could only be so lucky.

But we have to face the fact. This behavior is not going to go away. Never. Let us not forget that books — despite how influential and altruistic we readers deem our hobby to be — are a consumable media. We are consumers who purchase a product that a creator has produced. We exchange money for a good, and therefore have expectations attached to that particular transaction. As such, authors will continue to be lumped together with the rest of the faceless corporations and be reviled when their products do not match expected quality standards.

However, unlike Starbucks with its thousands of baristas, or Subway with its thousands of sandwich assemblers, an author is one person. One single solitary human being that is producing one single solitary work of art at a time. We shouldn’t be berating them for not meeting our wild expectations. We should be thanking them for creating something beautiful and amazing and allowing us to share in the finished piece.

Even in our capitalist society with our consumer mentality, we have to remember that. For as tiny and seemingly insignificant a detail as it might be, it makes all the difference in the world.