Unlikable Characters and Glass Maze

My Clarion-mate Ramsey Shehadeh maintains an amazing blog that I visit often for its interesting viewpoints and incisive writing. He's a seriously awesome writer. You can read one of his stories here, Jimmy's Roadside Cafe in Strange Horizons. It's a post-apocalyptic story I actually love (and generally I find post-apo stuff dreary).

Anyway. Recently, Ramsey posted about Unlikable Characters, making reference to an item by Robert Bausch. The point Bausch made was that an author should never care whether his characters are unlikable so long as they are knowable enough for the reader to have an emotional investment in them. Ramsey generally agreed with this.

Speaking as a reader, I didn't. If a work's main interest comes from the protagonist (or protagonists) then I want that person to be someone I'd like to spend time with. Why would I develop an emotional investment in someone I don't like on the page, any more than I would in real life? Why would I want to offer mindshare to someone who icks me out?

( Read more for Exceptions. )