thoughtful
calico_reaction has selected Feed as her October book club selection, and is currently moderating a vigorous discussion of the book. She does good, critical review, and you should check her out.Second up, I'm linking to this in part because other people keep pointing it out to me, often with a "hey hey you should go participate in the discussion" rider. So I wanted to take a moment to explain why I'll read reviews*, but won't read or participate in book discussions.
Having an author join a discussion of their own book often has the unintentional effect of both censoring and stilling the dialog. Which is not to say that people won't happily say "you suck" when they know I'll see it...but people who think that's fun aren't usually the sort of people who really want to do critical analysis, and people who really want to do critical analysis sometimes get uncomfortable critically analyzing someone who's standing right there. This goes double for readers who are also friends of mine. It's way harder to be harsh on a book, or critical of a plot point, when you're worried about hurting the feelings of a friend.
Plus, anything I say about what I meant—not how the text was interpreted—sort of sounds like holy writ. "No, no, you have that wrong..." is not something you want to hear from an author during a book discussion. Ever. It can be really easy for an author to come off as a condescending brat when they chime in on this sort of thing.
Lastly...the "book as child" comparison doesn't stand up for me, most of the time. My books don't need to be fed, don't get the stomach flu, and don't wake me up at two in the morning to look for monsters in their closets. But there are times when the comparison holds. Imagine putting a small child in a room with two-way mirrors all the way around it, like a zoo enclosure. The child doesn't know you're out there, which is good, because you and your friends have gathered to rip that child apart.
She's funny looking. His clothes don't fit. She has too many freckles. His toes are weird. She's not smart enough. He's not cute enough. She's too tall. He's too short. She doesn't play with her dolls the way you think she should. He keeps sticking Lego pieces in his mouth. And so on, and so on, until every possible flaw, real or perceived, has been picked apart in detail. Someone will opine that the child should never have been born. Someone else will opine that the world would be better if the child had been taken behind a barn and shot.
Now imagine that the child's mother is standing right there, listening to every word you say, but unable to defend her child from you in any useful way—in fact, attempting to defend the child will just result in her being attacked as a bad mother on top of everything else.
And this is what it's like to be an author at a book discussion, even a good, civilized, totally bitchin' one like
calico_reaction's tend to be. Which is why I don't read or participate in them.Now you know. And knowing is half the battle! The other half involves airborne rabies hybrids and a hand-held mister.
(*That aren't posted on Goodreads or Amazon.)
November 2 2010, 21:23:22 UTC 6 years ago
November 3 2010, 00:15:11 UTC 6 years ago