On being a reader...
Thu, Sep. 23rd, 2004 08:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterRandom thoughts sparked by various discussions on Amazon.com reviews, on book reviews in general, on the prevalence of writers on my FL, and other such things. (Not sure if I need a disclaimer, but none of this is meant to single out anyone on the FL, er, unless one of you is secretly OSC, nor is it meant to be offensive.)
It's very interesting reading my FL because so many of the people talking about books on it are people who are writing books and short stories and the like. It's a very different perspective from what I'm used to -- I'm very much a reader, and I've never felt the desire to be a writer, despite occasional adolescent dabbling. And I've spent a great deal of life reading without thinking of the author, or, if I do, I had a concept of the author as some sort of all-powerful being who was very far removed from this world. Also, being in Taiwan for eight years sort of limits one's opportunities to go to signings and the like. Going to my first signing (this year, Orson Scott Card) was very strange. I think sometimes I like that distance from the author, particularly in OSC's case, seeing as how I violently disagree with some of his personal views and his interpretation of his books.
The strangest part of it was feeling very protective of his books while reading or hearing his opinions on those books -- I mean, he's the author, he wrote them, obviously they mean something personal to him. But I wanted to figuratively grab the book and hug it to my chest and not let him tamper with my view of the book, or my experiences of reading the book, because it was my book that I had read in sixth grade and it had probably changed my mental landscape rather dramatically. I also come from the school of thought in literature that while authorial intent matters, it is not the be-all-end-all to interpretation. Sometimes I like knowing authorial intent, and I like knowing that such-and-such was intended as a homage to so-and-so, or that the author was reading Dunnett at the time, or that the author was responding to another book. Other times, I don't want to know, because there's another version of the book in my own head, and the intention of the author gets in the way of that. I don't know if my version is the "right" version, or even if there is a right version, but it's my own version, formed by all the books I've read in the past, by my own experiences, by where I was and how I was feeling when I read it.
This feeling is generally more awkward when the author is alive and says or publishes something that contradicts with what I think.
Also, as a reader, I do things detrimental to authors, like borrowing millions of books from the library, frequenting (and currently working in) used bookstores, going to library sales, etc. To be honest, when I do that, I don't think about the author's sales. Mostly I am just concerned with preserving my own paycheck, given the fact that I buy anything between 5-10 books a month. Depending. I have gone horribly over limit this month due to library sale and the anticipation of not having my employee's discount anymore. Plus, my personal goal is to read as many books as possible while spending as little money as possible, and I don't like buying books I haven't read at cover price unless I succumb to the temptation of sequels, or new books by authors I like, or sometimes just really pretty cover art. I buy books used and new, I borrow anything I can get my hands on, I scrounge for free books. I also don't think about good things like supporting my local independent bookstore instead of going to Borders or B&N or Amazon, mostly because I read a lot of genre, and half the time I can't find what I'm looking for in little independent bookstores. I do make a special attempt to get lots of stuff at Borderlands though, because I like them. I probably also contribute an embarrassingly large amount to the bookstore I work at currently.
When I talk about books in my LJ, mostly I'm thinking of other readers when I do it, not of the authors. It's actually very strange thinking about how much I think about books and read books and spend time and money on books, while not really keeping the author in mind the entire time I do it. I think of the author as a sort of brand name actually. It's so odd reading about everyone's struggles to write the next book or story, to sell it, and to realize that I'm the one sitting there reading it, that more often than not, I skim a few paragraphs of someone's hard work and pass judgment on it. I feel I read scholarly non-fiction a little differently because after writing so many papers (and the thesis) during school, I understand more what the author had to go through to compile data, to research, to present ideas clearly. I have a grasp of what had to go into every single sentence. I never really think about fiction in that way because I've never really had to take it apart and tinker with it in my head.
Anyhow, just things that randomly popped in my head these past few months.
It's very interesting reading my FL because so many of the people talking about books on it are people who are writing books and short stories and the like. It's a very different perspective from what I'm used to -- I'm very much a reader, and I've never felt the desire to be a writer, despite occasional adolescent dabbling. And I've spent a great deal of life reading without thinking of the author, or, if I do, I had a concept of the author as some sort of all-powerful being who was very far removed from this world. Also, being in Taiwan for eight years sort of limits one's opportunities to go to signings and the like. Going to my first signing (this year, Orson Scott Card) was very strange. I think sometimes I like that distance from the author, particularly in OSC's case, seeing as how I violently disagree with some of his personal views and his interpretation of his books.
The strangest part of it was feeling very protective of his books while reading or hearing his opinions on those books -- I mean, he's the author, he wrote them, obviously they mean something personal to him. But I wanted to figuratively grab the book and hug it to my chest and not let him tamper with my view of the book, or my experiences of reading the book, because it was my book that I had read in sixth grade and it had probably changed my mental landscape rather dramatically. I also come from the school of thought in literature that while authorial intent matters, it is not the be-all-end-all to interpretation. Sometimes I like knowing authorial intent, and I like knowing that such-and-such was intended as a homage to so-and-so, or that the author was reading Dunnett at the time, or that the author was responding to another book. Other times, I don't want to know, because there's another version of the book in my own head, and the intention of the author gets in the way of that. I don't know if my version is the "right" version, or even if there is a right version, but it's my own version, formed by all the books I've read in the past, by my own experiences, by where I was and how I was feeling when I read it.
This feeling is generally more awkward when the author is alive and says or publishes something that contradicts with what I think.
Also, as a reader, I do things detrimental to authors, like borrowing millions of books from the library, frequenting (and currently working in) used bookstores, going to library sales, etc. To be honest, when I do that, I don't think about the author's sales. Mostly I am just concerned with preserving my own paycheck, given the fact that I buy anything between 5-10 books a month. Depending. I have gone horribly over limit this month due to library sale and the anticipation of not having my employee's discount anymore. Plus, my personal goal is to read as many books as possible while spending as little money as possible, and I don't like buying books I haven't read at cover price unless I succumb to the temptation of sequels, or new books by authors I like, or sometimes just really pretty cover art. I buy books used and new, I borrow anything I can get my hands on, I scrounge for free books. I also don't think about good things like supporting my local independent bookstore instead of going to Borders or B&N or Amazon, mostly because I read a lot of genre, and half the time I can't find what I'm looking for in little independent bookstores. I do make a special attempt to get lots of stuff at Borderlands though, because I like them. I probably also contribute an embarrassingly large amount to the bookstore I work at currently.
When I talk about books in my LJ, mostly I'm thinking of other readers when I do it, not of the authors. It's actually very strange thinking about how much I think about books and read books and spend time and money on books, while not really keeping the author in mind the entire time I do it. I think of the author as a sort of brand name actually. It's so odd reading about everyone's struggles to write the next book or story, to sell it, and to realize that I'm the one sitting there reading it, that more often than not, I skim a few paragraphs of someone's hard work and pass judgment on it. I feel I read scholarly non-fiction a little differently because after writing so many papers (and the thesis) during school, I understand more what the author had to go through to compile data, to research, to present ideas clearly. I have a grasp of what had to go into every single sentence. I never really think about fiction in that way because I've never really had to take it apart and tinker with it in my head.
Anyhow, just things that randomly popped in my head these past few months.
Tags:
(no subject)
Thu, Sep. 23rd, 2004 08:16 pm (UTC)It's much better to have a reader who doesn't pay than to have someone who only reads what she can pay full price for. Sure, we're in this for money, but also (and, I think, mostly, or we'd be doing something more lucrative) for readers.
And we're all full of shit and know nothing, so just don't listen to what we say about our fiction unless you like it. That's totally valid and reasonable.
(no subject)
Fri, Sep. 24th, 2004 12:30 am (UTC)I think the entire argument on authorial intent is sort of difficult for me, because I do think it is important, and I do think readers can come up with wrong interpretations, but I also think that telling people that there's only one way to read a book is really completely beside the point and boring. This is, of course, rather influenced by the now infamous Anne Rice comment on Amazon, heh, which sort of got my hackles up a bit.
(no subject)
Fri, Sep. 24th, 2004 04:25 am (UTC)Of course, Anne Rice doesn't seem to maintain a professional facade when nudged slightly with a feather, so there is that aspect of things.
I think there are wrong reader interpretations, but the text, not the author, is the ultimate judge of that. If you say, "Oh, I think this book is about cheese," you'd better be able to find me at least a little gouda or something in the text. Things that symbolize cheese coherently at the very least. If it's not there, it doesn't matter if the author wanted it to be, and if it is there, it doesn't matter if the author didn't want it to be.
(no subject)
Fri, Sep. 24th, 2004 08:26 pm (UTC)Hee, the cheese remark reminded me of a Buffy episode.
My favorite thing about studying literature was that any interpretation was valid, even if it wasn't authorially intended, as long as there was adequate textual support. I mean, someone is probably not going to convince me that Shakespeare was a Marxist, given that he was before Marx, but you never know! That's the fun of it all.
(no subject)
Fri, Sep. 24th, 2004 01:00 am (UTC)I do that too. I think that's actually pretty common for people who read a lot -- if we bought all the books we read new, we'd spend exorbitant amounts of money and also be stuck with new books we might not like. I do like Neil Gaiman's idea of used books floating around in bookstores and through bookcrossing as a kind of viral marketing -- and one that isn't necessarily limited by the publishers' willingness to spend whatever money they have. A book in a library, I think, is a kind of perpetual advertisement for an author -- or a way for a lot of good authors to remain sort-of in print til their books can be republished again. So libraries are sort of like preservation museums in a way, the memory of bookstores....
(no subject)
Fri, Sep. 24th, 2004 04:28 am (UTC)titillatingly titular
Fri, Sep. 24th, 2004 04:37 am (UTC)(no subject)
Thu, Sep. 23rd, 2004 08:20 pm (UTC)Also, being on livejournal and writing about a book you've just read, *knowing* the author is on livejournal and only one Friend away and could possible read it, seriously, SERIOUSLY works weird things on my mind. It makes me all paranoid/hopeful. *g*
.m
(no subject)
Fri, Sep. 24th, 2004 12:32 am (UTC)Being on LJ with published authors is really, really weird! I've actually been avoiding reading the books of authors on my FL, because, what if I don't like it? What if I hate it? Or what if I love it and look stupid writing about it? And all those other LJ neuroses ;).
(no subject)
Fri, Sep. 24th, 2004 01:01 am (UTC)d00d, it's completely trippy when you comment on their LJ and they comment back. It made me want to kind of squawk.
(no subject)
Thu, Sep. 23rd, 2004 09:09 pm (UTC)I hug my books all of the time, and often don't let them go. They stick with me, impact me, so I stick with them. I have been known to copy passages, so it will be with me when the book can't. Well the good ones anyway. They adorn my mind and my library.
Plus, my personal goal is to read as many books as possible while spending as little money as possible, and I don't like buying books I haven't read at cover price unless I succumb to the temptation of sequels, or new books by authors I like, or sometimes just really pretty cover art. I buy books used and new, I borrow anything I can get my hands on, I scrounge for free books.
Well of course lol.
(no subject)
Fri, Sep. 24th, 2004 12:34 am (UTC)(no subject)
Fri, Sep. 24th, 2004 01:04 am (UTC)make me want to grab Ender's Game and hug it and say, "Don't touch my book!" Which is of course a little silly
Actually, I understand that perfectly -- you've read the book, so it's sort of almost your intellectual property, too, especially since it's v intimate -- you've let it into your mind, so in a way, it's part of you. Especially wrt books we love.
it still makes me growly when he tries to revise it via the Bean series.
I think -- personally -- one dread symptom of Author Burnout is when they start writing long, long, elaborate series books (although obviously there are some authors who are perfectly happy doing that) which are then stitched together with other series books to form a kind of Uber-Series which, when you look at it all from a distance, doesn't really make sense. SF writers in general seem particularly vulnerable to this -- I d'know how much it has to do with marketing deals for series -- and I noticed it first when Isaac Asimov began painfully stitching his Robots and Foundation universes together. I wanted to say don't do that, you of all people should know....
(no subject)
Fri, Sep. 24th, 2004 04:35 am (UTC)It is painful to read especially if you have loved his novels. Wide swathing diatribes against so many freedoms.
It stunned me because of what his family has dealt with, mostly the sickness of their son. Cerebral palsy I think. He died a year or two ago. His generousness revealed in his books toward the ill and children's vulnerability was just shot down for me in this article. I think maybe his own fears of "reproductive security" with the sickness of his son, might be shining here more than anything. It then makes huge illogical leaps against many other ways of living.
I won't buy his books any more.
oh my.
Fri, Sep. 24th, 2004 04:43 am (UTC)Well, this sounds like it's going to be jolly reading. Thank you for the link. I've seen Card go off before, but this sounds super-ugly.
((clicks))
Re: oh my.
Fri, Sep. 24th, 2004 04:45 am (UTC)Re: oh my.
Fri, Sep. 24th, 2004 06:41 am (UTC)Re: oh my.
Fri, Sep. 24th, 2004 08:31 pm (UTC)I couldn't bring myself to read the whole thing because I felt like scrubbing out my eyeballs or something.
Re: oh my.
Sat, Sep. 25th, 2004 07:27 am (UTC)(no subject)
Thu, Sep. 23rd, 2004 11:37 pm (UTC)I remember reading like that when I was all wrapped up in Dickens and Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky. Then I started reading living authors and realized you could write them letters and get answers. Now they have LJs and you can leave comments and they will comment right back, which is sort of deliciously terrifying. I bet if I ever met any of my favorite living authors I wouldn't be able to resist poking them, just a little. Just to see if they're really there.
Neil Gaiman wrote something on his blog abt why he's not unhappy re people buying used copies of his work -- paraphrased, if you get someone who reads, say, two used copies of your books, and they like your work, they're more likely to go on and buy other books of yours. I think used bookstores and libraries are an essential part of the reading process -- I know a lot of people who check out books from libraries and buy their own copies later. He looked on the effect of books being out there as viral -- "books don't come with single-end-user licenses," and that's a good thing.
http://www.neilgaiman.com/journal_archives/2002_03_01_archive.asp#75022367
contains his full response to M.J. Rose who was writing an article for Wired.com. His main point was:
Books, like magazines, have pass-along rates. They don’t come with single-user software licenses. I think this is a good thing. If I read a book and like it, I’ll lend it to you and hope you give it back. (GOOD OMENS has probably sold a couple of million copies by now, internationally, but its pass-along rate is tens of times that, judging by the copies people bring to signings, which have been lent to everyone they know, are held together with tape and dried soup, and have obviously been dropped into the bath at some point.....I don’t regard every second-hand book sold as a dollar taken from my mouth. I’ve already been paid for that book at some point. I regard second-hand sales as things that make future readers.
I first read Sandman all at once (my then-fiance's collection), bought and read some more Gaiman new and used, and paid for American Gods new in hardcover because I couldn't stand not to. Do I buy everything Gaiman writes new? no, but I'm a pretty committed reader.
Re authorial intent -- I think there's always what's intended and then what's actually on the page, a distinction that causes sorrow, especially in graduate school writing workshops. I do enjoy reading writers' notebooks and notes on stories and journals and ideas about how they got this story going or that novel done, but in the end the work has to stand by itself. I d'know if a lot of other writers feel this way, but when I finish something it's done -- on its own -- separate. A lot of the time I feel a kind of distanced pride, like "Wow, that came off well," but it belongs to itself and whoever else might want to read it. Often people point out things that I hadn't seen myself, which is kinda nice, since they usually assume I was doing it consciously because I plan this all out, when in reality it is something that just bubbled up from the depths and Sounded Neat. ("Shiny!") Conversely, if I have to point out to too many readers too many times that something really is there and they're just missing it, it's a good idea to check to see whether or not they're missing it because it isn't there, or it's there partially and only I can see the full outline (which happens so frequently to writers it hurts, but really it's only natural, because the writer's the only one holding the complete story in toto in their head -- the reader's stuck with what's on the page).
I do think the perspective of readers -- people who proudly proclaim themselves readers -- is invaluable. Readers who are writers pro or am do tend to get caught up in shop talk and how certain effects do or don't come off or how well something is communicated without exposition, &c -- sort of like a drama critic at first night examining the performance. It's good to be able to dive under and just read, too.
(no subject)
Fri, Sep. 24th, 2004 12:37 am (UTC)It's such a different perspective, seeing the process of the novel versus only seeing the finished product.
writers and LJs
Fri, Sep. 24th, 2004 12:57 am (UTC)Reading writers -- of all kinds -- talk about their novels getting written is one of the big pleasures of the net, for me. It seems like it's a pretty active subgenre, now (I think Gaiman's was one of the few around when he was copyediting American Gods, and he'd designed it specifically for the launch and PR tour of that book wayy back in 2/01, although it's grown into something a lot more than that -- like Caitlin R. Kiernan's original blog detailed the writing of her third novel in 11/01, and is different now, although still a lot about her writing). I would imagine it brings pleasure to writers during some of the most solitary labor imaginable, and also if it's comforting to write down the word total in your ms how much more amplified the feeling is when you put the numbers in your LJ.
Re: writers and LJs
Fri, Sep. 24th, 2004 08:33 pm (UTC)I really like reading about writers writing in general, although sometimes if I disagree with their views or personal politics too much (see OSC rant, ugh), I try to stop reading their websites. I hate hate hate it when that happens and it completely influences my previous enjoyment of their other books.
Re: writers and LJs
Sat, Sep. 25th, 2004 07:26 am (UTC)Re: writers and LJs
Sat, Sep. 25th, 2004 10:47 am (UTC)Re: writers and LJs
Sat, Sep. 25th, 2004 11:54 am (UTC)3 parts
Fri, Sep. 24th, 2004 07:08 am (UTC)In the end, the work can't stand by itself because nothing stands by itself. The reader brings him or herself to everything they see. That automatically changes it. If that is what you want, fine. I think the richest experience requires more than that. I don't just want to have something to project myself into. I want to see what another person wants me to see.
It's sort of like looking at a valley with someone. I see certain things. Someone else sees others. I like it when they show me what they see. I like it when they show me things that I missed. That other person can be the author or another reader.
It really depends on why you read. It doesn't have to be any one reason. Human beings are complicated creatures capable of multi-tasking. What you see doesn't have to be trumped. What the author wanted doesn't have to be trumped. The two images and any others can co-exist creating another image.
(no subject)
Fri, Sep. 24th, 2004 12:29 am (UTC)It's such a lovely thing to be able to talk to people like you on LJ about my favourite things.
(no subject)
Fri, Sep. 24th, 2004 12:40 am (UTC)(no subject)
Fri, Sep. 24th, 2004 04:19 am (UTC)(no subject)
Fri, Sep. 24th, 2004 08:39 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Fri, Sep. 24th, 2004 05:59 am (UTC)Vachel Lindsay used to sell poetry door-to-door. He was a homeless guy and he'd knock on doors not begging, but trying to sell original poems he'd written.
This illustrates both that if nobody buys your work you can't eat, and that if nobody buys it the next thing won't get published, so it won't be in libraries or used bookstores. In Lindsay's case, he wouldn't even have written it.
I'm not such a hypocrite to object to libraries and used bookstores, I use them much as
But when writers are saying "buy my books new", picture them like Vachel Lindsay at your door with a poem, only going to eat or write the next poem if you buy this one. Or maybe you can just give them the $5 when you see them.
(no subject)
Fri, Sep. 24th, 2004 06:32 am (UTC)On the other hand...I read relatively fast--in a good week I can get through 5 books if the baby cooperates (it was more like 7-10 when there was No Baby, and buying ~20-40 new books a month is pretty much out of the question). I tend only to buy books I think I'll want to keep, and libraries and used bookstores serve for the rest (though the latter mostly for out-of-print/unfindable stuff). I can't afford to buy every author I want to support, let alone in hardcover. I do buy something like 5-10 new books a month, despite trying to keep things to the lower end of the spectrum for budgeting reasons. This is not ideal, but I need an income first. :-p I do what I can. *sigh*
(no subject)
Fri, Sep. 24th, 2004 08:43 pm (UTC)That would be so nice. This is why I need to somehow find a way to become filthy rich. Alas, I am not, and so I try to make the monthly allotment of book money stretch to get as many books as possible, except somehow I still manage to go over budget.
(no subject)
Tue, Sep. 28th, 2004 08:22 am (UTC)As a reader the writers-are-people thing is tricky. I've met some writers I have found so unpleasant I'll never ever read them. I've met other writers I simply adored and on the back of that bought their book, had them sign it for me, only to discover that their writing sucks. It's a lot easier to know nothing about writers and just relate to what they've written. But as a writer it's a horrible thought that someone's not reading your books not because of the way you craft your words on the page but because they don't like the cut of your jib (whatever a jib is).
Justine Larbalestier
(no subject)
Tue, Sep. 28th, 2004 08:59 pm (UTC)It is sometimes much easier not knowing anything about the writer, especially if I don't much agree with the author. It reminds me a bit of reading something in which I admire the prose and the style and the structure immensely, but disagree with the underlying message.
(no subject)
Fri, Sep. 24th, 2004 06:27 am (UTC)I think I'm slowly getting used to conversing with published writers and novelists, but it does feel weird sometimes!
(no subject)
Fri, Sep. 24th, 2004 08:45 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Fri, Sep. 24th, 2004 05:35 pm (UTC)I write poems. Usually I give them to my friends to read, with permission to let everyone read the poems if they want to. So, my husband (when we were not acquainted yet, and he was “the other people” read my poems – knowing nothing about me. Much later, when we were dating, we talked about them, and I, to my horror, discovered that he saw something completely different in them than I was writing about – though he loved them.
Since that time I adopted the words of Umberto Eco as my personal mantra for such cases:
The author should die once he has finished writing. So as not to trouble the path of the text.
As a reader, I also remember the time when I considered authors some kind of abstract figures, not real people – live or dead. It wasn’t that long ago when the idea that authors whose books I love to read are regular people, one of them my childhood friend. And if I kick my lazy ass well enough, I can be one, too.
(no subject)
Fri, Sep. 24th, 2004 08:47 pm (UTC)I've had interesting experiences with intention and the like when I've passed around the (very few) stories I've written, and it was always very strange to see what others thought.