I was going through my paper mail this morning, and I found a letter from the school district where I used to do time as a kid. Apparently the high school English department head found out that I've written a couple of novels, and wants to make my first one required summer reading.
I'm horrified by this. I don't want a captive audience, and I don't want people to grow up despising my work because it was shoved down their throats at school. Save that shit for when I'm dead and buried, please.
@generica There was also something in there about me coming and speaking to the students -- and I had sworn that if I ever returned to my hometown it would be with an army so that I could forcibly evacuate the populace, burn the entire town to the ground, and seed the earth with salt. :)
Understand your hesitance but they could probably use a talk from someone like you. Plant some subversive seeds.
@generica @starbreaker I would be way more encouraging if it was part of an optional list, but yeah, required summer reading just.......nah...
Shakespeare should be seen on stage, or at least in a good film production, not read out of a book.
Jane Austen got more palatable after I discovered the BBC production of #PrideAndPrejudice via a girlfriend who encouraged me to think of it as a satire.
@starbreaker Weird, because there were books I "had" to read for school and ended up loving.
I think being introduced to something you might not normally think to pick has the potential to lead to a new appreciation or love that one ends up pursuing.
@electrotamitha It just made me stabby. There were so many books that I wanted to read but hadn't gotten around to reading yet that being told by some stranger that I was obligated to read a book I hadn't chosen for myself did nothing but enrage me.
Furthermore, I had very little control over my life before I left my parents' home. Reading was one of the few aspects of my life in which I had ANY say, and I wasn't willing to give that up without a fight.
@starbreaker whatever works for you, pal....I can see validity in all the comments, but obvs, totally up to you....
@MissSnarkerson It's OK. I just got off the phone with the head of the English department, and the superintendent had shot down her proposal after reading a bit and seeing this line:
"The slight smile on her lips and the mischief sparkling in her eyes suggested to Saul that Elisabeth Bathory wasn't the sort of woman a man brought home to meet his mother. She was the sort of woman a man begged for a collar."
@starbreaker @MissSnarkerson I was secretly hoping for some Poppy Z. Brite level stuff.
@stuarttempleton @MissSnarkerson That passage was from chapter 2. I've got angry wizard sex in chapter 22.
@starbreaker @MissSnarkerson @stuarttempleton Entirely too late for #angrywizardsex. All the best (and by best I mean mine) literary theories prove that squares have already become inured to the freak by chapter 13, so the people who most need angry wizard sex won't be in a receptive head space by then.
@DaveHiggins @stuarttempleton @MissSnarkerson Yeah, but it wasn't relevant to plot or characterization until chapter 22, so there. :)
@starbreaker @stuarttempleton @DaveHiggins I would posit it's never too late for angry wizard sex............
@starbreaker *cackle* that's so great....
@MissSnarkerson Elisabeth Bathory's isn't just drawn that way.
@starbreaker Jessica Rabbit reference ftw!
@feld @MissSnarkerson Let's not forget that BDSM is OK as long as it reinforces traditional gender roles, but we can't have men submitting to women.
@starbreaker For what it's worth, I never hated any of the books/authors assigned for summer reading. It was an opportunity to find new stuff. But I do see your point. Not all high schoolers are hopeless bookworms like me.
@starbreaker The noble thought process here is refreshing. I'm so used to authors on birdsite pouncing on any opportunity for exposure and readership.
Being from ruby red, God and guns, small-town America, I have a lot of sympathy for the animus toward the hometown, too.
You're doing good work, friend.
@kevinja Thanks, but the truth is that I'm reluctant to gain readers using underhanded means. My pride demands that I earn my readership, not have it handed to me.
Besides, it's easy to take a principled stand when you've got a relatively cushy day job. :)
@starbreaker I am not published, and I freely admit I know next to nothing about the pressures of publishing, but I like to think I can tell the difference between when authors are trying to gain readers and when they're fostering a readership. There's an honesty that shows through, and I have a lot of respect for it.
@starbreaker BTW, my own principled stand led me to pick up Without Bloodshed on Kindle. :) It sounds good, and I look forward to it.
@kevinja Thanks. Looking back, it's pretty rough, but I hope you enjoy it.
@kevinja Want to tell us a bit about your project?
@starbreaker I have a near-future sci-fi about the end of the U.S. as we know it that I write on pretty sporadically when life doesn't get in the way. It has some foundational issues and I need to re-plot it, but one of these days, it just might see a completed first draft. :)
@kevinja Cool. Mine is set after the end, but the US had gotten annexed by Canada after the failed invasion during the War of 1812. That's why you'll see references to the North American Commonwealth. :)
@kevinja Got any particular characters in mind for your novel? Or are you still working on background and plot?
@starbreaker I have three or four main characters that the story is shuffling between. They actually came first before the story they were in, which makes me feel doubly guilty for the misery I'll have to put them through. :)
@starbreaker
It was all good until the required part.