I was pretty harsh on Generation Loss and the author, Liz Hand, possibly cosmically, found my blog. You can read her comment, but what it basically boils down to is that she didn't throw a fit or call me a douchebag or say "fuck you, I'm a real writer and you just have a blog," she kept the line open for discussion and allowed me to interpret her work. She gave me the real explaination, which probably wasn't easy, but said "And I personally would never take it amiss that you (or anyone else) would beg to differ as far as opinions of writing or writers go"
Wow.
This is a real deviation from most of the writers I went to school with. If you made one comment other than "this is brilliant and it will be taught alongside To Kill a Mockingbird," a few things might happen:
1) The writer would come up with some long-winded bullshit explaination about how it's explained in the other chapters, or in the movie, or the comic book series or the line of toys, none of which actually exist. Or worse, the dreaded "but that's how it really happened!" (although I will admit, I have given answers 1 and 5)
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| Pictured: New York Times Bestseller |
2) The writer would call you a moron and tell you to go back to watching The Jersey Shore with all the rest of the illiterate hicks.
3) The writer would go to administration and cry, then administration would threaten to kick you out of the program.
But no, Liz wrote to me, honestly and earnestly, and opened up a dialogue. She didn't throw a hissy fit or try to have my blog shut down or send me pictures of her sitting on piles of money kissing her World Fantasy Award. She said, "hey, let's talk, writer to writer." Those of you who aren't writers cannot possibly comprehend how rare and cool that is.
So Liz, if you're reading, I owe you a major high five. Thanks for setting me straight.
Ha! Just emailed you! Thanks for the shout-out, and a High-5 back to you — I'd like to think most writers are open to talking (writing) about stuff, because isn't that what we do?
ReplyDeleteJohn Crowley once said, as regards seeing a writer walking alone at a conference or convention, that one should always remember that many writers are solitary by nature and may actually be quite shy — after all, this is a person who spends most of his time alone in a room. So writers are often grateful if you come up and start talking to them. Writing can be very lonely — for me it often is. We're all in this together, so why not make the most of it?
BTW, I too have no mp3 player, and a lot of vinyl!
Liz