I know you're insane and all...but you missed a comma here.

[wednes]

There is a community here at Lj called bookfails. It is, as you might imagine, a place to snark about sucky books. They also make some claim about being non-snarky. As if it's possible to have a community of polite, well-mannered haters. But I digest {sic}. Right now there are a bunch of jerks over there snarking about how Catcher in the Rye "fails" because Holden is a "whiner." Me being me, I am choking on my own rage at that. I explain that Holden is mentally ill and that mental illness isn't a delightful romp into funland {sic}. Someone even said "I get the point, but I feel like I'm trapped in his mind and I don't like it." Well DUH! He's also trapped, and no, it isn't pleasant. By all means, dislike the book if you want to. But if Holden isn't likable because he's a whiner--? I guess that means Helter Skelter also fails because Manson is a jerk. Ditto Silence of the Lambs--if you reduce Lecter to just being an asshole. Eating people is so...rude!

I've had to use the {sic} thing a lot lately, because there are some windbags out there who think that the dramatic license I take with The Language {sic} means I have the grammatical skill of a day-dreaming 6th grader. Note: a first person narrative of a crazy person is not going to jibe with the totality of say, Elements of Style, or the Harbrace Handbook. It just isn't. Wouldn't be truthy. Nothing is more important than truthiness, especially in horror.
My debut novel, as you readers know, has a few errors in it. Three typos, by my count--though someone once told me they saw four. I imagine that it can be tricky to tell when I'm taking a deliberate liberty and when my miserable excuse for an editor fucked up. However, asserting that there are "dozens" of errors on the "first few pages" tells me that you...well, that you don't really get it. If you think something is, for example, a malapropism, it's probably something you're supposed to appreciate rather than brandish your red pen about.

My concern with asserting that people don't get it is that a) it's pretentious as hell, b) that when people say that, it's usually a front for them being either batshit crazy or dumb as a post. And c) it calls to mind criminals and careless or malicious types who say people can't handle them because they're "too real." It can be a fine line between not getting something and just plain disliking it. That's something I'll be pondering a great deal in this new year. Listening to people say that Catcher in the Rye fails because people with mental illness can be "annoying" fills me with dread about the future of all humanity, and makes me want to clarify that difference between liking something and understanding it (which I guess is totally subjective given the number of people who think Tony Soprano did not die in the series finale).

There are grammatical or punctuation errors I make a lot; they are ingrained habits by now. I'm slowly relearning. I spelled their as "thier" for much of my life--no one ever corrected me--even in college (thanks, Dr Walther). I tend to add apostrophes to words that don't need them, plurals for example. Occasionally, people will notice this and say something like Yeah, you must be a great writer dripping with sarcasm as if a grammatical error keeps someone from telling a truthy or captivating or important story. At the same time, I have trouble taking people seriously when they post about "there family" or retort with "your an idiot." So I guess YMMV so far as all that goes.

As I've mentioned, I'll be starting a new novel soon. It will build off the zombie story I began in 1995 and turned into a very short running zombie rock opera that wasn't very good. Like much of my work, it was mostly about me working some shit out. And zombies. I don't think anything on Earth scares me as much as zombies. My mom is less scary than zombies. Sharks, grizzly bears, fundies, poisonous spiders...all pale in comparison to a legion of undead. Honest.
My life has changed a great deal since 1995, so probably only the basics of the story will remain: some characters, some plot points, and zombies. My epilogue may have to change because my horrific pregnant-with-a-zombie-baby scene was co-opted by Zack Snyder in his excellent remake of Dawn of the Dead. My old buddy Finster gave me a splendid idea for a plot point that I will be incorporating in one way or another. It's juicy stuff! He are SMRT {sic}.

Oh yeah...Stephen King's Skeleton Crew came in the mail today, along with The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum. The former is one of my all-time favorite anthologies (along with King's Night Shift, his Different Seasons and Skipp and Spektor's Book of the Dead zombie anthologies. Skeleton Crew is filled with short stories that stayed with me basically forever. It also includes The Mist which became one of my top FIVE Stephen King movie adaptations (Carrie, Misery, Salem's Lot, Pet Sematary) immediately upon its release. So yay for that. The Girl Next Door was recommended to me by several of you LJ peeps. I'm pretty sure it's loosely based on the true story of that girl from Indiana. *shudder* I guess it's also been made into a movie, but I want to read the book first.

Comments

[leemoyer.livejournal.com]

I once ran a weekend long live roleplaying game set in The Village from The Prisoner. lots of people HATED IT. "But, it's like being in prison" they'd say.
No. Really?

People are whining self-aggrandizing weanies of the lowest order. All we can do is our best in the face of that.

[wednes.livejournal.com]

You are so fucking sharp!

Really, I mean that.

[groovesinorbit]

Had they never seen the show?

[leemoyer.livejournal.com]

They had and they hadn't. But this was early days and the whole "customer service" model of game design and running was still being worked out. There wasn't any pandering, not any built-in design so that each and every player, no matter how shallow or inept, could feel good about their weekend. And I learned that all these people I'd thought to be clever, edgy, exceptions were (with 5 blessed exceptions) sheep. It was a great painful experience, and one I still treasure. lol

[wednes.livejournal.com]

I guess I can almost relate to that mindset though. I really really wanted to play Dead Rising on Xbox360. But I don't like it as much as I thought I would...


...wait for it...


...it's really difficult and tense and too scary for me. Which is, of course, exactly what a good zombie video game is supposed to be. *sigh*

[groovesinorbit]

*grin* Sounds like an interesting and surprising experience.

[maxverbosity.livejournal.com]

I like it. I would pay to spend a week in the Village actually.

[groovesinorbit]

*sigh* I don't know what it is with people complaining about "whiners" in fiction. Several characters in Buffy get that all the time. I usually respond by asking the person what they'd be like if they died, went to heaven, and then got pulled back into living again. I think there might be whining. Don't listen to those jerks.

[wednes.livejournal.com]

Meh, it's not like I'm taking it personally. Well, there's this one kid (I think) that's kind of annoying. But overall I think it's good for me to get some varied perspective on things that I thought everyone was in agreement on. I imagine it's partly generational when you're talking about something like Catcher in the Rye. But Sadie could also be called a "whiner," which would basically mean that the reader is not getting the point at all.

[groovesinorbit]

*nods* I can see that. Varied perspectives are good; they keep you thinking. I bet you're right about it being partly generational. What was groundbreaking 40 years ago doesn't always ring as true with the youth. But yeah, in general, I think the folks whining about the whiners just don't want any bumps in their story-reading path. Characters are supposed to be witty and snarky, but never whiny.

[leemoyer.livejournal.com]

I admire your iconography. I never expected to relate to Buffy for pity's sake, much less sob like a schoolgirl at her musical predicament. Thankfully, it was useful catharsis during my biggest year of grief....

[groovesinorbit]

*nods* "The Body" is another episode that touched me deeply. Having lost my mom when I was a teenager, there was some serious relating and sobbing.

[jeffpalmatier.livejournal.com]

snarking about how Catcher in the Rye "fails" because Holden is a "whiner."

I've got news for them: there are a fair amount of fiction out there with protagonists that aren't necessarily that likeable! (sic--British usage is better here.) (A few years ago I read TCITR up to when he visits some neighbor's house. I really need to read the whole novel.)

Even though I've read all my life just like you, there were various grammatical and spelling mistakes I had been making that I didn't catch until I was in my 30s. Oh, well.

I have the first edition hardcover of Skeleton Crew. I heard The Mist was one of the better SK adaptations out there. I'll have to put in on my To See List. For that matter, it's been awhile since I last read SK.

[wednes.livejournal.com]

*nods* Yeah, I hadn't been reading him recently, except for Cell. But then I got Under the Dome for my birthday and it made me really want to get a bunch of the stuff I read when I was much too young. I was 12 or 13 when I read Carrie and the Shinning. Plus, I joined one of those silly book clubs and they taunt me every month with James Patterson and Patricia Cornwell. It's maddening, but it makes me want to buy more SK.

[maxverbosity.livejournal.com]

I used to get marked down for not adhering to the Elements Of Style in my 9th grade AP English Composition class. We were required to have a copy of that book on us at all times. By the time March came around, I finally blew up - tossed the Elements Of Style into a snowbank outside, said it wasn't my style, and sat down. Next year, for some reason, students were not required to use it.

[wednes.livejournal.com]

Ha! Nice.

[valyazhnaya.livejournal.com]

Deep comment is deep, but, one of my favorite slogans that I've seen on a tshirt is, "Bad grammar makes me [sic]." That's all. :)

[wednes.livejournal.com]

Ha! That is excellent. I believe I may have to make myself such a shirt.