The beauty of Hollywood is that it’s just that. Hollywood. With full license to create, embellish and pull rank, even great authors find their stories changed when books morph into film scripts.
Milan Kundera had the right idea. He didn’t like the movie adaptation of his “Unbearable Lightness of Being,” so has never allowed another adaptation of his work. His choice.
The running debate, over when Hollywood’s creative liberties go too far, surfaced again over some current films. In one case, “My Sister’s Keeper” author Jodi Picoult indicated that she enjoyed the recent film adaptation of her book while many of her fans did not.
Writing on her Web site, www.jodipicoult.com, Picoult says, “Yes, I know the ending is different. Yes, I know some of you are very upset. I didn’t change it… Please don’t e-mail me asking me why I changed the ending, or ‘let’ Hollywood do that – it wasn’t something I had any control over.”
Her message makes the point: We’re talking two different mediums, producing two different sets of experiences. That’s why, in the credit lines, you see that certain films are “based on” a particular book or real-life experience. It’s as good as saying ideas were borrowed – with creative license.
This is art. It’s not history, biography or documentary. And the art of film, with its immediate and visual impact, creates a separate experience from that of a novel, with a more complex and fully developed storyline. Plus, the bottom line is business, and what sells in books may not sell at the box office.
Still, these artistic debates are refreshing, if only because true artists care about such things. An example is “Watchmen” director Zack Snyder, who after a rough first cut of the film, was told by studio executives to cut two scenes: the Comedian’s funeral, which establishes tone and introduces key characters, and Dr. Manhattan’s reverie on Mars, where he narrates his origin story and muses on the nature of time.
Both were crucial scenes in the graphic novel, so Snyder fought to keep them in the movie. He prevailed, even through he still had to cut 30 minutes from the film.
As consumers of art, it’s good to remind ourselves that if through art we imitate the perfection of the universe, then we need to be satisfied with different methods of imitation to suit different artistic forms. As Brian K. Vaughan, “Y: The Last Man” creator and “Lost” writer, commented in Wired Magazine, regarding the adaptation of “Watchmen” before its release: “It’s like making a stage play of ‘Citizen Kane.’ I guess it could be OK, but why? The medium is the message.”
Much like our deepest feelings, art just is. One could write a book about this. And it would be very different from the film.
As we approach the Fourth of July weekend, we prepare to celebrate our many precious freedoms – two of those essential ones being freedom of speech and expression.
Freedom, of course, requires tolerance – tolerance to those of different race, creed and belief. However, tolerance doesn’t mean we compromise our values as Americans. A governor or public official that lies and cheats, a financier or corporate executive that commits fraud; all should accountable. Public pressure should side with honesty and honor.
So why is Hyperion Books so casual about author and journalist Chris Anderson using unattributed passages — closely mirroring material from Wikipedia and other sources –in his soon-to-be-released book, “Free: The Future of a Radical Price.”
Anderson is no novice. He is editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine, and his previous book, “The Long Tail,” became influential in business circles. Yet now, in a simple blog post, he has confirmed the use of unattributed material by saying it was his “screwup.” His explanation: That in the “rush” to finish the book, credits were omitted, and that passages in question “were mostly on the margins of the book’s focus, mostly on historical asides.”
For its part, Hyperion said it was satisfied with the explanation – kind of like the teacher satisfied with the lame, “dog ate my homework” excuse.
Hyperion now plans to work with Anderson to make corrections for an electronic version of the book and subsequent hard copies. The 80,000 first-print copies have already been shipped.
Interestingly, Anderson’s new book talks about the wisdom of free products on the Web. He said he depended on Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia of free user-contributed articles generally considered “questionable” as a reliable source of information, to describe meanings of phases such as “there’s no such thing as a free lunch.” The Virginia Quarterly Review discovered the borrowing of text and ideas.
Ironically, the controversy has been noted on Anderson’s Wikipedia page.
At a time when book publishers have been repeatedly called into question for intellectual honesty, Hyperion and Wired, for that matter, made it easy on themselves while protecting a financial investment. In this case, tolerance short-shifted the ethics that are sacred in journalism and publishing.
Anderson now joins a long list of authors called into question for plagiarism, with lawsuits even extending to “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling.
In Anderson’s case, his acknowledgments are on the table. Sure, you can say it’s a small thing, involving information in the margins. But that’s like saying a small lie is acceptable, or perhaps a small incident of fraud.
Tolerance in such cases reduces our collective expectations, and the unwritten standard to which we hold journalists and authors. We all lose when we lower our standards.
At the very least, I would have felt better to hear a serious mea culpa from Anderson and his publisher.
Looking for something to do this summer? Go to the library.
You might find more than you expect. And the best part is it’s free.
In addition to innovative summer reading programs and other interesting activities, libraries are also a source of free computer access.
This is a big deal for many communities. In one recent survey, more than 70 percent of libraries identified themselves as the only source of free access to computers and the Internet in their area, according to the American Library Association (ALA). And, Internet services are escalating rapidly within the nation’s libraries. The ALA also reports that more than 76 percent of all public libraries provide Wi-Fi access, up from 65.9 percent one year ago.
In the national debate over stimulus spending for broadband networks, library proponents make an effective argument that libraries can play a significant role in bridging the digital divide. In a recent conversation, Sari Feldman, president-elect of the Public Library Association (a division of ALA), pointed out that libraries not only provide public access to Internet service, but they also give people needed support – in figuring out how to fill out an online job application, for example. A majority of large retailers, Feldman noted, now require online applications.
The Cuyahoga County Public Library in Northeast Ohio, where Feldman is executive director, is an example of a library system with dozens of programs that help level the playing field for those with no Internet access in their homes. People receive help with job searches and applications, for example. In another initiative, college-bound students learn to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).
These are ways libraries stand to further elevate their relevance as places where people can go to help improve themselves and seek new opportunities. They can be a place to go, especially for those otherwise shut out of opportunities that require Internet access.
No surprise libraries figure prominently in the debate over how to provide Internet access to those under-served or not served at all.
Yet even in the best-case scenario, one where all public libraries provide public accessibility to high-speed, high-capacity Internet service, that alone isn’t enough to break down economic, social and educational barriers that result from the digital divide.
The other part of the equation: People must take the personal initiative to use the services available to them in order to reap the benefits.
I’m reminded of my 83-year-old dad who not long ago went to the doctor complaining of various aches and pains. He was really complaining of being shut out – of playing golf, for example, or bocce.
“Go to the gym,’’ the doctor kept telling him.
Finally, after hearing it enough times, he went to his version of the gym – the one he set up in his basement. His health improved dramatically.
Looking for a new job? A more effective, efficient ways to learn new skills? How to do better in school? Ways to beat the summer heat?
Mothers teach — sometimes without even knowing it.
Ever take a packed lunch to school as a child? Ever look inside to find a small note from mom next to your pudding snack?
In that instance, mom taught that the written word sends a message — no matter how brief.
Mother’s Day is this coming Sunday. But if your sentiment simply won’t fit on a note or greeting card, try a book.
You can pick a book to send almost any message you’d like to your mother (or to the woman in your life who most fits your ideal of a mother). Motherhood is one of those subjects that literature has conferred blanket coverage — on par with love, heartbreak, war and peace.
As children, we learn about Old Mother Hubbard, who sets the stage for the extent to which mothers fuss. Old Mother Hubbard goes everywhere — to the baker’s, the tavern, the tailor’s and so on — and that’s just to pamper the dog.
As we grow, literature breaks the news to us (in case we missed the point in real life) that a mother’s role can get a lot more complicated.
In John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, for example, Ma Joad shows how a mother’s courage and wisdom can keep a family going in the really tough times.
Or take the figure of Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. Karenina shows that even when a mother’s personal life goes really astray — to the point of desertion — her connection to her child can transcend even the worst behavior.
Most of us probably have mothers somewhere in the spectrum between Ma Joad and Anna Karenina. (Hopefully closer to Ma Joad.) Regardless of where a mother’s virtue lies, Mother’s Day is an occasion to put her under the spotlight.
If you are looking for a book to give your mom, to express warm feelings or to make her laugh, here are a few titles on display at the Chautauqua Book Store inside the nonprofit Chautauqua Institution in western New York: (While summer programming doesn’t open until June 27, the bookstore stays open year round.)
—Dear Mom: Thank You For Everything or The Incredible Truth About Mothers, both by Bradley Trevor Greive. Both titles feature nature photography with captions reflecting thoughts you might expect from a mother. For example, next to a sleeping polar bear cub, a caption reads, “A child’s dreams are tomorrow’s reality.”
—Thoughts with Love for Mother, by Anne Geddes. This is a little book of sayings, such as this one by Cecilia Lasbury: “There are only two lasting bequests we can give our children. One of these is roots. The other, wings.”
—Zelda’s Moments with Mom, part of the Zelda Wisdom series by Carol Gardner and Shane Young. Again, photos with captions, such as “Being a mother also means enthusiastically sharing dreams, however unrealistic as in, ‘When I grow up, I’m going to be a cowboy.’”
—Mommy Knows Worst: Highlights from the Golden Age of Bad Parenting Advice, by James Lileks. It’s a humorous look at parents who figure things out for themselves and do just fine.
Amazon.com’s Kindle e-book reader continues to give rise to speculation on how we will digest books in the future. In a guest viewpoint in this week’s Wall Street Journal, for example, author Steven Johnson looked at how the “digital-books revolution” might change the very way we read and write.
Johnson talked about having an “aha” moment relating to the “great promise and opportunity” in the transformation to digital formats.
As someone with two daughters in college, I’ve just had my own “aha” moment: Why aren’t we seeing more digital textbooks?
Once, my older daughter asked me to stand in a line at her school, where students go to “sell back” their books. I walked in with about $500 worth of textbooks and walked out with about with $16 cash. The alternatives: Haul the books home knowing they would never be opened again, or simply throw them away.
Sometimes I wonder where all these used books go. While information does constantly change, does the 7th edition of some textbooks really differ that much from the 8th edition?
It doesn’t matter whether you choose to use a Kindle or some other e- reading device. What it should come down to is this: What is the best deal for students?
The university press, in particular, can make a difference. College textbooks are the products of both commercial publishing houses and university press operations.
Recently, in announcing a move to almost all digital publishing, the University of Michigan Press pointed out that digital books of the future would emphasize interactive components including hot links, graphics, 3D animation and video. U-M Press held out the promise for students to get more, as authors communicate subtleties through various multimedia options.
It’s hard to say where the future of the novel is going. Some of us still like to curl up on a chair with printed pages we can touch and turn.
Textbooks aren’t like that. Most universities now have digital processes and products in place.
So what are we waiting for?
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A note on author J.G. Ballard, who died Sunday at age 78 after a lengthy battle with prostate cancer:
Ballard was best known for “Empire of the Sun” and “The Kindness of Women,” both fictionalized autobiographies. “Empire of the Sun,” an international best seller, related to his childhood in a Japanese internment camp outside Shanghai. Director Steven Spielberg later made it into a film.
Great Britain’s Telegraph described Ballard as having an “uncanny feel for the dark undercurrents of modern life,” and on a personal level, being as kind and generous as his fiction was eerie and hostile.
HarperCollins canceled plans to publish Ballard’s most recent project, “Conversations,” when it became clear the author was too ill to continue. The book was to reflect Ballard’s conversations with British oncologist Jonathan Waxman.
Diane Evans is founder and president of DelMio.com.
A young co-worker has been trying hard to turn me into a reader of the graphic novel.
Now with the film release of Watchmen, it’s time at least to get up to speed. Watchmen, by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, is the only graphic novel to appear on Time Magazine’s “100 Best Novels from 1923 to the Present.”
Other indicators, too, point to the emergence of graphic novels as a legitimate literary form. Visit any number of public libraries and see the prominent displays of graphic novels. Librarians I know not only respect this genre, but also see it as a means to engage younger audiences in reading.
I began reading a graphic novel for the first time recently – titled Kabuki: Circle of Blood, by David Mack. I’m not hooked on the graphic novel style, but I do recognize the artistic value.
So here are some of the things I’m learning from my co-worker, who is in the die-hard fan category: We as readers (read: over age 40) need to grow up and move past the misconception that comic books and graphic novels are nothing more than pseudo-literary fodder for children and “nerds.” Within the past 20 years, the comic book industry has seen individual publishers move into self-censorship, doing away with the more restrictive rules of the Comics Code Authority. As a result, graphic novels have grown up, their pages filled with more psychologically complicated characters and mature themes.
The form isn’t limited to stereotyped spandex-clad heroes fighting super-powered battles on fictional planets anymore. Characters now deal with serious moral, ethical and social issues.
In the first volume of Mack’s Kabuki, you’ll find a physically powerful and beautiful Japanese woman so deeply affected by a painful past that she can only relate to her present world through the safety of a kabuki mask. Her quest throughout the book forces her to come to terms with her family, history, culture and mother’s death while coming into direct conflict with the powers she serves.
Here are some of my co-workers recommendations, in addition to Watchmen and Kabuki: Circle of Blood:
Danger Girl: The Ultimate Collection, by J. Scott Campbell and Andy Hartnell – This fast-paced novel reads and feels exactly like an action movie, with artwork just as gripping as the storyline. Danger Girl follows adventuress Abbey Chase as her life dramatically changes once intertwined with a black-ops team. Imagine Indiana Jones meeting James Bond.
Maus: A Survivor’s Tale, by Art Speigelman – One of the premier nonfiction graphic novels, Maus recounts the struggle of Spiegelman’s father to survive the Holocaust as a Polish Jew and draws largely on those personal experiences. The book also follows Spiegelman’s troubled relationship with his father and the effects of war as it reverberated through generations of a family.
The author: Russ Vernon, a famous Akron, Ohio, grocer who started working at his father’s upscale food market at age 8, still going in regularly even in retirement.
The book: “West Point Market Cookbook,” published by the University of Akron Press as a series on Ohio history and culture.
The quality of the book is as high as Vernon’s standards for his store. That explains why local shops around town have it on display, and why more than 5,000 copies have sold. It also points to the value of the often-overlooked university press as a source of occasional gems.
Around the country, university press operations are under pressure, not just as a result of a bad economy, but also because of the challenges facing traditional print media as digital publishing increases in popularity.
The Utah State University Press, for example, is in danger losing university support. Recently, the University of Michigan Press announced it would eliminate most of its print operations and move primary to digital publishing.
The print vs. digital debate aside, what’s important is to preserve the place of the university press. In addition to scholarly work, these university publishing houses are valuable for preserving regional history and culture.
“With larger publishers deciding not to invest as much in books of local culture, the university press becomes a means for serving that market,” said Tom Bacher, director of the University of Akron Press. “This is a way the university press can help with community engagement.”
The West Point cookbook is a case in point. The store is part of local history.
In a forward to the book, Akron writer David Giffels described the best kind of provincialism as “life in a place that enjoys certain flavors exclusively.” It’s not just the flavor of food, either.
At West Point, the elitism of the gourmet surroundings is tempered by a reaching out to the whole city. If the Easter Bunny is going to be there, people from all over town show up. Plus, Vernon likes to shower attention on customers, often sharing the kind of insights you’ll find in the book.
A few excerpts:
On picking produce: “As a boy, I watched and learned from my father. … When farmers shouted out, ‘Just picked _ red, ripe strawberries! Fifty-nine cents a quart!’ he knew to inspect the bottom of the strawberry basket. … You have to be patient and careful when it comes to selecting the finest quality produce, whether it’s for your business or the family dinner table.”
On salad dressing: “I prefer to make my own salad dressing. In the past, I experimented with different recipes, and the result was always too acidic, too messy or just too much waste. A simple oil and vinegar mix is easy.”
On making an omelet: “Don’t worry about using one of those cute two-sided pans or omelet forks. I’ve been using the same ten-inch sloped-sided pan and a regular fork for 15 years and the omelet always slips easily on the plate. As with any art, it takes practice.”
Here are a few upcoming books likely to gain attention:
• Columbine, by journalist Dave Cullen
This 432-page narrative will be released April 6, just two weeks before the 10th anniversary of the massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado.
Cullen spent nearly 10 years researching the lives and events surrounding the tragedy that saw two students kill 12 classmates and a teacher, wound 23 others and kill themselves.
• Ted Kennedy: The Dream That Never Died, by Edward Klein
Klein, the controversial writer of five earlier New York Timers bestsellers on the Kennedy family, adds yet another title to the growing list on ailing Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy.
The new book, due out in May, includes a look at Sen. Kennedy’s relations with the Kopechne family and niece Caroline Kennedy’s decision to withdraw from consideration for a New York senatorial seat.
In the 2003 release The Kennedy Curse, Klein drew criticism from Kennedy friends for his portrayal of John F. Kennedy Jr.’s marriage to Carolyn Bessette. Klein claimed the marriage had devolved into disaster, with incidents of infidelity, drugs and even violence.
• It Sucked and Then I Cried: How I Had a Baby, a Breakdown, and a Much Needed Margarita, by Heather B. Armstrong.
A new memoir quickly gaining attention, this book is an offshoot of Armstrong’s popular blog (www.dooce.com), which she has used since 2001 to write about depression, childbirth and parenting. USA TODAY reports the site averages 1.5 million visitors a month.
In an interview with the paper, Armstrong commented, “People come to me because I will say what they’re afraid to say. It’s really raw and unfiltered, a little rough around the edges. Sometimes it seems like I’m going off like a fire hose.”
Last year for the first time, a blog that give way to a book made USA TODAY’s list of top 50 bestsellers. The book, I Can Has Cheezburger?: A LOLcat Colleckshun, came from the Web site www.icanhascheezburger.com, featuring pictures of cats with captions.
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Speaking of blogs, I recently discovered http://inkwellbookstore.blogspot.com, which offers book news, reviews and recommendations from the staff of The Inkwell Bookstore in Falmouth, Mass. It is an independent bookstore owned and operated by two women. The site has universal appeal with a Boston flavor.
Here is an excerpt from a blog entry on The Tomb of Zeus, by Barbara Cleverly: “The twists of the plot and the wonderful characterizations add to the storytelling, however it is the well-researched, fascinating tidbits about the history of Crete and the ancient Minoan civilization that delight the reader. … It also reads like a good travel essay by sparking an urge to explore Crete.”
Cuts in the publishing industry continue, whether it’s a round of layoffs at National Geographic, or the University of Michigan Press abandoning print to go digital.
The pattern is clear: As a society, we’re opting for digital reading formats. And that’s been hell on local booksellers.
It’s the cost of progress. Progress brings change, and change disrupts old ways of doing business.
But there is a solution, and that’s to change with the times.
In short, evolve or die.
That’s why it’s getting old to hear local, independent booksellers cry about hard times. Yes, we’re talking about many great places. But as digital formats continue to grow in popularity, and broadband infrastructure opens up previously unimagined possibilities, merchants need to change how they do business and find ways to remain relevant and profitable in an economic environment reliant on technology.
In a recent blog posting, Arsen Kashkashian, head buyer of the Boulder Bookstore in Boulder, Colo., unwittingly told why clinging to old ways won’t work. In a blog post titled “Hachette Gets Cheap, Real Cheap,” Kashkashian lamented Hachette Book Group’s decision to eliminate a program that benefited independent booksellers.
The program allowed booksellers to receive credit for promoting Hachette titles. Kashkashian estimated the loss would “cost many independent stores $3,000 in the upcoming year.”
“In most businesses, $3,000 might be a fairly insignificant amount,” he wrote. “In the bookselling world where a profit of 2 percent is considered stellar, it is a critical sum.”
He went on, saying a bookseller makes so little that $3,000 is enough to pay for one hour of work every Monday through Saturday all year long. He also added that some booksellers are already trying to recoup by buying cheaper toilet paper and paper towels.
Dear Mr. Kashkashian: Saving on toilet paper won’t help you. Neither will some of the tips you’ll find on the Web site of the American Booksellers Association, a trade group for independent booksellers since 1900. The ABA site offers tips such as, “Give your customers something to think about: Ten reasons why shopping local and independent is so important.”
As times change, the appeal of a local bookseller must go beyond emotional, altruistic reasons. The appeal must relate to new approaches, made possible through 21st century technological advances.
One example: Improved literacy is a goal of broadband network expansion. How can local booksellers work with schools and other civic organizations to collaborate on new solutions to meet community literacy needs? Are there ways for these booksellers to become leaders in offering online literacy programs for adults?
The answers are far less clear than the questions. However, to survive, local booksellers need to get in the game. Becoming part of the discussion is a first step toward becoming part of 21st century solutions that can keep more local merchants in business and contributing to the vitality and fabric of their local communities.
Diane Evans is a former Knight Ridder columnist and is president of DelMio.com.
When former president Bill Clinton spoke recently before the Association of American Publishers in New York City, he focused on the economy and the new stimulus plan approved by Congress.
For publishers, nothing is more important – especially given industry consolidation as a result of economic pressure and new technologies that threaten the market for printed books.
Clinton’s very speech – about the complexities of the economy – reinforced why we need books. His point: That books are as important as ever in our age of blogs and Tweets, because facts alone aren’t enough; we also need “perspective and linear argument.”
“You ought to feel that you are in a noble profession,” Clinton told publishers. “You ought to pollute it as a little as you can and make some money. … I don’t care what will happen with technology, we’ll all still need to read.”
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Is Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s statesmanship so great, that despite the mark of scandals in Chappaquiddick and Palm Beach, his legacy will be on par with that of Daniel Webster?
So says Peter S. Canellos, the Boston Globe Washington bureau chief and editor of a new biography on Kennedy. The book, Last Lion: The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy, is by a team of Boston Globe writers who covered Kennedy over the years. It includes previously unpublished family letters and interviews.
Speaking of Kennedy’s nearly five-decade legislative career, Canellos told The New York Times via e-mail: “There’s no question in my mind that he’s the greatest legislator in American history. That sounds like a glib superlative. But when you do all the research – and we did – there’s really no other conclusion.”
Kennedy’s quip to a family member, when told about the Webster comparison: “What did Webster do?”
The book suggests that after Chappaquiddick, Kennedy spent the rest of his life soul searching, as he also took on the role of father figure to 13 nieces and nephews who had no fathers.
Meanwhile, Kennedy’s own memoir is scheduled for release this fall, sooner than originally planned. The book, titled “True Compass,” reportedly fetched an $8 million advance for the Massachusetts Democrat. Part of the proceeds will go to charity.
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A note on novelist James Purdy, who died in New Jersey last week at age 94:
In a 2005 New York Times essay, American novelist and playwright Gore Vidal commented on why Purdy received limited success and acclaim for his dark and sometimes comic fiction, with subjects ranging from ghosts to gays.
“The walls of Jericho remained standing and still stand to this day despite a unique and varied body of work,” wrote Vidal. “But then certain writers are simply not allowed to pass because, at some level, they genuinely disturb, causing the Confederacy of Dunces to cart away their most vivid works like so many pillars of salt to be set up in that deadly desert that separates our Oz from the real world.”
Purdy once offered this explanation: “Reputations are made here, as in Russia, on political respectability or commercial acceptability. The worse the author, the more he is known.”
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Diane Evans is a former Knight Ridder columnist and is now president of SunLit Communications and DelMio.com, an interactive online magazine on books for writers and readers.
Edward Kennedy at one time was a name synonymous with “scandal.” Often regarded as a pampered playboy, Teddy languished in the shadows of his brothers, John and Bobby, whose shadows seemed to have been made longer by their deaths in the 1960s.
But over the decades in the Senate, Kennedy accumulated a substantial body of work. Now, as the senator faces his own mortality with the diagnosis of a brain tumor, the staff of the Boston Globe has crafted Last Lion: The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy.
In his review, Minneapolis Star Tribune writer Tim O’Brien rattles off a list of scandals, enough scandals to keep the tabloids in business for years. The drinking and carousing, the academic misdeeds, and more:
“Last Lion explores all of these incidents, and it doesn’t give Kennedy a hometown discount. Chappaquiddick (the one-word incident that revolved around the death of Mary Jo Kopechne), the writers say, was ‘a failure of princely indulgence, assuming he could do anything and have others clean up, or something closer to the opposite — the faltering of a grief-stricken and damaged psyche, unable to confront his responsibilities.’ ”
The Globe staff, which probably knows Kennedy better than anyone else could, provides a unique view of the Massachusetts senator, the liberal’s liberal who has forged unlikely alliances and deep friendships with the likes of conservative Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah.
Take the case of the women who snookered The New York Times, which wrote a serious story about a supposed support group called Dating a Banker Anonymous, DABA, based on a fictionalized blog.
Blog co-founder Laney Crowell, and her cohort, lawyer Megan Petrus, concoct stories that mix their own experiences with stories of people who e-mail the site at http://dabagirls.com. Reports Newsweek: “They don’t fact check the e-mails, or the gossip, and the posts are embellished and exaggerated for added laughs. At times, details are plucked from thin air to give the stories a satirical edge.”
The blog could lead to bigger and better things for Crowell and Petrus, who are now signed with well-heeled agencies in Hollywood and New York publishing. Speculation is there will be a book, movie or possibly even a TV series based on the blog. (But not a documentary.)
In a story in January, the Times reported on women who “shared their sad stories . . . at an informal gathering of Dating a Banker Anonymous, a support group founded in November to help women cope with the inevitable relationship fallout from, say the collapse of Lehman Brothers, or the Dow’s shedding 777 points in a single day.”
The article further noted that “theirs is not the typical 12-step program,” and that Step 1 for DABA is Slip into a Dress and Heels.
The Times interviewed and photographed a real group of women. But they were friends sitting around a cocktail table with drinks.
At its Web site, the Times has two corrections accompanying the original version of the story. One notes a misspelling of “the surname of a prominent Wall Street investor.’’ It’s Warren E. Buffett, not Buffet.
The other correction, carefully worded, says that one of the creators of DABA since described the blog “as a satire that embellishes true experiences for effect. Had the nature of the blog been made clear at the outset, the article would have described it accordingly, not as a support group.”
Publishers Lunch, an online publication for the book industry, couldn’t help but say nyah, nyah. Its headline read, The Next Time the NYT Whines About Fact-Checking in Books.
“If published in a book the Times would call it a hoax,’’ wrote Publishers Lunch. “As
published in their pages, it is a satire that embellishes true experiences for effect.’’
The true effect of the Internet for anyone in publishing is that mistakes that may never have come to light before will come to light in cyberland. That means public humiliation may overtake the dreaded lawsuit as the new No. 1 fear.
Or as Newsweek said in tweaking the paper, did the Times get punk’d?
By Diane Evans
You won’t believe who has a new book coming out in May. It’s J.R.R. Tolkien – even though the creator of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings series died in 1973.
The Tolkien Library Web site, at www.tolkienlibrary.com, reports that the new book is an extensive retelling of a story derived from the Volsunga Saga from Norse mythology. According to publisher U.S. Houghton Mifflin, the book will include an introduction by Tolkien and notes by his son, Christopher Tolkien.
J.R.R. Tolkien fantasy novels have sold millions of copies. Tolkien began The Hobbit on blank pages at the end of students’ exams, and he then read those stories to his children at bedtime. That was the start of the epic fantasy The Lord of the Rings, published in Great Britain 1954-55.
The Web site www.tolkiensociety.org notes that The Lord of the Rings went into a pirated paperback version in 1965. A copyright dispute resulted in millions of Americans discovering Tolkien’s work. According the the Web site: “By 1968 The Lord of the Rings had almost become the Bible of the ‘Alternative Society.’ This development produced mixed feelings in the author. On the one hand, he was extremely flattered. . . On the other, he could only deplore those whose idea of a great trip was to ingest The Lord of the Rings and LSD simultaneously.”
At that other end of the spectrum, you can find scholarly commentary on Catholic thought within Tolkien works. The National Catholic Register published an essay in 2003 on “Why Tolkien Says Lord of the Rings is Catholic.” The Register quoted Tolkien as saying the fact that he was a Roman Catholic Christian was “really significant” to his work.
Dozens of books and academic papers have been published on Tolkien’s life and the layers of meanings in his stories. You’ll also find blogs devoted solely to news and information about Tolkien. An example is Tolkien News at http://tolkiennews.net/ and Tolkien-Online.com at http://www.tolkien-online.com/Tolkien-blog.html.
In our sound-bite culture, we find depth in nooks and crannies. As such, the fraternity of Tolkien can claim diversity going from Jesuits to junkies. That one author can speak to so many is a measure of greatness. It’s also why a new Tolkien title is significant.
I’m not a die-hard Tolkien fan. But The Lord of the Rings caused me to search out commentary on what Tolkien meant to say. One message sticks in my mind: It’s that in life, we know who our obvious enemies are. But in addition to those who clearly mean us harm, there are some who are near to us who will lead us astray if we let them. And if that’s not enough, we also have to resist our own urges to sabotage ourselves. Remember the temptation to put the ring on? Tolkien’s genius was his ability to tell such epic truth under the cover of fantasy.
By Diane Evans Several communities around the country are reporting increased use of public libraries during this tough economy. It makes sense, because you can get a lot for free, and not just books to read. Here are a few examples of things you can do:
*Entertain your kids. Check your local library for listings; programs typically range from story times to educational game playing on library computers. A library in Sandpoint, Idaho, reported that participation in programs for preschoolers doubled over the course of just a few months. Sessions that previously drew 15 children now attract about 30.
*Sharpen your skills or learn new ones: Many librarians have become multimedia specialists who can help you advance your skills in our age of digital information. Some of these librarians can teach you how to develop PowerPoint presentations or create videos online.
*Get connected. If you don’t have Internet access at home, you’re likely to have it available at a local library. At the main library at Roanoke County in Virginia, the staff estimates a 12 percent to 15 percent increase in patrons just this year. In many cases, people who have given up Internet service at home are going to the library to check e-mail and search for jobs.
*Join a book discussion group. You can socialize and meet new friends around interesting discussions, often led by librarians. It’s common to find discussion groups around genres, such as mystery and romance.
*Borrow instead of buy. In addition to books, you can check out movies and music CDs.
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On the topic of hard times: Wonder if the stimulus package could hand out laptops and send writers fanning out across the nation to document the American experience? The Works Progress Administration’s Writers’ Project did just that during the Great Depression.
David A. Taylor’s new book, Soul of a People: The WPA Writers’ Project Uncovers Depression America, examines the program and its impact.
Over a five-year span, novelists such as the late Richard Wright and the late Jim Thompson traveled the country in search of America’s stories. They documented people in hardship and in transition.
The late novelist and short story writer Nelson Algren said of the effort:
“Had it not been for the Project, the suicide rate would have
been much higher. It gave new life to people who had thought
their lives were over.”
An excerpt from Taylor’s book:
“When Nelson Algren said that the Project gave hope to people who
had lost it, he was not being melodramatic. The Writers’ Project set a
trampoline under many thousands, writers and nonwriters, who would
otherwise have hit the pavement. The poet W. H. Auden called the
Project ‘one of the noblest and most absurd undertakings ever attempted
by any state.’ It put people in contact with one another, restored voices
to many who had fallen silent, and gave us the closest thing to Twain’s
vision that America has ever seen.”
A few notes on new books gaining attention in a month that celebrates black
history, Presidents Day and cupid through the life of a saint: The Negro Speaks of Rivers: Award-winning illustrator E. B. Lewis offers a
visual interpretation of the Langston Hughes poem by the same title. The
poem, first published in 1921, became signature Hughes, with lines such as,
“I’ve known rivers: Ancient, dusky rivers. My soul has grown deep like the
rivers.”
The Rutgers University Project on Economics and Children recommends Lewis’
illustrated rendering of the poem as a way to teach children about both
natural resources and human resources, with the latter relating to the labor
of African Americans. In the book, Lewis describes how water has had
special meaning in his own life. Both the poem and the illustrations can
segue into lessons on black history, and also the role of natural resources
in history.
Lewis’ art depicts children at play at the seashore, fishermen at work, and
the flow of water past bridges, huts and various landmarks through time.
You’ll find dozens of new titles on Abraham Lincoln, with this being the
200th anniversary of his birth. That’s not to mention the renewed interest
in Lincoln as a result of Barack Obama – a student of Lincoln sworn in on
the Great Emancipator’s Bible. If you’re looking for a quick read, James M.
McPherson has a new biography out, titled Abraham Lincoln, and it’s only 79
pages.
McPherson won a Pulitzer Prize for his Battle Cry of Freedom, a history of
the Civil War published in 1988.
For in-depth analysis among the new works, McPherson recommends A. Lincoln:
A Biography, by Ronald C. White Jr., as the best since David Donald’s Lincoln in 1995.
Now for romance: Legend is that St. Valentine died on Feb. 14, and that he
had signed “From your Valentine” on letters sent to his jail keeper ‘s
daughter. Valentine, a Catholic priest during the reign of Claudius II, got
in trouble for marrying couples in defiance of Claudius’ decree against
marriage. Claudius, who thought unmarried men made better soldiers, ordered
Valentine beheaded.
That’s the backdrop.
Today, if popular books reflect love in our culture, the holy St. Valentine
might be wholly surprised.
A few new titles: Love in the Time of Colic: The New Parents’ Guide to Getting It on Again, by
Ian Kerner and Heidi Raykeil.
Why Him? Why Her? Finding Real Love by Understanding Your Personality Type,
by Helen Fisher. It looks at four personality types and why some work
together better than others.
The Joy of Sex, by Dr. Alex Comfort and Susan Quilliam, including color
photographs and what you might need to know about text sex.
Dr. Ruth’s Top 10 Secrets for Great Sex, by the sex doctor Ruth Westheimer.
By Diane Evans For all the book-review lovers mourning the loss of Book World in The Washington Post, have a good cry and get on with it. The day of standalone book sections in daily newspapers is all but gone, and it’s not coming back. The Washington Post cited a protracted downturn in advertising, as felt by newspapers across the country.
For readers, getting on with it means finding good reviews and commentary on books in other places. Plenty exists – often on blogs – and some of it is more meaningful to average readers than the often heady, elitist reviews that daily newspapers served up over the years.
Here are a few examples of literary blogs that are gaining attention from the print media, as they little by little replace book reviews in print publications.
Bookslut at http://www.bookslut.com/blog/
Here’s an excerpt from a recent post: John Updike’s forthcoming collection of poems, Endpoint, features a poem about his “overdue demise”: It came to me the other day: / Were I to die, no one would say, / ‘Oh, what a shame! So young, so full / Of promise – depths unplumbable!
So Many Books at http://somanybooksblog.com/
One new post on this blog deals with Seamus Heaney’s translation of Sophocles’ Antigone for the Abbey Theatre in Ireland. It includes an easy-to-understand summary, along with opinion.
The Elegant Variation at http://marksarvas.blogs.com/elegvar/
This blog focuses on literary life in Los Angeles, but includes other things, too. After Updike’s death, the blog pointed readers to a tribute by Irish-born author Joseph O’Neill – published, as you might guess, on another literary blog. A line from O’Neill’s essay: “The example of Updike is intimidating to the writer in the matter of sentences, in the matter of output, in the matter of aptitude – until, that is, one remembers that Updike himself was a stranger to intimidation, and that the Updike precedent ultimately authorizes, indeed obligates, the writer to give the task at hand his or her best shot.”
Paper Cuts on the site of the New York Times at http://papercuts.blogs.nytimes.com
Written by editors of The Book Review, it includes book news, commentary and interviews with authors.
Critical Mass at http://bookcritics.org/blog
This is blog written by members of the board of directors of the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC), representing more than 900 professional book reviewers. It includes commentary on literary criticism, publishing and writing. Many NBCC members were among the 122 contributors to Book World who petitioned the Washington Post to keep the section alive. Marcus Brauchli, editor of the Washington Post, amplified the paper’s decision in a response published on the NBCC’s blog.
“Some bloggers have pointed out that book reviews inevitably will migrate to the Web,’’ Brauchli said. “Reviews online are no doubt easier to find. Putting them online also shortens the distance between reading a review and buying a book, which surely is a good thing for authors and the book trade.”
While continuing to publish book reviews in other sections of the print edition, he told the critics the Washington Post would also develop a well-indexed Book World site online.
By Diane Evans It looks like the British-born author Neil Gaiman can thank the dead for giving him eternal life as an author.
The American Library Association just awarded its prestigious John Newbery Medal to Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book. The annual award, named for an 18th century bookseller, recognizes an outstanding contribution to American literature for children.
The Graveyard Book is about a kid raised by ghosts. You can read an excerpt, along with an interview with Gaiman, at National Public Radio’s Web site at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95790778. Gaiman tells NPR he got the idea for the book two decades ago, when the only place he felt he could safely allow his young son to ride his tricycle was in a local churchyard. “I would sit there watching,’’ Gaiman recalls, “this incredibly happy kid in a graveyard.”
For the author, Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book came to mind, about an orphan adopted by wild animals. Why not a kid adopted by dead people?
Gaiman tried writing the story several times over the years, only to give up, saying he didn’t think he was a good enough writer to develop the idea into a story. About four years ago, he decided to give it a try. So he developed the character of Nobody Owens, known to friends as Bod.
Bod had been orphaned at 2, the only one to escape the mysterious murder of his entire family. The inhabitants of a local graveyard take Bod in, to protect him and teach him the secrets of the dead.
Another Gaiman book, Coraline, opens in a film adaptation in February.
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For those of who like “best-of” lists, here are some of the finalists for awards that will be given by the New York-based National Book Critics Circle, a nonprofit consisting of more than 900 active book reviewers:
Fiction
Roberto Bolano: 2666
Marilynne Robinson: Home
Aleksandar Hemon: The Lazarus Project
M. Glenn Taylor: The Ballad of Trenchmouth Taggart
Elizabeth Strout: Olive Kittredge
Nonfiction
Dexter Filkins: The Forever War
Drew Gilpin Faust: This Republic of Suffering: Death and the Civil War
Jane Mayer: The Dark Side
Allan Lichtman: White Protestant Nation
George C. Herring: From Colony to Superpower: US Foreign Relations Since 1776
Biography
Paula J. Giddings: Ida, A Sword Among Lions: Ida B. Wells and the Campaign Against Lynching
Steve Coll: The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family In An American Century
Patrick French: The World Is What It Is: The Authorized Biography of V.S. Naipaul
Annette Gordon-Reed: The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family
Brenda Wineapple: White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson & Thomas Wentworth Higginson
By Diane Evans If I’m OK and you’re OK, then we should be able to play in the same sandbox even if I’m Sicilian American, you’re gay and the kid across the street is Southern Baptist. We might even learn from each other if we’re smart enough to look past our differences.
The paradox of the gay protesters who opposed Rick Warren delivering the inaugural invocation is that they, as gays, advocate inclusion. Inclusion is a two-way street. It means black and white. Liberal and conservative. Believer and nonbeliever.
As expected, Warren’s invocation reached for our common ground. Our commitment to freedom and justice. Our gratefulness to live in this country. And a common desire for wisdom, compassion and humility in our leaders.
Warren earned the invitation to be on stage, at that historic moment, because of how he inspired countless Americans with his words as an author. Time magazine missed the mark in saying that Warren encourages confusion about his agenda by trying to “be both the universally admired pastor who speaks to the nation and the influential leader who mobilizes religious conservatives.”
In what he says and writes, Warren owns up to his rigid conservative views. He became famous, instead, for his ability to transcend a narrow agenda. His book, A Purpose-Driven Life, inspired countless readers by holding out an ideal for greater meaning in our individual lives. He spoke to people of all different beliefs. Separate from the obvious spiritual message, Warren opened my eyes to why it’s important to really listen, respectfully, to people whose views may be disparaged by the “in” crowd of popular culture. My own views are far from the religious right. But Rick Warren, through his book, had a lot to say to me, Diane Evans, about why it’s so important to follow my soul and search out purpose in my own life. Many cultures and religions ascribe to the more universal parts of Warren’s message. The Italians say, Sta scritto nelle stelle: It is written in the stars.
Warren addresses the issue of how we discover what a greater power has written for our own lives.
As a nation, too, we can borrow from A Purpose-Driven Life. How can we focus our national resources for the greater good? What are the things that we, as Americans, should be doing in the world?
The inspiration of Barack Obama is that he walks the walk of inclusion. Look at his Cabinet choices. Or even his invitation to Rick Warren, who had taken Obama to task over abortion.
Religion has played a historical role in presidential inaugurations, going back to George Washington, who credited the birth of America to “providential agency.”
Now, an African American taking the presidential oath after an invocation by a Southern Baptist? That’s an America that makes me proud.
Diane Evans, founder and president of DelMio.com, was a longtime writer for the Akron Beacon Journal and Knight Ridder newspapers.
Related news: Warren receives “tepid” welcome at inauguration: CLICK HERE.
The National Endowment for the Arts has a new take on reading in America with the release of its new report titled Reading on the Rise: A New Chapter in American Literacy.
In the preface, outgoing NEA Chairman Dana Gioia calls the findings a “turning point in recent American cultural history,’’ saying cultural decline is not inevitable and he could find no happier way to end his tenure at NEA. The report is so far afield from NEA’s gloomy Reading at Risk report five years ago, that even Gioia acknowledges that “one might ask if the new data are too good to be true.”
He says no, because the sample size of the study is roughly 20 times that of an average media poll. Plus, the NEA’s questionnaire has stayed consistent since the survey began 26 years ago.
If that’s the case, then what happened? In 2002, fewer than 47 percent of the American adults reported reading novels, short stories, poems and plays during the previous year. Now, in this survey, the percentage was over half.
Increases were reported across almost all groups measured: Whites, African Americans, Hispanics, men, women, young people, old people. In the most dramatic change, young adults, ages 18 to 24, went from reporting a 20 percent decline in reading in 2002 to a 21 percent increase in 20 08.
The report offers little by the way of explanation, other than to speculate on possibilities, such as heightened efforts by teachers and librarians, and the rise in community reading programs such the NEA’s Big Read.
In addition, there is also the not-so-inspiring news in the report that well over half of the American adults don’t read books unless they are required for work or school. That percentage increased in this latest survey.
Gioia is right that cultural decline is not inevitable. We’d be a hopeless culture if we thought so. Yet if there is a new chapter, it’s a first chapter that will need to be validated by future studies. Otherwise, this new report will be little more than a nice send-off for Gioia.
In his concluding remarks, Gioia warns we should not be complacent. He is right, because whatever gains we can claim now must be measured against years of studies showing declines relating to education and American competitiveness. Even now, as this glowing report comes out, other equally significant studies show cause for concern.
One recent report, from the Benton Foundation, found that only 7 percent of U.S. college students now major in math or science, and that if current trends continue, more than 90 percent of all scientists and engineers will call Asia “home” by 2010. That’s only next year.
I have two daughters who are young adult s, one 18 and the other 21. Both read quite a bit while they were home from college over the holidays. I loved seeing them both sacked out on the couch, one with Harry Potter in hand, and the other a Stephenie Meyer fantasy/mystery.
Great as a getaway from serious studies. But hardly enough alone.
If Starbucks almost single-handedly changed America’s taste for coffee, from
mild to strong, then Amazon.com pulled off a similar coup in leading
Americans toward online shopping. First for books. Then for many other
things.
Not convinced? Consider two separate announcements on Monday, reflecting
divergent shopping patterns during this overall bleak holiday shopping
season.
For Amazon, a JPMorgan analyst upgraded the company’s stock on the heels
of the nation’s largest online retailer having its “best ever” holiday
season. The analyst, Imran Khan, further noted that while U.S. retail sales
rose only 2 percent in the first nine months of 2008, e-Commerce grew by 8
percent and Amazon’s retail revenue in North America spiked 31 percent from
the same period a year ago.
Khan expects the same trend to continue this year.
Meanwhile, the struggling Borders Group announced dismal sales for the
nine-week holiday period ending Jan. 3 – with total sales of $868.8 million,
representing a decline of 11.7 percent compared to the same period last
year. Numbers for the Borders superstores were even worse. The same day,
Borders also announced a top-level management shakeup and the appointment of
a new CEO.
Looking back over Amazon’s 15-year-history, the company probably could
not have picked a better place to start than with books. Books are not
something we naturally want to inspect, as with fabric on a dress.
Yet buying books online gave us a taste for the convenience, which spilled
over into other products.
New York Times writer David Streitfeld recently commented on the next
step, beyond Amazon, in online book sales. He identified what he calls as
“the rise of a worldwide network of amateurs who sell books from their
homes, or . . . in partnership with an Internet dealer who does all the work
for a chunk of the proceeds.”
It took eBay to show us we can all be retailers. The art of shopping,
after all, is about getting the things you want for the least amount of
money.
For some reason, an old saying comes to mind: What goes around comes
around.
Little by little, the big-box bookstores put many locally owned
independent booksellers out of business. That’s because the big players
could leverage their size to offer lower prices. Now, who knows? Out of
the rising network of amateurs, the little guys may win in the long run.
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A few of the titles from the Library Journal’s recent list of best books in
2008: Say You’re One of Them, by Uwem Akpan, about the fate of African children. The Hakawati, by Rabih Alameddine, about the tales of a Middle Eastern
storyteller. All We Ever Wanted Was Everything, by Janelle Brown, about a Silicon Valley
family in crisis. Split: A Memoir of Divorce, by Suzanne Finnamore, about making sense of a
divorce that she never saw coming. Hurry Down Sunshine: A Memoir, by Michael Greenberg, about his daughter’s
psychotic breakdown. A Mercy, by Toni Morrison, about the human cost of slavery. John Lennon: The Life, by Philip Norman, about the renowned Beatle.
Cuts in the publishing industry continue, whether it’s a round of layoffs at National Geographic, or the University of Michigan Press abandoning print to go digital.
Edward Kennedy at one time was a name synonymous with “scandal.” Often regarded as a pampered playboy, Teddy languished in the shadows of his brothers, John and Bobby, whose shadows seemed to have been made longer by their deaths in the 1960s.
