Tuesday, March 31, 2009
The Book of my Enemy
I find the post linked here interesting and funny but also horribly wrong on a number of levels "The Book of my Enemy Has Been Remaindered." I came to it via a comment from Pat Wrede elsewhere. I love the execution and the bitter truth that this represents, while at the same time deploring that truth. I don't like the idea of rejoicing in another's woes, and I know that it diminishes me when I do it but...damn it feels really good once in a while. :-/
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10 comments:
Thanks Kelly.
(and mari concurs ;))
Are you kidding? I used to have this posted on my work desk. I LOVE this. And it's funny and evil and yay.
Not at all. It's funny yes, but I've seen how much misery my friends have gone through as their books are remaindered. People really care about their books and sink enormous amounts of love and energy into them--to take joy in the human misery associated with a remainder even of someone I despise seems to me to be petty and spiteful and something that diminishes the one doing it.
By which I mean, I would feel diminished if I took joy in that kind of misery, not necessarily that anyone else should feel that way.
But Kelly, we are not talking about friends, we are talking about enemies...
I think you are kinder than I am. There are books which I believe should not be read; and people who will use whatever success they get badly.
And anyway, getting remaindered is part of life...
It's a step on the way to the day when you find your books in plastic envelopes in huckster rooms, priced at twice the original cover price. I once found a copy of my first novel in a plastic envelope. Without thinking I began to open it, the dealer pretty much ripped it out of my hands.
It had become a collector's item, too rare and fragile to be handled...
Naming no names, there are writers I consider personally mean and intellectually dishonest -- technically bad writers, with politics and ethics I don't much like. When I notice their books are out of print, when I see them at cons looking shabby and old, I do not feel sad for them.
Yes, old age comes to all of us; and almost anyone can up poor in this society; but I find myself thinking, "Thought you could game the system, did you? Thought the way to get ahead was to suck up to the people you saw as powerful and dis the people you did not think were important. Thought your success required that other people -- fellow writers -- do less well and feel bad about themselves. Well, it didn't work out as you planned..."
Oh, I'm not above feeling a certain amount of delight if I were to hear that anything written by Ann Coulter had crashed and burned. I believe that what she writes is malific and harmful to the body politic. At the same time, I try, as a general rule, not to take delight in pain however well-deserved I might believe it to be.
I agree with Eleanor, myself. You're too kind, Kelly. I've been remaindered (and I don't believe you have,) and it hurts, but it is a fact of publishing life and I totally think it's okay to dance on other people's graves, especially given how UN-f*cking-FAIR the publishing luck/fate/whatever is.
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