In the new Puritanism, if a book is extremely readable (i.e. accessible) it's also just not good for you in the same way that a more taxing (i.e. boring, difficult, obscure) read would be. I have friends who are determined members of the 'eat your peas' school of literature.
Not me. Not ever.
I truly want to be entertained. We have little enough joy in life and if I can enter someone else's dream with their words and not have a Brechtian interruption every few seconds, that's just wonderful. (Brecht believed that if you were entertained by art, then you couldn't be a revolutionary. That was BAD. Thus, he proposed that art should shake you out of the trance of fantasy that you had signed up for. Art should be be 1) unpleasant and 2) remind you that you were NOT a passive human being seeking escape but rather a very UNHAPPY person whose escape just back-flipped on them. I think he reasoned that if you were left uncomfortable long enough, you'd take to the streets. Kind of like, Entertainment is the Opiate of the People. The problem with that? Well, where do I start? First, well, having fun and thinking about issues aren't mutually exclusive. Real art wakes people up AND entertains them. More compassion was awakened by Dickens' pleasing stories than ever by James Joyce's tres difficil prose detailing God-knows-what-because-I couldn't-bear-one-more-word of Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
Shakespeare was people pleaser. He was also brilliant. Sapphire's book Push, which, I will have you know I put on my favorite books list in 2001 (see my old READERVILLE page if you don't believe me), is both really difficult AND really gripping. You can do both.
Okay. My point is this. Women (and men) needn't beat themselves up for wanting good old fashioned escapist reading. What the hell? Do we really need more reminders of unhappiness than our many electronic tethers that remind us of the catastrophe's ability to ambush ordinary people in ordinary lives? Hello? Earthquakes, I.E.D's, Tsunami's, religious vendettas, need I name one more?
Okay, I still haven't gotten to my point, which is to say that sometimes a GOOD READ just speaks for itself. So instead of the usual song and dance, I will show you the cover to Megan Crane's novel and if you click on the link that follows it, you will be taken to her website and can read the first chapter for yourself. It just made me want to read more. YAY! The woman has a Ph.d. in literature and she's put it to great effect in Everyone Else's Girl, at least as far as the first chapter goes. I've already ordered the rest of those pesky pages in book form and am just waiting for the mail to get here. So, without further ado.
Now, click on this link, which should take you to her website, scroll down and start the first chapter yourself. See if you don't agree that this woman makes you want to get into your p.j.s and under the covers.


Right on, honeylamb.
Posted by: Julia Patterson | March 22, 2010 at 12:10 PM
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