Sara Donati posted an interesting tidbit that addresses how she feels about negative reviews, and she provides an example of a review that’s critical of the work vs. a review that attacks the author.
I’ve been pretty poisonous about books I don’t like, and I wanted to see if I ever clearly attacked an author instead of a book, so I headed over to the archives to re-read some of my D reviews.
First up in the list was my review for Vera Nazarian’s Lords of Rainbow, and early on in the review, I came across this sentence: “The story opens when Our Intrepid Heroine, Ranheas Ylir, stumbles upon what seems to be an assassination attempt on an aristocrat’s coach.”
Holy shit. That is one important motherfuckin’ coach there, people. Maybe it pissed off a capo? I don’t know what that coach did, but it somehow deserved being set upon by some wack-ass guildmembers dedicated to killing and mayhem.
Anyway, what an embarrassing sentence. Kids, see what happens to your writing when you don’t have an editor?
I’m off to re-write that sentence. But I’m immortalizing my stupidity here. Because good stupidity deserves to be immortalized.
I’m now afraid to re-read my other reviews.
Heck that’s how I feel about my old posts. I hate going through my archives because the number of mixed tenses, typos, misused words and..well...let’s just say my professors would be horrified if they came across my blog.
It’s also why I start my assignment essays waaaaay in advance: editing takes eons.
Ah, see, now you’re self conscious. I knew what you were talking about and didn’t stop to think what a bastard that coach was! I was thinking an attack is about to happen *on* a coach.
When people start talking about *specific* things that bother them I find that they start to filter into me. I have heard people mention the eye ball thing.
Their eyes met across a crowded room. Someone will say, wow, their eyes left their body and met in the room. Now me, I think the person is being overly critical.
Right now my eyes feel fuzzy. They have not grown furr or anything but they are itching and dry and I’m not well so my eyes feel fuzzy. Is this not right? Am I doomed to be just one of the illiterate masses? *sob*
Sorry.
I have read reviews much more scathing that the one pointed to by Sara Donati. I agree that an artist’s life should not be brought into the equation. Reviewing a story, movie, or painting is about the piece not the person who created it. Sometimes this is hard to remember especially when I think about the guy who sat on a toilet in public and said it was art. I thought he was a moron.
I looked at some of my very very informal takes on the books I have read and blogged about and the only time I came close to saying something about the author was mentioning that in a world created by the author, they have to remain true to the rules they create. This one didn’t. By not keeping to her own rules, the book didn’t make sense. Not an attack on the author, just a reason why the book was not logical to me.
Side note, I didn’t read Beth’s review because I am the last person on earth who hasn’t read the series and I promised my friend I would so, I didn’t want to hit spoilers. Although my friend did mention that they would have to hit 80 years old sooner or later. Ugh. Just what the romantic in me needs - to read about beloved characters dying. (If this should happen which I don’t know so it’s not a fact or anything.)
Wow, I’m going to stop talking now.
CindyS
What a fascinating discussion of the Gabaldon book, in those links you’ve provided. Thanks so much for drawing my attention to these very intelligent blogs and the great comments each has elicited. I’ve been reflecting on what I do and don’t like about Gabaldon’s work, and reading these remarks has helped me articulate some of my feelings about it (which are very mixed). And now I’ve got some more good blogs bookmarked, which isn’t going to help me get my office work done ... but it’s Sunday, so I’m not going to beat myself up over it today. (Oh, Lord, I just love it when one good thing links to another, and I get lost in clicking through, from one smart discussion to another.)
Hey, when I read that sentence about the coach, *I* didn’t notice anything wrong!
*grin*
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Julie, as an author I agree 100% with you, and as I’ve said before, if I hadn’t seen the original and known exactly how gorgeous the poor guy’s body was, I wouldn’t have even noticed. I’m all for selling those…
Oy, Kate, I hated seeing that lovely (and utterly inoffensive) body so whitely truncated! What’s to see that would make children cry or matrons pee through their Depends? There wasn’t even a hint of mushroom-headed, blue-veined, one-eyed trouser snake visible!…
Fact of the matter is, if the second cover means a bigger print run and sell-in than the first because one major retailer has concerns, then I say YEAH for Cover B! Sell more books!! No one is going to…
Excellent book. Got it in mail Friday afternoon and had finished it by midnight Friday. Thanks so much.
(That “no kids” should be “no kids with the one you Truly Love” or similar. That and having the people you actually DID have kids with know subconsciously that they were second-best to you, and all the fun marital disatisfaction…
CindyS said on...
sherryfair said on...
10.29.05 at 12:57 PM |