![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Over at Book View Cafe, the fine novelist and essayist ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sartorias talks about "Book Talk," that is, the love some (many?) readers have of book discussion. She writes about how, as a teen, she took a long bus journey in order to get in book talk, and how reading the work of writers talking about reading was another form of book talk.
The literary criticism or analysis that I found myself responding to was more in the nature of exploration, someone recording their experience of reading—what they found (or did not find) in the text, and how it related to other books, to other experience.
Growing up, I do not recall having anyone to discuss books with except my high school English teacher Charles Sullivan (later a president of IAFA). The idea of a book club still leaves me cold, not because I have an inherent objection to book clubs -- quite the contrary -- but because I don't understand how to negotiate them. I learned early to identify reading as a solitary activity, and yet one of the great pleasures I find when attending the few conventions I can make it to is book talk.
I do not discuss books, especially novels, online as much as I suppose I might wish to because I feel a genuine sense of reluctance to express, shall we say, the fullness of my opinion. I'm very aware of how interconnected the community is. I'm far more likely to discuss film in a wide-ranging way because it seems distanced from me; I am merely a consumer of film/tv.
Yet I noted that one of the commentators to the "Book Talk" post had a strong opinion on writers discussing their own work: “I think authors should be banned from discussing their own books.”
I asked for a clarification, so will update when I have it, but there are many ways of looking at this statement. I'll note three.
One is through the lens of promotion. I admit, I think it's a little harsh to expect writers never to mention their own work in the context of any promotional content whatsoever, i.e. my book is out today or here is a review of my book I'd like to share. On the flip side, if 90+% of a writer's social media communication is blatant promotion, I too will stop listening.
Two is through the lens of responding to talk about one's own work. The old wisdom prevails: Never ever argue with a bad review. But these days it all gets so much more complex. Should a writer thank a reviewer for a favorable or particularly insightful review? Should a writer enter discussions of their own work at any point? At a convention, of course, or a talk or reading, writers are often interviewed or encouraged to discuss their work; it's often the point of the panel or event. Is online a different space from this? Do readers want the space (quite reasonably) to discuss books without writers looking over their shoulders? As a reader entering a discussion, I would want that unless the venue was specifically a place in which readers asked writers questions and engaged them in discussion, but once you've entered that venue, the sort of book talk you're having changes, it seems to me.
Third is through the lens of a writer who reflects, discusses, analyzes, and reports on their own work, either that which they have already finished or works in progress. As a writer, I have a hard time thinking I ought never discuss my own work on my own blog or, to expand the definition, anywhere online. I don't say this to suggest that commentator above meant that writers should never discuss their own work in public or online; I'm just saying it seems odd to ME if that were the proposition.
I know that social media have changed the dynamic profoundly, and that there is a huge variety of responses to and reactions with the new online networking, not to mention the increasing reliance publishers have in using social media as promotion and publicity and especially in encouraging writers to do a lot of their own social media work.
As I have said before, I find the explosion of book blogging to be really exciting; book talk is all over the place these days in a way I could not have imagined when I was a teen reading reading reading in my solitary way.
So what do you think about book talk online and whether the presence of writers in social media helps or hinders it? Where is the balance? What are the issues?
sartorias talks about "Book Talk," that is, the love some (many?) readers have of book discussion. She writes about how, as a teen, she took a long bus journey in order to get in book talk, and how reading the work of writers talking about reading was another form of book talk. The literary criticism or analysis that I found myself responding to was more in the nature of exploration, someone recording their experience of reading—what they found (or did not find) in the text, and how it related to other books, to other experience.
Growing up, I do not recall having anyone to discuss books with except my high school English teacher Charles Sullivan (later a president of IAFA). The idea of a book club still leaves me cold, not because I have an inherent objection to book clubs -- quite the contrary -- but because I don't understand how to negotiate them. I learned early to identify reading as a solitary activity, and yet one of the great pleasures I find when attending the few conventions I can make it to is book talk.
I do not discuss books, especially novels, online as much as I suppose I might wish to because I feel a genuine sense of reluctance to express, shall we say, the fullness of my opinion. I'm very aware of how interconnected the community is. I'm far more likely to discuss film in a wide-ranging way because it seems distanced from me; I am merely a consumer of film/tv.
Yet I noted that one of the commentators to the "Book Talk" post had a strong opinion on writers discussing their own work: “I think authors should be banned from discussing their own books.”
I asked for a clarification, so will update when I have it, but there are many ways of looking at this statement. I'll note three.
One is through the lens of promotion. I admit, I think it's a little harsh to expect writers never to mention their own work in the context of any promotional content whatsoever, i.e. my book is out today or here is a review of my book I'd like to share. On the flip side, if 90+% of a writer's social media communication is blatant promotion, I too will stop listening.
Two is through the lens of responding to talk about one's own work. The old wisdom prevails: Never ever argue with a bad review. But these days it all gets so much more complex. Should a writer thank a reviewer for a favorable or particularly insightful review? Should a writer enter discussions of their own work at any point? At a convention, of course, or a talk or reading, writers are often interviewed or encouraged to discuss their work; it's often the point of the panel or event. Is online a different space from this? Do readers want the space (quite reasonably) to discuss books without writers looking over their shoulders? As a reader entering a discussion, I would want that unless the venue was specifically a place in which readers asked writers questions and engaged them in discussion, but once you've entered that venue, the sort of book talk you're having changes, it seems to me.
Third is through the lens of a writer who reflects, discusses, analyzes, and reports on their own work, either that which they have already finished or works in progress. As a writer, I have a hard time thinking I ought never discuss my own work on my own blog or, to expand the definition, anywhere online. I don't say this to suggest that commentator above meant that writers should never discuss their own work in public or online; I'm just saying it seems odd to ME if that were the proposition.
I know that social media have changed the dynamic profoundly, and that there is a huge variety of responses to and reactions with the new online networking, not to mention the increasing reliance publishers have in using social media as promotion and publicity and especially in encouraging writers to do a lot of their own social media work.
As I have said before, I find the explosion of book blogging to be really exciting; book talk is all over the place these days in a way I could not have imagined when I was a teen reading reading reading in my solitary way.
So what do you think about book talk online and whether the presence of writers in social media helps or hinders it? Where is the balance? What are the issues?