Friday, June 17, 2011

Generosity

A cursory glance at the Amazon rankings for Stephen King's books suggests that his 1981 non-fiction title DANSE MACABRE may be the King title least likely to have been purchased by the horror fan.  I was still working at Kroch's & Brentano's bookstore in Chicago when the book was originally published, and DANSE MACABRE didn't sell nearly as quickly as King's fiction.  Understandable -- if you're looking for a horror novel, will you really want to read a survey of horror in film, fiction, television and radio?  But for even the casual horror fan who isn't interested in studying the field but just wants a good book to read, skipping DANSE MACABRE is a mistake.  Most readers of science fiction and fantasy probably never picked up an issue of LOCUS or FANTASY NEWSLETTER.  Readers who never miss a novel by Dean Koontz may never have bothered to read a copy of his earlier non-fiction title HOW TO WRITE BEST-SELLING FICTION.  Fans of any particular writer may read the novels and short stories, but ignore interviews with them.  In doing so, they may be missing acts of generosity by those writers.

Some of the best money I ever spent was at the 1969 World Science Fiction Convention in St. Louis.  Three dollars bought a copy of THE DOUBLE:BILL SYMPOSIUM, a small press pamphlet that collected the responses of science fiction and fantasy writers to a number of questions on writing and books and reading.  The writers generously took time to answer questions from Bill Bowers and Bill Mallardi.  One of those questions asked about their formative reading.  The answers introduced me to writers I hadn't read, and pointed me back toward writers I'd read in school without really paying sufficient attention.

When I was following science fiction, fantasy, horror, and mystery fiction more closely than I do now, one of the best things about the genres was the number of fan and specialty journals that printed interviews with the writers.  And at some point in the interviews, the writers were usually asked which writers they themselves enjoyed reading.  And the writers were always happy to recommend books and writers they thought worth seeking out.  This is why anyone who checked out those interviews, who looked over books like DANSE MACABRE, or HOW TO WRITE BEST-SELLING FICTION, or THE DOUBLE:BILL SYMPOSIUM has probably never been in danger of running out of things to read.  If anything, there's always been so much worthwhile material recommended that there's no way to ever get around to all of it, or even a majority of it.

Their generosity steers readers not only to other works of their own, but to writers who may not yet be household names.

Just a couple of examples.  Harlan Ellison's long interview with Comics Journal in 1980 steered readers to writers like Jorge Amado, V. S. Pritchett, Jose Donoso and Mario Vargas Llosa.  Comments and blurbs from Stephen King pointed to the work of Jack Ketchum, Don Robertson, Thomas Williams, Ernest Hebert, Ron Carlson, and more; the lists at the back of his books DANSE MACABRE and ON WRITING are gold mines of recommendations.  And note that most of the recommendations mentioned in this paragraph weren't for the work of fantasists, but for the work of general fiction writers.

If there's a writer you like, do you read interviews with them as well as their fiction?  If you run across an article by that writer in which he talks about his reading and the influences on his writing, do you read it?  You should -- if a writer you like mentions a book he likes, there's a good chance that's a book you'd like too.

Blurbs can be a little trickier.  Far too often, the blurb on the paperback will consist of glowing commentary from a magazine or newspaper rather than an individual.  But if you check all the blurbs, not just on the front or back cover but on the blurb pages preceding the title page, you'll usually find some individuals quoted rather than just periodicals.

The interviews, and articles, and blurbs are often acts of generosity by writers who may be among your favorites.  Watch for them as well as for new books by your favorites, and you'll never run out of books or stories to read.  Your problem will be finding a way to keep up.

1 comment:

  1. Good post; I read Dance Macabre when I was about 17 and it made a huge impression. I've still got books in my 'to read' list from that one!

    ReplyDelete

Comments are welcome. Keep 'em clean and civil and we'll all be happy.