AuthorPlanet

A sweet spot between traditional and self-publishing

  • Home
  • Book Proposals/Buy
  • About
    • Jody Rein
    • Author Planet
    • Praise
  • Work
    • Praise
    • Services List
    • Case Studies
    • Client Forms
  • Contact
    • Contact
    • Get Quote

In Praise of Rarifying Books (Sort of)

August 18, 2011 By Jody Rein 5 Comments

Holy smokes, have I just endorsed book censorship?  Yes– and no! 

Steve Himmer, in his lovely essay “Making Room for Readers” on the fab TheMillions, advocates aggressively encouraging children to read, and removing any barriers that can be seen as “rarifying” the book.

I disagree.  Huh???

OK.  I agree with the first part: a book-encouraging environment is necessary to raise readers—but I’m not so sure I buy the negative interpretation of the obstacles Mr. Himmer found in his way.

Because I’m all for obstacles in book publishing and constraints on reading—if those obstacles and constraints reinforce the essential value… of books in our children’s lives and in our lives.

I’m big on publishing gatekeepers—from literary agents to publishing companies to editorial boards to higher-than-99cents-ebook prices–and I’m also big on keeping abreast of the books my kids read.  I’m even OK on libraries setting age requirements on kids’ library cards. 

I say all this as a dues-paying member of the ACLU.

Mr. Himmer shared two events that concerned him (and please read his essay; it’s terrific): his local library refused to bend its policy of granting library cards only to kids over five or could write their names, and a young teen girl’s aunts(?) were hesitant about allowing her to buy his (unfamiliar) book.  The adults said, “books are so…books are tricky.  That’s something your mother needs to decide.”  He saw these as examples of a greater problem:  the rarifying of books.  I saw these as examples of just the opposite—evidence of valuing books and their power—and found them encouraging. (From the other comments I saw on his essay, I’m in the minority.)

I’m strongly reminded of the controversial Wall Street Journal article Darkness Too Visible by Meghan Cox Gurdon where again I’m the contrarian.  This article—asserting current YA fiction as a whole is darker, more violent and more disturbing than in years past, and that is a bad thing—set off a maelstrom of angry responses from young readers and from some authors as well.

Dare I say I was sort of on Gurdon’s side?  Not on the side of book-banning—but on the side of parental awareness.  (My then fifteen year-old read The Kite Runner and A Long Way Gone in his general literature class in public school last year.  I am a huge fan of both books, but still it gave me a little pause, knowing this was the first time my son had been exposed so graphically to child rape and horrific violence.  Am I glad he read them? Yes, absolutely.  Would I have preferred he had read them a little later in his life?  Perhaps.  What mattered to me:  that he read other books as well, and that the books were discussed in a larger context.) Do I worry, as apparently does Ms. Gurdon, about the cumulative desensitizing impact of our popular culture on my children, and other kids?  Sure, I do.  It’s neither brain surgery nor cynical to be aware of the psychological truism of desensitization (whether to violence or e-rudeness, to name just a couple of my constant concerns).  Do I think Ms. Gurdon painted with an overly broad brush?  Yes, again.

But I digress, a bit. 

These arguments increase my optimism.  You may believe, like me, that “rarifying” books commercially enhances their value and promotes the longevity of the medium, and that exposure to some issues in any form may be inappropriate for your kids at certain ages.  You may believe on the other hand that such limitations constitute censorship at worst, or at least are counterproductive to the promotion of letters. 

For me, reading this article and loving it while still disagreeing with some points, and watching the fallout from the Gurdon piece brings me to a surprising realization:  Hey!

A whole bunch of us compassionate book limiters and dogged book “unlimiters” are coming from the same place–a love of the written word and its power, and a deep desire to protect the medium.  That’s a very good thing. 

No argument there, right?

 

 

 

Spread the Word: on Twitter on Facebook on Google+

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: Practical Publishing, Rants and Raves Tagged With: Censorship, gatekeepers, Library, The Millions, Young Adult Novels

Comments

  1. Josh Schonhaut says

    August 19, 2011 at 12:27 pm

    I have to say that as an aspiring writer, that having to work around gatekeepers that stand between my words and their publication is a hard thing to swallow… but that’s the nature of the beast, isn’t it? If it were easy, then everyone would do it. So, inherent in that is a great respect for the presence of literary agents and publishing houses. Their presence in the industry is as much necessity as are the implements with which we draft our prose. In that I have to agree.

    Hiller’s article, however represents two drastically different circumstances.

    One such case in which with a guiding paternal hand, he takes his daughter to the public library and so ensues a complete farce in which the library has instituted an absurd rule guarding access to their books based upon the ability to write within a prescripted margin. (This is particularly difficult for those young children whose motor skills have not yet developed enough). Meanwhile, he is standing right there. Obviously her guardian. Obviously approving that she be allowed to check out the books. But that’s not enough…

    In the other circumstance, Hiller is at a book signing and a girl in her young teens wants to buy his book. However, the people accompanying her here are not her parents and like good temporary guardians would prefer that the girl get her mother’s permission first.

    There is one subtle difference in these two examples – the presence of the parental guardian. The decision maker. The final say.

    In my opinion Hiller is absolutely right to object to the treatment of the librarians; he’s the parent, it’s a public library (I presume) and he should have the final say. And though I don’t object to the girl dragging her feet when she was given a firm “no” in regard to Hiller’s book (she’s a teenager – it’s her job), I think that these people (who were not her parents) made the best decision they could considering the circumstances.

    I agree with you, Jody. I think parental awareness should be urged more often than it currently is. In fact, I wonder how many parents were aware, as you were, of what was being read in your son’s class.

    Reply
  2. Steve Himmer says

    August 22, 2011 at 7:06 am

    Hi Jody. Thanks for your response, and for your email inviting me to comment. It’s always an honor when someone thinks further about something I’ve written.

    As I hope came through in the essay, my intention isn’t to vilify the guardians of the girl I met (whatever their relationship to her was), because they have responsibilities to their own young reader that I only have for my own daughter, and they know her capabilities as in individual in ways I don’t. But I suppose what saddens me is this: at that age, so much of your life is out of your own control, and dependent on the decisions of others (necessarily so, of course!). Reading, for me, was where I first found more freedom, both to imagine lives other than I was living, and to ask questions about the world that weren’t coming up otherwise in what was frankly a pretty good childhood. Sometimes, that was uncomfortable. I distinctly remember reading a novel in which a brutal incident of gay-bashing kept me awake all night, and I was troubled by that horrible scene long afterward, and still am. But it was also a major intellectual moment for me, crucial to becoming the person I’ve become with the cultural and political convictions I hold. That kind of private, complex engagement with the world is (I think) one of the greatest virtues of literature, and the risk it entails — a risk sometimes best taken in secret — seems equally valuable. So in a nutshell what upsets me about the “rarifying” I mentioned isn’t that adults make decisions to keep kids safe, as they should do, but that kids get prevented from making their own decisions in a sphere where they can do so more safely than in other areas of their lives. Positioning books as “taboo” also seems to send the message that grappling with the complexities of morality, intellect, culture, etc. are off limits, too. I suppose I prefer to think of reading as how we become more worldly and wise, rather than something we need to save until we are more worldly and wise. And regarding gatekeepers in the book world, I often have the same concern: playing it safe by confirming the world as we already know it, rather than challenging us with perspectives we aren’t expecting.

    I’ll stop before I go on too long (too late?), but again, thanks for furthering the conversation. And in all seriousness, I realize that thinking about this as the parent of an almost four year old is far different from thinking about it as the parent of a teenager, so we’ll see where my head is in a few years when my daughter starts working her way through the row of Michel Houellebecq books on my shelf.

    Reply
  3. jodyrein says

    August 31, 2011 at 12:31 pm

    Steve, thank you so much for your really thoughtful comment–I love this conversation, it really gets down to some very essential questions regarding the role of limits in both art and society. I’m just not sure whether publishing gatekeepers always play it safe–certainly some do–or, through being selective and “rarifying,” gatekeepers promote innovations that would otherwise be lost in the noise. And by “gatekeepers” I don’t mean just Big Six publishers; I mean any group that works hard to establish a trustworthy, open and identifiable mechanism that both filters and promotes. There are lots of analogies in higher education, right? We want our college-age kids to be taught by “qualified” educators and to be exposed to new ideas at the same time…I also worry about the loss of the individual voice finding and promoting the next great and innovative writer (the great acquiring editor)…letting the crowd alone judge can mean that new perspective disappears while the romance novels dominate. Hope to keep talking!

    Reply
  4. Steve Himmer says

    September 2, 2011 at 1:56 pm

    Thanks, Jody. I’m definitely not anti-gatekeeping. Frankly, between being an editor and being a teacher, I make an awful lot of decisions about what is and isn’t deemed “good” writing, so I keep a few gates myself. And that’s a great point you make about letting the crowd judge alone—it would definitely be better for the status quo than for innovation. But I’m still pretty happy to see that between social networking tools, self-publishing, and so many options there’s still space for those “outside” voices to find a corner to speak in. Knowing they’re speaking makes me optimistic for culture at large, even not all of them are voices I particularly want to listen to. So perhaps it’s a matter of scale, or equitability: I’d like to think that there’s as much possible for a strong voice, one that readers respond to, to rise to the level it deserves even if the more “official” gatekeepers ignore it. And vice versa—a voice that is outside mainstream taste but gets championed by a strong, smart editor for reasons other than potential sales. A system of checks and balances, I suppose.

    Reply
    • jodyrein says

      September 2, 2011 at 4:14 pm

      Thanks again for a really thoughtful comment; our publishing worldviews have converged! Steve, I’m very interested in your thoughts about books vs. TV/film in terms of the issues we’ve been discussing. If you ever explore that topic in an essay, please let me know! (It sounds from your notes as if you might think there is a substantive difference between letting a young teen see a rape scene in a movie, for example, and reading it in a book.)

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Time limit is exhausted. Please reload CAPTCHA.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

General Advice

Praise

Thanks to (Author Planet), I have been able to serve as the force behind several events that have resulted in change for good…(more)
Trisha Pritikin
Kudos to Jody! She provided the substance and valuable information we sought. Jody has such an open, upfront approach; it was perfect for our casual atmosphere. (more)
Bonnie F. McCune
Jody is the consummate professional; she’s creative, a pleasure to deal with and her knowledge of book publishing is profound. I couldn’t recommend her highly enough. (more)
Madeleine Morel
Jody strives for the best, sets the bar high, and encourages others to do the same. Her success in the world of book publishing reflects her high standards. She knows the business inside and out–and her clients benefit! (more)
Dr. Lucy Spelman
Jody gives thoughtful and thorough assessments, a value to me, and I appreciate it. I take her words to heart.  (more)
Bill Nesbit
Working editorially with Jody Rein and her team at Author Planet is like getting a graduate degree in writing… (more)
Timothy Ashby
Jody’s suggestions are clear and concise, and effectively point me in the direction I need to go with my project. I’ve had a most instructive and enjoyable time working with her! (more)
Louise Hauck
Jody is beyond AWESOME! (more)
Mark Kistler
Jody actually takes the time to digest and understand what it is the writer is attempting to do before offering well thought out input. She has a more creative “big picture” mindset than most. (more)
Joe Lieberman
Jody has a gift for communicating in a clear, authoritative, engaging way that inspires trust and affection. (more)
Michael Larsen

Recent Posts

  • Literary Agents: The Right Way to Nag
  • Thru Dec. 9! Holiday Raffle for Art Books, Lessons and Equipment

More Posts

Publishing News

Writing a book? Confused about publishing options? Need a marketing plan? Don’t miss the 7th annual Nonfiction Writers Conference—a virtual event unlike any other.

Join 15 top speakers May 3-5, 2017 from the comfort of your home or office. For details and registration got to NonfictionWritersConference.com.

Note: This is an affiliate link. Jody knows and respects the people who run this conference.

RSS General News

  • Pop Culture Veterans Launch Endpaper Entertainment January 15, 2021
    Endpaper Entertainment is a new content development company focused on producing original stories in a variety of media, formats and genres and is being led by Rich Johnson and Syndee Barwick.

RSS Publishing Trends Feed

  • Top 5 Publishing Articles/Blog Posts of the Week 1/11-1/15 January 15, 2021 PT Editors

Self-Publishing News

RSS Self-pub news from PW

  • Autofiction: What It Is and What It Isn’t January 8, 2021
    Whether writing autobiographical fiction or memoir, writers must own their truths.
  • First Lines: January 2021 January 8, 2021
    Our monthly look at some of the best first lines by BookLife authors.
  • Pantser or Planner? January 8, 2021
    In many writing communities, there are two common approaches to writing a novel.

RSS The Book Designer Feed

  • e-Book Cover Design Awards, November 2020 December 28, 2020
    e-Book Cover Design Awards, November 2020 including The post e-Book Cover Design Awards, November 2020 appeared first on The Book Designer.
    Joel Friedlander
  • Self-Publishing: Carnival of the Indies Issue #123 December 25, 2020
    Self-Publishing: Carnival of the Indies Issue #123 including Darcy Pattison, Frances Caballo, Sandra Beckwith and many others The post Self-Publishing: Carnival of the Indies Issue #123 appeared first on The Book Designer.
    Joel Friedlander

Author Planet, Jody Rein News

Looking forward to the upcoming 2018 San Francisco Writers conference February 14-17, 2018. Jody will be teaching many classes, and offering free coaching sessions.

Hey, hey, teaching again at the wonderful 2018 Willamette Writers Conference, August 2-5 in Portland, Oregon. This time taught a SIX HOUR Query Master workshop–super fun!

Jody is doing the morning keynnote for theCastle Rock Writers Conference 2018, in October, in Castle Rock, Colorado.

Jody was interviewed by Stephanie Chandler in a teleseminar for the Nonfiction Authors Association on April 13, 2016.

Recent Tweets

  • Tweet Avatar RT @indivisiblefrr: Thank you for covering, @KDVR. Coloradans want accountability and we want freedom from elected officials who incite… https://t.co/zH3skHi6FM 5d
  • Tweet Avatar @CharlesSchwab You didn't respond to @forbes request to stop donating to MoC's who spread lies that incite US terro… https://t.co/gmxWlw39OT 5d
  • Tweet Avatar @TMobile Thanks for saying you're re-evaluating your donations to MoC's who spread lies that incite US terrorists t… https://t.co/btL121vMZt 5d
Follow @authorplanet

Copyright © 2021 · Log in