I
am a huge fan of Jodi Picoult and all the books she’s written, and I own every
single one of them. Every time I bought a new book of hers, or checked one out
of the library, I always Tweeted about it or shared it on Facebook. I didn’t
know it at the time, but I was being the best literary citizen I could be, not
knowing exactly what it meant. At the time, it didn’t matter, because I was
sharing the love I had of Jodi Picoult with the world.
Along
with Jodi Picoult, I am a huge fan of Nicholas Sparks. Now, I don’t own all of
his books (that would take a lot of time), but I have read all of them. But I
wouldn’t have known about him if it wasn’t for Picoult’s great dislike of him.
And, even though it was a bad review of all of his work, it was probably the
best literary citizen move on Picoult’s part, but it opened up a world of
wonder for me, and I’d think for Sparks too.
I
guess what I’m trying to say is that no literary citizenship is bad
citizenship. Had it not been for Picoult’s distaste in Sparks’ writing, I would
never have known about him. Sure, I could probably have read his books after
watching the movies, but who would want to do that? I don’t. There have been
times when I gave a bad review about a book to my friend, but then she ends up
liking the book, even though I hated it. For example, I absolutely did not like
Finding Alaska by John Green, but
several of my friends did even after I told them why I didn’t like it.
As
long as someone is saying something, good or bad, about a book or author, it’s
still literary citizenship, and that’s all that matters.
I agree that getting the word out is the best way for people to learn about an author, book, or literary event. I may have to slightly disagree with you in saying that I don't think all negative literary citizenship is good. Sometimes it can cause a reader to just shrug off the comment of another author and move on to never read their work or tell others about them. Yes, I also think all literary citizenship can be good by giving two people, the writer and reviewer, some credit. But i wonder what could happen if there were some bad type of literary citizenship that would cause more negative effects toward anyone.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with you about the benefits of sharing opinions on books and authors. Speaking out about books I've read was also the only form of literary citizenship I really knew about all throughout high school, and I would immediately recommend the latest Nicholas Sparks or Jodi Picoult book because I knew most of my friends enjoyed the little work they had read by those two authors. I do think it's interesting Picoult spoke out against Sparks, but I wonder if it's because they are two of the biggest names in the industry, and their genres are extremely different. Thank you for bringing this thought to our attention! It also makes me think about the phrase "There is no such thing as bad publicity."
ReplyDeleteYes, I totally relate to this! A friend of mine reviewed a book poorly on Goodreads awhile back, and I trust her opinion since we have very similar tastes in books, but I was just at Meijer tonight and I was still tempted to pick it up and look through it. It’s almost like the whole, “Don’t think of an elephant” conundrum, but I don’t know if that’s every a problem when it comes to books. I’d be interested in hearing why you didn’t like Looking for Alaska, though! It’s been awhile since I’ve read it, but I enjoyed it and would love to hear your thoughts so I can think more critically about the novel. Your post reminded me a lot of this article, since it mentions Sparks. It’s an old article, so you may have read it before, but I think it’s worth the read - http://www.dailydot.com/fandom/john-green-young-adult-publishing-overshadows-women-criticism/.
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