I’ve discovered audio books recently. Historically, I’ve never cared for them much. I prefer a quite moment in the sunshine with a tangible paperback in my hands and my own inner voice coloring the characters. But you know what? Quite moments in the sunshine? Not so much a part of my life right now. In the brief hours between when we’ve got the kid asleep, toys corralled and dishes at least artfully stacked, to when I push myself into bed, my books have to compete with my yarn and lately the books have been losing.
The way I absorb information has taken a sharp slant towards audio input. I can do the dishes, run errands, and wait for my parasitic second operating system to catch up with me while listening to my podcasts. And, yes, knit. Luke frequently requests This Week in Science with breakfast. (That’s my boy.) I stumbled across a new podcast of short horror fiction a while back. (To be fair, I’d call Pseudopod more of a dark fantasy in most cases than horror.) I found the process of having these stories read out to me fairly pleasant to my surprise and I actually queued up a few audio books from the library that friends have been pressing me to read.
I went through the second book in Philip Pullman’s series that way, and while I’m still uninspired to finish the series, it helped me pass the time doing housework pleasantly enough. I started Twilight yesterday. I’ve been on the waiting list for this one for a month maybe. Seems it’s rather popular. Lots of girls at the dance studio are in a swoon over it and it seems everyone has an opinion. I’ve heard it derided as teeny-bopper trash, hailed as the best thing to happen to young adult fiction since Harry Potter, and several less enthusiastic murmurings in between. I’m only two chapters in, so I’ll reserve judgement just yet.
I will say this though. Literature is defined simply as written works. There is no one out there with the authority to declare one book trash and another a classic. A “good book”, even a “well-written book” are entirely subjective labels. If one person out there enjoys reading it, then it should exist. I feel particularly called to defend genre fiction, which generally gets a bad rap. Naturally, a teen vampire romance like this one is has its work cut out for it.
I go through this with folks when defending my preferred genre of science fiction on a regular basis. I’m often met with the line, "I don't really consider science fiction to be literature."
"Oh, no?" I counter. "Kurt Vonnegut, Ray Bradbury, Ursula Leguin, Isaac Asimov, Jules Verne..."
It's that last one that makes them flinch and back peddle.
"Well, I don't consider them science fiction."
"Oh, really. Why is that?"
"Because they're good writers."
Right.
It's hard to get taken seriously when you challenge the natural laws that hold a person's reality.
What’s so great about being taken seriously, anyway, I ask you? Go find something you like to read and enjoy it. Leave everyone else to their own pursuits. I'm not saying you can't express your opinion if you don't like something. I'm just saying we might all want to make an effort to express ourselves in a way that doesn't make other fans feel low-class for enjoying it. I know I could stand to take that lesson to heart. I doubt I’m the only one.
I read an interview of Stephen King not too long ago in which he mentioned Stephenie Meyer, the author of Twilight, and his opinions of her writing. I was surprised that he was so hard on her, simply because I know he gets that kind of flack from the upper-circle literary crowd all the time. Also, dude, you've written like 40 books. This is her first. Shall we go back to your early work and hack it apart?
Actually, I like his early work, but my point is that it's a lot easier to hold a red pen than it is hold a less-than-constructive critique of your work.
So here's my punch line for the day. Don't let anyone make you embarrassed of what you read, and certainly not because its too popular, or not popular enough. Eleanor Roosevelt said, "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." Of course, I heard that in The Princess Diaries.
I may have just made my point.
I'm going back to my audio book, to give it a fair shot. I'll leave you to your own pursuits.