I do a lot of socializing via Twitter these days, primarily because it’s fast, easy and I can check it if I’ve got a few minutes or ignore it. This weekend I found the fabulous author Robin McKinley reacting to a tweet she saw earlier, wherein a bookseller admitted to “accidentally overcharging” customers who bought the Twilight books in an effort to either encourage them to buy better books, or punish them for poor taste. I was unable to find the base comment in context so I don’t honestly know if it was said in jest. I can only hope so because besides being theft, said actions are morally disgusting.
In the horror world there is A LOT of hate for the Twilight books. It comes from the misguided belief that they are horror (because they have vampires) when they are, in fact, nothing of the sort. The growth of paranormal romance has taken creatures that used to be found only in the horror section and made them capable of genre flexibility. I started reading horror because that’s the only place I could find supernatural, but not in a traditional fantasy form, elements in books. Some people bemoan this “violation of horror territory”, which I find rather silly because the way I see it the new genre flexibility of supes lend to them a longer lifespan and a larger audience.
Anyway, let me say I’m not a Twilight fan. I find the books stodgy, dull, overwrought, poorly written, led by Mary Sue and I admit to flaming jealousy of the sales figures there of, and to more than a growl or two when every damn person follows up “Oh you’re writer?” with “What did you think of Twilight?” I despise that these flimsy books have somehow become the standard that all book lovers must aspire to. However the author has nothing to do with that. That behavior is all in the fans’ heads and is no different from the rush to go see the latest movie or sitcom episode in order to be “hip” or up to date on pop culture.
I have rolled my eyes, and given my honest opinion of what I have read of the series, and gladly suggested better books. I even own a snarky T-shirt that says “And then Buffy staked Edward. The End.” But I don’t go around trying to school fans on the errors of their ways. And I would never try to punish them–especially at the risk of my professional reputation, my place of work’s professional reputation or the chance that I would lose my job by doing so.
Booksellers, readers and librarians are asked to give advice and give recommendations all the time BECAUSE THEY ARE TRUSTED. A bookseller who only recommended inspirational stories to me because they were Christian and thought those are the only books people should read would not get my money. Customers need this trusted link between themselves and all the options on the shelf, and they need them to not be…well, somewhat biased is okay, because we’re all allowed our favorites, but other than selling/lending books clerks and librarians should not have an agenda. The customer/clerk relationship is not about the clerk, it’s about meeting the customer’s needs. The goal is to get the customer a book THEY want to read, not make them read what you think they should read.
Reading is a very private thing. When reading each book affects each reader differently, and each reader is looking for something different out of the experience. We can read in public or private, we can talk about what we read or not, but reading is about the author telling a story and communicating one on one to a reader. Lots of individual readers, but a story must communicate on some level to the reader.
As readers, writers and book bloggers we have the right to talk about books and what we’ve taken out of them and how they’ve affected or failed us, theorize as to their literary value, judge the merits of the skill put into them and weigh the elements contained within them. But when it comes to other people all we have the right to do is make recommendations. No one has the right to dictate what we should be required to spend our personal money and time on. No one should be allowed to punish us for what we choose to read (provided it’s legal, consensual and hasn’t caused harm to anyone.)
It’s important to remember that you are not the only reader out there. People read for all kinds of reason and love all kinds of story elements. Clearly, the romance and horror industry proves that “value” in a story doesn’t mean only literary, historical or artistic merit. The average book is read for escapism, for entertainment, to take our mind off our bills, our health, the jerk that cut us off in traffic and the fact that the lawn needs to be mowed but it’s rained or been oppressively hot every day this week. People read to connect with characters. The success of the Twilight books suggests that they are succeeding in communicating with an audience and the thing about audiences is that there are a lot of them out there and many of them cross over.
Who are we to judge one book worthy and another one not? All we can offer is our opinion and take on a story’s elements. This is why I don’t believe in criticism, but rather evaluation, because part of criticism is deciding for other people what they should read, find in a book and enjoy. And it’s not my place to make that choice for anyone else.
