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Seedfolks, etc.
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From: Paul Fleischman <fleischman>
Date: Fri, 30 May 1997 10:11:34 -0700
Thank you for that bright bouquet of responses to SEEDFOLKS. To answer a few questions: No, I didn't pick the book's size. Authors don't generally have much say in such matters. The book's brevity probably determined its dimensions. Which leads to the question about length. In another life, I'd like to come back as a writer of 700-page, minutely described novels. In this life, I began with a picture book, THE BIRTHDAY TREE, and that experience--weighing every word, pruning away all non-essentials--marked all the books that followed. I think picture books make excellent writing teachers. Many adult books strike me as hopelessly overwritten and underedited. And yet, I wish at times I could create something plumper, an overstuffed chair rather than a stool, cushiony with scenes and details. We tend to value what others can do and we can't. SEEDFOLKS and BULL RUN are indeed very short. Every book, like a river, finds its own length. Yes, I was tempted to include more characters in BULL RUN, and actually wrote some of their speeches. Even sixteen points of view weren't enough to cover all that happened there. More, however, would have been asking too much of the reader. The less inherently dramatic situation of SEEDFOLKS and the fact that the setting is the same for all characters called for an even shorter book; anything longer ran the risk of repetition (setting, theme, tone) and of losing young readers' interest. There were many characters in my notebook who never made it into the book--characters now awaiting transplanting.
I'm proud to march under the banner of Radical Change as defined by Eliza Dresang. The fact that much of what's new is actually quite old makes it all the more interesting. I'd love to take some rap artists back in time to see a bard reciting Homer or a rabbi chanting the Torah (more easily accomplished). The revival of storytelling has been wonderful to watch: audiences in lycra and Nikes returning to their hunter-gatherer roots, hunkered around the keeper of tales, seeking wisdom, history, entertainment. As for adults reading BULL RUN out of sequence, will the interactive book of the future come in a 3-ring binder, for customized arranging? I've always felt that reading a book's last line first is tantamount to beginning slicing a pie by cutting out the center. Sign me
throwback at ancien.regime.com
Received on Fri 30 May 1997 12:11:34 PM CDT
Date: Fri, 30 May 1997 10:11:34 -0700
Thank you for that bright bouquet of responses to SEEDFOLKS. To answer a few questions: No, I didn't pick the book's size. Authors don't generally have much say in such matters. The book's brevity probably determined its dimensions. Which leads to the question about length. In another life, I'd like to come back as a writer of 700-page, minutely described novels. In this life, I began with a picture book, THE BIRTHDAY TREE, and that experience--weighing every word, pruning away all non-essentials--marked all the books that followed. I think picture books make excellent writing teachers. Many adult books strike me as hopelessly overwritten and underedited. And yet, I wish at times I could create something plumper, an overstuffed chair rather than a stool, cushiony with scenes and details. We tend to value what others can do and we can't. SEEDFOLKS and BULL RUN are indeed very short. Every book, like a river, finds its own length. Yes, I was tempted to include more characters in BULL RUN, and actually wrote some of their speeches. Even sixteen points of view weren't enough to cover all that happened there. More, however, would have been asking too much of the reader. The less inherently dramatic situation of SEEDFOLKS and the fact that the setting is the same for all characters called for an even shorter book; anything longer ran the risk of repetition (setting, theme, tone) and of losing young readers' interest. There were many characters in my notebook who never made it into the book--characters now awaiting transplanting.
I'm proud to march under the banner of Radical Change as defined by Eliza Dresang. The fact that much of what's new is actually quite old makes it all the more interesting. I'd love to take some rap artists back in time to see a bard reciting Homer or a rabbi chanting the Torah (more easily accomplished). The revival of storytelling has been wonderful to watch: audiences in lycra and Nikes returning to their hunter-gatherer roots, hunkered around the keeper of tales, seeking wisdom, history, entertainment. As for adults reading BULL RUN out of sequence, will the interactive book of the future come in a 3-ring binder, for customized arranging? I've always felt that reading a book's last line first is tantamount to beginning slicing a pie by cutting out the center. Sign me
throwback at ancien.regime.com
Received on Fri 30 May 1997 12:11:34 PM CDT
