From: park/dobbin <bdobbin>
Date: Thu, 1 Feb 2001 17:04:55 -0500

Dreamland: Where readers and reviewers read a book with all reference to the author removed. No name, no bio information, no jacket photo. Where they judge issues of authenticity and accuracy based on the text alone. Where they write and present those judgements--and THEN find out who the author is.

Authenticity of feeling and accuracy of fact must be conveyed by the words themselves. Whether the author is inside the culture, outside it, Martian, amphibian, what have you--take it out of the equation. Judge the story by what makes it a story--by its words.

Anything else *should* be irrelevant. And I'm often bemused and sometimes saddened by how often the "anything elses" impose themselves--not for marketing or sales or publicity, I understand how these things work--but for discussion of a book's value in communities of readers like this one.

~~~ Linda Sue Park
 
~~~
Received on Thu 01 Feb 2001 04:04:55 PM CST