From: Shpatron at aol.com <Shpatron>
Date: Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:43:13 EDT

  When I discovered, at about age 8 or 9, that people wrote books other than textbooks for children, I was astonished and grateful (when I liked the book) that some adult had wanted to connect with me. I wouldn't have articulated it in that way, or at all, but the feeling was that the writer was sharing something unique and personal, an immersion into a world unknown to me. The writer, I thought, must really have some kind of link to childhood, a link most other adults in my life lacked. I believed that the writer liked me, even though he was probably (I assumed) dead. E.B. White gave me a story filled with overwhelming beauty and love and sadness, a story about things?secrets--that other adults rarely mentioned. He treated me, in a way, as an equal. I still feel that books (and other forms of art) offer a way for an author to share something important and personal with readers. I mean, like many others who have commented, not a didactic message but a kind of roadmap to the heart. As I stumble along in the dark myself I may figure something out or get caught on a thought and put it into a story, fiction being one of the handiest, most useful items in that survival kit most of us carry around. I like the idea, for instance, that we adults can mess up our lives and then decide to redeem ourselves. I find it a powerful concept, and wanted to use it in a backdrop kind of way in a novel. This took the form of 12-step programs, where people reveal, to an eavesdropping protagonist, dreadful ways in which they have behaved. These passages disturbed many adult readers, who asked, should children be exposed to this depravity? I think they already are, in their daily lives, just by turning on the TV or hanging out on the playground or going into the living room. In my fictional context, I acknowledge what most readers already know, and share my take on it: look what is possible if you have courage. So Perry's thoughts startled me into thinking about my own motives, about what drives me to tell the particular stories I tell, and whether I'm unconsciously trying to manipulate readers. Perhaps I am, and as he also, thankfully, pointed out, this is not necessarily a bad thing. To me, it's bad when it's at the cost of good storytelling or good writing. But it's got to be good when readers (having discovered that I am still alive) send heartfelt messages that clearly are not generated by a school assignment. I sense they realize that I respect their intelligence and yearn to make a connection. Does it mean I've also manipulated them? If so, it's something I think I can live with. And I, too, appreciate this discussion and am very eager to read Perry's book! Susan Patron
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Received on Mon 20 Jul 2009 05:43:13 PM CDT