This week, Allison K. Gibson looked into the “awkward but necessary role of technology in fiction,” and what it means to include it or overlook it in a given work of fiction. Similarly, what’s with the absence of birth scenes in literature?
Let’s Get a Novelist to Write a Birth Scene Transmitted via Skype
Can’t we just go with “grey” already?
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Jon Clinch at Bloom
At Bloom this week, check out the feature on novelist Jon Clinch, and the accompanying Q&A, where Clinch talks in-depth about his decision to self-publish his fourth novel after having his first two published by Random House. He says that his second novel, Kings of the Earth, “was set up for success: Oprah’s magazine put it at the top of their summer reading list, and it went on to be named one of the best novels of the year by theWashington Post. But the Oprah nod came six or eight weeks before publication date, and Random House either couldn’t or didn’t capitalize on it. By the time the book hit the shelves, it was already forgotten. I simply couldn’t bear the possibility that The Thief of Auschwitz might slip into the abyss.”
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“The Fall Guy”
Just when you thought we’d covered every aspect of the story of self-publishing, something like this happens. A Canadian serial killer convicted of killing six women and charged in the deaths of another twenty has self-published a memoir on Amazon in which he maintains his innocence. The papers were allegedly smuggled out of the prison by another inmate and published by a self-publishing service under a pseudonym. Amazon has since discontinued sales of the book.
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I believe that much of female experience is still uncharted territory, especially concerning the body. One birth scene that comes to mind is from Sylvia Plath’s journals– very immediate and moving. I remember a teacher my sophomore year (24 years ago!!) talking about THE GOLDEN NOTEBOOK and a graphic description of menstruation and tampons..the professor discussed .how initially she recoiled from the scene and on reflection, embraced it. Somebody mentioned THE WATERFALL in the Guardian comments…I don’t remember the birth scene so much but the aftermath was a really evocative description of early days with a newborn.