Literary Clusterfucks 2013

Once I had the flavor of African-American speech in the language (and don’t get me wrong – it’s not African-American Vernacular English as spoken now, but it’s obviously strongly influenced by it) it felt like the characters should be black. Or, put another way, why shouldn’t they be black? I mean, it became a choice to make them anything but black.

....

In fact, I now find it a little sad writing in normal English, because it’s just not possible to be as inventive.

A writer said this.

composing the sentence "our people be a tarry night sort" and then congratulating yourself on writing a book that "isn't about race" is a breathtaking achievement, we need a Newman Prize for this sort of thing

"writing in English sucks because then my racism will be harder to hide"

*normal English (who says "normal English" btw)

okay i am legit dying here at "i don't know nothin bout birthin no taters"

as soon as I thought of them as black, the book came to life in the most incredible and inexplicable way. It began to write itself. I don’t know why this is,

I THINK I MIGHT KNOW WHY THIS IS

this is almost as bad as M Night creating a rapper character named Mid Size Sedan in Old

no this is much worse

actually you are correct

I don’t know why this is, since the book isn’t about race – or it’s only very occasionally, tangentially, about race. It just suddenly felt like a real world I had discovered, rather than an imaginary world I was inventing. Everything fell into place.

what the fuck

Ugh.

Please forgive me but now I can't get this out my head:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBi_CyJe604

that interview is somehow worse than her invented language

and how did you sustain that for an entire novel?

the question that needed to be asked.

every sentence a red flag

― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Monday, March 7, 2022 9:10 AM (thirty-three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I think you mean "erry senny a flag rouge", Brad

― castanuts (DJP), Monday, March 7, 2022 9:12 AM (thirty-one minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

fucking lost it at this, thanking u DJP

I didn't know anything about all this when I first formed my opinion, was just relying on the plot summary and the irondreamclad reputation of ILB0r mookieproof.

I guess it wasn’t even a summary not that it would have mattered.

i feel like a version of “seeking one’s own counsel for a bad idea” exists in every one of these types of clusterfucks

“i asked myself if it was a good idea & i said yes”

I was very aware that this was a controversial thing to do, as a white person. I thought about it a lot, and questioned my position, and etc But after a while, I couldn’t really help writing the book that way because it worked. Also, the characters very quickly became real people to me, who demanded to be written about as they were.

i did not ask any POC bc then i would not be able to do my good idea

What could go wrong?

It's funny that this isn't even the book this clusterfuck is about

lol thats true i forgot abt that

Isn’t her new book effectively the plot of Y: The Last Man?

yah it's also kinda like The Leftovers

should call this book Why The Last Man?

Or John Wylie's The Disappearance

Or Frank Herbert's The White Plague

Or, uh, Herland

Y oh Y Are All the Wangs Gone?

-Pete Seeger

Or Lauren Beukes' Afterland (which is only 2 years old) where 4 billion males die off in a plague

Or...jesus

https://pictures.abebooks.com/isbn/9780385696630-us.jpg

Y oh Y Are All the Wangs Gone?

― Nedlene Grendel as Basenji Holmo (map), Monday, March 7, 2022 2:02 PM (twenty-three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

lol

over here singing "when will we ever learn?" to myself

apparently her *next* book is a retelling of 1984 from julia’s pov

High concept writing

pic.twitter.com/ARcuWefq7y

— Sandra Newman (@sannewman) January 30, 2018

.

^ I'm curious, why do you post these?

yeah seems pointless

Not sure. Can't think of anything to say but for some reason want to respond. Thought it was local ascii for "speechless." I couldn't think of anythingg to top anything on that thread. Almost said "I stopped at the twentieth one."

(to be clear, "pointless" was just a bad pun)

I scrolled until I got to 100 and gave up

Also wanted to ask mookie whether that1984 thing was a joke or not. If it isn't true it might as well be.

Ha, I figured the "pointless" thing was a joke but wasn't sure how to respond to that either. Was hoping somebody would follow up with a further punctuation gag.

Ah, gotcha, thanks for the explanation.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/dec/07/feminist-retelling-of-nineteen-eighty-four-approved-by-orwells-estate
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TN-kDEKxF0

This author is like Amanda Palmer and Pomplamoose [insert yr other ILX faves here] rolled into one.

But perhaps this is an injustice to her sui generis originality or lack thereof.

I thought about it a lot, and questioned my position, and etc But after a while

and etc