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phSFca

phSFca
Location
San Francisco, California,
Birthday
April 05
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Cinnabar Bridge
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author, writer, reader, book coach, book designer, book producer, photographer... 5th gen northern californian, new york city, new mexico, and now living back in san francisco, ca... photos on this blog are mine unless otherwise noted... involved with Bay Area publishing community... interested in profit, people, planet - a sustainable world -- and energy of all kinds - fuel, human, spiritual... love cities, the new mexican desert, blues, watching men work, mysteries, b/w photos, bridges, driving my car, public transpo, the F train, and faces emerging from shadow.

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DECEMBER 20, 2008 2:21PM

I love writers, but...

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I have a truly awful confession to make. I love writers and am suportive of them -- from founding a reading series in Corrales, New Mexico called Writers Alive! to being on the Litquake committee (planning and now production) [San Francisco], to being on the board of the local independent publishing association, to being able to make a space safe to write. I believe in empowering writers. But I don't always like listening to them read their work and I don't always want to read their books. What's wrong with me?

I like talking to writers and interviewing them. I like being around them, going to their launch parties, and when I have the money I love buying their books -- at full price. But I don't want them to sign their books. I let them because it seems to mean so much to them. But I don't care. I don't collect books -- well, other than the fact that my home is one big book collection. But I don't collect first editions or anything like that.

 I go to friend's readings because I want to support them, but often I find my mind wandering and I realize my attention has drifted away from the writer reading their work.

 Just the other day I went to a reading -- and before my friend read a not-funny comic performed and some awful music got played (well, awful to me and I'm no expert) -- and after my friend read and the comic went back to the mike, I realized I was done. Tired of smiling, tired of listening. So I went home.

Ain't it confusing when life is messy and all the pieces don 't mesh so neatly or so nicely and what I want to do can be contradictory and who I like may not be who I want to read? And what I like to read may not be what is being read?

So, I confess. I just hope my friends, my writer friends, will understand the complexity of our relationships.... sigh. hopefully.

 

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Hey, everyone has different likes, different dislikes. Just by you showing up at all the readings and book signings shows a tremendous support for your friends and other rising artists. I am sure there is so much more you do enjoy. Spend more time on those things... for you. Unfortunately, we can please all the people all the time. :)
screamin mama
December 20, 2008 04:00 PM
I meant, we "can't" please all the people all the time.

We need an edit button for comments! :0
screamin mama
December 20, 2008 04:01 PM
hey screamin -- thanks again for commenting... and i hear you. the older i get the more i realize how i spend my time matters and i'm being truer to that... but, sometimes, i just wonder why i don't like a book or a piece of writing when i like the writer and vice versa.

i guess it's the old art and artist conundrum -- you can't project from one to the other....
phSFca
December 20, 2008 04:06 PM
It sounds a little like you seek the "romance" of knowing and speaking to writers and artists perhaps without a deeper appreciation/understanding(?) of the aesthetics of the work. Everyone has expectations that we project onto people and situations. Could that be a problem if I am correct about it?.........Naw.....just your dynamic at this point in time. I think true appreciation of art is a learned and nurtured thing........for everyone. I used to not understand the basic function of poetry, until I read it and read it again, listening to actors read the words and searching out the histories and passions of the individual poets. Then, the words rang truer than anything I had heretofore experienced, and I understood the power of words....
Gary Justis
December 20, 2008 04:15 PM
thanks gary. wow. i must be sounding pretty whiny... i think there are times when i don't appreciate the work, but i also think it's a bigger question, too. that just because i like a writer does not mean i will like what they write -- and vice versa.

perhaps there is some longing for romance in the process and wanting to like everything about the artist and i just don't.

good things to think about though. thanks so much.
phSFca
December 20, 2008 04:35 PM
I'm not sure I could get into listening to anybody read their book or excerpt or whatever. Writing is meant to be read isn't it, not read aloud to us as if it's goodnight story time? Also if the whole being around writers and writing thing is part of your job then you're getting into the area of gynecologists who don't like sex, or chauffeurs who can't stand to drive cars, etc.
nanatehay
December 21, 2008 03:40 PM
I hear you. I love writing and writers; I want to encourage writers to write, but I don't love everything that's written. Some of it is nearly unlovable, and some of it is just not to my taste. That doesn't mean I don't appreciate the effort that's gone into it, but I definitely have opinions about it.
High Lonesome
December 21, 2008 03:54 PM
You struck a chord with me. I've been underwhelmed by author readings and I also don't care if a book is signed by the author. Book fairs and book clubs don't do it for me, either. I think it has more to do with not being a fan of crowds -- I prefer a friendly (or heated) discussion about books with one or a few other people.
The Biblio Files
December 21, 2008 06:30 PM
Sometimes writers are just plain terrible at reading their own work aloud. They don't practice, and they choose overly-long passages. I've found (after being a publisher of poetry and fiction and memoir for a few years and attending a LOT of readings) that the audiences would rather be engaged; they would like a presentation that includes snippets of the work. Audiences like to hear stories, and often would like several minutes at the end to ask questions. It's very difficult to engage a crowd with pure reading. Even poets need to talk a little bit in between sections, to give the audience a moment to reset and re-engage. I think it's so important to support an author friend by attending their reading, but there's nothing wrong with admitting that it's not always fun.
Sonya Unrein
December 21, 2008 06:50 PM
oh goody. a discussion! sorry for the long post, but just got in and saw all these comments. thank you all so much.

nanatehay... what i find as a writer is that what i write and how i hear it changes... when i first write it, when i read it to trusted others, when i read in public and when i read it once online (or in a book). for me, sometimes i like hearing all these different versions and seeing what kind of reaction i get, but mostly i do like the intimacy of reading.

high lonesome... yes, a support the effort, the creative process and then my own filters come into play, too. glad to know i'm not the only one...

biblio files .... yes, add book groups and book clubs to my list -- maybe for me it feels too much like school which was not a great place for me.

JL Davis... that's a great attitude to have, think i'll cultivate it..... thanks.

undertow... yes, i find that the audience often likes the hows and histories too. and i guess i'm learning it's okay to not like everything i do and still realize the the value of doing it (attend friend's reading)..
phSFca
December 21, 2008 07:58 PM