With the craziness of my life recently (moving, transferring Universities, changing majors, and being slightly O.C.D) it’s been hard to make my writing keep up with the rate of my reading. I have about four books around my apartment with bookmarks in them because I’m jumping back and forth reading whatever is most comfortable for me at any given time. Sometimes it’s a new book, sometimes it’s an old favorite, or a book I didn’t realize I still had until I had to unpack it.
The Discworld series is comprised of fairly short books, but the series consists of approximately twenty-two or more books. The result is that I don’t have the time to expend on reviewing them all so this may be my final post about this series.
The good news is that each of the books in the series is immensely enjoyable. Unlike some authors, Pratchett manages to keep each individual book interesting, fast-paced, and enjoyable without any unnecessary details, lags, or boring bits designed to do nothing more than link the series together. The writing does not go down in quality as the series goes on. I am currently on what I think is the twelfth or thirteenth book in the series (or is it fourteen? Do I even have a life?) and it has thus far been as enjoyable and witty as its predecessors.
My final word is that these books are worth going out and buying for your personal collection. I have enjoyed every one of these books so much and I think they are accessible for all readers. This series gets a 10 out of 10 from me for sheer enjoyability. (Yes, that is a word…or at least it is now.)
Archive for January, 2009
This book falls into the category of the Classics, or “Literary Canon” if you want to get technical. Yes, I read it for class, but I enjoyed it so much. The entire story of Evelina is laid out in a series of letters. Typical for the time period pre-Jane Austen, the format can be a little strange, but the story is laid out very well.
Evelina, raised by a near friend of her family for three generations, is invited to spend time away from home with friends of her “adopted” father Mr. Villars. She becomes good friends with the people at Howard Grove, but is thrown into the social waters in London when the Mirvan women head there to meet Captain Mirvan who has been away for seven years and has finally come home. Evelina, being “innocent” and a bit more naive than I like in a heroine, looks forward to the sights and excitement of London, but she really doesn’t know what she’s asking for. Read the rest of this entry ยป
For those of you who have read the Twilight Saga (comprised of the four books: Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn) or enjoyed the movie Twilight – the news of a new book coming out in the series may catch your attention. Most likely, the idea is greeted with a little puzzlement and quite a bit of enthusiasm. Unfortunately, Midnight Sun – which was supposed to tell the Twilight story from Edward’s point of view – is on hold indefinitely.
Which is where we get to the issue of copyright law.
Now, I know that copyright laws can be a downright nuisance and as a former music major I can tell you that finding things in the public domain means going back in time far enough that materials hardly seem relevant. As a Literary Studies student in college, I can tell you that copyright issues (along with plagiarism) are in my face constantly. For writers and avid readers, it is an issue that comes up again and again. Especially with the steady advance of the internet and all its resources. Copyright laws can, however, be a useful thing and when the laws are violated it can cause issues for everyone involved.
In this case, a draft of Midnight Sun – a total of approximately eleven-and-a-half chapters – was leaked by someone that the author had given a slightly edited copy of her work to. That copy was then reproduced and spread all over the internet. For fans, it probably seemed like a wonderful thing. Avid readers are always dying for a preview, and I know that if I could find a job that just required me sitting around and reading (or even proofreading) new works by some of my favorite authors, I’d be in heaven.
The problem is that not only had Stephenie Meyer not authorized the release of this draft by someone who I am guessing was a trusted entity, and now that the draft – with all it’s foibles and errors – is out there for everyone to see. For any writer, it is an extreme violation for anyone you do not trust very much to see your work before you are ready for it to be seen. Writing, even fiction writing, exposes a very private part of ourselves. Imagine that every time you finished a project at work, a homework assignment, or closed a deal, that your work was up for review. Not just your work in its final stages or drafts, but every aspect of it. Your attitude going in, your behavior after you got home from a long day of work frustrated or cocky from success, those moments when – working on the last math problem – you realized you’d made a mistake and had to start all over again from scratch, feeling like an idiot for not catching it sooner. Now, imagine that not only is it being reviewed by your boss, or teacher, or parent, but by everyone. Friends, enemies, people you pass in the street, parents, siblings, your weird Uncle Joe that gave you underwear for your eighth birthday because “It’s something you always need” – all of these people are looking at your work. Not just the finished product where congratulations are in order, but all the messy in between stages.
Feeling uncomfortable? Yeah, me too. I don’t like looking into your life quite that much. It’s embarrassing for us both.
Well, multiply that by about ten, and then imagine that the reason everything in your life is up for public review is because one of your friends posted it all on the magical internet and invited the whole world to come see. Maybe they meant well, or maybe they just didn’t realize how many people really look at YouTube in a day. Either way, it’s no fun for you.
This is not our finest moment, is it? Even if your work has been excellent, nobody’s perfect.
So, Stephanie Meyer, feeling the violation of the act, has put Midnight Sun on hold. In fact, we may never get more of Midnight Sun than the copy that has been posted everywhere online. For me, this is sad.
I enjoyed the Twilight series so much, and I was always dying to know what was going through Edward’s mind as I saw what was going through Bella’s. Partly because I’m nosy, but partly because he did manage to stay cryptic on some things throughout the series. Midnight Sun offers a few answers, but since it may never be finished we may never know.
I hope that Stephenie Meyer will recover, and realize how much support there is from her fans on this issue (and you’d better be supportive!) because she could follow the storyline of the entire Twilight series again, from Edward’s point of view, and I would be out there buying my copy as soon as it came out – whether it was online, or at the public library, or not. I’ll admit that since Meyer posted the draft on her own webpage I have read it because I am so curious that it’s become my own personal “tragic flaw”, if you will, and all I can say is that it makes me even more angry that the draft was posted without Meyer’s express permission. I hate reading stories without an end and the abrupt stop in the flow of the storyline was unbelievably frustrating.
So, the next time you find a copy of a book online – consider the impact. You may never see the end of the story.
————————————–
For Meyer’s commentary on this issue, visit the following link: http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/midnightsun.html.