A Classic Bore

 We all have those books we've been meaning to read, some of which are considered classics. As an English major, I've had to read a lot of them. Some I enjoy, like Shakespeare's plays, Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. 

Then, there are those that are painful to read, like anything by D.H. Lawrence, most of the works by Hemingway, and what I'm currently reading, Emma by Jane Austen. 

Honestly, I don't see the appeal of this drawn out, verbose, repetitive novel. It took a whole chapter to describe a character's 'character.' Jane, you could have done it in a paragraph. WHY is this a 'classic?' Because it was written a long time ago? Because other novels by Jane have been a success? All I know is that it's pedantic, tedious, and a real torture to read. And it's an obvious example why high school students hate reading these books. I'm in the middle of chapter 5 and the last page- 391- is looking like it's a universe away and I may never get there. Clearly it was a favorite among the British but not so much among Americans. No one I know seems to have read it. 

Will I finish it? Doubtful. But I'll keep it on my nightstand and delve into it when insomnia hits. Clearly I should be out cold after a chapter or two.

Char

Rocks and Hard Places

You know what that saying means; I'm stuck between two unpleasant places and neither one is appealing. Here's the sitch:

I wrote an MG story based on a literary classic, which brings said classic into the contemporary world (no, no more Jane Austen, I promise). I wanted to stay true to the classic written by Robert Louis Stevenson (that's all the clue I'm going to give you). But when I presented it for a critique by an editor out of one of the large publishing houses, while she liked the concept, she said it 'enabled white male rage.' She made other points, most of which I thought valid and could easily incorporate into my manuscript. But how to address the social aspect of 'white male rage', i.e. a main character, yes, who's white because that's how the classic was written almost 200 years ago, who messes around with science which changes him and not for the better. The editor saw this as an excuse for his behavior- he can't help himself from being violent. Now I see she has a point; white male character goes on rampage but it's not his fault. However, while I have it that my character's a violent person, all through the story is woven that he must take responsibility for his actions. The parent explains it like this; it's like being left-handed in a right-handed world. Yes, my main character, a boy, is different than almost everyone, and his condition makes him struggle, but he, ultimately, has the control and responsibility of his condition. He has to adjust, not the world. (And changing the race would only get me labeled racist because I'm white, so don't even go there.)

I pondered her comments. I switched the gender of the main character to female, thus breaking away from the classic, but it was a new twist and that can be a good thing. But that change was problematic all through the story. Maybe it's my own prejudices, but a girl would react totally different in almost all the conflicts. I managed to address most of the issues, but it was a domino effect which made the twisty ending, which I loved, improbable and clunky.

It is no longer my story, but someone else's. And I didn't feel their love or connection to the story; it seemed more like a 'PC run amok' story.

Here's the rock: I don't like the new story, especially the weaker ending.

Here's the hard place: Based on the editor's comments, it seems everything has to go through a PC filter or it won't get pubbed.

Hollywood seems to be the only place where this story could thrive. But, if I can't get this story published, it will die a lonely death in my drawer.

And just like Wiley E. Coyote trying to catch the Roadrunner, here's the boulder that falls on top to completely squash me: it's part of a classics revitalization trilogy. While the connection to the next book wouldn't be too problematic, if I can't get editors past the first book, the other two are just cumbersome piles of paper to be recycled.

Friends and colleagues have weighed in and it comes down to this:

• Write your story.
• They probably wouldn't pub it as is, so make the changes.
• You can make this work.

It all comes down to writing a story I don't love, which generally doesn't work out well for writer, agent, or editor. Talk about impossible barriers. Or, keeping the basic storyline with the other suggestions the editor gave me. Finally, just chucking the whole story and starting the trilogy with the next book, featuring a female protagonist. 

I'll have to mull this one over. It disheartens me because these stories are a bridge between the classics I love to a contemporary time and place. As an English major and a former substitute teacher, this kills me that my brainchild must be so bastardized that it can pass PC filters which leaves the story barely alive.

Photo by Rene Asmussen from Pexels

What to do, what to do...

Char

Get Thee to a Bookshelf...

I read a post on Twitter about how many books students working toward an English degree have to read. The person counted about 150, but that also included books for the other subjects. I'm not going to bore you (and myself) counting all the books I read for my English degree (nor do I want to), but instead, I'm going to list some of my faves (not all of them were required reading, some were for fun and maybe shouldn't count, but I'm putting them in anyway):

English Romantic Poetry. Ah, how can anyone not love On the Grasshopper and the Cricket by John Keats. Or The Nightingale by William Taylor Coleridge. Lord Byron's, She Walks in Beauty is swoony romantic. There are lots more, but moving on...

Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. One of my all-time absolute faves. You don't have to be a Christian to understand and appreciate the messages of charity, hospitality, fairness, generosity, and compassion that are required of all of us as human beings.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. This is science with scare and caution in an eloquent tale. I'm a big fan of Mr. Stevenson.

Oscar Wilde's The Strange Case of Dorian Gray has been made into several movies. It's kind of like the the artist's version of Jeckyll and Hyde.

While I could never be as composed as Jane Austen (I'm a Scorpio, we tend to run emotionally amuck at times), I love her passion. And it doesn't end like a Disney-princess story, which annoys me a bit about modern books. Humans have less perfect endings, yet so many books have the opposite. I'd write a book with a realistic, bad ending, but no one--agent, editor, reader--would probably want it.

I took a class in Arthurian literature and the bible of that class was Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon. I loved the female perspective which gave it a deeper feel than the traditional male-let's sword fight-woo the damsel-save the kingdom feel. It really gave me my first connection to feminism.

My list could never be complete without J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings opus. It is the almost quintessential book for me. (The only holdback is that Tolkien, a man of his times, neglects to include both strong female characters and the female perspective.)

Although it doesn't shine as much as her beloved Interview With a Vampire or The Vampire Lestat, my favorite of Anne Rice's works is Rameses The Damned, Or, The Mummy. Anne makes me feel the dry heat of the desert seeping under archaeological tents, or a body freezing with fear as Rameses stalks his enemies. Love, love, love. I keep leaving comments on Facebook (cause, we're like, 'friends') for her to do a sequel. So far, I'm being ignored.

One last one: The Secret, by Julie Garwood. Yes, it's an historical romance but it's wonderfully written and reading Garwood's novels helped me learn how to write dialogue. (Some novels fail miserably at this.)

As you can see, I'm not pinned down by any one genre. And that's great because when I leave one for a while to try something new, I come back and rediscover why I liked that first genre. It becomes fresh again. So maybe you should re-visit some of those novels you read in high school or college (or soon after) that you liked or loved. (I don't waste my time re-reading novels I hated, hoping I'll like them again. I won't.)

There's nothing like revisiting an old friend.

Char