Bookish thoughts 23 Aug: lit remixed, dark YA, avoiding meaning in writing & more!

'RIASS stuff:

Other bookish stuff

China Mieville argues that we should welcome in the inevitable world of remixed literature.'I think China has a point that the boundary of the book is becoming increasingly blurred. In my opinion the shift to digital technologies and the growth (and wider dissemination) of fanfiction and other related works (films, graphic novel spin-offs, etc) means that stories are beginning to take on elements of their previous incarnations as oral tellings and reimaginings. Theyre not necessarily confined, as they have been over the past few hundred years, within the book. I also kind of love the idea of China Mieville as a DJ.

Charles Simic rebuts Tim Parkss post on the correlation between payment and writing quality.'In his article last week, Park mentioned that poets are used to working for free, and this is what Simic takes issue with. Poems, being short, are perceived as therefore being simple to write, with poets able to churn them out in no time at all, as opposed to lengthy works of fiction, which can feasibly take years to write. Simic argues that while novelists can make a living from their work, its simply not true for poetsand never has been. And thats the catch 22: after all, he says, In a country that now regards money as the highest good, doing something for the love of it is not just odd, but downright perverse.

Are agents in bed with publishers?'Nathan Bransford, agent-turned-writer, argues that its (at least in the long term) in an agents interest to do whats best for their clients rather than something that might get them a big tick from a publisher.

How Thrillbent is pushing DIY digital innovation in comics'With the print distribution of comics fairly limited, Thrillbent has headed online, with views of acting as a distribution hub for graphic work. Its currently testing various pricing and distribution models.

How books can be used to treat anxiety, depression

Shaun Tan on his approach and technique in The Red Tree'What does it all mean? That's just the question I ask myself while painting, being careful to pass that question on to the reader intact and unanswered. In fact, I go to a lot of trouble to avoid specific or obvious meaning in my work, says Tan.

The rise of e-reading'One in five American adults have read an ebook in the past year, and ebook consumption is increasing with the growth and availability of specialised e-readers and other digital devices (smartphones etc).

You write like a girl! (ie, damn well) Heres a list of spiffy 21st C literature by female authors to check out.

Patrick Ness defends darkness in childrens literature'''Teenagers look at this darkness all the time, and I always think if youre not addressing it in your fiction, then youre abandoning them to face it themselves, he says, going on to argue that its not as though books are the only type of entertainment/social input that kids are getting.

An interview with Jane Rogers about'The Testament of Jessie Lamb'I enjoyed Rogerss discussion of getting the YA voice right without aping it utterly faithfully (such a thing would have driven her mad, she says) and her consideration of adding an additional (adult) point of view in order to ensure that the story could carry itself. To be honest, one of the things that so often bothers me about YA is the'emphasis on the teen voice, which I often find used as a substitute for plot or characterisation.

Shelf Awareness interviews Jasper Fforde about his new book'The Last Dragonslayer'Of interest is Ffordes statement that the perception of fantasy as childrens fiction and thus something to be grown out of is a worrying one. To give up on wonder and imagination is a very worrying trend, he points out, noting that it wasnt so long ago that'all'fiction was fantasy. Personally, Im not sure that its accurate to say that fantasy fiction is the only genre in which wonder and imagination can be found, or that even realist fiction doesnt deal with the large, traditional themes looked at in mythology. I think that todays storytelling also serves a different purpose from what it did in the past as well.