Writer Takes Stand Against the Writing of Books

Laura Miller takes issue with National Novel Writing Month: her concern is that this is a symptom of the Culture of Narcissism™ and that it means none of these would-be writers reads, or at least, none of them will have time to read throughout the month of November. (Her argument is actually fairly complex, so it’s worth reading for yourself; it’s also vigorously rebutted elsewhere.) Apparently the world is plenty full of people who write but do not read? This has not been my experience but I have not met everyone, so I won’t judge. She has further complaints: “I am not the first person to point out that ‘writing a lot of crap’ doesn’t sound like a particularly fruitful way to spend an entire month, even if it is November.” Oh, is it now. (Look, this is me, avoiding a stupid and obvious joke!) But seriously, how about a whole year of crap, cuz lemme tell you about that. Anyway: yeah, we probably should be rewarding book readers in some way! When I was a kid, the youngster who checked out the most books in a month got a little award. Hmm. Though I guess I don’t really check out books from the library any more? But I sure do have a craving for awards. Maybe the Culture of Narcissism™ got me too.