Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Will Grayson the counter counter counter counter post

"The pride was yours! The presumption was yours!"
----J Michael Stracznski

Elfarmy has has the audacity to call me audacious for calling her audacious here http://elfarmywrites.blogspot.com/2010/12/will-grayson-will-grayson-counter.html

She wrote "You might remember that collaborating on a book is not a competition."

True but in this book where the two authors are so different in style and one is, in my opinion, much superior to the other then it can be viewed as a competition. I also think that David Levithan should be the super famous one and not, as he told me when I ambushed him in a hallway at ALA, "The half of Will Grayson who isn't on TV all the time."

She then wrote "I never said that all of his characters and all of his plots are really alike"

Um, actually you did, "The summary of a John Green book: Somewhat nerdy teen with a specific quirk and lovable friends confronts an issue that is easily related to by teen readers through humor and character-recognized metaphor.
Either you like that plot line, or you don't. I do, and therefore I don't mind that the books are the same." and "Yes, Pudge, Colin, Quentin, and Will all share traits. They all sound somewhat the same within their minds."

I did not mean to diss Tiny Cooper and I also did not mean anything by saying that he was created by John Green. I was attempting to be snarky and funny and obviously my point was lost. I apologize.

"You can't say a book or an author is bad just because the main character (or one of them) annoys you. That just means you didn't enjoy the book."

I wasn't necessarily criticizing John Green for Uppercase Will's personality. But actually I disagree with your point. If the main character is not likable and he was supposed to be then that is a sign of a bad author. I am not saying that Will was supposed to be likable, I was just making the point. And he was somewhat likable I just didn't like the way he treated Tiny.

"You keep blaming flaws within the book on John. David Levithan worked on this book as well, and you can't attribute only the good parts of it to him." I didn't/don't. I enjoyed the play stuff and John Green can be both laugh out loud funny and touchingly romantic but I believe that he is overrated.

She then wrote that saying that John Green has good taste in music was "complimenting the person, not the author."

I know, I was trying to find something nice to say, and I did enjoy the music references in the book.

Elfarmy concluded by writing "I will think about this and most likely see that you are correct once I've written those short stories for my deadline. Who has author credit now? I do. In YOUR face."

Ok, congrats on the deadline and whatnot but it is author cred, not credit.

Monday, December 27, 2010

Will Grayson the Counter Counter Post

"He is really not so ugly after all, provided, of course, that one shuts one's eyes, and does not look at him."
---Oscar Wilde

"I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach!"
---Charles Dickens


Elfarmy has had the audacity to disagree with me about Will Grayson Will Grayson (http://elfarmywrites.blogspot.com/2010/12/will-grayson-counter-post.html) and I must respond in kind.

To begin with she quoted me as saying

"Going into this book I had one problem with John Green, I felt that he had appointed himself the savior of YA Literature and saw it as his duty to push the envelope."

and responded with

"I'm not exactly sure what this means, nor do I know what this opinion is founded on, therefore I can't really refute it. However, I will say that there is a difference between believing you made YA better and believing you are the "savior" of it."


Here is what this is based on: John Green loves to push the envelope with sex,language, and what have you. And that would be fine if it wasn't so gratuitous. For example there is a line in Will Grayson Will Grayson in which Green's character refers to a house, a house for God's sake, as a two word combination beginning with an M. There was no reason for this language the character did not seem like the type of person who would say something like that. It was pushing the envelope for the fun of it. And it took the reader out of the story and it hurt the book.Was the use of that word really worth that much? No, but it made John Green feel good and important and edgy. So, props to him. The real way to push the envelope is to give readers a plot that makes them question things and is clever and new and edgy and progressive. If only someone had written a book like that. Oh, wait, someone has. It was called Boy Meets Boy and it was written by David Levithan.

Elfarmy then a dressed my point that his narrators are very similar in terms of voice and said

"It could be argued that he's pointing out that all people are essentially the same on the inside and it's only our situations and backgrounds that make us different (which is something he's frequently talked about in videos), but I doubt that philosophy was behind it. I think it just turned out that way, and some people will find it annoying, and others will not."


She is right, I find it annoying and many do not. I somehow highly doubt that he did it to prove that everyone is the same on the inside.

She then said

"My question is this: If they do read exactly the same, is that a bad thing?"

Not to be flippant but yes. I will explain why is a second. But let me quote Elfarmy again

."If you mean they read exactly the same in regards to style, well, don't all authors have a style? That's what makes you like an author, as opposed to a book by that author.
The summary of a John Green book: Somewhat nerdy teen with a specific quirk and lovable friends confronts an issue that is easily related to by teen readers through humor and character-recognized metaphor.
Either you like that plot line, or you don't. I do, and therefore I don't mind that the books are the same."

If the characters are very similar,the style is the same, and the plots are really alike then why bother reading the new books? Why don't you just reread the old ones? Why bother writing anything new? What's the point? If a writer is just writing the same thing over and over then how can you say that they are still a good writer? I used to love Caroline B Cooney but recently she is basically writing the same plot over and over and over again trying to get a hit and she isn't very good anymore. A good writer actually, again not to be flippant, but a good writer writes. They create new things, they don't just reinvent the wheel. The stretch and create characters who are different from each other and different from the author. So if the author were, say, a gay man, he might write a book about two straight brothers. And he might call it Are We There Yet.

Elfarmy went on to write

""Nothing happens in this book." I guess it depends on what you want to happen. It's a book about teenagers doing stuff. There aren't any vampires, or evil governments, or parents who are Greek gods. There's nothing to make them unique. They're just people. Some like to read such books, and some don't."

Interesting thing about that, I do like to read those books but normally something happens, there is a point. And looking back at WGWG here is what happened: lowercase Will struggled with his sexuality and went out with this weird character Green created and fought with this weird girl. And that was about it. Uppercase Will had problems with the weird character who Green created and wanted to go out with a girl and a school play. So all of that could have been interesting if it had been done better. And I have to say, Uppercase Will is kind of a jerk. I mean, the way he treats his supposed friend is pretty shameful. If he had been nicer and gotten more involved in the school play the book would have become way way way way way way better. But no, John Green did not do that for whatever reason. He apparently did not realise that the school play could make for a really really good main plot and the other stuff could make for an acceptable sub plot.

Elfarmy then wrote

"You can't give good author-cred to someone just because they mention musicians you like."

My response: Heck Yeah you can, and I just did. IN YOUR FACE!!!!!!

Also, on a side note, Earagon and Eldest are almost scene for scene rewrites of Star Wars. Think about it and you will see that I am right(I spent a lot of time thinking about this)

Dash and Lilly is really really sweet and funny. I love it to pieces.

Book Review Will Grayson WIll Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

Will Grayson Will Grayson is written by two of YA literature's biggest superstars, John Green(Author of Paper Towns and Looking For Alaska) and David Levithan(Author of Boy Meets Boy and Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist). The book is written in alternating chapters each narrated by a young man named Will Grayson.

John Green's Will Grayson is straight and having boy troubles. David Levithian's Will Grayson is gay and having girl troubles. Don't ask why either of those make sense.

About halfway through the book the two Will Grayson's meet up with each other.


Now, as I said, this book is written by two hugely popular authors. John Green is renowned in the literary world for his YA novels and how good they are. David Levithian is less well known as an author but is an Editor for scholastic(he edited the Hunger Games Trilogy which proves that at least he has good taste). So, with two authors of such high stature writing it, how could this book possibly go wrong?

The answer to that question is two words long: John Green. Going into this book I had one problem with John Green, I felt that he had appointed himself the savior of YA Literature and saw it as his duty to push the envelope. Coming out of this book I have another problem with him, all his characters are the same. Seriously, Will Grayson is almost exactly the same as the main character from Paper Towns. I am not saying that Mr. Green cannot write, but he is, in my humble opinion, far inferior to David Levithan.

David Levithan is one of my favorite writers and he has actually saved YA Literature(namely by editing the Hunger Games). He writes his half very well but the book, aside from being unbalanced, is basically pointless. There is no reason for the characters to meet(though it was handled well) as it doesn't really do much for the plot. Really, nothing happens in this book. And Don't even get me started on the ending.

In the interest of fairness I will say that John Green handles romance well and he put in some funny scenes involving the school play(a subplot which I thoroughly enjoyed). He also put in some cool band references as he has done in at least one of his previous works(Billy Bragg was referenced in Paper Towns). But, as I said, his main character is the same as his Paper Towns main character.

This Year David Levithan has another collaboration coming out called Dash and Lilly's Book Of Dares which is far far far superior.

Three and a Half stars out of Five

One final note, many months back I posted some lyrics on this blog that I had co-written(called If Lightning Strikes) and Elfarmy commented saying that it reminded her of a scene in this book. I read the scene and she was right. So props to her for noticing.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

quote meets quote

I'm bored and I saw that Elfarmy posted a long list of quotes on her blog so I decided to rip her off. Oh Snap, as they say.


It's called thieves get rich and saints get shot.
It's called God don't answer prayers a lot.
----Stephen Soundheim

he thinks too much, such men are dangerous
----William Shakspeare

I love writing but I hate starting. The page is awfully white and it says. " You may have fooled some of the people some of the time but those days are over, giftless. I'm not your agent and I'm not your mommy, I'm a white piece of paper, you wanna dance with me?" and I really, really don't. I don't want any trouble. I'll go peaceable-like.
----Aaron Sorkin

Believe in it? Hell, I've seen it!
---Mark Twain after being asked if he believed in baptism at birth

Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about it.
---Oscar Wilde

One should always be a little improbable.
---Oscar Wilde

A true friend stabs you in the front
---Oscar Wilde

I have nothing to declare except my Genius.
---Oscar Wilde when asked at NY customs if he had anything to decalre

One of the requisites of sanity is to disagree with the majority of the British public.
---Oscar Wilde

Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong.
---Oscar Wilde

I've known Bob Rumson for years, and I've been operating under the assumption that the reason Bob devotes so much time and energy to shouting at the rain was that he simply didn't get it. Well, I was wrong. Bob's problem isn't that he doesn't get it. Bob's problem is that he can't sell it!
---Aaron Sorkin

Ironically, I'm the one who's high as a paper kite right now. But legitimately. I had back surgery on Tuesday. L-5/S-1, if that means anything to you. Stop talking now? You bet.
---Aaron Sorkin

Well, your side hates my side because you think we think you're stupid, and my side hates your side because we think you're stupid.
---Aaron Sorkin on the culture wars

I'm not white, Darius, I'm English.
---Aaron Sorkin

Jack: You speak English?
Zhang Tao: I speak a few words.
Jack: How many words?
Zhang Tao: All of them.
Jack: Why do you pretend you can't speak English?
Zhang Tao: It's fun.
Jack: It's fun?! [pause] Yeah. Guess it would be.
---Aaron Sorkin

Danny: Matthew, don't take this the wrong way, but I love you.
Matt: Okay.
Danny: Did you take it the wrong way?
Matt: I took it to mean you're gay and you want me.
Danny: Good.
Matt: I love you too, brother.
---Aaron Sorkin

Friday, December 10, 2010

Aaron Sorkin on Sarah Palin

This is an editorial written by Aaron Sorkin for the huffington post and I hope that after reading it you will be able to see why he is my favorite writer. The asterixes were put it by me in place of some of the stronger language


"Unless you've never worn leather shoes, sat upon a leather chair or eaten meat, save your condemnation."

You're right, Sarah, we'll all just go **** ourselves now.

The snotty quote was posted by Sarah Palin on (like all the great frontier women who've come before her) her Facebook page to respond to the criticism she knew and hoped would be coming after she hunted, killed and carved up a Caribou during a segment of her truly awful reality show, Sarah Palin's Alaska, broadcast on The-Now-Hilariously-Titled Learning Channel.

I eat meat, chicken and fish, have shoes and furniture made of leather, and PETA is not ever going to put me on the cover of their brochure and for these reasons Palin thinks it's hypocritical of me to find what she did heart-stoppingly disgusting. I don't think it is, and here's why.

Like 95% of the people I know, I don't have a visceral (look it up) problem eating meat or wearing a belt. But like absolutely everybody I know, I don't relish the idea of torturing animals. I don't enjoy the fact that they're dead and I certainly don't want to volunteer to be the one to kill them and if I were picked to be the one to kill them in some kind of Lottery-from-Hell, I wouldn't do a little dance of joy while I was slicing the animal apart.

I'm able to make a distinction between you and me without feeling the least bit hypocritical. I don't watch snuff films and you make them. You weren't killing that animal for food or shelter or even fashion, you were killing it for fun. You enjoy killing animals. I can make the distinction between the two of us but I've tried and tried and for the life of me, I can't make a distinction between what you get paid to do and what Michael Vick went to prison for doing. I'm able to make the distinction with no pangs of hypocrisy even though I get happy every time one of you faux-macho ****heads accidentally shoots another one of you in the face.

So I don't think I will save my condemnation, you phony pioneer girl. (I'm in film and television, Cruella, and there was an insert close-up of your manicure while you were roughing it in God's country. I know exactly how many feet off camera your hair and make-up trailer was.)

And you didn't just do it for fun and you didn't just do it for money. That was the first moose ever murdered for political gain. You knew there'd be a protest from PETA and you knew that would be an opportunity to hate on some people, you witless bully. What a uniter you'd be -- bringing the right together with the far right.

(Let me be the first to say that I abused cocaine and was arrested for it in April 2001. I want to be the first to say it so that when Palin's Army of Arrogant *********, bereft of any reasonable rebuttal, write it all over the internet tomorrow they will at best be the second.)

I eat meat, there are leather chairs in my office, Sarah Palin is deranged and The Learning Channel should be ashamed of itself.

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Them Gosh Darn Kids!!

So, as I am sure you all know, Bestselling Author Sarah Palin has released the much anticipated sequel to her 2009 blockbuster Going Rouge. I can tell you that the midnight release parties were amazing, we had a costume contest(I dressed as Levi Johnston) and we pinned up a picture of Obama and threw darts at it. Anyway..after all the festivities were done I ran home and cracked open the book, because I desperately want to know what became of my favorite characters.

So I am reading along and I come to this passage that made me go "Right On Sarah!"

"In fact, we may be creating a generation of entitled little whiners. I came across an article that reported how growing numbers of employers today complain that many young job applicants exhibit all the signs of having been, there's no other word for it, spoiled. These young people feel entitled to jobs and salaries they haven't earned."

Yes! Yes exactly! Them darn kids who think that they are entitled to a job that they have not earned! Don't they know that you have to work your way up the ladder? You can't just jump to the top without having any training or qualifications!

I'll go one step forward than Sarah did, these kids have such short attention spans and now loyalty! As soon as they get bored with a job or think that they can make more money elsewhere they quit! It's crazy! I tell ya, this entitlement mentality is what is destroying our society.

So, right on Sarah! Keep that talk coming!