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Why Read The Classics?

Well, for one thing, they’re available. The Brevard County Library System in Florida pulled the erotic bestseller Fifty Shades of Grey from its shelves this week after determining that it didn’t meet the library system’s selection criteria. Library services director Cathy Schweinsberg said,

“Nobody asked us to take it off the shelves. But we bought some copies before we realized what it was. We looked at it, because it’s been called ‘mommy porn’ and ‘soft porn.’ We don’t collect porn.”

What I find most interesting about this is that the intrepid reporter covering the story (click here to see it) did a little browsing in the library catalog, and found a variety of well-known erotic titles, including The Complete Kama Sutra, Fanny Hill, Lolita, Tropic of Cancer, Lady Chatterly’s Lover, and Fear of Flying (if she ever leaves journalism, she could have a bright future as a readers advisory librarian). When the library director was asked why these titles, with content of a similar nature, were on the shelves, she said:

“I think because those other books were written years ago and became classics because of the quality of the writing… This is not a classic.”

(I wonder if they own Twilight?)

So if I want to check out erotica from the Brevard County Libraries, it has to be well-aged, and well-written. (I guess it’s a good thing that I don’t live in Brevard County). But this whole incident raises an interesting point. There are many who look down on the horror genre- on post 1974 horror in particular (to use Becky Siegel Spratford’s demarcation) and who wouldn’t dream of having those nasty covers, those possibly badly written books, anywhere nearby, because they’re not old enough and haven’t been canonized yet. And a lot of books ARE badly written and never will become classics. But people want them. They want that feeling. It’s not fair to dismiss the desires of your readers and users, whether those desires involve erotic Twilight fanfiction or ravening zombies.

If you happen to have a library that doesn’t have the horror fiction you are looking for, it doesn’t mean you’re out of luck. They are in disguise, lurking in the depths of the library- Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, Ray Bradbury, Shirley Jackson… Jekyll and Hyde, Dorian Gray, Dracula, Victor Frankenstein. If you can’t find the latest, try out the early greats. And then harass your librarian to get you the new stuff while you read… the classics.

Posted on May 5, 2012 by , Reply

Author Michael Louis Calvillo Dies

Michael Louis Calvillo, author of I Will Rise, Blood & Gristle, As Fate Would Have It (reviewed here), and other original and inventive works of horror fiction, passed away on Monday, April 30 after a long battle with cancer. I did not know Michael at all except through the eyes of the reviewers and readers who make up the staff and community here, but their words, and the words of others in the horror community, speak volumes about the kind of writer and the kind of person he was. Greg Lamberson and Benjamin Kane Etheridge have written moving tributes to him, and it’s clear that touched the lives of others both with his work and his personality. If you visit his blog, you’ll see that he remained positive and involved in life in every way he could. Our thoughts are with his family, and we hope yours will be too.

Posted on May 2, 2012 by , Reply

I Don’t Like Horror, But…

Barbara Vey at Beyond Her Book has written an interesting post that I quite agree with. It kind of goes along with why people like Stephen King- he’s a fantastic storyteller. And Vey’s premise is that that is the job of both books and movies- to tell a good story. If it’s a good story, even if it’s not “your kind of story”, it’ll capture you. If it’s not, it’s not gonna grab you, and it doesn’t matter if it’s the only kind of story you read, ever. Vey wrote about her experience with two different movies this week. The first, Mirror, Mirror, caught her interest because she’s been sucked into the addictive world of Once Upon A Time (okay, those weren’t exactly her words, but I’m there with her). So she was primed to like it… but found the characters unlikable and shallow, and the movie boring. Moral of that story: even if you want to like it, if the characters and plot can’t grab you, it’s not enough.

She also saw Cabin in the Woods. It’s probably unfortunate that this was billed as a horror film, since there are a lot of people who immediately dismiss a movie labeled “horror”. Vey says she “doesn’t do horror” but the story was good and the characters were interesting. She called it “funny and clever”. The fact that the story is good- that it’s not straight out gore, that the characters are relatable (and also that Joss Whedon is involved) means that even someone who assumes they can’t like horror, may be able to find something that appeals. Heck, even my mom, who is completely unenthusiastic about horror in all of its forms, finally found a movie, The Selling, that she thinks is totally great.

If you want to catch the folks who don’t like horror, you do what Cabin in the Woods, and what Stephen King, have figured out… get past the genre label and tell a fantastic story. And getting fantastic stories, however they’re billed, into the hands of readers, watchers and library lovers of all kinds? That’s what it’s all about.

Posted on April 27, 2012 by , Reply
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