Ahem… Two farts does not a flatulence problem make.
by rsbakker
Disciple, I suppose, could be described as a put-upon, down-on-his-luck investigator who tries to get his own back by continually ducking sideways. He takes the back way home. More and more it’s starting to look as though Disciple of the Dog will be every bit as put-upon and down-on-its-luck as its namesake character. The Publisher’s Weekly review has found its way to Disciple’s Amazon page. It begins, “The cleverness Bakker displayed in his Prince of Nothing fantasy trilogy (The Darkness That Comes Before, etc.) is lacking in this suspense novel introducing Disciple Manning…” In other words, it starts with a dismissive tone. “Clever” is the word people use to describe things not quite as profound as they are: I should know, since this is how I use the term all the time myself! The review then lays out the shape of the plot before ending with: “A crude, off-putting hero with a flatulence problem may leave few readers eager for a sequel.”
Had to break for a laugh… Too fucking funny.
Primarily because I would bet my next royalty check that whoever wrote this review farted at least ten times as much while reading the book as the two farts attributed to Disciple in the story. Funny how two farts can become a “flatulence problem” so quickly. Books are like elevators that way, I guess.
The reviewer should have ended with “Disciple is a dog… A yukky, yukky dawg.” Then I could have said, “Huh. Go figure.”
Oh well. Dem da breaks. I’ve always said that liking this book depends on liking the hero. Leave it to Disciple to find his way into the hands of a prude. There’s few mechanisms in the brain more difficult to get around than those involved in disgust. Once you trigger these systems, it’s pretty much game over. They should get her to review Bukowski next (I’m just assuming she’s a she because of the whole “fart chauvinism” thing, but I could be wrong).
As Disciple himself says, “One man’s dog is another woman’s pig. I get that.”
It really is a game of chance with every book: not only does it need to reach the right reviewer, it needs to reach them in the right way at the right time. Reviewers are almost as heterogenous in their make-up as the general population of readers. So if you game expectations the way I do, self-consciously try to rub against the grain of certain sensibilities (in the case of Disciple, the kinds of micro-proprieties that people use to cobble together the moral character of people they meet), you are bound to get smacked. All I can do is shake my head, shrug my shoulders, and hope the next roll of the review dice doesn’t come up… craps.
And at the same time I can’t help but feel that, “A crude, off-putting hero with a flatulence problem [that (sic)] may leave few readers eager for a sequel,” would be a damn good blurb to put on the mass market paperback’s cover. The only problem is that it would scare the prudish away, when I would much rather give them a rash.
And on top of that, I’m going to succumb to the gambler’s fallacy and say that Disciple has suffered so much bad luck that his number is due. Not everyone is averse to his brand!
I find it incredible that professional reviewers haven’t even learned to distinguish between the fine line of “liking” a work, and it being “good.” One may despise a character, but that does not make the characterization any less brilliant. It’s pretty ironic, and shitty luck, that the profound nature of Prince of Nothing was exactly what turned it off from the general readership, and that you had dimmed that for the Disciple Manning novel to increase its appeal to a larger audience, yet here the reviewer is condemning it. I’m sure Disciple of the Dog has far more thought-provoking concepts and witticisms than the vast majority of pop literature. Mindless entertainment gets glowing reviews because it’s success is formulaic. No matter what banal shit a popular author pumps out, reviewers will still bend over backwards to wipe their ass for them. This is a business of sales, not art.
Personally, I say don’t let it get to you. It might suck being aware that authors that produce works of inferior quality are laughing their way to the bank in their Ferraris every day, but you do have a loyal, strong fanbase despite the numbers. Historically, plenty of the writers and artists who are hailed as classics today died penniless with their works unpublished, banned, or unread. You are doing a hell of a lot better than that.
If the lack of commercial success is really eating away at you, though, it might be time to change tactics. I wish I could believe that skill and quality was all that was required to succeed in art, but it simply isn’t so in this day and age. This is perhaps most stark in music, where talented musicians, and singers, are more common than a dime a dozen. With only a few spots for the spotlight, countless thousands of qualified people, who gets to stand on stage is a question of luck, timing, and marketing far more than it is one of talent.
You’re an incredibly intelligent guy, and it might be time to use that intellect for marketing practices rather than just letting your works sit out there in the cold, and hoping for the best.
I’d disagree more in terms of reviewers being unable to unentangle their own preferences and reporting what actually exists. If she had said there were two instances of farting mentioned and that the hero has a flatulence problem – well, then we can actually judge for ourselves as a reader. Perhaps for some folk, two farts don’t make a right? Perhaps for others, we’ll look at the review and go ‘What? Two and you make a big deal? Nay, your missing something…’.
But it’s like the readerly fallacies post – they are too used to taking their psychological reaction as an existant thing in the physical object/book. It’s okay for them to give their reaction, just as long as it’s along with reports of what’s actually there, for people who might think two mentions of farts doesn’t mean much. Indeed some folk might demand more and be dissapointed in that way, who knows? Hard facts would inform.
Perhaps the next Disciple book could be set amongst the weird inbetween world of reviewers, the mystery of the crime hidden by their own preconceptions that their reaction is reality…it’d be fun to screw with them, anyway. Build ’em up at the start of the book first, of course, with flattery….hehehehe….
Yeah, definitely go with the M. Night approach. If you don’t like critics, simply lambaste them in the next novel! That will surely lead to success and critical fame, because everyone loves seeing an author take random snipes at critics as a basis of a story.
Something like this has been done in Germany a few years ago. There is a famous literary critic here, Marcel Reich Ranicki, who wrote for leading newspapers and had his own TV show for several years (he’s more or less retired now). He really polarised because of his strong personality and opinions.
One author, Martin Walser, who had been on the receiving end of Reich Ranicki’s sharp wit more than once, wrote a book in 2002 (Tod eines Kritikers), a murder mystery involving a famous literature critic who had disappeared and an author charged with having had a hand in said disappearance. Unfortunaltely, Walser got carried away by his hatred, and what could have been an intelligent novel about the relationship between authors and critics, about the role of literature in society and media, about self-estrangement and identity (the author character turns out to have a doppelganger), became a pamphlet with some antisemitic undertones (Reich Ranicki is a Jew). But it created a fine stir in the media. 🙂
BTW, I’d like to recommend Marcel Reich Ranicki’s authobiogrpahy: The Author of Himself. He survived the Warshaw Ghetto and later fled communist Poland and came to West Germany, and that first part of the book makes for a great – and well written – history lesson. The second part mentions a lot of German authors, of course, but it’s also about post-war Germany and the way authors dealt with our past.
I kind of take John Updike’s formula for writing a good review, and instead turn it into a sort of rubric for judging whether a review I am reading is worthwhile (as well as to gauge whether my own reviews are any good).
1. Do they understand what the author was trying to achieve? Do they blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt?
2. Did they give enough direct quotation—- at least one extended passage—- of the book’s prose so the review’s reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste?
3. Do they confirm their description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy précis?
4. Do they go easy on plot summary and not give away the ending?
5. If they judge the book deficient, do they cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author’s œuvre or elsewhere? Do they try to understand the failure? Are they sure it’s the author’s failure and not their own?
6. Did they review a book they are predisposed to dislike, or committed by friendship to like?
Depending on how they answer these questions, you can judge whether the review itself is successful or a failure.
Cribbed from “The Gospel According to John.” Updike, that is.
That being said, this won’t help sales if the reviewer was a complete moron. However, if the book does fail, well… I haven’t read it myself, or Neuropath, so I can’t really judge.
I think it’s an accurate review. If Bakker’s trying to reach mass appeal and meet critical praise, he clearly didn’t do a good job here. Saying that a critic from Publisher’s weekly didn’t get it and blaming them for a bad review is basically blaming people who read it for not liking it either; chances are this reviewer has a good idea of what the general audience wants to see, and this didn’t meet the mark.
Note that they didn’t say that the work wasn’t accessible or it was confusing; they said it was crude, the lead wasn’t likeable and it wasn’t that good. Don’t equate negative opinions with ignorance.
How much of an effect do reviews really have on sales? I don’t think I’ve ever read or dismissed a book due to a review… mostly I pay attention to word of mouth. Vocal fans can undo a lot of damage created by a prudish reviewer.
While this doesn’t exactly feel like the place to ask, I haven’t the faintest idea how to do so otherwise. And so, Mr. Bakker, to you I pose a question.
Would it be possible to send you my copies of The Prince of Nothing to sign, accompanied by return postage, packaging, and other necessities of course?
Finished the book tonight and wrote some kind of review on my site this morning.
I have to say that I somewhat agree that I’m not exactly looking forward for a sequel. It’s a good thing. If the book gave me an idea of being incomplete or partial I think I’d have found it disappointing. Instead I was not (disappointed).
Maybe there are ways for Disciple to return and his commentary to spread on others matters, but I was satisfied with this book and I thought it expressed everything it could without pulling anything “for later”. It delivers its full potential and wraps up everything in the best possible way. Also a big amount of depth and nuances within. If there’s a degree of open ended-ness I see it as mandatory (What was the point of the cult? Did the world end?). I can’t imagine a better conclusion or something that was treated sloppily with the end.
I just started reading your fantasy side, but there I see the intent of building something long term. The strength of Disciple of the Dog was that it goes straight for the throat with no conceit or distraction. It shows what it has from the first page and doesn’t relent. In 248 pages it delivers everything.
Nice review, Abalieno. Far more intriguing than those snippets from PW. (‘course, I dig a farting hero/anti-hero, makes him seem more real.)
Abalieno, you ever read any Arthur Conan Doyle? I am ecstatic that Bakker crafted such a perfect character-vehicle by which he can keep destroying my psyche. I like Disciple and, realistically, I’d say that any negative response which he garners is a reflexive response to our own misgivings. It’s the same reason that most of Bakker’s work is disturbing, his seminal point by my interpretation being that not only are you not the final arbiter of yourself and mind but we are only baby steps into truly comprehending that extent of that truth. I love Sherlock Holmes and yet have misgivings about Doyle. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed Bakker’s efforts as a psychosocial catalyst for change and I love Disciple Manning. Can’t wait for more.
Nope, I’m not an expert of the genre.
I’ve only read Chandler and “Pulp” by Charles Bukowski. The latter quite a good match for this book, imo. Even if I read both of these very long ago.
It’s also kind of interesting reading Proust, since he also deals with memories but from the exact opposite perspective. It builds a nice contrast.
I would hardly say that Bakker’s within the genre. I meant to compare how I’m excited for episodic Disciple encounters in Holmes style. I’m interested in those books your mentioning by the way, maybe have to read them.
How about : ““A crude, off-putting hero with a flatulence problem [that (sic)] may leave … readers eager for a sequel” as your blurb? ; )
If I recall correctly, the people who made the movie “My favorite martian” did that ‘certain words’ edited out for a quote. They really needed to…
Actually after reading Cordelia Fine’s “A mind of it’s own”, people apparently overlook ‘not’s, like in ‘Weapons of mass destruction not found in iraq’. So do you even need to modify the quote at all?
I mean, when you can have the phrase ‘This is the shit!’ as a promotional tool, isn’t any quote simply going to have the seemingly appropriate tone applied by the reader? >:)
I’m being naughty, never mind me…
Speaking of Cordelia Fine, and this is way off topic, and I know Bakker has given out this information before, but what are some other recommended readings for talk of the mind?
Has anyone read Symbolic Species by Deacon? I’m going to be delving into Fine and Deacon over the next couple of months, but am always looking for more reading about the topic of the mind, functionalism, self-deception, and rationalizing.
I’m in Three Pound Brain withdrawal. Throw us a bone Mr. Bakker, it has been 10 days.
Fuck it dude, let’s go bowling. (I’m looking forward to Disciple, so there…)
I hear that, Jorge. I’m two pints and sixty pages into Neuropath for the fourth time in my life. I’m in need of a humbling experience. Bakker, you might just be the most important author writing these days, kept from the world due to social and cultural complexity. Can’t wait for The White-Luck Warrior but I think I could deal with you spending some time on another stand-alone – outside of Disciple Manning and Earwa. Goodbook’s my kind of people. Peace all.
SCOTT BAKKER!
Amazing. I am so glad to have found this blog man. Your books A Prince of Nothing is the most amazing thing ever, in fact you basically killed the fantasy genre for me. Haven’t really been able to read anything other than you or George R.R Martin’s stuff cause everything else blows.
And since Martin will never finish anything, that means I am stuck with just you ; )
Which is okay, cause I like your stuff better.
The line “Kings are never wrong, they beg that the world be mistaken” is one of the coolest line ever and is one of my favorite quotes.
Don’t listen to that posh idiot reviewer, reviewers and professors are usually trained not to see brilliance.
I’ve literally have had discussions that have lasted for hours with my friends about your books. Keep the fire burning bro.
And no, this is not me saying go ahead and be more flatulent.
Unless of course you send me the funny reviews of people being disgusted by something so trivial haha.
Keep it up, you’re my favorite writer, and just to give you my background… I’m a literary snob being a huge fan of Dostfoesky, Emily Bronte, Mary Shelley, books like Catch-22 and The Jungle.
A Prince of Nothing ranks right up with them in its literary might.
Fantasy & science fiction will always be the best genre to expose humanity in its most philosophical manners, for we are composed and inspired by our dreams which is given to us by our imagination or something sage-like to that affect…
Haha anyhow, I’ll be back to read more now I found out you have a blog.
Take care!
-Gregory