Tag: reaction

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A Least Favourite Book

A couple of weeks ago, I answered one of the daily prompts that WordPress provides, talking about the book Room by Emma Donoghue. Today, I remembered I had another one stored for future use, and here it is:

Have you ever regretted reading a book — which one and why?

If you don’t want to know what happens in the novel Crawling Round South Oakwood by Stephen Slaughter, then stop reading here.

This book was released in 2012, and I first heard of it in Writing Magazine after it won an award for cover design. The words become fuzzier as you read down the cover, and they’re interspersed with pictures of beer glasses gradually emptying. I thought it deserved the award, but it proved the old maxim of Never judge a book by its cover.

It’s an tried-and-tested technique to hook the reader with immediate action. Just as Romeo and Juliet opens with a street brawl, I expected to see it all kicking off down the pub. Instead, we’re presented with the overwritten opening sentence.

Although I was more interested in the thought of a weekend break for two in Paris, which was the first prize of a competition in the local paper, the attention of my colleagues was firmly gripped by news which had not been reported in the paper and which was unlikely to ever reach its pages.

This sets the tone for the entire novel: dense with unnecessary detail and light on plot. We have to sit through pre-drinks at the narrator’s house, some uninteresting description of their favourite TV show So You Think You Know What You Are Talking About, and then a turn-by-turn account of how the group walks to the pub.

I don’t regret reading the book per se, but I do regret carrying on past the first chapter. Some authors can skilfully do virtually nothing with their characters, but not Stephen Slaughter.

The closest we come to any interesting action is a scuffle that breaks out in the middle of the book. There is no foreshadowing, no build-up of tension, just two characters who seemed like friends until they decided they had some sort of problem with each other.

Off the top of my head, I can’t think of another book with as few redeeming features. The plot is so banal that that I can’t even remember how it ends, and I’m not buying another copy just to find out. It’s likely some idle chatter about their beloved TV show.

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One Poem, Three Audiences

A couple of weeks ago, I was invited to a fundraising event featuring open-mike slots. I’d gone along under the assumption that the stage was reserved solely for musicians, and there were a number of talented ones there. But after a chat with the organisers, I discovered it was open to anybody.

If you know me, you’ll know I’m always willing to perform. This, however, would be a tough crowd because a music audience is different from a poetry audience.

Your average pub rock group expects to encounter some external noise, like audience chatter or the noise of the till, but three or four instruments with amplification can easily compete against that. By contrast, a poetry audience knows to be silent because the performer has only words to convey; even with amplification, it can be hard to talk over a noisy audience.

I drew upon my experience to pick two suitable poems, and they received a better response than I could have hoped for, even with a lot of background chat. One of the poems was a humorous and surreal piece about personified biscuits; I’d picked it because it seems to appeal equally to poets and non-poets.

The following night, I performed the biscuit poem at a dedicated poetry night with an open-mike element. While the audience did hold a respectful silence, they were harder to excite than the pub group crowd, perhaps because many of them had heard it before.

While drafting this entry about the two aforementioned evenings, I was then unexpectedly invited to perform at another gig.

I sing in the church choir on a Sunday, and the organist was organising the music to entertain their Wednesday Club. Most of the choir performed solo songs, but I was asked to perform a couple of poems. I turned again to – you guessed it – the biscuits.

This time, I was uncertain how it would be received. I knew the audience would lend me their silence, but not whether they would consider it appropriate for the event. But I needn’t have worried, as I heard some great feedback both on the night and at the next Sunday performance.

There is no foolproof way to tell how an audience will react. However, by performing often enough, it’s possible to gauge which pieces to perform – and sometimes it pays off incredibly well.

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Delayed Gratification

Having been delayed by heavy snowfall six weeks ago, the Fun a Day Dundee exhibition finally took place Friday to Sunday. This is a challenge to produce creative pieces during January.

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The exhibition featured dozens of artists working in different media: plastic, paint, photography, wire, ceramic, &c. My pieces were almost entirely made of ink on paper. Most of them were displayed in a ring binder, but a few were hung on the wall by the organiser Sam Baxter.

I was only able to be there for the Friday launch and the tail end of Sunday, but I tried to keep away from my work as much as possible. I wanted to observe how people interacted with it, particularly the centrepiece, a sheet of Amazon packing paper inviting visitors to write their stories of corporate waste. Another exhibit comprised a sealed envelope emblazoned with ‘PRIVATE – DO NOT OPEN’ that was opened within 20 minutes of the public entering.

It felt strange to present my writing in such a manner. A writer mainly sees written feedback on finished pieces, often from publishers. Here, on the other hand, was the possibility of instant reactions on rough drafts. The feedback I heard was largely positive, though.

Two of the other artists I liked were David Kendall who produced works within cardboard boxes, and Yasmin Lawson‘s tiny but monolithic tower blocks.

As the name of the project suggests, I found it fun to take part. I intend to be involved next year, perhaps with something completely different.