this is the greatest essay ever. just try and prove it isn’t
Turning Writers into Motherf*cking Rock Stars by Chuck Wendig at terribleminds dot com
Face it, right now, the reading of books in this country is not exactly looked at as a valuable use of time by a significant portion of the population. Book stores are going under. I picked the bones of two different Borders locations this week, and have one more visit on the agenda.
Perhaps what we need is a little less politeness and quiet dignity from our modern crop of authors in order to drum up interest in reading and draw attention away from relentless reality show trash. We need our writers to take on the aspect of rock stars in order to save the literary art form.
to wit:
Epic rock star personalities make way for epic rock star beefs. David Lee Roth versus Van Halen. Jay-Z versus Nas. Foo Fighters versus the entire TV show “Glee.”
The authorial world demands this. And we’re not talking about some little Twitter snit, some online battle oozing across a handful of Livejournal comments. It’s not enough for Stephen King to talk to Entertainment Weekly and be all like, “Well, Stephenie Meyer is no J.K. Rowling, pfft.” I’m talking, Terry Pratchett needs to go and take a shit in Dan Brown’s mailbox.
Seriously, just go and read this thing. Now. You shall laugh and laugh.
