Careless Words

I've noticed since I started blogging and following both authors and bloggers what a few careless words can do. Who ever thought there could be so much "drama" in books. I mean, a differing opinion can always cause heated exchanges, but in the book world, anything can set off word battles galore.

Authors taking exception with reviews/reviewers, reviewers taking exception with reviews/authors, authors taking exception with other author's articles, bloggers plagiarizing another blog, bloggers retaliating by posting bad reviews. It's a screaming mess.

When I originally started this blog and then started doing reviews for Pure Textuality, I just wanted to share with others my love of books. Maybe share my recommendations for books they might like. Of course my opinion is just that; my thoughts. While some people love books/reading, not all readers like the same type of books or even the same books in a genre. I love Urban Fantasy as a whole but I don't necessarily like each book I read in that category. Everyone has their favorite authors and again not everyone likes the same ones. The best you can do is explain why you liked/disliked a book; hopefully without being needlessly cruel. Or you don't have to explain, you can just read and enjoy your reading in solitude.

See, humans aren't really solitary creatures. We like being around other people, mostly, and a part of being in close proximity is interactions. So, we "talk" to each other. We share are thoughts and our feelings. What the weather is doing, what's going one in the news and the books we're reading. In the course of the talking, debate might break out. Here's the thing, when you're debating in person, there is usually a basic civility, the Internet, smart phones and computers as a whole have changed that. It is so much easier to share your thoughts and the anonymity allows you to share more than maybe you should. Your social filters are disabled.

Yes, I'm taking the long way round to say something. Two things happened recently that has me rethinking a big Internet presence or actually sharing my "opinion" as much as I do. Ms Charlaine Harris wrote the final novel in her Southern Vampire Series starring Sookie Stackhouse. The Internet was extremely busy logging everyone's differing opinions. And that's what they are, opinions. You may or may not like the book or you may be indifferent. In the rush of sharing their thoughts on the novel, there were some outrageous reviews calling Ms Harris' writing ability into question and other not so nice things. Of course, she has her champions. The champions in some instances attacked the wicked reviewers or the wicked reviewers called out the champions. It was and is a mess. The other thing that happened was an author, Kendall Grey, posted an article supposedly about "selling" out. I started reading her article but never finished. Then the next day or so, another author took exception to Ms Grey's comments in the article. Another broo-haha ensued with much name calling, individuals riding their high horses, others throwing obstacles in the horses path. Champions and "the Wicked". There was not much middle ground in either case. I read the other author's blog concerning Ms Grey's article and thought she made some good points. (I'm curious and will try to follow situations to their conclusion if there is one. I checked a tweet that indicated a response from Ms Kendall to being taken to task for her article. She wrote a blog post and one of the commenters called her out on her previous article. Needless to say, the comment was off topic but Ms Grey responded and quite graciously in my opinion. She shed light on her article and made me ask this question. What would have happened if the author who took exception had contacted Ms Grey with her concerns instead of doing a rant on the article?

I am in no way taking sides in either case, as I have no horse in the races. I was just thinking how words spoken cannot be taken back. Words hurt. Words make you think. Words soothe and words give entertainment. Maybe we need to remember the last two. Do we take offense too easily? Do we judge too harshly? We shouldn't keep our opinions to ourselves, it's not our nature. Can we share them without ripping each other apart?

Just my thoughts