Why Did You Throw That Book Across the Room?

At Fencon last month, I attended a panel intriguingly entitled "Why Did You Throw That Book Across the Room?" One writer described in detail a Young Adult novel she classified as "adolescent wish fulfillment" in which the teenaged characters engaged in a variety of risky behaviors with no consequences. She was unmistakably passionate about the evils of this book and I didn't blame her.

But the rest of the panel talked about books they didn't finish because they are boring. Since I finished literature courses in College, I have given up the idea that because I started a book, I have to finish it. In fact, I'm not sure that I finished them then. Between Cliff Notes and Classic Comics, who needed to finish a boring book? Did you?

Not finishing a book is not the same as throwing it across the room.

Someone in the audience asked whether the panelist were more likely throw a book across the room because of poorly drawn characters or a lack of plot. The panelist seemed to come down on the side that it is hard to distinguish between them. The problem with that is -- so what? I don't see how some books get published, but they do. I don't finish them. But that isn't a good reason to hurl them across the room.

So going back to the subject that the one person had touched on, I asked if a theme or premise bothered them enough to throw the book across the room. Now I got some real depth. The panelists felt passionately about books with themes like "women enjoy rape" or "sexual abuse of children is okay because it is an expression of love and the like."

Clearly, the panelists were troubled by the freedom of speech issue. While they deplored the themes, they also didn't want them censored. Panelists reported that some readers couldn't distinguish between the characters belief and the theme or premise of the book. Perhaps they were afraid that if some themes were censored, the censorship would extend to unpleasant characters.

It seems to me that it is up to the writers to educate their readers about the difference. They should reply something like this:
"Dear Reader,
"It is a compliment to me that the character 'X.' became so real to you. I'm glad you felt
so passionately about him/her. However, please don't confuse my beliefs with those of a
character. The theme of the story was 'ta da ta da ta da.' You can see how a character
espousing that point of view helped to develop that theme.

"I appreciate your comments and will use them to refine my technique.
"Sincerely, et cetera."

Such a letter would help to educate and hopefully save a reader. I'm sure that a good PR person could improve upon my technique.

Another question allowed the panelists to move away from showing their true feelings. They seemed relieved to put their social faces back on. Writers prefer to reveal themselves only in print.

p.s. I wouldn't burn a book, no matter how I felt about it. To some extent I was acting a character to provoke a response.