I’m headed into the city this evening to hear John Scalzi read from Fuzzy Nation. I’ve loved the Little Fuzzy books (and I’ll note that there’s a bunch of his stuff free for e-readers) since discovering them as a teenager and found a book club edition of the first two this weekend at the thrift store. I’d forgotten what a tear jerker the first one is, and the anti-corporate message seems even more timely than usual. I haven’t read Fuzzy Nation yet, but I’m picking it up today and looking forward to it. I’m also fascinated by the idea that Scalzi’s written fan fiction – it opens up some interesting questions about that debate.
I recommend the first book for people working on learning how to create emotional depth, which a couple of writers have mentioned to me lately. Any book that has me welling up with tears is doing its job right in that regard. I’m taking my Writing F&SF class to this reading so they can be inspired by seeing a writer in action – maybe Scalzi will get them to cry (in a good way).
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"(On the writing F&SF workshop) Wanted to crow and say thanks: the first story I wrote after taking your class was my very first sale. Coincidence? nah….thanks so much."
~K. Richardson
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You Should Read This: Doctor Rat by William Kotzwinkle
The newer books have a different cover, but this has always been my favorite version.Doctor Rat is a cunningly well constructed, heartwrenching, horrible wonderful book told from the point of view of an insane rat, thereby reinforcing my theory that odd povs may add to, rather than detract from, good fiction. Be aware: this is a novel about animal experimentation and it pulls no punches.
Doctor Rat witnesses the experiments being carried out on his fellow animals, wandering through a laboratory and speaking to us in a way that makes it clear whose side he’s on while showing how brutal the details of this book can be:
I should now like to sing “Three Blind Rats.” It’s part of the experimental program of music that’s being channeled toward certain rats, to make them more docile and sweet. Several of them are indeed beginning to nuzzle up to each other, one of them even executing a light-fantastic tripping of his tail, in time to the beat.
In the cage beside him, we actually have three blind rats. In fact, we have twenty-three blind rats, part of a magnificent new experiment initiated by a very ambitious student, who I’m featuring in this month’s Newsletter. He’s a sensitive chap and it was his exquisite sensitivity that caused him to dream up the item that’s become the latest rage here at the lab: the fabulous removal of eggs from a female rat’s body and the grafting of them to different parts of the male rat’s body — to the tail, to the ear, to the stomach. And for the past twenty-three days he’s been grafting them to their eyeballs! So now it’s time we all sang that promising young scientist a song.
Doctor Rat is not all horrifying detail though. There’s a lot of sweetness to it, including a moment where a human orchestra plays music in order to warn whales of approaching whalers that makes me cry, every time, while read silently or aloud. The amount of emotion it manages to stir in me is visceral. I wish I knew how Kotzwinkle accomplished it.
Which brings me to another reason by I think this is a good book for writers to read: this is a book that manages to be harrowing and uplifting all at once. It’s the sort of book that a writer confronting a real evil produces, a look that is cynical and despairing and yet tinged with a dark humor that lets you know there may be a glint of light somewhere. This is the sort of book you should read through once in order to experience it for the first time; then go back and see how the writer accomplished that experience. Doctor Rat looks at difficult, political things in a way only the greats manage.
Kotzwinkle is still around and is a prolific of both adult and children’s books. The child in me is compelled to note that the latter includes the “Walter the Farting Dog” series.
I use some surrealist techniques in the Literary Techniques for Genre Fiction class. Check it out if you're interested in adding more depth or texture to your writing.I’ve been carrying this book around since days in Baltimore, when my ex gave it to me as a Valentine. It came in a charming little boxed set complete with temporary tattoo. Nowadays I have several real tattoos but I still draw on this book, particularly for the Literary Techniques in Speculative Fiction class.
What:Surrealist Games, compiled and presented by Alastair Brotchie is a compedium of games played by members of the Surrealist movement along with illustrations and surrealist quotes. Games include echo poems, provocations, and oral description of objects perceived by touch.
Who: Any writer is the better for a little dose of surreality from time to time, and any forays into the book will yield a few interesting phrases at the least, or perhaps even a whole new mind.
Why: Read it to find some writing games that you can play solo or with similarly-verbally-minded friends. Read it for the equivalent of a poetic whack upside the head. Read it for the creative sparks flung out by its pages.
When: Read it at a time dictated by the roll of a die or the motions of a lizard on the wall.
Where and how: Graze through the pictures and see what inspiration leaps from the paper to your brain. Don’t treat it like a manual, working your way through game 1, game 2, game so on. Instead, let it fall open and see where chance takes you.
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