That's interesting, Namorvia. What kind of blurb would have made you pick up the book first time? Or was it the cover? When Exodus was published the publishers thought they had two big problems:
- catastrophic climate change was, barely five years ago, still very much seen as a fantasy scenario and that was the angle they took
- the books are cross-gender and, though not marketed as crossover, have proved to be so. Publishers are much more at home targetting a clear male/ female audience. And a specific age group.
Once the book went out into the world and did its own thing, which is the wonderful thing that books can do, those 'problems' came to be strengths.
You are spot on about publishers and film people making patronising decisions on behalf of audiences - going for bland and simple instead of complex and risky. A small example recently is my US publishers making the 999 emergency number Mara dials (in the phonebox after the storm surge on Wing) 911 - but Mara is not American and all they had to do was omit the number. As woolleywrld says, why do Americans have to do that? But it was the publishers, not the people.
woolleywrld, it will be Exodus, Zenith then Aurora in US, as here. I almost didn't get to keep Zenith in the UK as the word was 'too difficult and unknown' and 'reeked of sci-fi'!
Before anyone shouts at me here, that was a publisher's view, not mine. I read so widely that labels are meaningless, just get in the way, for me. A book should go out into the world and find its own place, not be boxed in by a label. I know labels make it easier to find a book, but they are also barriers and keep you from books you might love.
Hi Mary, I'm a big fan of Mr Pullman so it's fine by me if he pops up here, in whatever form
Can;t wait for the film. Also want to see Neil Gaiman's Stardust. It's an odd and beguiling little book, which kind of niggled me because I wanted it to be more than it was. That's a back-handed compliment. So for once the film may improve on the book. (Back to Namorvia - I suspect Waterworld wasn't based on a book because the film's big problem was: amazing idea, but no story).
I almost had to do a TV slot for a Channel 5 documentary on Neil and the film but it was very last minute and I was booked to do something else so I managed to enjoy myself in London instead of facing my personal terror - a TV camera. Why does anyone want to be on TV? Doing TV is horrible. Give me a hall full of rowdy teenagers any day (
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/10/how_to_engage_teenage_readers.html)
(That was a bit rambling and off-topic...sorry. Must be coffee time.)
