tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1025201337316610324.post941018241409265246..comments2023-12-31T20:43:08.499-05:00Comments on THE STILETTO GANG: Green Trash BinsUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1025201337316610324.post-49889362076543832022013-06-18T10:28:46.712-04:002013-06-18T10:28:46.712-04:00As a writer my motivation is to get it right (gree...As a writer my motivation is to get it right (green bins and all) and wouldn't be happy to discover that I hadn't. As a reader I need the right details. Just do. I wouldn't send notice, but I would ... notice. Patriciahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05362243803036954972noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1025201337316610324.post-45989770959281434392013-06-17T14:56:48.843-04:002013-06-17T14:56:48.843-04:00I know that people here in Austin are permitted to...I know that people here in Austin are permitted to use a recycling container that they already have in their possession. So, someone could bring a color that is not the usual one and set it out for pickup. <br /><br />I also think that it is rather sad that someone would read an entire book and the thing that stuck with that reader was the "wrong" color of a trash bin. I would rather believe that after reading one of your books, the humor, the character development or the plotting would draw the reader's comments. <br /><br />I expect major accuracy. I expect things to be generally logical. I do not like to see one thing described and a few pages later the description changes. But, generally what I expect is a book that holds my attention and entertains me. ANNETTEhttp://www.letterswhichbuildbridges.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1025201337316610324.post-72781276202263471472013-06-17T13:52:37.036-04:002013-06-17T13:52:37.036-04:00Wow. I think of myself as a dog with a bone when ...Wow. I think of myself as a dog with a bone when it comes to even superficial detail, but that seems too much for even me. I mean, off the top of my head: In my community, people are allowed to use things besides the official issue recycling or garbage bins. So, on big weeks you might see an old Rubbermade tub added to the mix at the curb, or even a laundry basket with extra bottles from that big party! And, people sometimes bring their recycling bins when they move into our area and our removal service recognizes them as fit for use (it’s not much of a recycling policy if you don’t let people “re-cycle” the bins themselves!). The story, even when contemporary, is an imaginary one in an imaginary place, so this little tiny level of inaccuracy seems pretty unimportant to the whole.<br /><br />Now, it struck one reader as off and so on, but maybe that reader wasn't really into the book or story--for any number of reasons--and so a small blip bugged them more. It’s unfair to harshly judge a novel because of one person's small issue. And, I agree that most people reading the review would call this a small issue, unlikely of any import.<br /><br />Bottom line for me is that I think it's important to get all the little bits right and down factually, but it's a sliding scale on that and as long as the bigger truths—and the non-truths, too—hold, I don't see it as a problem. The reader deserves your best effort and if you gave that, it's enough. How many of us have loved, loved, loved a book even though here and there we sort of found a spot that didn't quite achieve perfection, at least as we defined it in that moment! And, in movies, how many times do you laugh about a location being used in a way that is completely non-representative of the “reality”? One classic for us in Chicagoland is in “When Harry Met Sally”—Harry and Sally are leaving the campus of University of Chicago on the south side to drive to NY but they are seen driving south on Lakeshore Drive from the far north side! Everyone here knows that’s “wrong”, but we know that it is in service of a movie, a story striving to be told in a visually compelling way, the scenery and skyline being so much prettier in that shot than if we saw the lovers to be heading down gold old, ugly old 80/94 East!<br /><br />I'll only disagree with Linda, above, in that maybe the reviewer didn't so much have an axe to grind or was power-craving. Sometimes the strangest things set people off--maybe he/she was OCD about her weekly garbage collection and had a tiff about a neighbor's "non-compliance"? Sometimes people sit down and write their reviews or notes at the wrong time, when something else is bothering them and they just have to find a way, inappropriate though it is, to vent that. Most arguments with my husband start that way--I'm irked about something that has nothing to do with him, but he's the guy who gives me an opening! You just never know. And, that's the fun thing, right?Vicky Politonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1025201337316610324.post-67906984406568584562013-06-17T12:31:15.291-04:002013-06-17T12:31:15.291-04:00Rhonda, there are realistic details that would be ...Rhonda, there are realistic details that would be a problem. For example, if someone tried to make Kansas City the flat, barren plain that most people think of when they hear the name--we're built on lots of hills and bluffs with many rivers and creeks and tons of trees. That would tell me that they'd never been here and never researched even superficially. But the color of recycling bins? Not much. You could have visited Arlington and researched it and never learned that recycling bins couldn't be green.<br /><br />This was someone looking for a reason to write a negative review so s/he could feel powerful. There's a lot of that out there. Look at it this way--if s/he couldn't find anything more substantial to complain about, it must have been a pretty good book. And that's probably what most real readers will think when they see that "review."Linda Rodriguezhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11913741596693442469noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1025201337316610324.post-40670781665230420542013-06-17T09:39:20.476-04:002013-06-17T09:39:20.476-04:00Kate Gallison stated my opinion much better than I...Kate Gallison stated my opinion much better than I would have done. So thanks to Kate.<br />Pamnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1025201337316610324.post-29617235468468999222013-06-17T08:01:58.413-04:002013-06-17T08:01:58.413-04:00The truth that readers of fiction deserve is emoti...The truth that readers of fiction deserve is emotional truth. What the reader is owed is an interesting, maybe even thrilling, ride. Readers who stop to pick such nits as inappropriately green recycling bins are not bringing the right kind of attention to the book. That's my view of the matter.Kate Gallisonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06107289413804236810noreply@blogger.com