The best books make you feel crazy.
If I'm reading a private detective novel, I want to be obsessed with that crazy narrator's dark world. If I'm reading science fiction, I want to feel like I the space aliens are hiding in my closet.
Make your readers crazy as you are. M. John Harrison says it a whole lot better than me:
"When I read fantasy, I read for the bizarre, the wrenched, the undertone of difference & weirdness that defamiliarises the world I know. I want the taste of the writer’s mind, I want to feel I’m walking about in the edges of the individual personality ... Go read Clive Barker. Go read Kenneth Patchen, who was reportedly an unlikeable man but who could write you a fantasy in a couple of lines. Or put “The Gates of Eden” on repeat." (Thanks Mumpsimus for links)
I've been so busy lately I forgot to mention that novelist Susan Henderson's LITPARK IS BACK! Tune in today for a harrowing interview about memoirs and survival.
Finally, it is time to go pick up a copy of Naomi Klein's new book, The Shock Doctrine. I read the Harper's magazine excerpt over the weekend, and I can't get her ideas out of my head. Don't believe me? Ed Champion has an audio interview. Caitlin Shamberg has a video.
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