The Wrath of Penguin!

Hello folks! This the first of my blogs about interesting titbits in the world of publishing today.
This week I'm looking at the hilariously titled (if a tad overdramatic) article 'Artist's spoof of Ladybird provokes Wrath of Penguin' from The Guardian newspaper online that I saw a few weeks ago.

I'll post a link to the article below but the potted version is thus: artist Miriam Elia produced a satirical book in the style of Ladybird's classic children's books. Penguin, who own the Ladybird imprint*, don't appreciate their books being emulated as such and took action, believing that she had infringed their copyright. So, once she has earned enough to cover the costs, Elia now has to have her artwork destroyed. Ladybird has its reputation, she narrowly avoids large debts, the little guy lost out. wins, Big bucks corporation wins, creativity stifled! Really?

Well, for starters, Ladybird's 'wrath', whilst it has forced Elia to stop producing her art for financial gain, has allowed her to sell until she covers the costs, which as the article stresses, has been accepted by the artist.
 She said:

"I've been talking to them a lot and suggesting ways around the problem. And they do understand. There's no malice, but it's harsh because they can destroy the work. I just want it to be appreciated. It was supposed to be an homage to Ladybird – and a bit of a satirical comment on the art world, I suppose."

So, she's not taken it too badly. However, the fact that she is using classic Ladybird-inspired presentation as a format in which to satirize art and its relationship to consumerism shouldn't stop her from creating art, should it? Within the work, she makes reference to balloon dog sculptures by Jeff Koons, the artist synonymous with reproducing banal consumerist objects as art and copyright infringement lawsuits of his own, but as his record-breakingly expensive sculptures show, this hasn't stopped him from creating something using pre-existing images to make art. So why should this only apply to the big guns of the artistic/ creative/ literary world?

At Sixth Form college, I took part in a debate about copyright laws and within the debate we discussed its validity in a postmodern world, with the supposed democratisation of knowledge and ideas and the the changing nature of both artistic and consumer ownership, following the pervasive influence of the internet (see link below for copyright info).
I shan't bore you with the details (which is probably a good thing as I can't really remember them all), but I argued that copyrights, whilst they do, as in this case, disadvantage the smaller artist trying to express their ideas and get them out there, they do protect those that depend on these artworks to live. So, in promoting an anti-copyright, idealised world of entirely free and fair interchanges of ideas, are we actually hurting artists in all disciplines that need copyright to protect their livelihood?
Before international fame and fortune, JK Rowling was a single parent facing poverty, but she took care to copyright her books and ideas, which gave her work security in that people could not rip it off as their own creations, and in doing so was able to create the biggest selling book series in history (with movie franchise to boot.) This is one example of when copyright protected a creative source's assets, allowing them to continue their work.
Whilst it is true that Rowling, her publishers and Time Warner have since sparked legal disputes of their own, extreme opposition has claimed that the extensive steps taken to prevent anyone reading her books before release date denies enthusiasts of their 'right to read', taking this tension between creative rights and copyrights to the opposite extreme. Roland Barthes might have said that once  literary work goes public that "the author is dead, long live the reader", but to demand to read a book before it is released is murdering them a little prematurely to satisfy your book-based consumer cravings, I think!

To lead back to the article I started with, Elia also stated that:
 "It was a bit of a shock. I never really thought about copyright," she said. "Artists just respond to the world in your little room and you're not thinking about much else. You just think: 'Oh, this will be great!'"

An unfortunate case of innocence and a lack of funds to help fight Penguin's case, it would seem.
Ultimately, the perspective I've gained from this is that viewpoints like hers are at best naive and Elia has paid the creative price. We may live in postmodern world, where high and low culture are brought together and cool references to other bits of pop culture are embedded in our favourite art, music, TV and film, but ultimately consumerism still rules our engagement with art. Our concept of ownership (particularly regarding digital downloads) may have changed, but the need to exchange money still exists. Whatever your opinions on copyright may be, if you're an artist who will overtly reference or re-use another person's work, some awareness of the risks and legalities are required, something which Elia had clearly not considered, whilst clearly getting the postmodern satire down to a T.

This issue is something that also affects smaller publishing houses, record labels and artists of all kinds- without copyright to protect them, small companies like the one I currently work at would suffer financially as their work is copied, with no legal or financial recognition for the people that worked on it originally, so it's worth remembering that you're helping some little guys out there somewhere when you buy the official copyrighted version.
What do you think?

Brown xxx

*An imprint is in this case a trade name under which a publishing company produces books. Companies can have several imprints that cater to different consumer demographics (eg Ladybird is the imprint that Penguin use to publish books that are attractive to children and their parents, as well as supplying Ladybird Vintage books for retro nostalgia purposes).Check Wikipedia for definition goodness:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imprint

Essays and articles  related to my waffling:

The Death of the Author -essay by  Roland Barthes (1967)
The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction -essay by Walter Benjamin (1936) These essays are worth the read if you like this sort of debate- and want to seem edjumacated too :p

Original Guardian article: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/mar/02/artist-ladybird-book-penguin-copyright-miriam-elia
Copyright stuff: http://www.ipo.gov.uk/types/copy.htm
Jeff Koons, Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Koons

Hi Guys!

This is not a book based post, sorry, its more of an apology. We're being a bit slow with the posts and it might get a bit worse for a couple of months because, unfortunately, the only reading we're going to be doing... is revision. Urrrrrgghhh. Though doubtless we shall heartily procrastinate upon our personal blogs, we will be denied too much time to read. But be not afeared. Cruelly 3 of Beth's favourite authors are releasing series enders 8 days before the end of exams. Her housemate will probably be locking the amazon parcels in her wardrobe to prevent Beth from failing forensic linguistics.
Both of us have substantial to be read piles and shall spend our free month at the end of uni when we're not partying, BBQing, or chewing our nails in terror of results day reading and reviewing! So hold tight. This is the last set of exams for us ever and thusly we shouldn't be too interrupted hereafter!
Chin- Chin!
Beth & Brown xx

Oh bother.... Throne of Glass, Crown Of Midnight... A Review.

Kindles, my friends are devious little blighters. Them and their tricksy ways.
 "Oooo" says Kindle "I'm sleek and thin, I save space, you can buy books and not have to worry about shelf space." What Kindle doesn't say is what it says behind your back, rubbing its hands with malicious glee. "Muhahahaha, gullible human. They shall now buy ALL the books because I, master schemer, plotter, and genius extraordinaire that I am,will bamboozle them, ensare them and entice them. 99p books a plenty, hmm a series you say... Lets make the first one free... AND CHARGE FOR THE REST, ALL 7 OF THEM! We'll let them try samples, and not just short snippets, 3 long chapters, so much to entice them in so that they unthinkingly hit my gorgeous orange 'Buy Now with One Click" Button, as they will be by this point emotionally invested in the characters! Oh! How I shall line the pockets of Amazon! How I shall suck them into worlds they would otherwise never have encountered! And the hopeless sod will still find themselves in Waterstones, at the till with 3 books they didn't mean to buy...Ooooo I'm gloriously devious and yet, the human still loves my shiny brightness, even as their bank account cries "No! No More! You must eat! Pay your rent, wash your clothes!" But No! I am crafty! I shall dangle the book deal of the century in front of them and they shall scamper after it. FOOLS!"

See how malevolent the Kindle is? How Amazon have pulled off a Coup de Grâce like this I shall never know, but I salute you. You and your fiendishly addictive books.

It was by just such a manipulation, wrought by my ever mischievous Kindle, that I discovered Sarah J. Maas' Throne of Glass series.

Oh dear. Blog Fans this series has a serious problem.


Heir of Fire isn't out 'til September and now I have to waaait! Waaaaaah!

On the Upside the collection of prequel Novellas will be landing on my Kindle on Thursday :) Woooo more sabre sharp wit.

I tell you my Kindle is truly a conniving so and so.

I have however read the first 2 books. Which I could not put down. I killed my Kindle's battery supply, I started reading it on the app on my iPhone that too ran out of power (I should probably point out that they neither had much left in them to start with), I ignored The Brown to read this book, I was almost late to church because I was trying to read it and do my make up at the same time. (I wouldn't recommend it, its not worth stabbing your eye with mascara, NOTHING IS!), I came back from church and devoured the second in one afternoon. With a total reading time of maybe 6 hours for both books I emerged from my room emotionally beaten and ready to battle. The world of Celaena Sardothien is totally absorbing, mysterious, dangerous, filled with beautiful clothes, sharp pointy objects and banter so witty it hurts.
This is fantasy so good it poses actual danger to your health.

Celaena Sardothien is the deadliest assassin in the world. She's also in Prison, forced to labour in a salt mine after having been caught after falling into a trap.
However her life is about to change, forced to compete in a contest to become the king's champion , to officially hold the title of Adarlan's Assassin. Faced with the choice of compete and have the chance to win your freedom or stay here and die, Celaena unsurprisingly, goes to the capital Rifthold to compete.  Full of intrigue mind bendingly complex relationships, conspiracy, double dealing, and a good dose of not so dead as everyone thought, mythology and magic.
The Friendship between Celaena and her friend Nehemia (Mia as in the short form of Amelia, not the biblical prophet Nehemiah) the first one she can remember having for a long time, is beautiful and strong and spends more time discussing things like saving 1000s of slave workers in prisons just like the one Celaena was in because unlike Calaena most of them are the innocent victims of a war waged across the continent by the tyrannical king of Adarlan, a man Celaena hates, the man she is competing to serve.
A man, that to save herself, the other oppressed kingdoms and her friends she must defy. It makes amazing reading. One review I read said it was Cinderella crossed with The Hunger Games, No. This is so much more than that. The second book is even better than the first, if not tenser, pacier, steamier - yes there's a love interest in both books,but as with everything with Celaena nothing is straightforward, now where was I? Ah Steamier, more mysterious and twistier. And leaves you gagging for the next book. Trust no-one and whatever you do, do not upset Celaena!
So Please Ms. Maas
HUUUURRY!!!

So far a 4 star effort keep up the standard to the end and it might become a five.

Now I have to go read the other book my sneaky Kindle conned me into downloading.

Beth x

Can Wiping the Mind, Change Who You Are? The Slated Trilogy.

One afternoon in June, I once again found myself in the far corner of King St. Waterstones, crounched on the floor investigating books. Fractured had been popping up on my Kindle for months and here in front of me was its predecessor. Interest piqued I flipped it open. Then it ended up in a carrier bag and on its way back to Sibsey Street. Less than 24 hours later I was back, picking up the sequel, then came the waiting until Friday (OK, I started this blog a long time ago its now like 3 Fridays ago..., when I returned to find the final instalment awaiting me. Giddy with glee I plunged back into a Britain very unlike the one we know.

The year is 2054 and Britain is under a totalitarian Law and Order (Lorder) regime, in the wake of riots that brought the country to its knees. A Britain cut off from the rest of the world, a 1984-esque deceptive idyll.

In the Britain's answer to The Hunger Games, Matched or Divergent, Teri Terry (I only hope she married into the double name - otherwise those are some evil parents) has crafted a thrilling dystopian mystery, with a plot that thickens at every turn every answer posing more riddles than it solves and for the most part a breakneck pace that deservedly places it in league with the aforementioned giants. I can only theorise that it's British setting is the reason for its relative anonymity.

Kyla, is a slated. A juvenile offender whose punishment is to have her memory wiped, thus resetting her personality, and making it almost impossible for her to re-offend. Placed in an adoptive family she adjusts to life, knowing only what she has been told, the past a door completely closed to her. Only it isn't. Kyla is remembering things she shouldn't be and the Levo on her wrist (the device used to monitor and control Slateds) isn't working as it should. Over the course of 3 books we follow Kyla's search for her true identity, breaking lots of laws in the process, and the downfall of a regime that is not what it seems.
This is not just a coming of age tale, this is an examination of a nation and its relationship with its young people. A questioning look at law and order, punishment and human rights and the role a government should play in it. It is a beautiful exercise in highlighting the importance of free speech and democracy. But most of all this book is about memory. What makes us who we are, what shapes us, defines us. Are we what we remember, or are we, a predefined person, are we inherently good, or inherently bad? By the end of shattered each character has a different view, a different notion of what makes a person who they are, and more importantly who they want to be.
For those fans of all the trendy isms, This Trilogy more than passes the Bechdel test. Women occupy a lot the major roles, the movers and shakers of Kyla's immediate world are women, be they protagonist or antagonist. There are no one dimensional characters here, yes there are tropes, the ones who will do anything for power the ones who want anything but power, etc  but fiction just as in life only has an very exhausted supply of ideas; and yes literary buffs some people are just that evil and self interested; but no of those tropes feels like that each character is well crafted and expertly woven into the narrative fabric the complex fabric of which keeps twisting and turning and slapping you in the face with yet another wet kipper of astonishment until the very end. Unless you're talking about the love element - because it's blatantly obvious how that will end from book one, though I suppose that one is all down to how you react to the character.

Anyway that aside: Rather Excellent

4 stars!

Bethxx

P.S I rarely give out 5 stars The Book Thief however MADE ME CRY and that takes astounding writing. Or being very over tired, but I can tell the difference between the two. 

Review: The Book Thief, Markus Zusak.

The Book Thief. *****

This book is put simply, a masterstroke. It encapsulates a side of the second world war that we, (the victorious allies), in particular give little if any thought to. It humanises 3rd Reich Germany, it's inhabitants and gives a totally unique perspective on death. Oh and it's gut wrenchingly moving - here on Planet Beth we do not cry at fictional accounts unless we are very very very tired, or moved beyond words, many books/films and such like that are meant to reduce you to tears leave me cold, often thinking "awww how sweet, but really why is the individual next to me crying the metaphorical river? Are they incapable of separating reality from fiction?" - yet whilst sat on a northern rail bucket service from Leeds to my home town yesterday evening I found peculiar salty excretions pooling in my eyes, blurring the text in front of me. I immediately put it down and fired off a text to The Brown informing her that this book was now a member of the elite group of books that made Beth cry and ignored the book for a few hours until I could read it objectively.

The story is told to you by Death, who only wears a cowl when it's cold out and finds the notion of him carrying a scythe hysterically funny. Death's narration makes it immediately obvious that he is going to be rather busy in this book. And indeed the book begins with a death, the catalyst for the book thief's, book thievery and the first time death meets Liesel Meminger, the titular thief. Already a victim of the Nazi regime separated from her communist father, (who were the first victims of Hitler seen as the great political enemy) and now being separated from her mother, Liesel's brother dies on the way to their new home, the small town of Molching outside Munich, where Liesel will spend the rest of the book. The book is beautifully written with lovingly crafted, realistic characters, from the lemon haired Rudy, to the on going neighbours spat (punnery! You'll have to it read to find out why), between Rosa and Frau Holtzapfel, the haunted Ilsa, and the warmth and love of Hans, the exploits of a young girl discovering not only a love of words and books, but their infinite power to both good and evil, Hitler's oratory ability and memoir Mein Kampf providing the foil. This is not just  a coming of age of tale, this is a book of love and loss. It is a challenge to the way we think not just of war but of those on every side of what our ghostly narrator terms the seven sided dice, a narrator who is not interested in the outcome because for him the ultimate outcome is always the same, but how it gets there. In this way, Zusak on purposely reveals the ending long before it comes, yet it has little effect on the impact and emotion that pummels the reader like a machine gun barrage as the book reaches its heart wrenching yet life affirming conclusion. Despite the aching sadness and grief, hope shines through... it is the end but not the end Liesel's adventures are not over, not all is lost. It deals with the many facets of the human condition in a way that few books manage, exploring our reactions to both evil and kindness, and how we then behave in the face of them, something particularly evident in Max's story.

Damnit this book is superb. I started reading and with the exception of having to do pesky things like seminars and changing trains I didn't stop. Until it made me cry on public transportation, and then I put it in a bag and started fiddling with non existent eyelash irritation...

Zusak's use of German words and phrases throughout only served to make the book more real, and personal, gave these eclectic mix of barbarians an authenticity and depth that in lesser hands would have felt tacky and unnecessary. As a speaker of German, there were certain turns of phrase that tickled my linguistic funny bone that might be lost on the average reader, but that does nothing to lessen the book's appeal, but rather heighten its quirky beauty.

Next Wednesday sees the general release of the film adaptation. As regular readers will know, I approach it with much fear and trepidation, as I have a crippling anxiety over what will be lost, it's probably good I'm not a screenwriter, the translation of death's narration from the page to the screen is going to be a tricky one... to cut him from the film would lose much of the beauty of the book.

So whilst this gem is still only 99p in the Kindle store go and buy it SOFORT! (German for immediately), one of the best books I've read in a long time.

Simply awesome.

Review! The Atopia Chronicles.

A book must take you to places unseen,  must imagine the unimaginable, see a world beyond this , and meet extraordinary people. Usually the best are those are seen most fleetingly. Tantalising you with tales as yet untold. Books should not be mundane, books are by nature escapist and therefore should not be boring, it should be a pacy, roller-coaster ride through another realm.
The Atopia Chronicles promised me this, and then failed to deliver, getting bogged down often in its own clever concepts. You see in the end the Atopia Chronicles for all it's clever puns in the title was left wanting. A brilliant concept that left a hole of disappointment. Like the consciousnesses of it's far too many protagonists the narrative splintered itself too far and fell over itself. Lacking a clear threat and antagonist the final denouement far from being a great reveal just adds to the confusion. There had been little to no indication that this individual was the individual behind it all. Though by the end the reader is so baffled as to what is reality and what isn't you're not entirely sure as to what "it all" even is.

The abundance of first person narrative protagonists is overwhelming and somewhat repetitive. Rather than a painter adding layers of fine detail, it frequently feels like the author is just rehashing encounters from just another perspective. Some of the best stories are given the least time, and none of the characters are particularly likeable, which is annoying because there's so many of them, whose stories could easily be absorbed into someone else's. Particularly annoying is how the opening hook of the book, just like the end, is left unresolved. Streamlining would benefit this book immensely. Why the author felt that so many perspectives were necessary is just plain weird when 2 or 3 would have done, as the technology demands more than one perspective.
Being science fiction understandably the book gets technological, but it was technological to the point of boring and i found myself drifting off.
The denouement was a surprise even to the antagonist, that they were the antagonist, which was a bit weird, normally there would be some hints that something wasn't quite right, but all the warning signs were easily rationalised, and the normality of the character put the Whaaa?! factor through the roof. I still can't decide if it's a cop out or not.

Despite this, I couldn't help myself, I liked the book. The concept is brilliant and very clever. There were a couple of Characters you felt for, and dammit if the ending, didn't make me want to read the next installation.

Overall the book was annoying but good. I may read it again and see if it works any better the second time round...

3 Stars

Review: Coriolanus (aka that Shakespeare play with Tom Hiddleston in it)

Raise your metaphorical eyebrow in irony as we get all cultural with Shakespeare's Coriolanus....

 

Tom Hiddleston gets serious as Shakespeare's military man ... 

Bethy and I went to see a live screening of the Donmar Warehouse production at our local arty cinema and theatre The Dukes and we were pleasantly surprised. As Beth has pointed put to me it was obviously going to be good "because Hiddles". With that in mind, we went in with no real expectations about how successful the play would be as entertainment as well as a piece of classic drama, but as Coriolanus rookies we quickly found this less popular Shakespeare play surprisingly enjoyable.

For the uninitiated, Coriolanus centres on the proud military man Caius Martius, given the nickname (or agnomen, to be fancy) after fighting off the Volscians from attacking Rome. Aufudius, head of the Volscian bad guys, has a one on one fight with Coriolanus, who only stops after he is dragged away by the other men (cue a strapping Hiddleston fighting a wonderfully northern Hadley Fraser, "a man with a beard as thick as his Leeds accent"- Beth Knight everybody). Following his success, Coriolanus' pushy mother Volumnia (played by the excellent Deborah Findlay) tries to convince him to run for consul and he hesitantly agrees. At first, he seems to have won over the plebians, (commoners of the city) as well as the Senate, but his opponents Brutus and Sicinius look to bring about his downfall...

First things first, Hiddleston's portrayal of Coriolanus has understandably been hyped, with his strong athletic presence during some riveting fight scenes and a strong sense of hidden vulnerability under the arrogant exterior that he puts across so well. At times when Coriolanus does rage and rant about his open disgust towards the plebiscites and their lack of military service, it can be hard not to let his proto-fascist ideals go over your head as you wait for the plot to move along. To lighten the mood of the play are  Elliot Levey and Helen Schlesinger who play the scheming duo Brutus and Sicinius, adding some light to this heavily shaded play, deliver their lines with comedy and depth, giving the audience some laughs in and amongst the proud and serious soliloquys. Adding emotional gravitas to a tense scene of reasoning with the enraged Coriolanus as well as adding some comedy of his own is the seemingly ever present Mark Gatiss, taking time out from being the British government to play the decidedly less successful politician Menenius.

The brutal bloodiness of the play is further emphasised by the sparse nature of the scenery, taking the production away from a literal representation of Rome to a space removed from any real clear historical time period and bringing the events closer to the audience due to the intimacy of the small stage, which even seen on a screen miles away from the actors succeeds in creating a feeling of claustrophobia. Whilst the commentary given by Bella Freud and the director Josie Rourke before the play and during the intermission was at times interesting and also included insightful segments from the actors, their comments regarding the "intellectual space" of the Donmar Warehouse theatre prompted the apt response from a fellow viewer of "what does that even mean"? That, coupled with their ponderous chat over why this particular production is so well received when Loki and Mycroft are in your cast caused us to turn to each other and say "Two words. Tom. Hiddleston" and many eyes were rolling.
Overall, the play, whilst lagging in the first half, comes to a great and exciting conclusion. Not for the faint of heart, this bloody and violent play is entertainment, but not as we know it.