A geeky girl living in the big city, making her way, the only way she knows how... no wait, that's The Dukes of Hazzard. Who am I again? Oh yeah, a pop culture obsessed writer, publishing person, and occasional nerd. And I'm getting married. I talk about that, too.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Quote

Just found this quote in a comment on another blog.
Sure it's simple, writing for kids. Just as simple as bringing them up.

All you do is take all the sex out, and use short little words, and dumb little ideas, and don't be too scary, and make sure there's a happy ending. Right? Nothing to it.

If you do all that, you might even write Jonathan Livingston Seagull and make 20 billion dollars and have every adult in America reading your book.

But you won't have every kid in America reading your book. Kids will devour vast amounts of garbage (and it is good for them), but they are not like adults: they have not yet learned to eat plastic.

-- Ursula Le Guin, circa 1973
I like it. ***Dave, maybe for WIST?

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posted by ktbuffy at 11:18 AM

1 Comments:

Blogger ***Dave said...

Perhaps the last paragraph. Would love to source it.

Hmmmm ... here's a spot that fills in some elisions:

'As Ursula LeGuin once wrote, if a writer chooses to write a book for Young Adults only because she's thinks it's "simple" to do so, its audience "will look at it, and they will see straight through it, with their clear, cold, beady little eyes, and they will put it down, and they will go away. Kids will devour vast amounts of garbage (and it is good for them) but they are not like adults: they have not yet learned to eat plastic."'

Ah. And another place gives a cite as "Dreams Must Explain Themselves" (1973).

Which I find further explained as "Algol Press chapbook / pamphlet 1975. Stapled in card cover. 36 pages., illos. no. 67 in a limited edition of 1,000 numbered copies"

Think that can probably make a decent WIST entry. :-)

10/19/2007 12:53 AM

 

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