I was at last year's London Book Fair and had sat down for a coffee and was talking to a printer from California who claimed that his paper was being used around the world and could be found in almost every book store. "You see," I said, "I am an artist, and I like to think on paper pencil in hand, and I don't like any of the papers of notepads that I am currently seeing in England. The paper is too heavy for me and not smooth enough. I once bought three notebooks in the States and they were perfect for me. I have tried high and low to find those notebooks again, but have had to give up." The man just looked at me and did not say much. "He thinks I'm a looney toon," I thought to myself.
Just then a woman asked whether she could sit at our table and I nodded affirmatively. After a while she began to chat, and asked me who I was and what I was doing at the London Book Fair. I told her that I was a former economist, who had lost his loved one to cancer, had retired, and was trying to re-invent himself by writing books, painting, and sketching. I told her that I had come to the London Book Fair as an independent publisher and had written and published my first novel as part of a series. I told her that I was a veracious reader and consumed books like cups of coffee, and that my favourite books were the forgotten tales of the sea, such as had been written by Defoe. I told her that my favourite author was Captain Frederick Marryat. I mentioned that I enjoyed his social comment which came before the really famous writers such as Mark Twain and Charles Dickens. I commented that Charles Dickens was a good writer but that I really did not enjoy his writing, possibly because I was too dumb to understand it.
She changed the subject suddenly. "Where can I see your paintings?" she asked.
"Well, I have done hundreds, but they are not normally for exhibition," I replied, adding, "Many of them are copies of famous works by famous artists, and a painted them so that I could enjoy them personally.
That's what motivated me to paint in the beginning. Now I like my paintings more than the works of famous artists and I am not letting them go."
She looked puzzled, and asked, "Why not? You could make money."
She looked persistent, so I gave her a thoughtful reply, "Yes, I could sell my paintings, but right now they make me feel rich. If I sold my paintings, I would not make enough from them to make me feels as rich as I presently feel. I don't have the ability to paint masters and their value comes from rarity and age. The value of my paintings comes from my knowledge that I painted them. I struggled to paint them and I admired the original artist enough to attempt to do a copy."
The lady intrigued me so I asked of her, "What are you doing here?"
She replied, "I have a school of good writing and I am a critique of writing. I read an author's work for the schools and advise them, and I try to get the quality of writing improved."
My mind immediately flew to shades of Miss Ronald, my Toronto English teacher with the two mastiffs. I responded, "I once had an English teacher in high school at Royal York Collegiate Institute in Toronto. It does not exist any more, but is an art school now. Anyways, she taught me English grammar. I shall never forget the pain that I went through. Now everyone is teaching me grammar and I hate it. All my employers told me that my writing sucked. They used it as an excuse not to do things they should have done. If I wrote well, they said that it was this,and if I wrote badly they said it was that. What a con!"
The woman sensed that my hackles had been raised and said out of the blue that she did not like the writing of JK Rowling and that it dumbed down the reader.
Its always the inclination of a writer to say that they do not dumb down the reader, so I said, "I don't think that I dumb down the reader with my writing in my book 'Wuh Lax and the Cosmic Lattern'"
She replied, "Would you like me to read it?"
I said, "Yes! I would like to know whether I dumb down my readers, and perhaps you could help me. Would you be prepared to comment on my book?"
I gave her my card which was made with a hard durable plastic about the size of a London transport ticket, and I gave her, for free, a hard copy of my book.
She smiled, "I would love to read your book, and I will write back and tell you what I think of it, and whether you are dumbing down your readers. I must go!"
She left the table with my book and I have not heard from her since, so I still don't know whether in her opinion I am dumbing down my readers. Let me say this, however, that one of my favourite writers is Joanna Rowling and she certainly did not dumb me down. Perhaps, it is because I am so dumb already! Her books are the best ever, and deserve to be read by millions more readers. Roll on .... Joanna!
As for whether I really dumb down my readers, I have had some response that suggests that my books are not really for children even though they have so many pictures. My feeling is that writing has not been dumbed down by authors such as JK Rowling for the very simple reason that they contain many of the new elements of the modern age of writing, which is a lot of action, humour, and many characters of different types. Kids these days can learn many more characters that I ever could when I was young. I think my limit was about six. Kids now can deal with 30 or more different characters in all sorts of social context. The problem is that we need to raise the reading capacity of our older readers who are struggling to keep up with the children.
Do you agree?