Post 5: Literary v. Genre Fiction - Worthy

I think for me I don’t think genre fiction is any less than literary fiction. They each have points that are good to them and also unique. So how do you compare completely different books/ fiction?  For most people how they start out as readers is by those genre reads. I know when I was like 6 or 7 I wasn’t reading The Great Gatsby with my mom; I was reading the Harry Potter books. When you think of literary fiction you think of the books you read for school.  You might find one good every once in a while, but you don’t like most of what you are reading. It is something that is being shoved down your throat.  With genre fiction you have those books that you really like most of the time and only a few that you don’t.  

                Genre fiction shouldn’t be lower than literary fiction in a school’s curriculum. We should be able to read both or at least have certain times for each fiction throughout all grades and schools.  The literary works taught in schools are boring for most students. For us to be engaged in something we have to like. We need to just find books that have both elements of genre and literary fiction. We do need to have them separate at times but for school, when you are trying to keep a class awake and to have them learning things from a book, you have to combine the two.  It can keep them interested yet have those themes and morals that literary fiction has. Books are books, who is it to judge what is right or wrong, bad or good. We can only judge ourselves, we can’t let others tell us what we like, especially with books.

Adapting a book into a movie.

I think if Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy(HGTTG) were to be turned into a movie (Which they have, but igonre that thought at this point) it would be very diffcult to get the settings right since they are going though space and completely different planets. It would be hard to get the two rising suns on the surface of Magrathea. Even space itself would be hard, we don't know much of what it looks like for real. You would have to show not much of them traveling and if so just show them in the ship traveling. Also you would have to change how they came into Margrathea.
Three things they would have to keep that would be essential to the story would be:
1. Ford and Arthur would have to end up on the Vogons ship and get caught. It is a huge part of how they end up on the Heart of Gold.
2. Deep Thought. They would have to keep Deep Thought has started Earth. (Basically. Read the book, you won't get it unless you read it.)
3. The Guide itself. I know this sounds werid(you know since that what the book is called) but they need to keep the explinations of different planets and things. Also the guide is the whole reason why Ford is on Earth, and he saves Arthur and then they have this epic adventure.

Three parts that would need to be cut for the movie would be:
1. Zaphod going traveling to Damogran. It's point of seeing him travel on water and seeing a welcoming party.
2. The Magrathians(No idea how to spell that) background. I wouldn't need to know that they have been asleep for 5 million years to understand what is going on. It was basically a filler to me.
3. Trillian and Arthur's past. It doesn't add to the story that much (in the movie it does). Trillian harldy shows that their past history means anything. Also its only a big deal is that Trillian and Arthur are the last humans alive. It wouldn't matter if they have a past to be truthful.

Book 1 Project

Ideas to promote 13 Reasons Why:

1. Tapes

My first idea to promote the books would be to actually make tapes that have Hannah reading some of the first cassette tape.  It would start Hannah’s story a bit and at the end it could be learn my story in 13 Reasons Why. This would very creepy but it would be interesting to randomly send the cassettes to random household that have young teen readers in it. It would be similar to how Clay received the tapes. “A shoebox-sized package is propped against the front door at an angle. (Asher 5)”. It wouldn’t be in some shoebox, maybe an envelope. It would spark whoever got the tape to listen to it. Would you listen to a random tape that you got in the mail? I would have too. The tapes would also actually look like Hannah’s tapes. “Each tape has a dark blue number painted in the upper right-hand corner, possibly with nail polish (Asher 5)”. If not being able to put the tapes in random mailboxes we should be able to just hand them out, possibly try to get libraries and schools to have them and give them to students.  This idea might work it depends on the person. Some people might just throw the tapes away, but some will actually listen and be intrigued by the tapes to go read the book and find out what happen to Hannah.

2. Shirts

My second idea was to do some type of shirt to promote the book.  It would be a black shirt with a snow ball going downhill (the snowball would be white). On the back of the shirt it would have the quote:  “sometimes, a rumor… has a snowball effect (Asher 31)”.  The quote would also be in white.  This t-shirt could be sold in book stores, or given out at book promotions. Also to maybe get people to buy the shirt, some of the proceeds could go to help some sort of suicide prevention charity or foundation.  By doing that it would help a good cause and let people know a little bit more about what the book is about. This would help since T-shirts are used for marketing all the time and it will help show a good cause and what the book is talking about. The book would get some new from it since the T-shirts profits will somewhat be going to a suicide charity or foundation.  

3. Celebrity Endorsement

Celebrities seem to always want to endorse stuff all the time especially causes. Since the big thing in the book is teen suicide, I would think some of them would help promote the book. One person I had in mind specifically would be Demi Lovato. I know she has had many issues that came out in the past year. Since she is making her come back right now, it would be a good thing to add the book to her success she is having at the moment. With attention on her it could bring attention to the book. Since what Demi went through is on the same topic as the book. I think this would work well since Demi is popular at the moment with younger teen girls. Even though the book has a serious matter I think young teens would enjoy it, and maybe help them out though the message in the book.

What is a book?

A book is a journey.  It takes you through these winding paths, when you think you know where it’s going, BOOM, there is a sudden turn going in a different way than you thought.  I agree with most of the writers opinions except for Tom Piazza.  I agree with him that all the electronic devices are very alike, but reading on there does not make a book any less a book. There is something more special about reading an actually book, than on a devices.

Books: I think for everyone a book can mean different things. Some love books, while others will only touch them when had too. It depends on the person. To me, books are that one special place where I can be completely alone with my thoughts and imagination. No one bothers me when I’m reading. It’s almost like there just a magical spell casted over me that block everyone and everything out. It is just me and the characters having are own adventures.

e-books vs. books:  That’s the debate that is hard to pick a side. In the end they are both books that get to the reader and shouldn’t we just be happy that a book is selling. To me books are a little more special to me than a e-reader, though I have never read on one of them. Though books seem to be slowly dying they won’t be gone. We will save them. They mean so much to our history that we would have to keep them, but we need the e-readers to move more towards the future. We have to keep changing ourselves to move forward, but we hold on to our past as we move forward. Books won’t be forgotten.

Why Do I Read?

I use to hate this kind of question. I would always say its because I can and of course who ever asked it(which was mostly teachers) would come back with that you have to have a reason, that's not a reason. But I think reading because I can is a reason. I had 13 cable channels for a good part of my life. There is not a lot on those channels, reading was just something else I could do. Thinking about it more now, I would have to a big part then and now as to why I read is because I wanted to escape. I wasn't in a good state of mind when I was a kid most of the time and reading took my mind off things for a while. It would let me go to places I would never dream of be able to go. It also let me be someone I'm not; and I think ever once an while we need to not be ourselves. It still does that in someways today. Reading can help us achieve a number a things that we want. It just depends on what your looking for.

Fun facts about Jay Asher and Thirteen Reasons Why.

1. Jay Asher has a blogspot in which it seems he post stuff about his life and writing.
2. Th1rteen R3asons Why is the first book Jay Asher has written.(I'm assuming that written and published but that's what it said in the inside cover.)
3. He has sold the foreign rights to his book to 31 countries/languages.

Reviews:
"This first book by Jay Asher is remarkable for its technical elegance in weaving words from Hannah's tapes with Clay's reactions and memories." -The Guardian, Kathryn Hughes
"It is the best book eva!" -Anonymous, taken off of the book's site.