Friday, September 17, 2010

Tailered to Fit

The genesis of this post was a friend's status that said
"I don't need this! I didn't ask to fall in love with a vampire!" ~(name) "First Bite"
While I am a die-hard Twilight hater, I thought it sounded like a good enough line for a fanfic, so I asked the friend about it. Even though it seemed to be a self-insert story, I (against my better judgement) asked for more information.
To my surprise, she directed me to the site http://bookbyyou.com. My first reaction was shock mingled with morbid fascination. The site is full of completely written novels, with blank spaces for character names and physical traits. Type in a few names, and you have a personalized novel. Or the height of self-insert Sueness.
Granted, lots of people read novels solely to fill their hunger for romance or wealth...but this takes it to new levels.
If people can get 'mind candy' that easily, would they bother with real literature?
Just something to think about.

3 comments:

  1. I wouldn't loose too much sleep over the fate of real literature. Anyone who would be satisfied with sticking their name and description in someone else's novel is unlikely to appreciate real literature.

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  2. Eww, weird! And I'm kind of surprised to find something that sinks lower on my list of stupid booklike-things than Twilight and other teen stuff. A new day, a new literary nightmare.

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  3. Mind candy...

    Bleh. The very idea makes my stomach heave with angry ingratitude to the authors of such a cheap and unintelligent idea.

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